United we are stronger than any label

The entire disability community owes the Blind Community recognition for making the world aware of the problem of access to technology. I whole heatedly agree about blind access.

I am making the point that the bigotry experienced against the interests of people seen as feeble minded, crazy or demented is huge and exists within the disability advocacy community itself. None of us is any more important in this work than any other of us.

There is something unusually positive about looking at access for people with brain related disabilities. There is an irony about how detailed observations made by blind people. When, as a sighted person, I recognize that irony I understand much more than I did before. Reading braille is incomprehensible to me but ordinary for the average blind person. Similar things exist for people with brain related disability.

I have a learning disability. I kept my condition secrete for 23 years and worked in the mental retardation profession as a trainer. When I announced my disability I was ostracized from my profession.

Ironically, I am grateful for the experience. I always suspected this sort of reaction but until it actually happened it was just theoretical. I did not change when I announced my disability. The perception of me changed. I have a unique opportunity to teach about common perceptions as a result and I am grateful for that.

The word Retard is still an acceptable pejorative term in our society. The blind beggar with a tin cup is no longer a common image in the American mind but it certainly was at one time. Blind people have lead the way in the changing of attitudes and every other disability has benefited from that.

The same will be true for people with mental retardation. Ronald Reagan is still alive and he has a profound cognitive disability. He is a member of our community. James Brady became a member of our community as the result of an assassination attempt. Many of the great and exceptional people in human history have had disability. We should be a proud community. When we overcome our own biases we will be the proud community we deserve to be.

Many in our community joined because of war and the violence and hate that comes from fear. We know better than most the foolish nature of fear. When we gather together effectively with simple practical and ordinary goals we have nothing to fear and no reason to hate. Forgive the self indulgence. I am feeling like something important is going to happen for all of us very soon. Maybe it's just that it's Christmas time and I am grateful and deeply proud of the whole worldwide disability movement.

I am proud of the crazy, the retarded, the deaf and dumb, the cripples and the blinks for the PEOPLE they are, and their ability to forgive stupid children who insist on tagging them with labels and low expectations.

United we are stronger than any label.

Thanks, Don OCallaghan

 

LEADERS TEACH THAT YOU MUST GET YOUR LIFE IN GEAR AND REALLY GEAR-UP FOR MASSIVE ACTION ... TO HAVE YOUR DREAMS CHOME TRUE!

_______________________________________________________

LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE DIRECTION

STARTING IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

-----------------------------------------------

You can start anytime if you want to be successful. Your only true failure lies in the failure to start and your follow through.The reason why so little is ever done,is generally because so little is attempted.

The great thing is the start.To see an opportunity and to pursue it.Even though in the beginning, you're not totally sureof all the answers to your questions.

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.Don't wait to overcome all your possible objections,or nothing will ever be attempted.

If you can get up the courage to begin,you have the courage to succeed.

_______________________________________________________

PS: LEADERS TRAIN THAT DEFINING YOUR LIFE'S DIVINE PURPOSE WITH A HEARTFELT SCRIPTED VISION ... WILL NOT ONLY GET YOU STARTED BUT ALSO PROVIDE THE DESIRE FOR YOU TO HAVE IT ALL!

"If you wait until everything is perfect ... you will never get started!" ---Author: Rev. Billy Banks---

"Loneliness comes from the fear of not having your faith in the right place." ---Author: Pastor Ed Young---

"The time to get started and stay started is the same.. NOW!" ---Author: John C. Maxwell---

Where will your "do it now attitude" take you today?

***** ALWAYS REMEMBER *****"When we look for the love and greatness in others, we find it in ourselves!" Taylor Hegan

Have a GREAT day..from Eileen & Taylor

"Need A Customized Blueprint For A Successful Online Business? Write A Business Plan To Fast-Track Your Profits!"

