Finished the book

Okay, there are some things that I dog-earred.

1. Page 149.
"There was a study done in 2006 that showed the economic costs associated with autism were $35 billion a year. Treatment for a preschool child with autism typically cost over $50,000 a year. The New York Times has estimated that only 10 percent of afflicted children are getting those services, and as a nation, we're letting down twenty-five thousand more children every year.
Autism is not getting the financial support it needs. In 2005 the National Institutes of Health dedicated only .3 percent of its budget to autism. Though on 12/7 the Senate authorized $1 billion for autism research, autism is still very far behind in private funding. Leukemia affects one in every twenty-five thousand and has $310 million in private funding. Pediatric AIDS affects one in eight thousand and has $394 million in private funding. Autism affects one in hundred and fifty and has only $15 million in private funding."

2. Page 176
" Someone needs to figure out what the hell is going on, or we're going to have much bigger problems than global warming. In the seventies, it used to be one in ten thousand children were autistic. Now it's one in a hundred and fifty. What will it take for people the wake the hell up? One in five children will be autistic, and then what- we can't procreate anymore? ...."

Jenny also talks about the need to find the cause rather than the band-aid. If you constantly had heartburn, rather than taking the medication, you should find and change the cause. That is why she went with the diets. By changing what her son, Evan, ate, he was getting "opening the window."

I'm not a doctor, clearly. I don't advocate one way or another. It just makes me wonder as an educator about the causes of behavior because I'm charged with helping to fit the band-aid.

At the end of the book, she does go into what she's done. She lays out what she calls a "pamplet" which is worth looking at as well.

Alright, I feel like I've posted a lot about this.

Now, I should go and do my school work and research for the presentation at our next faculty meeting for other educators to learn about strategies to best help "my boys."