Soap box

Okay, it's not terribly often that I get on my "soap box," but today I'm going to. There are many, many topics from our candidates that are very important, but I want to tell you one more that most people probably don't think about. During a recent debate, McCain stated that he would further studies to find the cause of autism. Obama fired back that it would require money (of course.) I just wanted to express my concern for this and how important I believe this is.

As a former special education teacher, I can tell you that when I started my program in school, the rate of autism was somewhere around 1 in 3000 children (or so I was told.) A story in the NY Times says that in the 80's, the rate was somewhere between 4 and 5 out of every 10,000. Today, the current rate is 1 out of every 150 children. This rising rate is alarming and is why we are hearing so much more in the media today about autism.

My personal opinion is that it is vital, at this rising rate, for us to find the cause, so that we may prevent this. I have done ABA therapy in private homes with children with autism and I can't even tell you how difficult it is for families. As a mother of boys, it is even more alarming that the rate is 3 to 4 times more prevalant in boys than girls.

Just something else for you to think about.