For every regular sold, 50 cents will be donated by Jersey Mike’s Subs in all four locations in Conway, Murrells Inlet, Myrtle Beach, and North Myrtle Beach. Additionally, $1 will be donated for every giant No. 7 sub sold in all same outlets.

Jersey Mike’s in Conway will also be hosting an Autism Awareness Jamboree on May 1, 2010. The activity will start at 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The free event will be open to the public.

Horry County Project Lifesaver is a rapid response program aimed at helping families that are suffering from autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and other related disoders like Downs Syndrome. The Lifesaver Program provides provides its members with a personalized wristband able to emit a tracking signal.

Project Lifesaver’s goal is to locate and rescue missing family members. Recovery time usually takes about 30 minutes only when the missing person is wearing the radio-transmitting wristband. This is indeed a big help for families who are constantly anxious that their loved ones might get lost and never return home.

Each radio-transmitting wristband costs about $300 but many families were able to receive them at no cost due to grants that have been obtained. More funds, however, are needed in order to expand the program to benefit more families who need these wristbands.

By trying to stay positive about your situation, and by working to keep your marriage healthy, you and your spouse can avoid marital problems and hopefully survive the trying times of raising an autistic child.

Why did you marry your husband or wife? By asking yourself this question often, you can focus on the good things in your marriage. Raising a child with autism is stressful, and if you are stressed, you have a tendency to snap at another person for the smallest missteps.

Instead of focusing on these bad qualities, take some time to enjoy one another the way you did at the beginning of the relationship. This may include spending some time apart from your children. When you find out that your child is autistic, it is beneficial to make sure that you and your spouse are not the only two people with whom your child will respond.

A grandparent, aunt or uncle, mature sibling, or nanny are good people to have in your child’s life in the most intimate way possible. This way, alone time with your spouse is possible.

Work together with your spouse to help you child, instead of fighting with one another. It is very likely that you will have different ideas about what to do in certain situations, so be prepared to compromise and always seek professional consultations before making any medical decisions for your child.

By working together, remember that you are giving your child the best opportunities. Try to set apart time every week to spend together as a family, especially if one parent or the other is the primary caregiver.

Lastly, seek help when you need it. Part of any successful marriage is spending some time apart to focus on individual needs, and it is no different when you have an autistic child. However, if you find that you and your spouse are not happy unless you are spending time alone, it is time to reevaluate the situation.

A family or marriage counselor can help you and your spouse get back on the right track to a happy life together. It might also be beneficial to meet other couples raising autistic children. You are not alone, and it is never easy.

By making an effort to keep your marriage happy, even when you are stressed with the task of raising an autistic child, you and your spouse can ensure that your marriage does not end in a messy divorce.

Self-management works because the child is no longer fully controlled by others. By teaching self-management during specific times of day, such as while the child is at school or therapy, the child will be more likely to continue to practicing self-control during all times of the day. The key is to implement a program in which he or she monitors his or her own behavior and activities. Begin with short amounts of time, and continue to monitor the child from a more passive standpoint. Every ten to fifteen minutes remind the child that he or she is in control and needs to monitor and be aware of good and bad behavior.

This monitoring is a form of self-evaluation. When a child is in control, he or she may think more closely about behavior in the past and present. Set clear goals with the child-for example, an afternoon with no aggression towards others or a day at school with no self-injury. Every fifteen minutes ask the child how he or she is doing. Is the goal being met? If the answer is no, perhaps the child is not ready for self-management, or perhaps the goals are too unattainable. You want to make sure that the goals are easy to reach at first, and then move the child towards more difficult goals in the future. When a child is successful at self-monitoring, he or she will have a more positive attitude towards the experience.

Of course, an important part of self-management is a rewards system. Have the child come up with his or her own reward, depending on interest. Reinforcement will make these good behavior goals more clearly marked in the child’s mind, and by choosing and rewarding him- or herself, the child will feel completely in control of the self-management system. Choose simple rewards to start, such as smiley faces for every goal met and sad faces for every goal not met, and work up to a larger goal, such as a special activity or new toy when a certain amount of smiley faces has been attained.

These types of programs do not develop overnight, so it is important that you and the child have enough time to devote to a self-management experience. By reinforcing good behavior with rewards, as determined by the child instead of by an adult, he or she will be more likely to carry this on even when not participating in the program. If your autistic child is mature enough, this could be a good treatment program to try.

More autism clusters are hoping to be uncovered by the University of California Davis researchers. This is being done in order to discover anything in the environment that may be triggering a rise in the rates of autism. Currently, as many as one in 110 American children are affected by Autism.

The study had examined almost all of the 2.5 million babies born in California between 1996 and 2000.