Posted: 16 Nov 2010 11:03 AM PST

Posted on Tue, Nov. 16, 2010

At 8 p.m. Saturday, Southwest Airlines Flight 2149 was poised to push back from the gate. Flight attendants gave fasten-seat-belt instructions, and First Officer Peter Hayes announced, "There's 25 minutes of flight time until we touch down in Philadelphia."

Capt. Todd Siems said the Boeing airliner was cruising at 37,000 feet. And after he turned off the seat-belt sign, the young passengers were served complimentary Sprite, cranberry-apple juice, and airplane-shaped crackers.

Flight 2149 never left the gate at Philadelphia International Airport, though. It was no ordinary flight, but rather a practice for children with autism and their families to become familiar with travel at the airport - bags, getting boarding passes, going through security, waiting at the gate, and sitting on the plane to experience the lights and sounds.

"I'm going to China, but we won't really," said an imaginative Gena Catanese, 5, of North Wales, accompanied by her parents and her sisters, Isabella, 6, and Emma, 3.

Just 18 months ago, Gena had a traumatic travel experience on vacation in Orlando, Fla. She expected to preboard the plane with her family, but the protocol was she could preboard only with one parent.

Gena became agitated and "overstimulated," said her mother, Melanie Catanese. "There was no way she was able to fly home that day."

After receiving a frantic call, Gena's pediatrician, Wendy Ross, at Albert Einstein Medical Center, phoned and faxed letters to the Orlando airport.

"I thought, 'This can never happen to one of my families again,' " said Ross, who sees children with learning disabilities, mental retardation, autism, and attention-deficit disorder. "Gena was saying she would never fly again. It was heartbreaking."

So Ross contacted Philadelphia airport and Rick Dempsey, head of the airport's Americans With Disabilities Act review committee.

"She wanted to bring a simulated airport experience for children with autism and their families," Dempsey said. "The committee thought it was a great idea. The [Transportation Security Administration] bought into it. We even got an airline, Southwest, to buy into the idea."

Since then, there have been three "mock" flights.

"We asked the crews if they would mind sticking around for 30 to 40 minutes and go through a mock turnaround on a flight, as if we were flying somewhere," said John Minor, Southwest's station manager here.

"We let them know that autistic children are very literal, so we don't want to say, 'We're flying to Disneyland,' " Minor said. "We just say, 'This is a test run.' "

Frontier Airlines plans a simulated flight for autistic children Dec. 11; US Airways Group has one planned for January. British Airways also has expressed interest.

In the spring, Ross trained 130 airport and airline employees on autism, which is diagnosed in one in 100 children annually.

"It's not something you outgrow, but if you get really good therapy, you can cope better, compensate better," Ross said. "My concern is that so many families do not go out into the community. It's unrealistic to think that these kids are going to be employable one day if they are not comfortable being in community venues as they grow up."

Ross went to Einstein four years ago from Children's Hospital in Boston and teamed up with psychologists, a speech and language pathologist, and occupational therapist Roger Ideishi from University of the Sciences to start programs for autistic children at the Please Touch Museum, Garden State Discovery Museum, Adventure Aquarium, and the Academy of Natural Sciences.

"Currently, we are consulting with the Smithsonian," she said.

Autistic children have difficulty with communication and socialization, and oversensitivity to sensory information and transition, Ross said. "New or unexpected things that have lights, sounds, movement can make them more likely to get upset or have a tantrum."

Her goal is to expand Philadelphia's program to airports nationwide, "everything from curb to cabin and back."

Sabra Townsend, whose son Brandon, 13, is autistic and was on the latest pretend flight, is part of a volunteer-run community-support group (Autism, Sharing & Parenting) that meets monthly at, alternately, the Center for Autism on Ford Road in Philadelphia and Community Behavioral Health, at Eighth and Market.

Townsend is helping Ross compile a list of families interested in practice flights. For information, call Einstein's department of developmental pediatrics at 215-456-6083.

After Saturday's training, Sheila and Derek Green of East Mount Airy said their son, Julian, 9, was ready to fly to Walt Disney World.

"He'll completely get it the next time he gets on an airplane," Sheila Green said. "We're going to Disney World as soon as possible!"

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Child with autism connects with Kinect - msnbc.com

Posted: 11 Nov 2010 04:17 PM PST

John Yan reviews games for a site called Gaming Nexus, so despite his initial lack of enthusiasm in the Xbox 360 Kinect motion controller, he knew he'd have to buy one when they came out. After all, it wouldn't be fair to dump all the Kinect reviews on his fellow writer, Chuck.

So last weekend, John and his four-year-old son Kyle went to Target to pick one up. Kyle is autistic, and has had trouble with video games, but his dad says that he always wants to try, and to keep practicing despite the potential for frustration. The controller is a barrier for Kyle. It's hard for him to master the complicated (and seemingly unrelated) button combinations required by traditional game consoles.

So when the Kinect was set up and the included title, Kinect Adventures, was loaded up, Kyle asked to give it a try. "What proceeded to happen was pretty amazing," John wrote on his site.

Playing a ball game, Kyle "jumped around and flailed his arms and legs in trying to punch the balls back to the blocks." When the game ended, John got an additional surprise: with just a little initial instruction, Kyle could navigate the game's menus like it was second nature.

When I called John for an interview, he told me that Kyle didn't have a severe case. "We're fortunate that he expresses some emotions," said John. But the family still faces challenges. "His issue is communication and comprehension. He didn't start talking until very late."

