Welcome to my Autism blog!

My blog is dedicated to bringing our community together, sharing ideas and showcasing the many writers, artists, musicians, doctors, researchers, attorneys, parents, relatives and those with autism themselves that are willing to share their experiences.

Here I will present news of the day, articles by and about the many wonderful people and organizations that are working to help children and parents affected by Autism and comments from readers like you.

Tomorrow kicks off the National Autism Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where I will be launching Wines for Autism with wines donated by our suppliers for the Meet and Greet event in the evening. I hope to see some of you there.

As I am getting ready to load eight cases of wine in my little car I am grateful not to be loading four large suitcases of clothes, supplements, organic food and a double jogging stroller, it brings back very special memories to me from four years ago. Then, I was flying to New Smyrna Beach, SC to attend my very first National Autism Conference. Like many parents of newly diagnosed children I had a lot of questions and a lot of fears about whether I could ever recover my son.

Dr. Rimland, 1928-2006

That conference was very symbolic to me as I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Rimland, the founder of the Autism Research Institute for the first and last time before he passed away a year later. As many of you know, Dr. Rimland put an end to calling the mothers of autistic children “refrigerator moms” and making them responsible for their children’s autism before autism became an epidemic (today 1 out of 91 children has an autism diagnosis according to the latest figures from the CDC) with his landmark book “Infantile Autism” in 1964.

Later, he brought to the world’s attention a method with proven results of helping our children called ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) from Dr. Lovaas. He was already my hero for having done all of that but he became my super hero for having developed the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) protocol with the help of a handful of dedicated doctors and researchers, a lot of them personally affected by autism too.

Thanks to biomedical interventions that have been developed with the DAN! protocol hundreds of thousands of families affected by autism disorders now have hope to recover their children.

Cheers!

Christine Roffi

I am proud to showcase the websites of the Autism Research Institute and the National Autism Association   on the label of our first Featured wine at Wines for Autism Uva Negra Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005