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New research suggests that a simple, inexpensive test may be able to accurately identify whether or not children as young as 3 months will go on to have autism.

A study published online this week in the journal Scientific Reports found that the developmental disorder can be flagged in infants by measuring electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalogram, or EEG.

The test was able to pick up on autism in some babies by 3 months and had near-perfect accuracy by 9 months.

“EEGs are low-cost, non-invasive and relatively easy to incorporate into well-baby checkups,” said Charles Nelson, director of the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children’s Hospital and a co-author of the study. “Their reliability in predicting whether a child will develop autism raises the possibility of intervening very early, well before clear behavioral symptoms emerge. This could lead to better outcomes and perhaps even prevent some of the behaviors associated with ASD.”

The study looked at 99 children considered to be

The commercial lasts less than a minute. Time enough, Ben Young hopes, for viewers to see what he needs and to imagine what he can give.

“Come change my life,” Young says in a computer-generated voice. “I promise it will change yours forever. Help me help myself.”

The pitch, from a bright and determined young man who can neither feed nor dress himself, or even speak clearly without aid of technology, is part of a statewide campaign to recruit the workers known as “direct support professionals.” The well-being of Young and tens of thousands of other Ohioans with developmental disabilities turns on the availability of competent and reliable support providers.

But the pool has gone frighteningly shallow.

Companies and nonprofit agencies that offer care and support to people with disabilities say they are struggling more than ever to attract workers, forcing some to terminate services and decline new clients. Parents go without sleep and take leave from their jobs to fill in. Adults and children with disabilities become frustrated, confused or upset at the churn of names and faces and routines.

More than a few times, Kenna Robinett says, she was asked to stop meddling and micromanaging. The agencies that had been hired to provide support and care for her twin nephews, both of whom have severe autism and cannot communicate verbally, said they could handle the situation if she would give them a chance.

“So I started tracking only the things that weren’t related to me or my opinions,” Robinett said.

The spreadsheet filled up quickly anyway.

Some of the entries seem ridiculous: Employees microwaving bread sticks on high for 10 minutes, until they looked like charcoal. Ice cream stored in a kitchen cabinet drawer, Hot Pockets served frozen.

Other notations were cause for alarm: A call from school after one of the 19-year-olds showed up with feces on his hands. Complaints from neighbors who heard screams. A message from a caseworker telling Robinett, who was in a Florida airport at the time, that there would be no one to care for the teens as of 3 p.m. that day because the disability-services agency was in trouble and shutting down.

Amanda Biel’s 8-year-old daughter is on a waiting list for Medicaid-funded services that she probably doesn’t need. But because it often takes years to obtain one of the Medicaid waivers that pays for home- and community-based services for people with disabilities, Biel got her child in line early — as a toddler — just in case.

“I’m one of those thousands and thousands of parents who was told, ‘This is what you do,’” said Biel, who lives in Worthington.

The waiting list is now some 49,000 people long. State and county officials and many advocates say it’s become more of a haphazard compilation than accurate representation of the children and adults who most need help.

Biel agrees. She’s part of a “Fix the List” coalition that helped craft a proposed rule that spells out new waiver waiting-list requirements and procedures, including an assessment tool to determine eligibility. For years, individuals and families have been able to add names to the list on their own with little or no input from service coordinators.

The median wait time for a waiver in many Ohio counties exceeds six years. Most other states also have waiting lists for the highly sought waivers, which allow people with disabilities to get support such as personal care and homemaker services

n an effort to prevent a looming strike, the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that increases the wages of thousands of workers who care for people with intellectual disabilities at private group homes and day programs across Connecticut.

The measure was approved 88-62, with nine Republicans voting in favor. In a preliminary vote earlier in the day, the legislation passed 77-71 on strict party lines, with two Democrats absent.

The legislation now heads to the evenly split Senate, and its fate there — and whether a vote will be held before Monday’s strike — remains unclear. Three fiscally conservative Democrats could tip the balance on the agreement, giving Republicans the advantage.

For three hours Wednesday afternoon, the House debated the agreement, which is almost identical to one proposed by Ben Barnes, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s top budget adviser. The agreement, if approved by the Senate and signed by the governor, would raise the wage for the workers to at least $14.75 an hour and provide a one-time 5 percent raise for workers now earning more than $14.75 but less than $32 an hour. The workers’ wage scales have been largely unchanged for more than 10 years.

About 2,500 unionized workers are planning to strike on Monday if an agreement on wage increases is not passed by the General Assembly. The workers serve about 12,000 “high need

Without Chippewa River Industries (CRI), Chris Jakubowicz isn’t sure what her son, Justin Jakubowicz, would do during the day.

For TJ Lane, CRI is safe.

Those who oppose CRI’s employment center model claim it’s segregated, that it doesn’t pay workers enough and it limits those with disabilities from working in the community.

Dave Lemanski, CRI’s president and CEO, disagrees.

“…who’s defining community? Why should I define it,” Lemanski said. “TJ should define what her community is. Justin should define what he determines his community is, and they should be able to live meaningful lives within that definition.”

CRI, an employment center headquartered in Chippewa Falls that offers employment and life skill opportunities and training for those with disabilities, celebrated National Day for Choice on Tuesday, April 24, advocating for their employees and those with disabilities to have the right to choose where they work and live.

The day was developed by the A-Team, a grassroots advocacy group that began in Fort Atkinson and has eight established chapters in Wisconsin. Twelve states have joined the A-Team’s efforts with established chapters.

The group promotes the work centers like CRI is doing by providing employment to people with disabilities and advocates against laws and regulations that claim the centers like CRI segregate those with disabilities away from the community and don’t pay enough by not offering minimum wage.

The wage argument, explained Ginger Waegli, support services manager at CRI, is that work centers are unfair because facilities not provide minimum wage to employees.

Through certificate approval every two years, Lemanski said the center provides payment to its employees based on a piece rate wage. Paying minimum wage, Lemanski said, is not realistic

Duncan McDonald packs his lunch before he heads off to work at Torchlight Services in Guelph.

The 28-year-old has been attending the program since he graduated high school.

“I love working with my friends,” McDonald, who has Down Syndrome, explained.

But like other sheltered workshops in the province, Torchlight Services will no longer be providing work for people like McDonald because the province has been phasing out the program since 2015.

“With the official passage of Bill 148: Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, the exemption to the Employment Standards Act that allowed for sheltered workshops in Ontario and denied either minimum wages, or overtime or hours of work protection or all of the above, has been removed,” Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services spokesperson Daniel Schultz noted.

Opponents of the program said it was exploiting people with disabilities by paying them less than the minimum wage. But families of participants at Torchlight Services said it has nothing to do with the money.

“For Duncan, having Down Syndrome and having a disability, he’s found a place where he can have a job that is meaningful to him that he does well and that he’s proud of,” Susan Wahlroth, Duncan McDonald’s mother, said.