Katie Wright on IACC
By Katie Wright
I apologize to Ms. Susan Daniels, the Communications Director of NIH’s autism research programs. In the past I have been critical of IACC’s transparency regarding access to public meetings. The situation has greatly improved so thank you Ms. Daniels. I appreciate the fact that IACC meetings are quickly archived and available for viewing any time. The meeting agendas, slides, list of speakers are also publicly accessible for downloading. The e-mail reminders regarding upcoming dates and times of meetings are very helpful as well.
So many autism meetings remain inaccessible to the public and involve only token stakeholder representation. The NIEHS’s recent environmental science meeting has not been archived on their site nor have they made the DVD available for public viewing elsewhere. In September the NIH and Canadian NIH and Autism Speaks sponsored a conference entitled “Translating Genetic Discoveries into Diagnostics.” Once again this meeting was not publicized, webcast or archived for public viewing. What stakeholders were involved, if any? Were family member allowed participate or just serve as audience members? Were representatives from national autism service/ research organizations, such as the NAA, SafeMinds, Generation Rescue and the Autism Society of America invited?
I hear so much talk, talk, talk about how important stakeholder input is but how about “translating” those promises into actual action. “Translating” needs to start at home.
Scientific organizations must prioritize community wide (press releases on all organization websites, Schafer Report, placing an ad on AoA or other community online newspapers…) notification of meetings, create archived webcasts and energetically pursue public comment. We also really need to see some federal autism meetings outside of the DC area! If stakeholders can travel to IACC or NIEHS, why shouldn’t IACC travel to NYC or LA once or twice and hear from the families in the big cities?
This IACC meeting started with a great lecture by the Assistant Director of Special Education for the U.S. Dept. Of Education. Dr. Alex Posny spoke about service, gaps, access issues and priorities. Dr. Posny brought a great deal enthusiasm and energy to the discussion. It was nice to see a federal employee who really feels a sense of urgency.
The next presenters were Lori MacIlwain and Wendy Fornier of the National Autism Association. Lori and Wendy spoke about the AWAARE program, which is dedicated to preventing and stopping the wandering deaths of ASD children. Lori and Wendy are mothers of children with autism. Most children with autism are impulsive and have little to no appreciation for danger. Despite a parent’s best efforts to watch their children every moment of the day and night, many ASD children will find a way to wander. Most ASD children have no physical disabilities; they run, run fast and sometimes don’t stop running until someone catches them.
Thank you Wendy, Lori and the incredibly brave Sheila Medlam for detailing the safety needs of our kids. These three Moms articulated how and why traditional search procedures are ineffective for children affected by ASD. Nonverbal ASD children cannot respond when they hear their name being called yet may be lost very close to their home. Wendy and Lori emphasized and how cost effective tracking devices are yet most families lack access to such devices.
Dr. Dawson of AS stated that wandering problems must be addressed immediately by IACC and that AS fully collaborates in the AWAARE program. Dawson expressed her incomprehension tracking devices are widely available for pets in needs but not ASD children. Ellen Blackwell stated that relevant Medicaid safety programs are already in place. Alison Singer and Lyn Redwood countered that Medicaid’s efforts are not working and that ASD families sometimes endure years of delays trying to access help from Medicaid.
I am going to end with a synopsis of the Yale presentation. I really, really wanted to like Dr. Kevin Pelphery’s work. He has 2 children on the spectrum (which I am guessing now probably means HF). Pelphery spoke for almost 15 minutes about eye tracking, the social brain and social perception. I kept think why? Why? Why? Why would a parent of an autistic child see this subject matter as innovative or an urgent scientific priority?
I learned nothing I did not already know and I learned nothing that would help children living now with autism. There was no insight into causation factors or treatment. If we are not addressing one of those two problems such research is an academic luxury we can ill afford. Yes, yes always the sales pitch that eye tracking technology will help detect autism early. But I have a radical idea. How about we use our old school technology- specifically our own 2 eyes and look for signs of poor eye contact in babies on our own? No expensive machinery necessary! All right, now we are saving money!
This is exactly why I loved the DoD research experience. They place a premium on innovative and emerging areas of impactful research. Let’s move with the times IACC! No more eye tracking part 27 or baby sibling part 45. IACC and the NIH need to put their money where their mouth is and start investing in the treatment and environmental research they talk, talk, talk so much about but never seem to get around to funding.
IACC Part 2 will cover a presentation on the genome, bizarre incompetence on the part of the NIEHS, and a fascinating but sad discussion about the Somali autism cluster in Minneapolis.
Katie Wright is Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.
