Nieuwsbriefs, August 27

Michigan: Autistic man missing

Source: The Saginaw News, August 25

LAKE - Clare County sheriff deputies continued to look for a 23-year-old autistic man who disappeared Monday evening from his home.

Shawn Harris was last seen wearing green shorts, a yellowish tan shirt and black farmer- or fireman-type boots, deputies said.

He is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 165 pounds and has light brown hair and blue eyes.

Call the Clare County Sheriff Department at (517) 539-7166 with information.

Interstate 43 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: not a great place to be riding your bicycle.	www.expediamaps.com

Boy, 9, found bicycling on Interstate 43

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 23

A 9-year-old boy was picked up by a pair of passers-by on Interstate 43 near Hampton Ave. as he rode his bicycle about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.

A man was driving in a car with his wife when they noticed the child, who is autistic, bicycling on the highway and picked him up.

The child's mother had reported him missing about 5 p.m., and he was brought to the District 5 police station, 2920 N. 4th St., about an hour later.

Police were able to get the boy to write his name and contacted his mother.

Police interviewed the mother and determined it wasn't an incident of child neglect.

Two holes-in-one for Michigan Autism Society

Source: Detroit Free Press, August 24

Pat Hickey of Farmington made two holes-in-one and won a car while playing a round at The Links of Novi during an outing benefiting the Michigan Autism Society.

Hickey, 47, got his first hole-in-one with a 5-wood on No. 8 East, a 200-yard hole. He won a two-year lease on a 1999 Chevrolet Impala with this ace.

The second ace came on No. 3 South, where he hit a 9-iron 150 yards.

They were Hickey's first aces in 31 years of golf. It was a scramble event, so he had no individual score.

New Clues to the Puzzle of Dyslexia

From Newsweek (7-Jun-99)

There's new evidence that dyslexia, a common reading disability, is caused by a problem with processing sounds in the brain. Dyslexics get confused when trying to link rapid-fire consonants like "b" and "d" to specific letters, say scientists at the University of California, San Francisco. In a study published last week, the researchers recorded brain-wave responses of adults to a series of 2 beeps. The dyslexics showed distinct responses to both tones -- but only when there was 1/2 second pause between them. As the gap shortened, delayed response to the first sound obscured the second. The good readers could consistently tell the two apart. Other researchers have found hints of the problem in infants. Psychologists Dennis & Victoria Molfese at Southern Illinois University played a series of taped syllables, like "dee" and "bee," for newborns in the hospital and then recorded their brain-wave responses. Eight years later, when the same children were in 3rd grade, the researchers tested the kids for dyslexia. Preliminary results show that 80 % of the dyslexics exhibited a single trait as newborns: on average, they responded to sounds .3 of a second later than other babies. "Kids should be treated early -- before years of reading failure in school," says Dennis Molfese.