If you’re a techno geek like I am and have an iPad, I’d like to recommend the Model Me Going Places free autism app from Model Me Kids. The application provides photographs of children engaged in common activities in public along with a quick text description of each page. These are basically pre-made social stories that you can pull up instantly on your iPad.

The free autism app for iPad includes stories for going to get a haircut, a trip to the grocery store, going to the doctor, eating out at a restaurant and more. If you don’t have an iPad, the free autism app is also available for the iPod Touch and the iPhone. To find these apps, just do a quick search for “Model Me Going Places” in the Apple App Store.

Although this news release isn’t specific to autism, I know that many families in the autism community are concerned about the safety of the United States vaccine program. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is hosting a free webinar on vaccine safety on July 13th. Here is the information straight from the FDA’s website.

Did you know the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to review vaccine safety even after a vaccine is approved?

Learn more when FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research hosts a 30-minute webinar on the agency’s efforts to ensure the safety of vaccines.

During the webinar, FDA will give an overview of vaccine safety surveillance, including the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and efforts underway to improve safety monitoring. FDA is working with federal, international, academic, and health care partners to improve its ability to evaluate the safety of vaccines.

There will be an opportunity to ask questions following the presentation.

When: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. EDT
Where: To join the webinar, see the instructions at http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Basics/ucm218083.htm. Webinar materials will also be available there.
Host: FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
phone: 1-800-835-4709
e-mail: ocod@fda.hhs.gov
Featured speaker: Andrea Sutherland, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., is a medical officer and special assistant to the director of the Division of Epidemiology in the Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology within FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

There are several new books that focus on autism and Asperger’s Syndrome coming out over the next few months. Here is just a sampling of the titles scheduled for summer 2010 publication:

While this release from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) isn’t specifically about autism, I know that many children on the autism spectrum are fascinated with Thomas the Train. Many of the toys were recalled due to lead content but the company is now facing a $1.25 million civil penalty for the lead-tainted toys.

Below is the full release from the U.S. CPSC

RC2 Corp. to Pay $1.25 Million Civil Penalty
Thomas & Friends(tm) Wooden Railway Toys Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of its commitment to protecting the safety of children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that RC2 Corp., of Oak Brook, Ill. has agreed to pay a $1.25 million civil penalty for allegedly violating the federal lead paint ban.

The penalty settlement, which has been provisionally accepted by the Commission, resolves CPSC staff allegations that RC2 Corp. and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries Learning Curve Brands Inc., knowingly (as defined by the Consumer Product Safety Act) imported and sold various Thomas & Friends(tm) Wooden Railway toys with paints or other surface coatings that contained lead levels above legal limits. In 1978, a federal ban was put in place which prohibited toys and other children’s articles from having more than 0.06 percent lead (by weight) in paints or surface coatings. As a result of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, the regulatory limit was reduced to 0.009 percent on August 14, 2009.

CPSC staff alleged that RC2 failed to take adequate action to ensure that the toys would comply with the lead paint ban. This failure created a risk of lead poisoning and adverse health effects to children.

In May 2007, RC2 reported that more than two dozen styles of vehicles, buildings and other train set components from the Thomas & Friends(tm) Wooden Railway product line were determined to have paints with lead levels that exceeded the then-applicable regulatory limit of 0.06 percent. Later, in August and September 2007, RC2 further reported that five additional toys from this product line were determined to have exceeded this limit.

This civil penalty settles the following allegations:

* RC2 imported up to 1.5 million units of non-compliant Thomas & Friends(tm) Wooden Railway toys between January 2005 and June 2007, and distributed them to its retail customers for sale to U.S. consumers. These toys were recalled in June 2007.

* RC2 imported up to 200,000 units of five additional non-compliant toys from this product line between March 2003 and April 2007, and distributed them to its retail customers for sale to U.S. consumers. In September 2007, the original June 2007 recall was expanded to include these additional units.

“The highly publicized recall of Thomas & Friends(tm) Wooden Railway toys was a catalyst for Congressional action aimed at strengthening CPSC and making the lead-in-paint limits under federal law even stricter,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum.