My 48-year-old autistic son now wears a LoJack bracelet. March 10, 2009 he ran away from his group home in the middle of the night, and was not found until May 1. My agony and grief during that period are almost indescribable. My son is "high functioning" and we are writing a memoir together about our lives. He has described in minute detail where he went and what he did during the seven weeks he was gone, but so far has explained his feelings about running away only as "high anxiety".
I attended the Oct 22 IACC meeting and made a public comment requesting a research focus on brain mechanisms underlying developmental language disorder. My son suffered a traumatic anoxic birth, which is known to injure auditory centers in the brainstem. In the discussion of public comments my comments, about invasive obstetric procedures and those of Caroline Rodgers on the dangers of prenatal ultrasound, were pointedly ignored.
The current IACC "strategic plan" is weak. We need to pressure them to stop ignoring environmental factors that are clear predispositions for autism.
Posted by: Eileen Nicole Simon | November 13, 2010 at 06:37 AM
Aspie,
I find your comment to be very condescending. In addition, you have once again assumed that all children with autism are like you were as a child. Katie Wright's post should serve to inform you that this is not a valid assumption.
There are parents of children with autism who have to put alarms/extra locks on their home's windows and doors in order to try to prevent their children from "wandering" and to keep them safe - you can read on this site of instances where children with autism have "wandered off" and died (as well as happier ones where the children were found unharmed). This does not happen because the children in question are "bored".
Posted by: Carolyn M | November 12, 2010 at 04:32 PM
Dear Aspie,
I recall the same feelings when shopping w/ Mom mother as a kid.
What I am talking about is different. You and I knew and understood danger, even as small kids. At 8 I never would have tried to run across a busy street alone. I never would have gotten out of bed in the middle of the night, unlooked the front door and run outside. I never would have ignored an adult calling my name if I was near a pool or the ocean. Believe me, my parents did not have a perfect child just a typical one.
Christian isn't bored- he is impulsive, he loves water and has no ability to gauge what is safe. Worse, he is nonverbal so when he has been lost he cannot respond to his name being called.
Do you understand the difference?
Posted by: Katie Wright | November 12, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Here's some insight on why your kids wander. When I was a child, I wandered because shopping bored me to tears. I'd sit down, read books and magazines,look at the lobsters, read recipe cards, and browse through shelves. I'd always wander away because I couldn't take being in the same place for so long. It was sheer torture to me. It isn't that your children are "confused", it's that they are bored to tears.
Posted by: Aspie | November 12, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Katie,
I am with Jillba and Kathy below who are wondering what was said during those "missing" five minutes during summer IACC meeting. Why is everyone, including yourself, playing dumb and refusing to answer?
Talk about transparency!
Posted by: Natasa | November 12, 2010 at 05:25 AM
DITTO. This stakeholder thinks it is definitely time for the "investing in the treatment and environmental research"
Posted by: Another concerned mom | November 11, 2010 at 11:00 PM
Dear Autism Community from Australia,
This subject is a little off track, but my 8 year old, autistic, non-verbal son had a bad episode at school the other day. He lunged at his carer for no apparent reason.
He has a little room with a one-on-one carer adjacent to peers. When I walked into his room the other day there was a distinct chemical smell that was even overbearing for me. The room has no ventilation and the only possible cause of the smell was a white board marker.
So I happened to be in Toys R Us today and found some marker pens made in China for the Disney:Pixar (Toy Story) range.
On the bottom right hand side appears a WARNING sign -
"Warning: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm".
Does anyone know which chemical/s they may be? The manufacturers have conveniently not listed any ingredients on the package?
OR does anyone know of any recent litigation cases about the marker pens??
Perhaps my son being soooooo HYPERSENSITIVE (and I do not need to explain why)but perhaps inhaling the markers fumes has caused his reaction?
Anyway, until I do some more research on the matter the PSYCHOLOGIST is getting involved to deal with his BAD BEHAVIOUR!
Good Luck to them, once again TREATING THE SYMPTOMS AND NOT THE CAUSES!!!
We have a classic saying here in Victoria/Australia, our number plates on our vehicles read - VICTORIA THE PLACE TO BE- we in the Autism World say - VICTORIA THE PLACE TO BE UNLESS YOU ARE AUTISTIC!!
P.S Patrons99- I am still investigating the Aboriginal's health pre & post-vaccinations.
Posted by: Elizabeth (Autism Mum) | November 11, 2010 at 10:29 PM
My son has a tracking device and it is a bracelet that he wears on his ankle. It is not "in" his body. I do worry about EMFs and the like but this bracelet for him is a necessity. Lori personally called me and arranged for my son to have this and the NAA funded Project Lifesaver in my community. I am forever grateful to them. We may never know the number of lives they have (or will) saved.
