CHARLIE'S WORLD

...But sometimes it's as if Kristina emptied our house of milk, flour, bread, pasta, I were already burning...

...the clinic professionals briefly reviewed with us seemed to Autism is a neurobiological disorder marked by severe have no answers...

...The past year has taken to say "bye-bye...

...Some CDC ruled out contaminated water as a factor in this extraautistic children never develop functional speech, while oth- ordinarily high rate, but the question remains: Is the high ers possess highly sophisticated vocabularies but lack the incidence of autistic children in Brick an isolated case or the means to communicate meaningfully with others...

...Until quite ated his findings of a possible link between the MMR vacrecently, autism was considered a rare disorder that affected cine and autism, first published in the leading British medical roughly four children per 10,000 births (with boys four times journal, Lancet, in February 1998...

...The alarming number of autism cases cannot be attributed simply medical establishments in Britain and the United States greetto improved methods of detection or a broadening of diag- ed Taylor's findings with great relief, but the issue remains nostic categories...

...promptu lunch on the grounds of the Department of AgriThe many accounts by parents of children with severe culture building...

...paper of Jesus promulgated in 1599 which regulated Jesuit educational institutions worldN September 2000 A wide until well into the 20th century...

...autism blend faith in the efficacy of early behavioral inter- Most of all, we have been sustained by Charlie's own tirevention with a conviction that the biological roots of the dis- less spirit...

...This gathering brought together about 300 educators from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia...

...He had no language other than a baby's babble and cries...

...Ignatius to the 1990's, who have been incarcerated around the world for their faith...

...Their hopes were on display in the es...

...Does he know his James T. Fisher is a frequent contributor...

...For pecially by profound impairments in social interaction...

...Charlie did not know how to wave, much less how diagnosed with autism...

...It is often said that autistic people can see only parts of an object rather than the whole, but specialists in the field are being similarly challenged to make connections across the traditional boundaries of sci- Christian Feldman entific and medical disciplines...

...Any activity-shopping for groceries, visiting the reconcile requests for costly one-on-one programs (many of post office, getting a haircut is a chance for Charlie to apply which are set up in the children's own homes) with their his newly learned skills of attending and participating...

...But the symptoms of the cians and research scientists-insisted that autism is not a condition are not difficult for an observant lay person to "mental disorder...

...Where a has even been hypothesized that rigorous early intervention year ago he appeared oblivious to the existence of others, modifies the neural circuitry in a young brain damaged by today he enthusiastically solicits handshakes from kids in autism...

...My mother was the first to raise concerns at how long Charlie would sit-forty-five minutes and more-absorbed in the colorful stiff pages of his board books or looking quietly out the window...

...June 2000 • 544 pp...

...248 pp...

...many develop abilities At your bookstore or call 1-800-395-0690...

...Autism may best be Of autistic children the heels of a combined vaccinaunderstood not as a single en- and medical researchers tion for measles, mumps, and tity but as a range of Autism rubella (MMR...

...sufficient to attend "regular" classes in primary schools...

...ered that the personal narratives of autistic people and their mothers generally offered more lasting insights than the work of leading experts, some of whom have been thor- On the Dignity of Women oughly discredited...

...CHARLIE'S WORLD A family battles autism James T. Fisher year ago, at the age of two, our son Charlie was name...

...Is he always like this...

...asked one "lamp"-and syllable by syllable we shape his sounds- specialist as Charlie lay on the floor clutching his blanket "kk-er," "mm-ssih"-into words-"cracker," "music...

...The scholarship of Lukacs and Cosentino is L complemented and updated by Homann's introduction, which includes ample hihlio0 5 graphical notes on more recent studies of the Ratio...

...One such program, applied behavioral analysis are not only a disaster for the Catholic Church, (ABA), has children work one-on-one with a therapist, first at but are also a threat to the well-being of all a table and later in more natural settings...

...R.J...

...Many shape of things to come...

...To Order: 800-565-9523 • fax 800-221-9985 Jesuit Education 2 L Conference Proceedings On the Future of Jesuit Higher Education" rook place on the campus of Saint MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS Joseph's University in Philadelphia in June 1999...

