27/2/2006
mixed news
1. There is mixed news this time. Firstly, there was a sad end to yet another
case of an autistic child going missing. The body of eight-year-old Jared
McGuire was found on February 24 in a shallow pond several hundred feet from his
home in The Pines townhouse development in Palm Beach, Florida.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the time and cause of death. There
were no obvious signs of trauma and the boy was fully clothed. The investigation
continues.
One witness had reported seeing Jared being forced into a van before he
disappeared. "We are still looking into the abduction angle," said Deputy Ray
Griffith, of the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office. But he said that, because the boy
was found only about 100 yards from his home, a kidnapping appeared less likely.
Flyers with the boy's picture still hung throughout this neighbourhood of
two-storey apartment buildings. "Autistic. Please Help!" the flyers read.
This case provided another salutary reminder of how closely children with autism
have to be watched – especially near water.
In striking contrast, in a heartwarming story from Rochester, New York,
an autistic teenager’s dream of playing basketball came true when Jason
McElwain, who had been the manager of the varsity basketball team of Greece
Athena High School in Rochester, got his chance, with Greece Athena up by
double-digits with four minutes go to. And, in a moment out of a Hollywood
movie, McElwain sank six three-pointers and another shot, for a total of 20
points in three minutes.
"I've had a lot of thrills in coaching," said the team’s coach, Jim Johnson,
"I've coached a lot of wonderful kids. But I've never experienced such a
thrill."
The crowd went wild, and his teammates carried the excited McElwain off the
court. "I felt like a celebrity!" he beamed.
McElwain's mother sees it as a milestone for her son. "This is the first moment
Jason has ever succeeded (and could be) proud of himself," reflects Debbie
McElwain. "I look at autism as the Berlin Wall, and he cracked it."
His teammates couldn't be happier. "He's a cool kid," said one. “He brings
humour and life to the team."
In another positive story, this time on the research front, the meeting
in St Louis of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was told
that people with autism were more intelligent and able to function better than
previously believed but that mistrust of doctors, biased tests and the Internet
had bred myths about the condition.
Researchers presented reports showing that even people with autism who do not
speak can have above-average intelligence. They also offered additional studies
disputing claims that vaccines can cause autism.
"The current figures are that 75 per cent of autistic people are mentally
retarded, with the mute the most ... impaired," says the Canadian researcher, Dr
Laurent Mottron, an autism specialist at Montreal's Hôpital
Rivière-des-Prairies.
But Dr Mottron believes the wrong intelligence tests are used to assess autistic
children.Many are tested using the Wechsler scale, a common IQ test that
includes questions about words and concepts learned in school. The Raven's
Progressive Matrices test measures abstract reasoning and consistently gives
autistic children higher scores, Dr Mottron says.
The average boost in score is 30 points, Dr Mottron says, enough to put someone
previously considered mentally retarded into the normal range and the average to
gifted status.
Dr Mottron was so impressed by the abilities of one autistic student, Michelle
Dawson, that he made her a co-author of some of his papers.
Among other people who spoke about autism to the St Louis meeting was Professor
Morton Gernsbacher, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who questioned a
common idea among autism researchers that autistic people lack a "theory of
mind." This, among other things, gives an ability to empathise with others.
Again, she says, the wrong tests are used to assess this ability.
Dr Judith Grether, a California epidemiologist, says she questions the idea that
there is a new autism epidemic. She says it is impossible to find out how many
cases of autism there were in the past, because many people with autism were
often diagnosed as retarded, or never diagnosed. Without that information, it is
impossible to say if the number of cases has grown, she says. "We have to do the
studies to find the answers," she says.
Dr Grether says United States researchers have begun taking pre-natal blood
samples from pregnant women and will look for clues when and if some of their
children are diagnosed with autism. They are examining hormones, heavy metals,
immune system proteins and other factors.
The studies found no link with vaccines, says Dr Irving Gottesman, a
psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota, but says the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has initiated four studies "to tie up the loose ends."
New studies are focusing on genetic susceptibilities. Dr Gottesman says the
studies may help to ease the fears of parents that a vaccine-autism link has
been covered up. But he says scientists are battling a plethora of websites
devoted to the idea that mercury causes autism.
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