March 15, 2008 --- "My name is Michael Buckholtz. I have Asperger's Syndrome. I am also a multi-platinum record producer that wrote music for MC Hammer back in the day. I have been living with it for 42 years, since birth basically. I wasn't diagnosed until in my early 30's. I continue to cope with the effects of this disorder and in doing so, found there was no real assistance for adults with Asperger's disorder in my current hometown of Macon, Georgia. I decided to become proactive.

I started a MySpace page to address this issue. At MySpace.com/aacfdonation, I decided to start a non-profit that would assist adults with autism that had been essentially ignored by the medical community at large. The concept has grown to include all autistic people and their families. The families are coping as well and they need just as much assistance as autistic children and adults. In some states programs are plentiful. In other states, particularly the southern ones, not a lot of services are available. It's even worse when it comes to minorities and autism. The traditional view, especially in the Bible Belt, is that nothing is really wrong with you if you are African-American. You just need more spiritual guidance or just snap out of it and that will solve the problem. Nope, doesn't work. When a person has a neurological problem, all the spiritual guidance and 'wishing it will go away' won't fix it. What will help is to show love and compassion for the person who has the disorder. That, to me, is how spiritual guidance helps when it comes to autism.

The biggest issue I've had to deal with while living with Asperger's Syndrome is people not believing I have a disorder. That is the most frustrating problem I have had over the years. People will tell me I look, speak and behave fine. 'You've even become a multi-platinum record producer that worked for MC Hammer! What could be wrong with you?' What most people don't know is that I have to constantly adjust my behavior to fit into specific circumstances. I do that to this day. The way I process information hasn't changed. I have to observe, maybe for many months, how a person deals with, or reacts to, different situations and then I literally have to rehearse them. I will act them out audibly so I can hear myself talking. It's sort of like thinking out loud to oneself. Once I'm satisfied that my response (facial movements, tone, hand gestures, etc.) to something is as close to what someone else would normally do, I try it out to see if it gets the desired response. If it does, I was successful at mimicking the behavior. I store that information away for a time when I will need it. That's the way I learn and process emotions. I don't just feel emotions, I have to observe, rehearse and then test it on someone, who unfortunately is unsuspecting of my intentions.

I do intend, however, to become the top fundraiser of assistance for individual families in the United States and eventually the international community. Why? Well, because no one said I couldn't be." *

*Excerpts from the CNN iReport.com article "In My Skin" written by Michael Buckholtz chosen for CNN News.

© 2008 Aid for Autistic Children Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.

MAY 31, 2004

PERSONAL BUSINESS

Special Needs, Crushing Costs

Parents with disabled kids have some options but must also dig deep into their own pockets

Decked out in an authentic Florida Marlins jersey that fell to his knees, 7-year-old Adam Jones stood tall in the infield at Miami's Pro Player Stadium. At the signal, he threw the first pitch for the Apr. 25 game against the Atlanta Braves in honor of Autism Awareness Day. Adam, an avid Little League player, is autistic. He has come a long way from the days in 1999 when he didn't speak, made no eye contact, and wore a special helmet to protect him from his violent head-banging behavior. After years of extensive and costly therapies that still continue, Adam now attends a regular second-grade class. While his progress is priceless, it has come at a huge out-of-pocket cost to his family: About $150,000 since he was diagnosed at age 2. That does not include the $50,000 spent on therapies for Adam's brother, Jeffrey, 9, who has Asperger Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism marked by deficiencies in social and communication skills. "Health insurance pays very little, and we have no retirement or college fund because everything goes into these kids' therapies," says Joni Jones, 44, a registered nurse. The boys have four other siblings, but neither she nor her husband, Larry, 42, a family law attorney in Toms River, N.J., hesitate to "make the investment now so we can increase the odds" that our sons will be productive members of society later, says Larry Jones.

The Joneses are hardly alone in needing to confront the problems of special-needs kids. More than 10% of U.S. households have offspring -- adult children included -- with special needs, according to the PACER Center, a Minneapolis-based advocacy group for families of children with disabilities (pacer.org). Those disabilities include autism, emotional and behavioral disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other learning problems such as dyslexia. Most everyone knows someone who is affected -- it could be your neighbor or the boy sitting next to your daughter in the first grade.

© 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.