Posted by: Kristine | November 11, 2010 at 09:37 PM
Re: "eye tracking" devices for early detection:
What the F? What about some stool samples to determine levels of healthy intestinal flora, and some HEAVY METALS testing for God's sake. They don't want to find any real indicators though because our children's lab testing points the blaming [middle] finger right at vaccines.
Re: "I hear so much talk, talk, talk about how important stakeholder input is but how about “translating” those promises into actual action."
It is transparently obvious by now that their official job description is to "Go into these meetings and pretend that you are really listening to these nutcase parents, so we can keep them off of our back while we figure out more ways to deflect the blame for autism away from vaccines."
Posted by: Autism Grandma | November 11, 2010 at 06:54 PM
Ms. Daniels is a wonderful person -- truly an exception to autism politics as usual. Thanks Susan for doing everything you can to bring all the brilliant minds to the same table.
Posted by: Jacqueline Gauthier | November 11, 2010 at 03:11 PM
VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM
"Mary - Elopement is real and dangerous in our community. If the IACC can help get gps tracking devices into the hands of first responders and families faster, I support it without reservation"
ARE YOU KIDDING? ANYBODY WHO SAYS OR AGREES WITH THIS NEEDS PROFFESIONAL PSYCHIATRIC HELP
This government is out of control and is abusing its and everyone else's citizens. Elopement as an excuse to inject microchips into already injured children from the people who injured them in the first place and refuse to accept responsebility? These same people just admitted to giving people in Guatemala syphillis
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/01/101473/us-admits-it-infected-guatemalans.html?storylink=MI_emailed
PLEASE PEOPLE SNAP OUT OF IT!! DEMAND ANSWERS AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND DO IT LOUDLY
VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM
Posted by: WILLIE | November 11, 2010 at 01:53 PM
Go Katie. Go Katie. :) I'm rocking here. Yes, we absolutely need more transparency.
RE: Eye tracking. No, we do not need more studies re: how poorly adults and children track.
However, I think the wee-infant eye tracking studies are very cool (and need go be replicated in larger numbers to have scientific validity).
A couple of years ago, Dr. Mel Rutherford actually came up with beyond cool tracking device for infants.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108204.php
I do think this would be awesome - a technician could "diagnose" rather than the ridiculous vineland/under-educated doctors/psychologists appointments - like some of the idiots who saw my child... "well, he's "verbal" and shows affection... he can't have autism." Uhhh... had they ever heard of echolalia?
Anyway, my son never, ever looked into my eyes (and NO, he didn't get the hep-b, so don't anyone go there). So, I do think this is one area where eye tracking studies would be very cool (infants). There is a subset of our children that were damaged very early on (gestationally or early infancy). It would be beyond cool to identify them at 6m (or earlier).
I BELIEVE with all my heart and mind those of you who say your children were perfect before whatever vaccination(s). Please believe me when I say my child wasn't perfect from the get go AND tanked after a vaccination as well. I cannot be the only person whose son was NOT perfect from the get go. See here for one of all of our drag out arguments on this topic on this board:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/03/a-few-choice-words-for-the-u-miami-study-that-points-to-early-parenting-and-autism/comments/page/7/#comments
See here for my son's VERY real vaccine damage on top of whatever happened gestationally:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/01/anne-dachel-on-the-rising-autism-numbers/comments/page/2/#comments
So, I go back to - if a technician giving a TEN-minute eye test could have "verified" what I was seeing (or not seeing :) ) when my son was an infant - how cool would that be? That would be awesome!
And, Patrons99, you are so correct - it doesn't get at the cause, but at the symptom. But my son's story would have been very different than it was if he had been identified at 6m. Early identification by any means is always a good thing. But, yes, yes, god yes, we need to find the cause(s) as well
Posted by: Henderson | November 11, 2010 at 01:25 PM
AWAARE.com
please see this very important website for information about preventing wandering and creating safety for ASD children.
Kathy I don't know why the power went out. The XRMV discussion is a very important topic. Lyn Redwood does not believe this was intentional, IACC often has communication problems but I just don't know.
Feel free to go to the IACC website and contact them, in my experience the IACC webmaster gets back to people quickly.
Posted by: Katie Wright | November 11, 2010 at 01:10 PM
Katie, may I request further transparancy, that you tell us what happened when the power went down for five minutes when they were about to discuss XMRV infections in autism? I would really love an explanation of what was said? All the people in a group of mothers I communicatie with have been trying to locate any conversations during that time, but many who we contacted who were there in person, refuse to tell us what that conversation was. In interest of disclosure, please let me know, if you can't publicly, [email protected]. I would also like to know if that was a legitimate power outage (I will contact the power company), or someone flipping a switch. I know I sound paranoid, but, this issue is a big one.
