mr. mccool. my son has been -- it's been suggested by a couple of physicians that he has a very mild form of autism, asperger, but there's other physicians who say, no, they're off the mark. how well defined are we and how in tune are we with diagnosis today of autism and the elements of autism. do you understand my question? >> yes. >> please. >> autism is a diagnose where there's no medical test or blood test, so it's done by observation and sort of looking at the different categories. obviously, autism impacts that part of the brain that impacts speech and other communication behavior, those kinds of things. it doesn't impact iq, so i think obviously the expansion of the definition to include aspergers has impacted the numbers. i think what we see is if someone is diagnosed or suspected after having aspergers, the thing to do is to really look at their communication and is their communication system in tact? is it appropriate? that seems to be the most singular indicator, and because children,

mr. mccool. >> congressman smith, thank you for inviting me to participate in this dialog by the global aspects of autism. as you mentioned eden autism services started in princeton, new jersey, 36 years ago. and during that time, our organization has gained a great deal of knowledge and experience in addressing the needs of children, adults and families impacted by autism. all of us in the autism community recognize that there's a lot to be done and each of us has a role to play. in its short history autism speaks has been able to significantly increase awareness of autism and its impact on families. they've also been extremely successful in raising funds to support its awareness activities and also support autism research projects. in recent months, autism speaks has begun to focus on the plight of adults with autism. particularly, looking at the broad range of residential, and employment programs needed to support this growing population. the autism society, another one of our partners, has a

mr. tom mccool who is president and ceo of eden autism services, a new jersey-based nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of children and adults with autism and their families. eden provides a specific variety of needs throughout the life span. mr. mccool is the founder commissioner on the national accreditation of special education services and founding member and current vice chair of the national association of residential providers of adults with autism. he served on the medical investigation of neurodevelopmental disorders institute advisory board. he's currently a member of the autism society of america and is serving as treasurer of the national association of private special education centers. he's also the chairman of the board of autism services group. i don't know where he gets the time. mr. shih? >> thank you, congressman smith, and members of the subcommittee for this opportunity to share with the autism speaks and goals of autism. i'm andy shih i'm part of autism including research and gifkz in terms of sciences and epidemiology as well as an international sc