...No" was my wife's answer when, at an appointment for one of Charlie's many ear infections, our pediatrician asked, "Does he know what his hands are...

...His latest book is Catholics in America (Oxford University Press...

...At the "Hear Their Silence" rally, psychologist New Age...

...The committee Spectrum Disorders (ASD...

...As Doctor Thomas F. AnThe median age of persons with autism dropped from ders, a professor of medical psychiatry at the University of fifteen to nine years in the 1990s...

...School...

...peared in the same year as The Empty Fortress, a best-sell- A Woman Confronts ing work by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim that held Her Church emotionally aloof "refrigerator mothers" responsible for autism...

...Yet Charlie did not do many of the things other toddlers could...

...At the very least, ABA teaches autistic children the the playground, perhaps not the typical greeting of a threeway in which they can learn...

...Hispanics SAINT JOSEPH'S UNIVERSITY PRESS A study of the theological implications of the American Hispanic sensus fidelium as expressed in popular religion...

...Charlie pointed to wide range of possible links between immune system dis- his photo on one of several picture boards containing phoorders (manifest particularly in the gastrointestinal tracts tographs of children with autism from the fifty states...

...Today, Jessy and an outspoken Park continues to live at home as an autistic adult...

...She is advocate for women's an accomplished painter...

...The Council lasted dotal evidence gathered by parents and dis- for five years and saw his death, but it opened seminated via the Internet and parent networks...

...M 1999 • 95pp...

...Kristina and I concover educational therapies for a condition still labeled as a tinually urge him to "generalize" the fruits of each task he mental illness, and public school officials have struggled to encounters...

...Henle, S.J...

...of the autism puzzle continues...

...The bal skills render standardized test results problematic...

...itively reinforced (rewarded with perhaps a favorite toy at 0-8245-1869-1 $18.95 paperback first, later verbal praise as they advance) for correctly identifying objects and learning new words...

...Doctor Andrew WakeCharlie's diagnosis of autism field, a gastroenterologist, reiterrang in our ears and hearts like a death sentence...

...Henle, S...

...itself...

...We of autistic children), and the onset of autism's neurological made our way down the National Mall, stopping at a merrysymptoms...

...At the Vietnam Memogrowing cadre of parents is also convinced that external rial, Charlie did his own thing, walking against the agents-not just vaccines but antibiotics and food allergens pedestrian traffic...

...ISBN 0-916101-32-0 (Cloth) • $70.00 Marquette Studies in Theology #19 Church, Culture & Curriculum ISBN 0-87462-643-9/ $45.00/ 430pp...

...The Siege ap- CATHOLIC...

...After Charlie faith that, after many more steps, his hands clasped in ours, was diagnosed last summer-and given an essentially hope- we can help him to travel the long path into the world...

...Email universitypress@marquette.edu with "subscribe" as the subject...

...A my wife Kristina and me on a journey from In late March 1999, after an evaluation of his speech, Kristideep sadness to rising hope and joy as Charlie na first told me over the phone: "They think Charlie is...

...It is A long-time best seller in Japan, it is a deeply moving divided into chapters that deal with specific themes related to their imprisoncollection of dairies of fallen Japanese soldiers from 1938 to ment...

...But atop my shoulders, he climbed the as well-work as triggers for the terrible symptoms of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and also shared an imcondition...

...people with autism also endure auditory and sensory dis- While calling for much greater national attention to the orders that greatly interfere with their processes of percep- causes and treatment of the condition, the parents of autistic tion...

...parents have discovered a deeper capacity for genuine comRecent accounts of partial or complete recoveries from munication and a changed understanding of our vocation...

...Autism, some now think, may be triggered hotly contested...

...Two days prior to the Washington rally, discern, nor is it the kind of the House Government Reform disorder pediatricians or edu- and Oversight Committee heard cators would mistakenly as- testimony from parents who are cribe to a child in the absence certain that their autistic children of clear and compelling evi- More and more paren s first manifested symptoms on dence...

