Greetings Everyone -

I apologize in the delay in sending out a newsletter. Both my kids and I have been sick for over a week now with coughs and runny noses. I am not sure at this point when I will send Matthew back since he is coughing and laying down much of the day. Nicholas did some school work today and not feeling very well.


For those that reside in the United States I wanted to give you ample notice to watch Thursday's Larry King Live Show on CNN. The topic will be on autism.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/

Jason Mc Elwain will be there - he is the teenager who became a basketball superstar a few years ago. Also slated for the show are Holly Robinson Peete, Doug Flutie and Toni Braxton.

You can send an email question or a video email in hopes of it being read on air and answered. THURSDAY IS VALENTINE'S DAY. SET your TIVO, DVR, etc in case you have plans. The show airs at 9pm ET live (6 pm PT live) and again at 9 pm PT. The station is CNN.

Also last week a family with six kids on the spectrum in Utah was profiled on Good Morning America. GMA had seen the family in an issue of People. Here is the story:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/story?id=4245377&page=1

The family has a website and blog, which are listed in the article.

Another family developed a website that has free software for children who want to use the computer, but do not know how to use a mouse:

http://www.hiyah.net/

I also wanted to share that a few weeks ago I braved going out in public with the skin flareups on my face to attend a LAUSD CAC meeting to hear Emily Iland speak about autism. It was a wonderful presentation with great insights from her family experience with a college son on the spectrum. I bought the book she wrote along with her sister Barbara Doyle - "Autism Spectrum Disorders from A to Z" in English for myself and the Spanish edition for a family whose son has been a classmate of Matthew's for many years.

Their website is chock full of information in spanish and english - http://www.asdatoz.com

A review of the book and Emily's presentation will be forthcoming - once I find the time to read the book.

I am searching around CafePress for some autism awareness items for April and to showcase in a future article. I have listened to a CD entitled, "Ready to Learn - Songs for School Success" a few times in the last week and will be reviewing that in the days ahead - once we are all feeling better.

For the past month I have endured my yearly skin flareup that has left me very despondent. Nicholas says my face looks terrible, and he is right. Each day it seems to get worse with no end in sight. Thankfully there are some great Rosacea forums out there for support and compassion. They understand when you are just so tired of life. The autism community knows what it is like to explore supplements, diets and devour books to try to get to the root of the disorder. It seems skin conditions and autism have a lot in common, yeast and gut issues. Somedays I am scared to put anything on my face and not sure what to eat, but I need the energy to care for two kids on the autism spectrum.

Please bare with me as I try to get back on track with a sick family and a skin condition from hell that has taken my eyebrows and eyelashes!!


Please visit http://AutismSpectrumDisorders.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Autism Spectrum Disorders.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Autism Spectrum Disorders located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=365

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Bonnie Sayers, Autism Spectrum Disorders Editor
http://AutismSpectrumDisorders.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com