The Conrad Simon Memorial Research Initiative was established with the help of a generous gift from Evalyn Brodie Higginbottom. Its purpose is to promote interdisciplinary perspectives on autism spectrum disorders, including relevant research that has become part of forgotten history.

The current focus of this web site is to try to bring attention to research findings in neurochemistry that may be relevant to problems of language development and auditory attention. Investigators in the field of autism have not yet considered much of the research cited in the working paper presented here, such as the data on cerebral blood flow and metabolism.

Experimental treatments with Secretin and other drugs are desperate trial-and-error attempts to deal with unwanted behaviors. Diets free of gluten, lactose, and chemical additives are likewise adopted with high hopes but often without first determining if a child has specific allergies. Therapies like Auditory Integration Training may be more useful, especially if a child can be helped to hear sound changes that signal units of meaning in spoken language.

An improved rationale for treatment, education, and life-long care of children with autism is badly needed. This will best be accomplished when an understanding of the brain disorder is achieved.

This web site was first put together as a project for a course, Web Site Development, which I took at the Harvard University Extension School in the fall of 1999. I am most grateful to the instructor, David Heitmeyer, and teaching assistant, Kevin Yip, for clarifying the mysteries of html programming!

Eileen Nicole Simon
Eileen_Simon@alum.barnard.edu