This settlement also resolves other potential matters. In agreeing to the settlement, RC2 denies that it knowingly violated federal law, as alleged by CPSC staff.

First Signs, Inc founder Nancy D. Wiseman’s newest book, The First Year: Autism Spectrum Disorders, is a comprehensive guide for parents in the year following their child’s autism spectrum diagnosis.

The book provides families with ways to cope those first seven days after diagnosis. Families can then reflect with first-week milestone activities. The book goes on to support parents as their journey passes the first month, half-year, and first-year milestones.

Commenting on last night’s BBC Three documentary which followed the lives of three young people living with Autism and Asperger syndrome (‘The Autistic Me’, BBC Three, 9pm, 11th August 2009), Lesa Walton – Care & Development Director of specialist Autism care provider Brookdale Care – said today:

“The programme makers and especially the three young people living with Autism and Asperger syndrome featured in the documentary are to be congratulated on aiding public understanding of Autism and associated Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC), which affect one in every hundred people in the UK.

“As the documentary showed, three of the biggest challenges that people living with ASC face are the transition from adolescence to adulthood, social integration and acceptance and finding employment.

“It was commendable, therefore, that the programme highlighted not only the importance to people living with ASC of having structure and routine in any job, but also the issues surrounding employment opportunities for those living with ASC.

“The programme noted the praiseworthy work of the National Autistic Society in finding Oli, one of the young men featured, a temporary job in the British Library. What is needed now is more consistent support nationally from the education and care services to enable more people living with ASC to find the employment that they find rewarding.

“Brookdale Care hopes that the documentary ‘The Autistic Me’ will help bring this about by raising the awareness of the immense contribution that so many people living with ASC can make, and dispelling the myths that still surround Autism and Asperger syndrome.”

You can watch ‘The Autistic Me’ again on the BBC iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m5jb4/The_Autistic_Me/

If you know of any pregnant mommas that are interested in an EcoFriendly diaper cake (7th Generation chlorine-free diapers), Diaper Cakewalk and Raising Them Green are hosting a diaper cake giveaway.

The Autism Society of America teamed up with AMC Theatres to launch the Sensory Friendly Films program. This month’s film will be Night at the Museum 2 and the date is this Saturday, May 23!

In order to provide a more accepting and comfortable setting for this unique audience, the movie auditoriums will have their lights brought up and the sound turned down, families will be able to bring in their own gluten-free, casein-free snacks, and no previews or advertisements will be shown before the movie. Additionally, audience members are welcome to get up and dance, walk, shout or sing – in other words, AMC’s “Silence is Golden®” policy will not be enforced unless the safety of the audience is questioned.

To find a theatre in your area, visit the ASA website: Sensory Friendly Films – Locate a Theatre

Photo by freshwater2006

A 13-year old teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome went missing from his Florida home yesterday. Kenton Weaver’s father, Dean Weaver, first reported his son missing early Tuesday morning. Fast forward about 24 hours and the elder Weaver received a phone call informing the dad that his son has been located. The call came from a police officer in San Jose, California. The teen made the cross-country trip by plane because he wanted to visit his mother.

“The previous two days, Weaver says, his son made unsuccessful attempts to leave, going to the Boca Raton Tri-Rail station. The first time a taxi cab driver brought him home, the second time a security guard returned him to his father.

This time, though, 13-year old Kenton apparently drove his father’s car to Ft. Lauderdale airport. Mr. Weaver says he doesn’t believe his son had any identification with him. How he was able to get on a flight across the country is still unknown.” Source: CBS12.com

I know, first-hand, the persistence that a child with Asperger’s Syndrome can have. I am glad that Kenton was found and that he is safe.

Biomedical approaches to autism aren’t for everyone. However, if you are considering these alternative therapies, the three books in this article will provide you with a more thorough understanding of the biomedical options available.

The world of biomedical intervention can be confusing, especially to the parents of a child newly diagnosed with autism. Parents interested in exploring a biomedical approach to autism will find the following three books helpful.

Read the entire article – Three Popular Biomedical Autism Books: Books by Dr. Kenneth Bock, Sally Kirk, & Jenny McCarthy are Featured