Enacting these measures, however, will not be easy and Senator DiFrancesco is making an aggressive effort to win support for this initiative. I am writing to you on an issue that is currently affecting my community and many communities in this nation. That issue is autism. Autism is a spectrum of developmental disorders that usually appears in the fist three years of a child's life. Persons with autism generally have a combination of symptoms that include impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication and imagination, and unusual or severely limited activities and interests.
Autism is a much misunderstood affliction.
There is no known cure for autism but education and treatment may help alleviate the severity of the affliction. The Brick Township study is the most comprehensive study of autism in a community ever done in this country. The Brick Township study must not be the last. With more communities across the state and the nation discovering more children with autism in their midst, we as community leaders need to take more action to address this issue. Urge your state senators and assemblymen to allocate funding for the creation of a statewide monitoring program to record and track cases of autism in New Jersey.