Autism - anyone with kids with Autism?

[ISCE]

I am in the process of moving careers. I worked for Johns Hopkins doing Autism research for the ISAAC project years ago and now am moving back into the Autism research arena working for Kennedy Krieger Institute as the IT Director for the IAN Project.

You can find out more about us here: http://www.ianproject.org

If you have a child with autism sign up on our community and research sites and help us better understand the causes for autism.

Anyone else working with Autism research here?

[tom4bren]

Sorry, no. My only experience was back in the 80s when I taught some special ed swim classes for the Red Cross & had a couple of autistic kids.

Very rewarding work. Good luck with it.

[BeeVenom]

My grandson is autistic and we're always looking for more info on it.
Jakie is a cool 7 year old and he loves to swim. Still trying to get him to talk more. Scott

[JHarris1385]

What cuases autism?

[tomdietrying]

My best friend's son is autistic. He's finally able to get a little help for his son. I know it's been difficult on him.
Peace.
Tom

[ISCE]

What cuases autism?

That's what we are hoping to find out. The IAN project is great as we are connecting the families and researchers. We have an amazing network and are already posting new findings. Check out the website and you can read a lot more there.

I know when I was approached for a possible job one of the things that helped me decide to make the move was knowing several families that have children with Autism. The diagnosis is climbing every year, I am working on an interactive dashboard now for the site that documents this and other findings. Hopefully will be out in a couple of months.

[WyrreJ]

What cuases autism?

Engineering.

Seriously, the percentage of autistic children born to parents where at least one works as an engineer or other professional technical field is much greater than in the general population.

Some people think MMR shots do it too. Although the evidence for that seems to be very tenuous at best.

[Dino]

My girlfriend is a "skills trainer" here on Maui. She also "subs" at several schools on the island working with special needs kids, including some autistic children.

They can be tough to deal with on a daily basis. It can really drain you of your energy. The other day she tolerated more than 30 fist blows from an 8 year old when he was throwing a fit. It was over soon enough, but she really got pounded! It happens.

Most of her time at the schools is spent "shadowing" which is taking notes on behavior patterns. This is key to understanding what is going on in the autistic mind.

Whats kind of cool though, is each kid has some cool thing they are really good at!! And they're pround of that, just like anyone! They are still just kids, and they do kid stuf.

The mind, brain, body is amazing. We are only barely begining to understand really, how things work in our grey matter.

Best wishes in your renewed position!