==================================================

If you're serious about the success of your online business, then you need to find ways to give yourself every advantage you can over your competition. One strategy that I can almostGUARANTEE your competitors haven't tried is building customizedblueprints that outline exactly how their businesses will succeed.

The process of writing a business plan for your company can be a crucial step in getting your profits to where you wantthem to be.

If you're thinking, "But I'm just a one-person business working part-time out of my home... I don't need a business plan," think again! Unless you want your business to stay small and you want to keep your day job, you desperately need a business plan. It's one of the best ways to motivate yourself to DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

And if your business is still just an idea in your head, and you've been wondering for months how to get started, here's your answer: Start planning! Clear your schedule this weekend, print off this article, and get down to business!

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What's Your Purpose?

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A business plan can serve a couple of main purposes: In the world of banking and venture capital, business plans play a huge role for people who are trying to secure start-up funding from banks or investors. The better the business plan, the better the chances of landing that big initial investment.

For smaller companies, who (luckily) do not need to rely on outside funding to get started, a business plan serves more as a company blueprint. It identifies the company's purpose, products, market, and goals, as well as the steps the company plans to take to reach those goals.

So before you start writing, you'll need to decide what purpose your business plan is going to serve. If you're writing a formal business plan to secure financing, you'll need to be far more concerned about detail and format than if you're just preparing one for your own personal use.

No matter which approach you're taking, though, you need to know that there are 7 main sections that should be included in just about every business plan.

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Section 1: The Executive Summary

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The executive summary is basically your entire business plan condensed down into a page or two (at the most). If and when you show your business plan to others, this is the only part that 75% of them will actually read. For this reason, you need to MAKE THIS SECTION AS CLEAR, CONCISE, AND EXCITING as possible.

Your executive summary should contain a few key items. You'll want to start out with a brief description of exactly what your business does, who your market is, and what opportunity you've identified as the inspiration for your business. Explain what sets your company apart from others in the same field.

You'll also need to discuss financial information such as projected revenues and, if you'll be using this business plan to secure financing, how much money you need and what you will be using it for. Don't go into too much financial detail in this section. You'll just want to include the most important figures.

Also, be sure to MENTION YOUR COMPANY'S ACHIEVEMENTS, including all of the milestones reached to date. Even if all you've done so far is register a domain name, put together a web site, or file a patent application, be sure to include this information in this section of your business plan.

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Section 2: Description of Business

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This section will contain an in-depth description of your company, including what products or services you sell, who your customers are, what your operating structure is (Are you a wholesaler? A reseller? A manufacturer?), the legal details of your company (Is it a corporation? A partnership? A sole proprietorship?), and your distribution methods.

This is the section of your business plan where you will identify what makes your company unique and where you'll address the following questions:

- What are you offering that others aren't?

- What SETS YOU APART from your competitors?

- Why will people choose to do business with you instead of other players in the same marketplace?

If you've already been in business for awhile, you will also want to use this section to talk about the history of the company. Talk about what inspired you to start the company and how fast it is growing. Address the more concrete details as well, such as how much equipment you own or lease and where your office is located.

----------------------------

Section 3: Market Strategies

----------------------------

Think of this section as your marketing plan. This is where you'll want to go into detail regarding who your target market is and HOW YOU INTEND TO SELL TO THEM. This section will contain information about how big your audience is, how fast it is growing, and how large you expect your market share to be.

Some great sites where you can start this research are:

CyberAtlas -- http://cyberatlas.internet.com

Nua Internet Surveys -- http://www.nua.ie/surveys

MarketResearch.com -- http://www.marketresearch.com

In this section, you will also talk about how you intend to market your product or service to your target audience. Will you focus on pay-per-click search engine traffic? Banner advertising? E-zine sponsorships? How much do you expect to spend on advertising, and what sort of return do you expect from those advertising dollars?

Be sure to think carefully about which marketing strategies to include here. Don't just list off every single advertising technique you can think of. You need to realistically evaluate all the possibilities, and then focus on the two or three marketing techniques that will produce the biggest return on investment.

