Musings and What-not

In an announcement released earlier today, the University of Illinois at Chicago will be joining the international research effort to study autism. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are taking part in an international effort to gather DNA samples from 2,000 autism patients and their families over the next three years. The initiative, called the Simons Simplex Collection, is the first coordinated effort to create a database of information about families with only one autistic child. Families eligible to participate in the study include those with only one child with an autism spectrum disorder, age four or older; one or more siblings without an autism spectrum disorder, age four or older; and unaffected biological parents who are willing to participate. Eligible children with an autism spectrum disorder will receive a behavioral assessment and all family members will donate blood, a source of DNA. A small number of families with no siblings or siblings under the age ...

I know I'm going to get hate mail for this post, and to that, I can only sigh.  But I want you to remember one thing as you read this post... this is MY healing journey. It seems that everyone I talk to wants to know how Nicholas "got autism". How the heck do I know? Have you heard reference to my name as being an expert in the field of communication sciences and neurological disorders? Have you read pages upon pages of research data that I've written regarding autism and its cause? No. Unlike a lot of parents out there, I didn't lose my son after he received his MMR.  He's still the same perky, curious, entertaining boy he was back then. But there is one thing that hasn't changed for him through the years, and that's his level of communication.  Although, he's a HUGE scripter, it has only been recently that we've been hearing a lot of spontaneous speech... which is groovy! I know you've heard me bring up Jenny before, but I need to make...