Dear Professor Adams - Thank you for seeking information directly from parents. I completed your forms piecemeal today, as I found time. I am retired, and parents who are working, or totally occupied with caring for their child might not have had time to do this.

My son is now 53 years old, and I can tell you that autism was not as prevalent when he was a child as it is now. My son suffered brain injury at birth from head trauma and oxygen insufficiency during birth. His motor development was delayed, but learning to speak was the most serious problem.

An article by WF Windle in the October1969 issue of Scientific American on brain damage in monkeys subjected to asphyxia at birth documents injury of brainstem nuclei in the auditory pathway. This result was confirmed by RE Myers in 1972. For me this explained how birth injury might affect language development.

Relay nuclei in the auditory pathway have higher blood flow and aerobic metabolism than any other area of the brain. Papers by SS Kety (1962) and L Sokoloff (1981) are free online, and describe autoradiographic methods used to measure blood flow and metabolism in the brain.

My son recovered to a remarkable degree, and I am most grateful for speech therapy and the special education programs he attended. The mental health system in Massachusetts has failed him miserably. He is capable of doing useful work, and would be much better off if he were working. Instead he lives in a group home and attends a day program where the only regularly scheduled activity is one cigarette every hour on the hour.