...ISBN: 0-8232-2064-8/$39.95 hardcover Kenneth Davis and Yolanda Tarango ISBN: 0.8232-2065.6/$19.95 paper Bridging Boundaries: The Pastoral Care of U.S...

...These were not the feats of your average two-year-old...

...Keynote addresses were given by Voegelin's Israel and Revelation: Peter Steinfels, New York Times columnist, and Archbishop Giuiseppe Pittau, S.J., An Interdisciplinary Debate and Anthology Secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education...

...He stared for long periods at a picture of a little Asian-American girl in one of his books but never looked at, much less acknowledged, the other children on the playground...

...Wakefield's senior colleague, as likely as girls to be afflicted...

...The American Thomistic Revival in the Philosophical Papers of R.J...

...Over the past decade, how- Doctor Brent Taylor, asserted that his own study of 498 autisever, the rate of new cases has grown...

...Researchers in the neuro- JOHN XXIII sciences have located abnormalities in two regions of the A Spiritual Biography brain in autistic people, while others have discovered several Already seventy-seven of the genes believed to play a major role in causing the dis- years old, Angelo order...

...Charlie's progress thus far has been astonishing...

...Once he walked back and forth, back and forth, before a stone wall, eyes aslant, until we dragged him away screaming...

...Autism is must be tailored around individual needs...

...Children are pos- women, regardless of belief...

...he seemed to understand even less...

...Commonweal 1 3 September 8, 2000 ing" at the blackjack tables is exploited by his younger broth- April by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that er...

...While genetics clearly plays a role in autism, a go-round and at all the monuments...

...CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY PRESS Important papers from a leader of the Thomistic Revival from a peer of Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson, Todd Salzman ISBN 0-9652929-2-4/ $21.95 paper Method and Catholic Moral Theology To Order: 800 247 6553 • Fax 419 281 6883 The Ongoing Reconstruction ISBN 1.881871-28-2/ $25.00 cloth UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO PRESS ISBN 1-881871-29.0/ $17.00 paper Joseph T. Angilella, S.J...

...These testimonies focus on a to attend the "Hear Their Silence" rally...

...tally retarded...

...Autism is found in all cultures and in families from all so- in Brick Township, New Jersey-site of a suspected autism cioeconomic backgrounds...

...Subtle changes in routineturning right down the sidewalk instead of left-led to tantrums in which he would flip himself backwards, headfirst...

...Translators With Christ in Prison: Jesuits in Jail from St...

...In 1967 Clara Claiborne Park, in The Siege: The First Eight Years of an Autistic Child (Little, Brown) offered the first pub- Joanna Manning lished account of an autistic child raised at home at a time IS THE POPE when institutionalization remained the norm...

...George M. Anderson, S.J...

...A report released in struggle to enlarge the "ways of seeing" autism at a time Commonweal 1 4 September 8, 2000 when the various causes of the disorder remain at least partially shrouded in mystery...

...both Burton all of the criteria for "classic" and the child's mother suspect autism are being diagnosed simply to improved methods that a vaccine triggered the diswith Pervasive Developmen- of detection order...

...One by after a two-day evaluation during which he refused to perone we teach Charlie the names of things-"cup," "shoe," form almost every test...

...At the same time, other major childhood disabilities The current debate over the causes of autism is part of a have increased at a much slower rate...

...ISBN 0-916101-30-4 (paper) • $19.95 610-660-3400 • fax: 610-660-3410 • e-mail: sjupress@sju.edu To Order: 800 247 6553 • Fax 419 281 6883 w w w. m a r q u e t t e. e d u/ m u p r e s s/ SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY PRESS Subscribe free to MU Press E-news...

...However, insurance plans rarely year-old but quite a start just the same...

...MidOnly an aeon night searching on the Internet led us to medical research Of refining fire and parental testimonies about autistic children who have Will ever make it mine made great gains and even recovered, thanks to special diets...

...Many speakers at the rally-including several physior even the existence of autism...

...Nevertheless, he always knew where our car was parked, even in the megasized lots of the Midwest, and one hot summer day, when he was still some weeks shy of his second birthday, Charlie led me several blocks from our house to a bridge whose wrought-iron sides fascinated him...