John tells me that he's thrilled when he experiences any breakthrough with Kyle, such as when they're riding in a car and Kyle explains the difference between two objects or concepts, or explains his motivations, why he does or doesn't want to do something. "You really pay special attention to any small signs of progress," John wrote.

So the breakthrough with the Kinect was particularly touching, especially after having tried with the Wii, with less successful results. "We tried a couple of games, especially racing games like Mario Kart, but he'd just get stuck," John told me. "But with Kinect he just put up his hand and knew where to go."

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Letters: climate change, Gulf oil spill, property taxes, health care reform - Oregonian

Posted: 09 Nov 2010 07:54 PM PST

Published: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 8:00 PM

Print publication: Wednesday, Nov. 10

Climate change scientists
Regarding "Scientists ready to 'take the fight' to skeptics" (Nov. 8): How sweetly naive Scott Mandia, physical sciences professor, seems when he says, "The notion that truth will prevail is not working." How are the people supposed to know the truth unless they are told the truth? Unless people like him stand up for it with vigor and courage?

Hasn't he noticed the highly successful campaign of disinformation waged by the fossil fuel industry for the past 20 years? He must have been busy taking algebra courses, because this disinformation has not been effectively challenged by enough scientists. Good luck to him and the other scientists now ready to get engaged in the fight for truth. They need to be convincing, because you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you really can't fool Mother Nature.

KATHERINE KEANE
Southeast Portland

A turn for the better
I am writing in response to the story "Beaverton to enforce citations for illegal right turns" (Nov. 8): The Bicycle Transportation Alliance applauds Beaverton for tackling this problem as an effective tool to reduce traffic fatalities. The use of red-light cameras for traffic enforcement is a proven strategy that will help make our streets healthier and safer.

We encourage Beaverton to use funds raised from enforcement of red-light cameras to redesign streets and intersections to improve safety. By linking these funds directly to infrastructure investment, the city can reinforce its commitment to safety and reduce criticism of the effort as a "money grab."

ROB SADOWSKY
Southeast Portland
Sadowsky is the executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

Guns and pot
In the story "Medical pot grown in deadly fortresses" (Nov. 9), Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman Lt. Kelli Sheffer says, "Historically, marijuana and guns go hand in hand." It is doubtful that such a comparison between liquor and guns would be made today, but, of course, there was a time when it would have been an accurate comparison. That time was called Prohibition.

GARY L. DeSALVO
Northwest Portland

Gulf spill is black and white
It is truly an outrage to see that the special presidential commission asserts that a cost-cutting culture was not directly to blame for the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico (Nov. 9). Virtually every one of the "seemingly acceptable risks" was taken to hurry the development and sealing of the well. Each of these "seemingly acceptable risks" decreased the safety of the operations on the Deepwater Horizon. That's what "risk" means: less safe.

First the Gulf Coast is blackened, then the incident is whitewashed.

DICK SISSON
Washougal, Wash.

One more time
Oregon voters have spoken. By returning the same congressional delegation to Washington and electing another Democratic governor, the voters are apparently satisfied with Oregon's low ratings in several categories. We now can be lumped in with Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. Doesn't that make you feel good? And we will probably remain above the national average in unemployment, but we no doubt will be first in bike lanes and bike path mileage. Who cares about education, income, jobs, etc. as long as we are No. 1 in the bike world? That's what counts.

KEN ROLPH
Southeast Portland

Public employees and the GOP
Congratulations, Republicans, on your gains this election cycle. Here's a message from a former Republican and Democrat: Will you uphold your campaign rhetoric? You claim to advocate for "working families"; remember, public employees are working families. We are middle class and contribute to economic growth, too. Will we be your target for "reform"?

You claim that the state needs to operate like a family in tough economic times. A smart family has a savings account. Why doesn't Oregon? We give away our savings account (the kicker law). Imagine how Oregon could have weathered this downturn if we'd only saved for this rainy day.

I would expect, Republicans, that your first task in Salem would be to get rid of the kicker law and restructure Oregon's tax system (adding some things, cutting others) to change the current economic forecast. Democrats would work with you, and Oregon could become a national model for how true bipartisanship works.

BARRY BRANAUGH
Redmond

Health care reform
Now that the post-election spin has been spun, it's time to get down to reality. Although news reports suggest health reform may be a goner, those who seek to eliminate health care reform will face families like mine. There are hundreds of thousands of moms and dads whose lives have already been positively transformed by health reform.

Before health care reform, our family was concerned about getting our son medically diagnosed with autism because we feared that he would be denied coverage altogether or excluded from necessary treatment. Now he has been diagnosed and is receiving both occupational and speech therapy partially covered by insurance.

No matter what happened last Tuesday, there is no way American families want to go back to the bad old days when the abuses of the insurance industry forced us to make awful decisions like whether to get critical health care treatments or child care.

JENNIFER LINDSAY
North Portland

Taxes plus a fee
With this year's property tax bill there is a glossy flier touting "pay electronically." This sounds very easy and tempting. In looking at the fine print, though, I noticed a reference to "a nominal fee" for this service, so before charging our taxes on a credit card, I looked up the meaning of "nominal." On our tax bill of $7,800 the "nominal" charge is $195 (this charge goes to an out-of-state corporation, thereby in no way benefiting Oregon).

I can only hope that not too many taxpayers fall for this rip-off. I also hope the official at the tax collector's office who authorized this method of payment is no longer on the county payroll.

JOHN SCHAUMBURG
Northwest Portland

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Health Autism

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

“Children with autism practice traveling on 'mock' flights - Philadelphia Daily News” plus 2 more

“Children with autism practice traveling on 'mock' flights - Philadelphia Daily News” plus 2 more

Published: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 8:00 PM

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