Posted by: kathy blanco | November 11, 2010 at 12:30 PM
I would like to know what happened or what was discussed at the IACC meeting when there was a power failure for 5 minutes during the summer IACC full committee meeting.
Posted by: Jillba | November 11, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Mary - Elopement is real and dangerous in our community. If the IACC can help get gps tracking devices into the hands of first responders and families faster, I support it without reservation. You may not be up to speed on safety issues so I'm not going to go further than stating that you couldn't be more wrong in your criticism of the federal government focusing on this issue.
Posted by: Dadvocate | November 11, 2010 at 10:46 AM
We are the only "stakeholders" that matter, not the delirious multinational pharmaceutical companies that hunger to make a profit at ANY cost.
It’s not the eye movements of autistic kids that they wish to “track”...they wish to “track” us. God Help Us! Is anyone utterly disgusted and completely fed-up with pharma yet? Why do we let them continue to abuse us? The age of pharmaceutical microchipping is now upon us. We should keep a close eye on the bore/calibre of the syringe needles used to administer our “inoculations”. Microchips and nanotech vaccine jabs might be expected to require a greater calibre needle, especially if particulates are present.
“Big Pharma to begin microchipping drugs” by Mike Adams on November 9, 2010.
http://www.naturalnews.com/z030341_microchips_drugs.html
As if we needed yet another reason for a new Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing medical freedom in this country.
Btw - According to Sarah in another AoA thread, designer babies are on the way!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNdGAFc_45A
Pharma already uses fear and the Social Responsibility argument to control us. So designing babies would be a logical progression for them. Why bother trying to be God-like, when you can effectively replace God?
Posted by: patrons99 | November 11, 2010 at 10:26 AM
As someone who has spent two days of the last week driving through my sub looking for my 8-year old (I still have no idea how he got past me in the kitchen), I am a little more open to the idea of tracking devices. I appreciate the concern with embedded microchips and agree they cause cancer in pets, but a human variety could be an ankle bracelet, wrist bracelet or pendulum of some sort. I think we might look to the alzheimer's community on this one.
I appreciate the desire for a cure rather than tracking devices, but those of us with wanderers won't make it to the "cure" finish line without some help in the meantime.
Posted by: William's Mom | November 11, 2010 at 10:12 AM
How about an externally placed lo jack bracelet for ASD kids with wandering problems instead - to be activated only when a child with severe wandering behavior cannot be found? I agree with Mary that these tracking devices are a cancer disaster in the making. Laboratory testing on animals has demonstrated that between 1 in 10 and 1 and 100 animals developed a malignant and deadly cancer (at the exact microchip implant site) from these new tracking devices. It is written in the current Affordable Health Care Act that these devices are to be tested on the human population to get data on the migration of the devices within a person and the cancer rates caused by the devices, and place this information in a huge database 36 months after passage of the Affordable Health Care Act. This is nothing short of positively frightening, and I do not welcome this at all. I guess children with autism are to be the ones sacrificed to this new technology to see if it is safe for others (even when the odds are already clearly stacked against the safety of these devices.) Check out this article. Poor Leon...
http://www.spychips.com/blog/verichip/
Posted by: Not an MD | November 11, 2010 at 09:37 AM
By tracking devices I believe Wendy and Lori meant personalized bracelets complete w/ information shared with first responders, teachers, hospitals...
Posted by: Katie Wright | November 11, 2010 at 08:46 AM
"eye tracking" devices? I'm not a neurologist or an opthalmologist, but I suspect that the eye findings in the vaccinated are manifestations of vaccine-induced mercury and/or aluminum poisoning, e.g. cortical deafferentation, microvascular ischemia and strokes. Andrew Moulden has described the clinical eye findings and their significance.
Studying the symptom alone, does not address the underlying cause. But then, when has pharma ever really been interested in the finding the cause of any disease? They just want to control us.
http://www.infowars.com/big-pharma-to-begin-microchipping-drugs/
Posted by: patrons99 | November 11, 2010 at 08:38 AM
Maybe the Mayor can commission Kevin Pelphery to solve DC's graffiti problem by keeping a spectrometer mounted on every bridge so we can get accurate data on the color and composition of the paint.
Posted by: Steve | November 11, 2010 at 07:54 AM
Tracking devices? Seriously? These things are causing cancer in the animals who have them. Let's cure the kids and forget the tracking devices.
Posted by: mary | November 11, 2010 at 06:47 AM