AOL News - Autism's Echoes Fill This Home

AOL News - Autism's Echoes Fill This Home

I am not really much for AOL or USA TODAY for that matter, but this article was rather interesting.
"AUSTIN - There is a quiet irony in Jeanette and Patrick O'Donnell's house, where autism has taken hold of five of their six children.

Though the brain disorder is most often associated with an inability to speak, autism has rendered this household anything but silent.

"You have to get used to the sound," Jeanette says of the crashes and pops that mean something is breaking or hitting the floor, usually propelled by small hands. The cacophony of seven older television sets, usually tuned to different channels, drones in the background, fed by a backyard satellite dish.

"We have to have TV on all the time," Jeanette, 44, says. "It's a stimulant."

It's rare to have so many children with the disorder. A database operated by the non-profit advocacy group Cure Autism Now says the O'Donnells are one of only three known U.S. families with five autistic children. Fourteen other families have four....read more here