If you think this sounds like a lot of work just for a business plan, think again! This is the kind of legwork and research you should be doing anyway! And once you've figured out how much your marketing and advertising is going to cost, you can put together a schedule of how much you can afford to spend on various campaigns each month.

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Section 4: Competitive Analysis

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The competitive analysis section of your business plan is where you explain, in detail, the strengths and weaknesses of your main competitors. This will allow you to realistically determine where you can position your business in the market in relation to your competition.

Make sure to do an honest appraisal of who your competition is. If your site is selling board games, your main competition is NOT Toys 'R' Us.

Instead, your biggest competitors are other niche sites that focus on selling board games. These are the sites that you can realistically expect to compete with for customers interested in buying your products online.

Nevertheless, you should still pay attention to the "major players" in your competitive analysis. Take a look at how they are marketing to board game buyers, and what areas they are lacking in.

Based on your research, you should be able to capitalize on the weaknesses of others in your market space and SNATCH CUSTOMERS AWAY FROM THEM by positioning your offer to meet a need that everyone else is neglecting.

A great tool for doing competitive analysis is http://www.alexa.com, which allows you to discover how much traffic your competitors are getting in relation to your site and see who they are linking to. Compare your own traffic ranking to your competitors' traffic rankings in Alexa every month or so.

This way, you'll be able to GAUGE YOUR PROGRESS AGAINST YOUR COMPETITION. Spend some time getting familiar with this site --it will become an invaluable resource tool for you!

-------------------------------------------------------

Section 5: Development Plan and/or Operational Strategy

-------------------------------------------------------

If your company is still in the developmental stage (with no product and/or no revenues), this is the section where you will explain how you are going to bring your company into the marketplace. The best way to do this is to write out a development timeline with the projected completion dates for various milestones your company will need to reach before it can start making sales.

This is the section where YOU MUST PLAN TO PROFIT! Failing to do so is one of the most common mistakes made by businesses. All too often, people just set up shop without ever really planning exactly HOW they are going to become profitable!

If your business is already up and running, but is not currently generating a profit (if your revenues are not enough to cover your operating expenses), then this is where you will need to identify how you will make up the shortfall until you become profitable. For many home-based businesses, the difference is drawn from the owner's savings or income from another job.

Regardless of what stage you're at, you should still include a table of projected milestones for your business in this section. Estimate the month and year of the important milestones that you plan to achieve over the next 1 to 2 years. This not only looks great, it also reminds you of your goals every time you refer back to your plan.

---------------------

Section 6: Management

---------------------

This section is especially important if you are going to be using your business plan to secure funding. I canguarantee that after a prospective investor reads through your Executive Summary, they will flip directly to your Management section before reading anything else. They'll want to get a clear idea of "who" your company is -- after all, a business idea is only as good as the people behind it!

So this is where you introduce your management team or, if you are the only person involved in your business, explain why you are qualified to be running the company. Focus on your STRENGTHS AND ACHIEVEMENTS from your previous ventures or jobs, and explain in detail how those qualities transfer to your business.

Make sure to go into detail about what makes you uniquely qualified to operate this sort of business. What special skills do you bring to the company? How do your areas of expertise give you a distinct advantage over people operating similar companies?

If you have accountants, lawyers, or consultants advising you in an official (paid) capacity, you can mention their names, duties, and qualifications here as well. However, you need to be sure to get their permission before putting their names in your business plan.

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Section 7: Financials

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If you've had a chance to look through a few business plans before, you'll have noticed that the last half of these documents are filled with balance sheets, earnings projections, capital requirements, depreciation estimates, and dozens of other highly detailed financial statements.

Don't let all these numbers put you off! If you aren't going to be using your business plan to solicit capital from outside sources, you won't need 90% of this stuff. Instead, focus on your monthly income and monthly expenses. The best way to do this is to put together a simple 12-month cash flow forecast.

