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As autism becomes the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States, doctors in a new documentary express concerns that that fathers of these children with special needs are sometimes reluctant to face the issue. NY1's Cheryl Wills filed the second part of this report. Emotions are raw and tears are flowing during a recent retreat for fathers of autistic children covered in a new documentary called "Autistic Like Me: A Father's Perspective."

When fathers are involved in the lives of their children, especially their education, their children learn more, perform better in school, and exhibit healthier behavior. Even when fathers do not share a home with their children, their active involvement can have a lasting and positive impact. There are countless ways to be involved in your child’s education at all ages. This section of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse website highlights some of them.

Greetings and a warm welcome to the Fathers Network web page. Our mission is to celebrate and support fathers and families raising children with special health care needs and developmental disabilities. Please utilize the superb resources on this site. We appreciate your feedback and your support.

My name is Wilbur Hawke and I am a father of a son with a disability that is now grown, living independently, and a father himself. I have spent the last twenty years teaching other parents how to access the education system. I have also functioned in the capacity of parent liaison for our school district the last fourteen years. This gives me somewhat of a unique perspective from both sides of the table. Although those who know me would certainly agree that I am opinionated, this is my first attempt at blogging. I hope to share with you things that are useful and practically applicable based on my own personal experience. I believe that parents and professionals working together provide the best outcomes for children and informed parents make the best choices for their families.   You are not the first or the last. The best thing to do is to learn from those who have gone before you, duplicating the successes and avoiding the mistakes.  My hope by writing this blog is that you would avoid the mistakes I made and perhaps gain a resource or two that will help you achieve success. Thank you for taking the time to read, Wilbur Hawke

I became a typical father in 1979.  It was a dream come true—those magical first smiles, first steps, first words. Then in 1981, my son stopped talking, stopped playing normally, and began flapping his arms.  From those first red flags of autism until now, I have not stopped experiencing autism and the family—the central theme of my life and work—counseling, teaching, and writing about the impact of autism on families.

Fathers who read to their infants with autism and take active roles in caregiving activities not only promote healthy development in their children, they boost moms' mental health too, new research suggests. Mothers of children with autism reported fewer depressive symptoms when their children were 4 years old if the child's father engaged in literacy and responsive caregiving activities - such as soothing children when they were upset or taking the child to the doctor - when the child was 9 months old, according to a new study conducted at the University of Illinois.

Growing up with severe autism, Cameron Osteen could not live the typical life of a child. His parents – Libby natives Mark and Leslie Osteen – struggled with daily tasks from toilet training to going out in public to learning how to talk. Autism consumed their lives to the point where they became isolated as a family while trying to understand what was going on inside their son’s head.

On Monday night, the dads who gathered at the Mason sports bar were ready for some football. Oh, were they ready.

One said it had been three years since he had watched "Monday Night Football." Another said he hadn't allowed himself such an evening out in 13 years.Besides a fondness for football, the men shared another bond: They are fathers of children with autism.

Yes, both Hoyts — father and son — are about to be honored in April with a life-sized bronze statue at the starting line of the Boston Marathon. The statue captures them doing what they’ve done together nearly 1,100 times since the early 1980s: run in marathons, 5Ks, Ironman events and other triathlons as “Team Hoyt.”

ATLANTA (AP) -- More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade searching for the causes of autism. In some ways, the research looks like a long-running fishing expedition, with a focus on everything from genetics to the age of the father, the weight of the mother, and how close a child lives to a freeway. That perception may soon change. Some in the field say they are seeing the beginning of a wave of scientific reports that should strengthen some theories, jettison others and perhaps even herald new drugs.

The advocacy organisation Autism Speaks estimates there are hundreds of apps built for use on iOS devices, specifically for autism. A search of the Apple iTunes store brought more than 580 autism-related apps, while an Android Market search for autism apps yielded about 250 results. "The more we dig, the bigger the rabbit hole is and we're starting to think tech is a really big key for how we can develop therapies quickly," said Marc Sirkin, vice president of social marketing and online fundraising for Autism Speaks. However, the organisation is cautious about the iPad's popularity. Its quick ascent means no one has actually studied which apps are of therapeutic benefit. Sure, Sirkin said, parents may hear anecdotal stories of apps completely changing a child's life, but there is no measurable proof yet that the apps really work. "The challenge with iOS apps is a lot are developed by well meaning parents but under no guidance with autism experts," Sirkin said. "For us, it brings in questions as an evidenced-based organisation and we're starting to ask: Does any of this actually make any difference... the danger is that the iPad becomes a really expensive toy." But some parents are OK without the proof just yet. Eric Tanner, the father of an 8-year-old with autism, said what the iPad really offers is accessibility and hope that a better life is possible for his child.

Therapy for children has changed a great deal since the days when Anna Freud used play as a way to apply the psychoanalytic techniques of her famous father to the problems of children.

The average guy finds it hard to sit still and listen.  We jump to problem solving especially when we lack the words to express what we are experiencing.  Yet we yearn for connection with our children. On July 7, I moderated “Guy Talk: Fathers Roundtable” at www.autismbrainstorm.org with 7 guys who spoke openly about their struggles to be present with their children.

For college sophomore Matthew Walzer, simply putting on his shoes was an impossible task. Lacking the dexterity to get his foot in and out of his shoes, the Florida teen, who was born with cerebral palsy, had to enlist the help of his mother and father or others. While he could dress himself, Walzer, 19, told The Huffington Post, “shoes were the one issue” he had learned to deal with and accept.

It’s been three years since Liane Kupferberg Carter lost her father. While time has dimmed the pain, it hasn’t really helped her explain things to her son, Mickey, who misses his grandfather.

The father of a 7-year-old Chicago boy who was diagnosed as a toddler with autism has sued the Naperville and Florida doctors who treated his son, alleging they harmed the child with "dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments."

James Coman and his son were featured last year in "Dubious Medicine," a Tribune series that examined risky, unproven treatments for autism based on questionable science.

The defendants — family-practice physicians Dr. Anjum Usman of Naperville and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. — are prominent in the Defeat Autism Now! movement, which promotes many of the alternative treatments the Tribune scrutinized. Both have spoken to groups of parents at autism conferences and trained other physicians in their methods.

A New Approach to Early Intervention: Virtual Home Visits Some bicoastal residents call it “flyover country.” Earlier generations called the huge expanses of America’s West “the Great American Desert.” But for the families of infants and toddlers with disabilities who reside there, often in remote and sometimes harsh circumstances far from the care their children require, it is home. Reaching those families for regular required home visits is often a monumental or downright impossible task for administrators of early intervention programs and their service providers who must drive for hours each way in weather conditions that are often severe and dangerous in an era in which fuel prices promise to remain prohibitively high. Until now, hard choices had to be made. Home visits to families in remote areas had to be postponed or canceled due to weather or cost. For families, their children’s needs went unmet. For federally funded statewide programs charged with seeking out and serving all infants and toddlers needing early intervention services, charters went unfulfilled. Today, however, technology provides the hope that virtual home visits can effectively and efficiently supplement, but not replace, traditional in-person visits.

Kim Peek, the autistic savant who inspired the Oscar-winning film Rain Man, has died, aged 58. Mr Peek's father Fran said that his son had suffered a major heart attack on Saturday and was pronounced dead at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, the town where he had spent his life. Mr Peek was probably the world's most famous savant. Described as a confounding mixture of disability and genius, his astonishing ability to retain knowledge inspired the writer Barry Morrow to write Rain Man, the 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman that won four Academy Awards.