Letters

Equipped with new findings, researchers are getting a better grasp of autistic minds. Specialists and parents let us know of the challenges in tackling the condition, but also show optimism

The article on Autism [May 29] by Claudia Wallis was very informative and helped correct many misconceptions about autistic children. In India, not much research on autism is under way. I fear that most of those children are taken to be mentally ill or retarded. The statistics on reported cases of autism in India may be not so grim as those in the U.S., but I feel the U.S. kids are in better hands. I just hope that researchers quickly find a solution to the growing incidence of the condition. It was refreshing to read that helpful schools like Celebrate the Children are available to those special kids.
Subhobrata Basu
Calcutta

Congratulations to TIME. I have been researching and teaching about autism for more than 30 years, and I believe that your article is one of the most accurate and useful to appear in the popular press. Autism is being rethought because of new insights from individuals with autism and the scientific community. Bravo for having made this new information accessible to the general public.
Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D.
Professor, University of San Diego
San Diego

I particularly appreciated Wallis' reporting on the two autism-intervention programs, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Floortime. The behaviorist method of ABA may still be the predominant approach, but Floortime's child-directed, playfully interactive techniques are also changing children's lives. My son attended a preschool using Floortime, and it made all the difference in the world. He blossomed there and is now a bright, sweet child in a mainstream elementary school and has an active social life. I hope Wallis' story helps parents who are still in the painful early stages of this journey.
Tamar Bihari
Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.

I was very disappointed by TIME's reporting on ABA and the work of teachers and students at Alpine Learning Group. The most salient fact for parents facing the momentous choices regarding their child's treatment is that ABA is the only intervention for autism supported by peer-reviewed scientific studies. Properly implemented by well-trained therapists, ABA can help children with autism learn to talk, read, write, relate to their peers and participate fully and productively in their families and communities. ABA is a science, and as behavior analysts, we at Alpine are accountable for every moment we spend with our students. Their days are filled not only with laughter and fun but also with meaningful learning opportunities aimed at reaching each student's full development. TIME undersold the potential of ABA and the accomplishments of Alpine's phenomenal students, families and teachers.
Bridget A. Taylor, Psy.D., B.C.B.A.
Executive Director
Alpine Learning Group
Paramus, New Jersey, U.S.

I want to thank TIME for writing an unbiased review of Floortime and ABA. Too many articles prop up one approach over the other without giving an honest summary of both. I work within both models as a special-education teacher. Your article highlights the pros and cons of each in a fair, unbiased way. The goal is to choose what works for an individual child. Many, many children benefit from both models simultaneously or at different times in their childhood. Treatment is not a competition between ideas; it is a matter of finding what works at a particular moment with an individual child.
Kelly Crosby
Rochester, New York, U.S.

If I were a parent reading the article, I would come away with the idea that ABA is an outdated procedure that is limited to only teaching rote skills. Nothing is mentioned of the many recent research studies that show children with autism learning to be socially indistinguishable from their peers after ABA therapy. ABA has been scientifically proven to be a very effective method in teaching social skills and awareness to all learners, not just autistic individuals.
Toby Mountjoy, Associate Director
Autism Partnership
Hong Kong

Individuals with autism possess a wealth of trapped talent and ability and need our help to share their riches with the world. It is important and comforting to realize that just as there is no one proven cause for autism, there is no one foolproof treatment.
Shifra K. Leiser
Passaic, New Jersey, U.S.

Your story gave a really helpful overview of the body of research on autism. I was pleasantly surprised to see TIME recognize that studying how mercury in vaccines might affect the body is a legitimate route of inquiry. Your evenhanded comparison of the ABA and Floortime methods was in that same vein. When parents hear a diagnosis of autism, they might assume that their children will never get better. But they do.
Martin Bounds
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.

Whatever the cause, autism is treatable, and more and more people will come to understand that treating the whole patient and not merely the symptoms will produce the best results. A good rehabilitation program will be a structured one that provides therapeutic stimulation to a nervous system that has failed to mature properly. Treatment should also include advice regarding diet, nutrition and lifestyle issues, including sleep and behavior. In this way, it may be possible to get the best results for children and adults who suffer from autism as well as many other neurological disabilities.
Basil Ziv, Executive Director
Association for the Neurologically Disabled of Canada
Etobicoke, Canada

You can read more of Claudia Wallis' reporting on treatments for autism at timearchive.com.

