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Traveling with an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) child could spell disaster. But instead of having to sit still and behave for hours on the plane -- or get in trouble for not doing so -- one ADD/ADHD boy made friends, made his parents proud, and had a great flight!

Autism touches all of us. . . through our children, grandchildren or the children of our friends. It is time to take action to combat this scourge that is stealing the minds of our children. If you or someone you know has a child with autism, here are some tips from a family that has been traveling the path for the last five years.

One of the hardest things about parenting older kids who are on the autism spectrum is recognizing that the issues they're dealing with as teens are very different from the ones they dealt with in elementary school. It's so much easier -- and more comfortable -- for us to think about birthday parties and playground friendships than it is to tackle the prom and dating, isn't it?

 "Suddenly, the question is not simply, 'How do I teach my child this or that?' but a much more complicated 'How do I teach my child not to need me to teach him anymore?'" writes Claire Scovell LaZebnik in Growing Up on the Spectrum: A Guide to Life, Love, and Learning for Teens and Young Adults with Autism and Asperger's.

Look at My Eyes is a revealing how-to book for families that is also useful to teachers. It's more of a short but practical guide than a memoir and includes such things as how to find a baby sitter for a special needs child, how to get insurance coverage, how to find agencies and therapies that help, how to give the right sort of attention to the child, as well as suggestions for fun and educational activities.

DENVER - Chase was just 18 months old when he started speaking his first words and sentences to a stunned mom and dad.

"It started with him just loving books, picking up books and playing with them," Brett Perry, Chase's father, said. "Then he went into this fascination with numbers and letters." Before they knew it, Chase was doing more than just looking at the letters. He was reading full words out loud, and then full sentences out loud. Mind you he wasn't even 2 years old.

Parents of children with autism are more likely to exhibit traits of the developmental disorder themselves, new research suggests. In a study looking at data on moms and dads of 256 children with autism and nearly 1,400 without, researchers found that parents of those on the spectrum tended to score higher on a questionnaire known as the Social Responsiveness Scale.