Help Battle Autism By Subscribing to

We'll give $10 to the Autism Society of America

You can help defend yourself from shovelware and other bad games, support a good cause, and help me pay the FamilyWii bills, by subscribing to GameFly.

• First, sign up for a game plan:
  • One game: $8.95 first month, then $15.95/mo. after, OR
  • Two games: $12.95 first month, then $22.95/mo. after (this is the plan I'm subscribed to)

• Pony up your payment information.
• Request your games. Wii, DS, GameCube, or any other platform!
• Receive them in the mail with pre-paid return envelopes attached.
• Play them until you're done. Then you can:
  • Return them in the pre-paid return envelope, OR
  • Keep them for a discounted price, and they'll send you the manual and box for no additional charge
• Keep your GameQ filled, and when they receive your return, they'll send out the next available game on your list automagically.

After the first month, you can upgrade your subscription to two games ($22.95/mo.), three games ($29.95/mo.), or four games ($36.95/mo.) if you want. You don't have to, of course.

Stay with the service for 2 months, and FamilyWii.org will receive a reward of $20. When that happens, we donate $10 of that in your name to the Autism Society of America.

Click the box below to join.

• If you'd rather make your own private donation, you can visit the page for the Eric V Gamer's Fund at the ASA web site.
• If you'd rather join GameFly without using my referral, visit the GameFly home page.

About Autism

Here in the V household, we live with autism every day. My son Eric was diagnosed with "Pervasive Developmental Disorder", the medical term for medium to severe autism, when he was 3 years old, back in 2003. Since then we've learned a lot -- more than we ever wanted to -- about this mysterious disability. Here are some facts about autism:

• Autism is a neurological disorder, not a mental illness, impairing brain function for communication and sensory processing.
• It usually manifests itself between the ages of 18 and 36 months. During this time, the brain grows too fast and develops abnormally.
• It is marked by moderate to severe difficulty in expressing or receiving verbal and/or non-verbal communication.
• It is a spectrum disorder, meaning that individuals vary greatly in their abilities and disabilities along a continuum of function.
• The most common autistic disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, mainly impairs non-verbal communication, causing extreme difficulty in social development and social interactions, though it typically does not impair speech or verbal communication.
• A related mild disorder, Hyperlexia (literally, "precocious reading"), mainly impairs speech and social development along with a proccupation with symbols, causing most to be extremely early readers.
• Most people with Asperger's Syndrome and Hyperlexia will likely grow up to be independent but markedly eccentric adults.
• The more stereotypical manifestation of autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (also called Classic Autism or Core Autism), is more rare. In the movie Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman's character, Raymond Babbitt, most likely had PDD. It is marked by speech and language difficulties, repeated and ritualistic behaviors, and poor social skills. Some people with PDD are completely non-verbal and cannot speak at all. It may also be accompanied by sensory integration issues, where the brain cannot properly process signals from the five senses we take for granted.
• Two very rare types of autism are Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Rett's Syndrome. In CDD victims, such as the son of former pro football player Doug Flutie, children begin to learn language normally and then regress to a non-verbal state. Rett's Syndrome is a severe condition found only in girls, accompanied by severe mental retardation.
• Most people with PDD will not be able to live independently and usually require long-term residential care.
• Currently, the most effective treatment for autism is Applied Behavioral Analysis, an intense and strictly regimented therapy plan to counter the most disruptive autistic behaviors and teach people with autism how to interact appropriately.
• 80 percent of people with autism are boys. Girls can be autistic, but at a much lower rate.
• There appears to be a strong genetic predisposition to autism. According to a renowned Canadian study, once an autistic child is born, the probability that a subsequent male child is autistic is a shocking 25 percent, or a female autistic child 2 percent. Compare this with the prevaling rate of autism among the general population of 0.6 percent.
• About 6 out of every 1000 people have an autism spectrum disorder. About 2 in 1000 people have the more severe conditions of PDD, CDD, or Rett's, while the rest have Asperger's Syndrome or Hyperlexia.

There are a plethora of myths surrounding autism. Here are some of the more common ones:

• Myth: Autism is caused by mercury in childhood vaccines, or by negative reactions to particular, or too many, vaccines.
  FACT: In most cases, there is no known cause of autism. While there have been many popular, and well-publicized, theories -- such as vaccines, environmental mercury, and food allergies -- all credible scientific studies have found no link between vaccines and autism (so please do have your children vaccinated!).
• Myth: Autism can be cured.
  FACT: This is probably the cruelest myth out there. In the near-entirety of cases, there is no cure for autism, and in many cases there aren't even effective treatments for autism. In a minority of cases, autistic behaviors can be instigated by dietary allergies. Most of the time, these are accompanied by significant stomach and bowel disturbances, so people with autism but without bowel problems will not respond to dietary changes. Many who claim the mercury connection advocate several ineffective, and in some cases downright dangerous, therapies, but these claims have not been verified and are usually asserted to be demonstrated by research by the people peddling the therapies.
• Myth: There's an autism epidemic going on, so obviously something is causing it!
  FACT: Although diagnoses of autism have skyrocketed in the last 15 years, the actual rate of autism appears to be the same as it's always been, according to representatives from the Judevine Center for Autism in St.Louis. The increase appears to be accounted for by (a) increased awareness of the condition, (b) an expanded definition of autism to include milder conditions like Asperger's Syndrome and Hyperlexia, and (c) a reduced likelihood of misdiagnosis of autism as mental retardation.

Will there be a cure for autism? We don't know. Maybe. If not, at least we can help the people afflicted. You can help by visiting the web site of the Autism Society of America, one of the oldest and most credible autism support organizations out there.

I have set up a dedicated fund, the Eric V Gamer's Fund,at the ASA web site. Your money won't just go to Eric, but to all efforts to research and combat autism. If you join the GameFly video game rental service through FamilyWii, I will donate half of the referral reward ($10) to Eric's Fund (the other half will go to covering some of FamilyWii.org's expenses).

Copyright ©2010 Purple Note Multimedia