Immigration Anxiety All Over
In "Bush Is Smart on the Border—and His Party Isn't" [May 29], columnist Joe Klein stated that the Republicans most opposed to accommodating illegal immigrants are "white, Southern and Western, suburban and rural, working class." But Klein ought to be aware that right in New York City there is strong opposition to making it easier for illegals to become citizens. New Yorkers can spot a scam, and this one is huge.
Gahan Haskins
New York City

Klein missed the point. The objection we have to illegal immigrants is that they have intentionally broken important laws of this country. If our immigration laws are unsatisfactory, then change the laws, but don't encourage making a mockery of them.
Robert L. Cragg
Maple Glen, Pennsylvania, U.S.

As a 61-year-old African American, I agree with the Republicans on illegal immigration. When people choose to ignore immigration procedures, it is a slap in the face to those from various countries who have come to the U.S. legally. Unlimited immigration would strain any country's health, schools, and job market. I was incensed when I heard some people compare the protests by Mexicans and other Latinos to our civil rights movement.
Barbara Kelly
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.

Like Canaries in a Coal Mine
I was shocked to learn from "Bye Bye Birdies" [May 29] that climate change may be killing migratory birds. I had no idea there was a link between declining bird populations and global warming. We should not forget that the death of even a single bird because of environmental factors can be linked to the fate of human beings, since we all depend on the health of our ecosystem.
Tadashi Kawabe
Fukuoka, Japan

Modest Mountaineers
As reported in our May 29 issue, Mount Everest is being scaled by some surprising climbers, including a teenage boy and a double amputee. The June 14, 1999, TIME 100 profile of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay related that the mountain's first conquerors in 1953 were also unlikely heroes:

"Hillary and Tenzing were two cheerful and courageous fellows doing what they liked doing, and did, best, and they made an oddly assorted pair. Hillary was tall, lanky, big-boned and long-faced, and he moved with an incongruous grace, rather like a giraffe ... Tenzing was by comparison a Himalayan fashion model: small, neat, rather delicate, brown as a berry, with the confident movements of a cat. Hillary grinned; Tenzing smiled. Hillary guffawed; Tenzing chuckled. NEITHER OF THEM SEEMED PARTICULARLY PERTURBED BY ANYTHING; ON THE OTHER HAND, NEITHER WENT IN FOR UNNECESSARY BRAVADO ... Both devoted much of their lives to the happiness of an archetypically unprivileged segment of mankind: the Sherpas, Tenzing's people, true natives of the Everest region ... Thus the two of them rose above celebrity to stand up for the unluckier third of humanity, who generally cannot spare the time or energy, let alone the money, to mess around in mountains." Read more at timearchive.com.

Another Surly Slugger
Were you upset when Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run and passed Babe Ruth's career home-run total? Our Sept. 29, 1961, story on the New York Yankees' Roger Maris showed that even players who aren't accused of using steroids can rile the fans when Ruth's numbers are threatened:

"Bottle-green eyes smolder malevolently, and thin lips curl in a perpetual pout. 'I was born surly,' says Roger Eugene Maris, 'and I'm going to stay that way. Everything in life is tough.' But last week, as he has all season, Yankee Outfielder Maris knew just where to direct his sullen anger: at a baseball ... Maris sent a whistling drive soaring high into the rightfield seats. It was his 59th homer in 154 games; he had come within one heart-stopping wallop of tying baseball's most dramatic and cherished record: the 60 home runs hit by George Herman Ruth in 1927 (seven years before Maris was born). Nothing in recent baseball history has aroused such sustained excitement—or provoked such profound and varied emotion ... ... A FEW SENTIMENTALISTS SAW EVERY MARIS HOMER AS A PERSONAL ATTACK ON RUTH. They argued that today's ball is livelier, today's fences shorter, today's pitching easier to hit. Groused Oldtimer Rogers Hornsby: 'Maris has no right to break Ruth's record.'" Read more at timearchive.com.