HERE'S HOW TO DO IT:

First, estimate how much your business will earn on a monthly basis. Include all your sales, cash you'll be drawing from your savings, or money your business has been loaned. This is your "Total Cash In."

Next, determine what your monthly expenses will be. This should include things like advertising costs, office expenses like phone bills and stationery, the cost of your inventory, equipment purchases, loan repayments, as well as whatever cash you'll be drawing out of the business for your personal living expenses. This will be your "Total Cash Out."

Now, simply subtract your "Total Cash Out" from your "Total Cash In" to get your monthly "Net Cash Flow." If you see that your Net Cash Flow is a negative number, you're losing money!

If that number stays negative for the entire 12 months, you're going to need to re-evaluate your business plan... and figure out a way to increase sales or decrease expenses!

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can see why it is so important to be honest with yourself when writing your business plan! If you exaggerate the sales you think you'll bring in, your whole business model will be damaged when those sales don't materialize. So much for that hefty advertising budget you planned, as well as the generous salary you hoped to pay yourself!

-----------------------------

Do-It-Yourself vs. Hiring Out

-----------------------------

If you are going to be using your business plan as a tool to attract capital from banks or investors, then your business plan will need to be MUCH more detailed than if you are preparing it for personal use. If you need some extra help preparing a highly detailed plan, you have a few choices. You can:

1) Hire a professional business plan consultant to work with you,

2) Hire an accountant to help you prepare the "Financials" section of your business plan, or

3) Purchase a full-featured business plan software program.

If you do decide to have a professional write your business plan for you, be aware that the costs vary tremendously! A basic 15-page business plan could cost you anywhere between $500 and $5,000, depending on who you hire.

(A detailed business plan, which can often exceed 100 pages, can easily cost as much as $25,000 -- but these are for companies looking for millions of dollars of start-up capital.)

To locate someone to write your business plan for you, just type "business plans" into any search engine -- you'll find tons of companies that specialize in this sort of thing.

You can also have professional writers bid on your business plan project at http://www.elance.com. The going rate for a business plan here seems to be between $750 and $1,500.

There are quite a few business plan software programs out there. One of the best seems to be Business Plan Pro 2003, available at http://www.bplans.com for $99.95. Other options are PlanWrite, located at http://www.brs-inc.com/pwrite.html for $129.95 and BizPlan Builder, priced at $99.99, at http://www.jian.com .

If you are running a one- or two-person company out of your home or small office, you probably won't need to hire a professional to work on your business plan. This option is really more for people who will be using their business plans to attract investors or secure bank loans. Most small business owners should be able to write their business plans themselves.

And unless you are going to be trying to land big investors, I really don't recommend hiring a professional to write your business plan for you. You'll LEARN SO MUCH ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS and your competitors by doing it yourself that it would be a shame to let someone else go through the process for you!

------------------------

Business Plan Resources:

------------------------

I've hand-picked a few of my FAVORITE ONLINE BUSINESS PLAN RESOURCES to share with those readers who might be looking for additional information:

- THE UNITED STATES SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (SBA) has an excellent resource online that provides a tutorial to help you write your business plan. Their site also contains all the information you'll need if you plan on trying to get a SBA loan or grant. Check them out at: http://www.sba.gov/starting/indexbusplans.html

- THE YAHOO! SMALL BUSINESS CENTER has a good section about business plans at: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/business_plans.html

- THE ANNUAL MOOT CORP COMPETITION challenges top MBAs from around the world to submit their business plans to be evaluated by a panel of investors. The winning entries from the past few years are online at: http://www.businessplans.org/MootCorp.html

- PALO ALTO SOFTWARE has developed a program called Business Plan Pro 2003 (priced at $99.95) that will walk you through the creation of your own business plan. But even if you aren't interested in their software, check out their site at http://www.bplans.com for a huge archive of sample business plans that you can read for no charge.