...Instead, he became the Pope of Transition by he flurry of publicity generated by the April convening the Second congressional hearings obscured a much broad- Vatican Council in er autism narrative constructed of massive anec- 1962...

...Stereotypic behaviors-toe-walking, rocking, looking children have begun publicly to fight the stereotypes associout of the corners of the eyes-are signs of overtaxed sens- ated with the disorder...

...As recently wide the windows of the Church - by abating as thirty years ago, parents were routinely blamed for caus- the old pomp, and leading the Church into a ing autism...

...In early April, the three of us flew to Washington order will soon be uncovered...

...El Commonweal 16 September 8, 2000 ASSOCIATION OF JESUIT UNIVERSITY PRESSES UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON PRESS FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Midori Yamanouchi, Ph.D...

...Early interven- often described as uniquely tragic for striking at the heart of tion costs money in the short run but the future benefits are "what makes us human," our ability to engage in meaningincalculable, both in financial terms (since many more autis- ful social interaction...

...If this increase were mere- California at Davis, explained to the Sacramento Bee in Ocly a result of improved diagnosis, a large population of un- tober 1999: "When you can understand the biological mechdiagnosed older autistic children and adults should also anisms underlying this disorder, you will understand how have emerged, since this is not a condition that goes away by the brain works...

...Meanwhile, the sig- keep looking at the world with eyes clearly focused...

...paper Theology and Mathematics in the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum August 2000 Ladislaus Lukacs, S.J., and Giuseppe Cosentino Translated and edited with an introduction by R Proportionalism: for & against Frederick A. Homann, S.J...

...groups, the Autism Resource Konnection and Unlocking Some observers have expressed doubts about the nature Autism...

...Charlie's presence at the redolent of loving relationships, in whose absence there can rally was not a protest but a witness to hope...

...Yet we have seen the gift of attentivetic people will achieve a degree of independence) and as a ness blossom both in Charlie and in the young people with measure of our commitment to social justice for those strug- whom he learns: even his fast-talking, somewhat hyperactive gling with disabilities...

...We located a Burning talented therapist and recruited five students from nearby colleges whose academic interests included psychology and There is a hidden kind communication disorders...

...he Anne Porter also takes megavitamins and other nutritional supplements...

...The principal themes are: prayer as a key element in survival, arrest and 1945, another war classic of the caliber of The Red Badge of trial procedures, the experience of suffering, Mass, the daily order of prison life, Courage or All Quiet on the Western Front...

...A year ago we could scarcely have dreamed cases of autism requiring aggressive interventions are all that he would have come this far...

...The conference proceedings include these keynote speeches, as well as seventy-eight other presentations made on this important occasion...

...cheese, eggs, soy sauce, and sugar, and put Charlie on a diet free of gluten and casein (which contain proteins that some individuals with autism cannot break down properly...

...Following a training workshop, Of humble goodness they began working with Charlie, teaching him through That I love in others repetitive drills to identify different objects, imitate sounds, color and draw, eat new foods, and take medicine...

...Clara Park and her husband had three other Drawing on her nonautistic children and knew themselves well enough to experience as a teacher dismiss Bettelheim's claims...

...From the time he was ten months old, he "read" all Hoffman plays an autistic savant whose gift for "card-countthe books Kristina had set up as his "library...

...searchers at London's Royal Free cians may invoke to soften the and University College Medical diagnostic blow to parents...

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...We were to learn that even the most firmdelays in speech, repetitive or ritualized behaviors, and es- ly established facts about autism are not widely known...

...Many more appointments followed with an audiologist cate with us and others...

...Charlie nificant increase in new cases means that virtually every continues to face tremendous challenges, particularly in the school district in the nation must confront autism, a daunting realm of speech, but he has joined a cohort of autistic people challenge since each child is unique and educational plans who are reshaping the contours of this affliction...

...William M. Thompson & David L. Morse, eds...

...A believe that the alarming chairman, Indiana Republican growing number of children number o f autism cases Dan Burton, has an autistic threewho do not necessarily meet cannot be attributed year-old grandson...

