carley. is it nine? ist nine? how many people think carley's right? yeah. if carley's autism would be considered mild to moderate, wesley is in the moderate to severe tegory. becausof his inabili to communicate in any meaningful way, wesley w assumed to be retarded, t adnces in the underanding of autism now raissome questions. are these people lacking in intelligence? arthey simply unable to communicate in ways that are understandable? or is it both? this is a magic moment inome ways because if you had asked that a year ago, i would have said that the lirature and expeence tells us thatost people with autism, certainly 75%, have the additional problem of mental retardation. i'not saying that isn't true. i'm saying we don't know what that meananymore cause many of the young people with autism who have been given a visual-- a written-word means to communicate demonstrate that they have fairly good symbolic ability. they're much more e of what's going on than they er gave any indication of from their affective, observable behavior, and they canse the written w

. >> only juniors and seniors like carley and nicky have a chance, and winning is not a teenage pie in the sky fantasy. what are the odds. they are not that bad. there are 3250 seniors and seniors. last year 182 had perfect attend tans. >> perfect means perfect. no missed school days for any reason. that gets you into a drawing for the free wheels donated by local autodealer troy jarvis. he admits it's a good advertising gimmick, but hopes incentivizing attendants will teach kids a lesson - outside the classroom in the real world of work - you have to show up. >> over the last 10 years there has been a decline in reliabilitiy, work ethic. in the school we see the same thing. we sending a message that this is what it will be like in the workforce, you need to be at scoo. >> the not quite perfect kids can win prizes. other businesses offer pizza, hock hockey tickets, family holiday packages. >> why do we threaten or chastise a family for not coming to school. let's give it a positive spin and reward them. >> some students are not sure it's a good idea - getting rewarded for doing what th