You can also find a wealth of information about business plans at your local library or bookstore. The Business section will have tons of books explaining how to write business plans, as well as books with hundreds of sample business plans for you to look at.

---------------

Final Thoughts:

---------------

Once you've written your business plan, you'll be amazed at how often you refer to it. It will become your "battle plan," as well as the tool you'll use to measure HOW CLOSE YOU ARE TO MEETING YOUR GOALS -- or by how much you're surpassing them!

You can even show your business plan to prospective joint venture partners, potential employees, or advertisers. Believe me, a professional-looking business plan will giveyou a TON of credibility simply because most businesses never take the time to prepare one.

If you're thinking about starting a business, but you're not quite sure how, writing out a business plan can be a great way to get things moving. It's also a great way to evaluate how good that idea of yours really is.

For many people, the process of writing a business plan shows them that their business can MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY than they originally thought! Now that's motivation!

If you're already running an online business, the process of writing a business plan can help you decide exactly what aspects of your business are succeeding and which areas could be improved upon. When you do an in-depth analysis of your marketplace, your customers, and your competitors, you'll be amazed by how much you can learn!

And be sure to make your business plan a perpetual "work in progress." Go back and review it every three months, and make changes where necessary. If your sales are twice what you expected, go back and update the figures in your business plan. This ensures that your map to profitability is always right up to date.

___________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly successful online businesses that attract more than 1.8million visitors monthly and generate over $6.6 million each year. He is also the author of the #1 best-selling Internet Marketing course online. To check out his site that's JAM-PACKED WITH THE EXACT INFORMATION YOU NEED to start, build, and grow your very own profitable Internet business, I highly recommend visiting http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html This guy really knows what he's talking about

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[CAN-Alert] NY times - A Boy, A Mother, and a Rare Map of Autism's World

November 19, 2002

A Boy, a Mother and a Rare Map of Autism's World By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

LOS ANGELES ‹ Tito Mukhopadhyay sits in a darkened laboratory, pointingat flashes of light on a computer screen. On his right is a neuroscientist, one of several who are testing Tito's ability to see,hear and feel touch. At his left, Tito's mother, Soma, watches quietly.

Tito, who is 14, often stops the testing with bursts of activity. His bodyrocks rhythmically. He stands and spins. He makes loud smacking noises.His arms fly in the air as if yanked by a puppeteer. His fingers flutter.

Everyone waits.

Tito reaches for a yellow pad and writes to explain his behavior: "I amcalming myself. My senses are so disconnected, I lose my body. So I flap. IfI don't do this, I feel scattered and anxious."

Tito has severe autism, a disorder that occurs when the brain mysteriouslyfails to develop normally in infancy and early childhood.

Born and raised in India, Tito speaks English with a huge vocabulary. Hisarticulation is poor, and he is often hard to understand. But he writeseloquently and independently, on pads or his laptop, about what it feelslike to be locked inside an autistic body and mind.

"Tito is a window into autism such as the world has never seen," said PortiaIversen, a co-founder of Cure Autism Now, a Los Angeles researchfoundation that brought Tito and Soma to the United States in July 2001 andcontinues to support them.

Autism experts are studying him, amazed to discover, for what they say isthe first time, a severely autistic person who can explain his disorder."Tito is for real," said Dr. Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist at theUniversity of California at San Francisco Medical School, who has runextensive tests on Tito. "He unhesitatingly responds to factual questionsabout books that he has read or about experiences that he has had in detailand in high fidelity."

"I've seen Tito sit in front of an audience of scientists and take questionsfrom the floor," said Dr. Matthew Belmonte, a neuroscientist and anautism expert at Cambridge University. "He taps out intelligent, wittyanswers on a laptop with a voice synthesizer. No one is touching him. Hecommunicates on his own."