...Children in ABA THE CROSSROAD PUBLISHING COMPANY programs learn that they can attend to a task even if they do 481 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1550, New York, NY 10001 not fully understand why they must...

...In the months following Charlie's diagnosis, Kristina 481 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1550, New York, NY 10001 and I plunged into the vast literature of autism and discov- At your bookstore or call 1-800-395-0690...

...He gives us be no real understanding of this condition...

...Fortunately, Charlie, the child of Chinese and Irish American parents, has always had a huge appetite for rice and is acquiring one for potatoes...

...Most autistic people are deemed 'cluster"-one in 150 children between the ages of three mentally retarded, though delays in the development of ver- and ten were affected by a range of autism disorders...

...forced labor, ministry to other prisoners, guards, prisoners who became Jesuits ISBN 0-940866-85-4/ $27.95 paper while imprisoned, community in prison, and voluntary incarceration...

...It is that complicated an illness...

...each sound, with each word learned, Charlie takes one more We had our own questions, but the information folder step into the world...

...An autistic child who stares endlessly at a spot of paint is nation's capital this past April 8 at the "Hear Their Silence" very likely seeking a still point amid the sensory jumble autism awareness rally sponsored by two parents' advocacy ceaselessly bombarding him...

...More and more parents tic children in London, also published in Lancet (June 1999), of autistic children and medical researchers believe that the found no link between autism and the MMR vaccine...

...Joseph Quinn, S.J...

...Conflicting testimony tal Disorder-Not Otherwise or a broadening about the possible vaccine conSpecified (PDD-NOS), an often nection was presented by two revague label that some clini- 0 iagnostic categories...

...v Christopher Kaczor, editor Marquette Studies in Philosophy #19 Church, Culture & Curriculum makes available, for the first tune in R English translation, seminal essays by Ladislaus Lukacs and T i Giuseppe Cosentino on the Ratio Studiorum, that renowned study plan of the Society ISBN 0-87462-618-8/ $50.00/ 495pp...

...Every own criteria for providing legally mandated "appropriate" minute of Charlie's, and of our, day is spent teaching him to education for children with disabilities...

...autishas made heartening progress in his struggle to communi- tic...

...by food intolerances, weak immune systems in young chil- The search for a means to put together the disparate pieces dren, or exposure to environmental toxins...

...We know that he, and we, are still and with speech pathologists and psychologists...

...Ignatius to the Present Listen to the Voices from the Sea (Kike Wodatsumi no Koe) The hook provides an account of many Jesuits, from the time of St...

...With the help of students who in the Catholic school lived in their home, the Parks diligently worked to keep system, a former nun, their daughter Jessy engaged with the world...

...Bernard Rimland, director of the Autism Research Institute and a steadfast advocate for families with autistic children, 0-8245-2356-3 $19.95 hardcover noted that many of the harmful dogmas surrounding autism stood unchallenged until the mothers of autistic people spoke THE CROSSROAD PUBLISHING COMPANY out...

...It Commonweal 15 September 8, 2000 less prognosis-we created an intensive home-based program of individualized teaching and learning...

...With and Barney...

...esuit Education 21: ISBN 0-940866-81-1/ $24.95 cloth Conference Proceedings on the ISBN 0-940866-82-X/ $19.95 paper Future of Jesuit Higher Education www.scrantonpress.com Edited by Martin R. Tripole,S.J...

...Just this past April, other researchers announced the Giuseppe Roncalli was discovery of four brain proteins found at abnormally high only expected to stage levels in newborn infants later diagnosed as autistic or men- a transitional papacy...

...equality, Joanna Many parents have found that intensive, highly structured Manning powerfully articuearly intervention can provide the best outcome for an autis- lates how John Paul II's current views on women tic child...

...A childnear the beginning of a very long road to help him learn development clinic diagnosed Charlie with autism that July and grow through constant work, faith, and love...

...Char- example, the "savant" abilities often popularly associated lie was late to roll over, sit by himself, walk (he did not crawl with autism are found in only a small percentage of cases (in but scooted around in a sitting position, propelled by his the Academy Award-winning 1988 film Rain Man, Dustin hands...