Signs of Spring

Hey everybody!

It's spring!
— and you know what that means —
The grass grows tall and then — well, you know the rest — Spring is when...


hummingbirds sip, dart and dip
bees hum, strum and drum,
snakes glide, slip and slide,
caterpillars lunch, crunch and munch,

But I bet you didn't know that we not only grow our own caterpillars — we make them!








A sure sign of spring: Ben turned five today (May 8). And he was serenaded to twice! — by Ms Forbis and Ms Paula.





Like Ben, we learn as we grow. Today, we learned the fist bump – another way to say hello. It's like a handshake or high five. And everybody knows that a fist bump and a song help us to pull together as a team.

And sometimes it takes a team to get things done; like this super-team below who recently came together to share cutting-edge issues in medical and clinical autism research.

Springtime for a cure?
In 1938, Donald Triplett of Forest, Mississippi, was the first child diagnosed with autism. Today, some form of autism affects one in every 110 American children – and nobody knows why. Recently (May 11), I saw the most interesting discussion I've ever seen on the subject – the Charlie Rose "Brain Series 2 - episode 6". Charlie brought together a panel of five leaders in autism research to examine the very latest developments (http://www.charlierose.com/).
Here are just some of the questions discussed…

• What is the biology and instance of autism?
• What is the instance of autism in children of parents who are older?
• What is the living experience of autism in children and adults?
• How are autistic children and adults like/unlike "normal" children and adults?
• What is the new "Theory of the Mind"?
• What role do genes play in autism?
• Is the William Syndrome autism's opposite?
• Can an autistic child develop increased ability over time?
• Are parents justified in feeling guilt for "bad parenting" or "passing along bad genes" as being causes of autism in their child?


• Charlie Rose: American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993. A new one-hour episode airs nearly every weeknight.
• Eric R. Kandel: Columbia University professor, senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Alison Singer: Co-Founder and President of the Autism Science Foundation, mother of a daughter with autism, legal guardian of her adult brother with autism, graduated from Yale and Harvard.
• Uta Frith: Leading developmental psychologist working at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, pioneered much of the current research in autism and dyslexia, author of "Autism: Explaining the Enigma".
• Gerald Fischbach: Executive V.P. for Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.
• Matthew State: Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Director of Yale Neurogenetics Program. Pioneer in the molecular genetics of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and Tourette’s Syndrome.