Nor is Tito a savant, an autistic person with a single extraordinary talentlike the mathematically gifted character in the movie "Rain Man."

"Tito thinks and feels and has opinions like all the rest of us," said Dr.Samuel Smithyman, a psychologist in Los Angeles who is Tito's personalanalyst. "He defies the assumptions we have about autism."

Tito was assessed with well-validated diagnostic tests and meets all thecriteria for autism, said Dr. Sarah Spence, a pediatric neurologist at theUniversity of California at Los Angeles.

Like many autistic children, Tito appeared to develop normally. He learnedto sit and walk like other babies. But by the time he was 18 months old,he was showing signs that he was not like other toddlers, especially in theway he distanced himself from social settings and did not talk.

After his severe autism was diagnosed at age 3, Soma decided to educate himanyway, using methods she would make up as she went along.

"I saw that Tito had very good memory with roads, position of objects in theroom, and also he would make complex patterns with match sticks,"said Soma, as she prefers to be called. "I just wanted to divert hisinterests toward communication and learning."

For 10 years, she and Tito lived in small apartments in Mysore andBangalore, where she taught him, day and night. Although Tito wanted to hidein a corner and watch a ceiling fan, Soma took him for daily walks amid thecolors, smells and sounds of local markets.

Tito's father, who lived and worked in a distant city, visited occasionally.

Soma first taught Tito to recognize letters and sounds on an alphabet board,choosing English over more difficult Indian dialects. Then she tied apencil in his hand and showed him how to make each letter, often refusing tolet him eat until he could do so.

Around then, a method called facilitated communication, in which a parent orteacher holds the wrist of an autistic person as he or she tapsmessages on computer keys, had been widely discredited. Critics saidteachers were prompting autistic people to respond through a kind of Ouijaboard effect.

"I was desperate to show people that Tito's poems came from him and not me,"Soma said. "I put myself in other people's shoes and knew weneeded genuine proof that he could write independently."

The mother also read Tito stories and books ‹ Aesop's fables, Thomas Hardynovels and the complete works of Dickens and Shakespeare ‹ anddemanded that he write his own stories in return. Tito continues to writepoetry and essays every day. His first book, "Beyond the Silence," waspublished two years ago in Britain by the National Autistic Society.

"I need to write," he said recently, scrawling the words on a yellow pad."It has become part of me. I am waiting to get famous."

Since traveling to the United States, Tito has visited six laboratories forneurological testing. Because he cannot hold still long enough for brainimaging, he cannot offer researchers pictures of his mind in action.Instead, he gives them clues about his mental states in poems and essaysthat can then be explored in specially created tests.

"When I was 4 or 5 years old," he wrote while living in India, "I hardlyrealized that I had a body except when I was hungry or when I realizedthat I was standing under the shower and my body got wet. I needed constantmovement, which made me get the feeling of my body. Themovement can be of a rotating type or just flapping of my hands. Everymovement is a proof that I exist. I exist because I can move."

Tito seems to lack a sense of his own body, the kind of internal map, Dr.Merzenich said, that normal children develop in their first few years. Themaps involve brain regions that specialize in the sense of touch andmovement and are widely connected to other areas, and they are highlydynamic throughout life, changing in response to everyday experience.

By imaging the brains of higher functioning autistic people who can staystill in scanners, researchers in the laboratory of Dr. Eric Courchesne atthe University of California at San Diego found that autistic people hadmixed-up brain maps.

Although a normal person, for example, has a well-defined brain area thatspecializes in face recognition, some autistic people haveface-recognition areas in parts of the brain like the frontal lobes, whereno one had dreamed they could be laid down. The same is true of maps thathelp plan movements. This means body maps are formed in autistic children,but they may be scrambled differently in each person.

In imaging experiments starting at the University of California at SanFrancisco, Dr. David McGonigle, a radiologist, is exploring the hypothesisthat some autistic children may have scrambled body maps. Many cannotidentify parts of their bodies in a mirror. Even if they know "nose," forexample, when asked to point at the nose they may put a finger to an ear.They also tend to be clumsy. With eyes closed while standing, theywobble and stagger.

Ms. Iversen, whose 10-year-old son, Dov, is severely autistic, notes thatmaps for face recognition form early. "I smile, you smile, and maps areformed," she said. But if you do not have a faithful mental map of your ownface and body, she said, you cannot read the _expression on someoneelse's face.

The inability to interact socially is a core problem in autism. People wholack normal body maps may not be able to build consistent mental modelsof the world, Dr. Belmonte said. They may not be able to integrate sights,sounds, smells, touches and tastes. This is what Tito is talking aboutwhen he writes that he cannot perceive the world with more than one sense ata time.

"I can concentrate either at what I am seeing or what I am hearing or what Iam smelling," he wrote, not long after he began meeting neurologists."It felt nothing unnatural to me until I realized that others couldsimultaneously see and hear and smell."

In Dr. Merzenich's lab, Tito has had extensive testing to explore hisunusual perception. Sitting in a darkened room, he listens to beeps followedby flashes of light on a computer screen.

Most people can sense the sound and the light, even when they are separatedby only a fraction of a second. But unless the light follows the soundby a full three seconds ‹ an eternity for most brains ‹ Tito never sees it."I need time to prepare my ears," he told Dr. Merzenich. "I need timeto prepare my eyes. Otherwise the world is chaos."

Tito says that people with autism, at least those who are like him, chooseone sensory channel. He chose hearing. Most of the time, Tito attends tothe sounds of language and to oral information, which may help explain hisgift for poetry. Vision, Tito said, is painful. He scans the world withhis peripheral vision and rarely looks directly at anything.

Other autistic people like Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado Statewho earned a doctorate in animal science, specializes in vision. "WhenI talk about anything new, I have to look at the picture in my mind, andthen language narrates it like a slide show." Dr. Grandin said when she metTito in Dr. Merzenich's lab, where they were tested side by side inSeptember.

For Tito, willing his body to do things is a particular problem, Soma said."If he's sitting on the couch and I ask him to go to the kitchen, he cannotdo it," she added. "But if he hears me open a bag of cookies, he moves likea gazelle on pure impulse."

That is another sign that Tito's brain is disconnected, Dr. Merzenich said.Children gradually develop higher circuits to control their impulses asthe frontal lobes mature and connect to circuits that developed earlier.Each stage rests on earlier circuitry; if that is abnormal, later-to-developregions may never be organized correctly.

Still, Tito's behavior and writings dispel a popular notion that autisticchildren do not feel empathy, Ms. Iversen said. Tito has feelings andnotices emotions, she said, but he can be stoic about his disorder. When a mother ata large autism meeting asked Tito for his advice to parents, Titoreplied simply, "Believe in your children."

Most experts say they believe that abnormalities in several genes contributeto developing autism, along with environmental factors that have yet tobe fully identified. Many parents say the first symptoms, like the lack ofeye contact, as in Tito's case, do not appear for about 18 months.

This accident of timing has led some to associate vaccines given at that agewith the onset of autism. But it is equally plausible, many experts say,that the symptoms appear at that time because that is when the brainnaturally reaches new levels of complexity. If primary sensory regions likethe auditory cortex have prenatal defects, entire pathways of subsequent brainorganization would not form properly.

Researchers have measured swarms of electrical discharges in the primaryhearing regions of autistic children while they sleep. Such epilepsy-likeactivity may affect the way the brain organizes its circuitry in childhood.

Others note that the brains of autistic children are larger than average andthat the brain's basic building blocks, called cortical columns, containmany more cells than normal and make excess connections to other cells.

Such hyperconnectivity may cause autistic children to become overwhelmed bydetails because their minds are never free to integrate the wholepicture. Moreover, their brains are wired in such a way that they are proneto associate things that do not normally go together.

Tito says that at 4, he was looking at a cloud when he heard someone talkingabout bananas. It took him years to realize that bananas and cloudswere different.

As researchers continue to study Tito, Soma works with a small number ofchildren in Los Angeles to see whether her teaching methods can helpothers.

Unlike many educators who try to slow things for autistic children, Somademands rapid responses, which she says prevent the child's brain frombeing distracted.

It is too soon to tell whether she will succeed. But parents like Ms.Iversen have been impressed. When her son first used the spelling board, Dovbroke his muteness, asking for a navy blue blazer and algebra lessons. Whenshe asked him what he had been doing all those years when he couldn'tcommunicate, he pointed out letters to spell "listening."

Copyright The New York Times Company
 

GIVE THE GIFT OF ACCEPTANCE

© Rhoberta Shaler, PhD www.OptimizeLifeNow.com

Are you looking forward to visiting with your family this holidayseason? Most folks do. That's why the travel industry is busiestnow. Do you have great expectations about how the holiday willgo? About how folks will be? Most folks do.

The strange thing is, though, that many folks expect the holidayvisits with family to be different than they've been in the past.If you are among the lucky folks, you have learned the greatlesson of holiday visits. Do you know what that is?

ACCEPTANCE.

We cannot change other people and we all know that. The onlyperson we can change is ourselves. So, have you changed since lastyear? Do you want others to notice and to accept you in this 'newyou' form? Would it be just perfect if folks were interested inwhat you have done and made no remarks about what you 'should'have done? Would it warm your heart if they simply asked you ifyou were happy? If they simply accepted your reasons for doingwhat you're doing or for what you have done. Of course, it would.

This is ACCEPTANCE.

It may not be approval. That is something different. It is notnecessarily condoning behavior. It is simply accepting it withoutjudgment.

Now, let's turn the tables and see how it works from your side.Are you willing to accept and be glad that Uncle Jim always nodsoff right after dinner? Can you be glad that the children aremaking happy noises no matter how loud they are? Would you bepleased for the good fortunes of others and express your pleasure?Can you pay attention to only the things about people and placesthat you like and comment on those alone?

Would you release your judgments about how the holiday 'should' beand accept it the way it is? Will you do your part to make it thebest holiday to date? Will you accept the love of the people inyour life, no matter what form it comes in?

This is ACCEPTANCE.

Ready to go one step further? Accept yourself just as you are andunhook yourself from unrealistic expectations , too. There is noone way you are 'supposed' to be. You are a work in progress.Balancing, not balanced. Perfectly imperfect. With the gift oflove and acceptance to give.

If each one of us would hold this thought and give that giftfreely throughout this holiday season, it just might become ahabit and we could heal our world a little bit faster, and, ourfamilies, too.

This season, when you reach out and touch somebody's hand, lookinto their eyes and let them know that you accept them just theway they are. There's no better gift. Try it in your own mirrorfirst!

© Rhoberta Shaler, PhD All rights reserved.

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Rhoberta Shaler, PhD, speaks, coaches & conducts seminars for individuals & organizations who want the motivation & strategiesto achieve, to lead & to live richly.

Dr. Shaler is the author of 'Optimize Your Day! Practical Wisdomfor Optimal Living’ & host of the weekly Living Richly™ Program onwww.wsRadio.ws Her books, tapes & free ezines are available foryou right now at www.OptimizeLifeNow.com .

For permission to reprint this article, please contactmailto:Jane@OptimizeLifeNow.com
 

2nd Annual Immersion Learning about Self Determination

The 2nd annual Immersion Learning about Self-Determination will be held in Las Vegas at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, March 30 - April 3, 2003. Below is the link--and for some of you, the flier will also appear below. It will be possible to register on-line and pay on-line via PayPal. More comprehensive promotional materials are being developed, but people can mark their calendars now!

Immersion Learning Flyer
 

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