[Johns:] Updating one of the developing stories this morning. According to WESH-TV and "The Orlando Sentinel," firefighters have responded to a medical emergency at Tiger Woods' mansion, just after 2:30 this morning. This is video of a woman who we believe was taken from Tiger Woods' home. We're sending someone to the hospital at the moment, and hopefully we'll hear from them in just about 10 minutes. So stay tuned for that.
[Chetry:] Joe, thank you. Well, it's a heartbreaking diagnosis that many parents have heard before that your child has autism. It still remains a medical mystery. But this morning in part two of my series "Inside the Child's Mind," we get a look at how early intervention led to a remarkable breakthrough for a young boy who started slipping away. As a baby, Jake Exkorn was everything his parents hoped for. Happy and healthy.
[Karen Siff Exkorn, Jake's Mother:] He hit all the developmental milestones. He walked, he talked, he played.
[Chetry:] But at 17 months, the light began to fade from Jake's face.
[K. Exkorn:] At first he stopped responding to his name. And then he stopped playing. Then by his second birthday, he stopped speaking entirely.
[Chetry:] Karen worried it may be a hearing problem or a speech delay.
[K. Exkorn:] I never expected to hear the words "your child has autism."
[Chetry:] And what was that like to hear?
[K. Exkorn:] I was completely devastated. It meant that there was no hope for my son, and, yet, I was determined to help my son in any way that I could. Jake. Jake? I knew that I wanted a treatment for Jake that had science behind it.
[Unidentified Female:] Jake, do this.
[J. Exkorn:] And a lot of treatments don't. But the one that had the most science behind it was a treatment called ABA.
[Unidentified Female:] Yay. Good.
[Chetry:] ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, is an intensive approach that uses repetition and rewards to teach autistic children the things that come naturally to most kids.
[J. Exkorn:] We wanted to teach Jake to respond to his name. So we'd say Jake and we take an M&M; and we hold it up just between our eyes.
[Unidentified Female:] Jake. Good looking, good boy.
[Chetry:] Day after day, 40 hours a week.
[Unidentified Female:] Say I. I very good.
[Chetry:] They plugged away, hoping to help Jake relearn what autism had taken away.
[J. Exkorn:] Going into this, there were no guarantees. Nobody ever mentioned the word recovery to us, so that wasn't our goal, ever.
[Chetry:] And there continue to be no guarantees, but for the first time, a new study shows that early intervention therapy can improve language skills and behavior and raise IQ giving hope to parents of children with autism.
[Gerald Dawson, Autism Speaks:] What we know is that if children receive early, intensive behavioral intervention, some of the children do lose their diagnosis.
[Chetry:] Geraldine Dawson is the chief scientist for the advocacy group Autism Speaks. She helped design the study and says symptoms of autism can begin as early as eight months.
[Dawson:] So the most important thing is to be alert for those symptoms and then get into intervention right away.
[Unidentified Female:] Good for you.
[Chetry:] Jake after a year of ABA therapy, showed progress.
[Julie:] My name is Julie.
[Jake Exkorn, Diagnosed With Autism:] My name is Jake.
[Julie:] Oh, you're the best.
[Chetry:] Then at age 4, a turning point. When Karen took him for ice cream and without prompting, Jake told the man what flavor he wanted nilla.
[K. Exkorn:] The man had no idea that this was like this defining moment in my life. But this was huge. This was huge and this marked the beginning of spontaneous language for Jake.
[Chetry:] What soon followed was an even bigger milestone when at Jake's four-year checkup, Karen was told her son no longer had symptoms of autism. The doctor said Jake had recovered. [on camera]: Did you believe it?
[K. Exkorn:] You know, hearing her say that, blew me away in the same way as when I heard her say the diagnosis.
[Chetry:] Today, Jake is a thriving 13-year-old. He plays basketball, football, and is every bit the typical teenage boy.
[J. Exkorn:] I like to hang out with my friends. I don't love to study. You know, sometimes I have to. I would describe myself as outgoing, athletic and nice.
[Chetry:] A dramatic transformation for a family who once thought they lost their little boy to autism.
[J. Exkorn:] I don't think about too much of what I do. It is kind of crazy, but my mom and dad put in a lot of effort into it, and so did I. And it paid off.
[Chetry:] Sure did pay off.
[Johns:] That's just amazing. You know, not only is it just the whole story amazing, it's also amazing to see the pictures and the video. The one thing that comes to mind, though, is they got this diagnosis, what, like 11 years ago or so.
[Chetry:] Right.
[Johns:] And you have to wonder, how was it that she knew she had to do something and fast?
[Chetry:] Oh, yes. Well, I mean, first of all, the reason that she documented all of that is because she you know, she chronicled every step of the way as you saw with home video and also the documentation, because she truly it was not a it wasn't a mistaken diagnosis. He truly had many of the markers and a lot of the signs of autism. And he got an accurate diagnosis of autism. She said that she wanted to try a therapy that had science behind it. She scoured the Internet. She did a lot of parental research. And one of the interesting things that she ended up writing I'm sorry I should have pointed out that a little early but she actually, because of the hours that she spent, she wrote a book called "The Autism Source Book" for other parents because she said that in some ways she was trail blazing, just trying to figure out what worked and what didn't. And she wrote a book for so many parents out there. And she also acknowledges that Jake's case is a rarity that somebody would actually lose their autism diagnosis completely. But she talks about these therapies that are out there that have really made a difference and have helped these children make enormous strides regardless of whether or not they eventually are no longer considered autistic.
[Johns:] Really encouraging for parents, though. Of all the stories I've seen, it's one of the most encouraging stories.
[Chetry:] Yes. And we're going to linked it up with our Web site as well. We'd love for you to weigh in as well at CNN.comamFIX. Meanwhile, it's 29 minutes past the hour right now, and we're going to be talking about part three, by the way.
[Johns:] Yes.
[Chetry:] And this is a totally different this "Inside the Child's Mind" is completely different. This is about whether or not there are actual differences in the brains of men and women, how that corresponds to learning in the classroom. We're going to visit a single sex classroom where they say that by splitting the genders, they've actually raised test scores both for men and women for the female students and the male students. So is this idea working or does it leave kids ill-prepared as some critics say for a co-ed world? We're going to have a look at that tomorrow, "Inside the Child's Mind." Meanwhile, it's 30 minutes past the hour. A look at the top stories now. A series of five coordinated car bombings in central Baghdad leaving 100 people dead overnight. Four hundred others injured. A courthouse, the government's interior ministry and a university among the targets. And just yesterday, eight others died in a school bombing in Baghdad. Most of those killed were children. Two Northwest Airlines pilots, the ones who overshot their landing by more than 100 miles last October are now blaming air traffic controllers for the incident. The pilots filing documents with the National Transportation Safety Board trying to get their licenses back. After first claiming they were distracted while using their laptops, the pilots are now saying that controllers failed to follow rules and didn't effectively coordinate the flight with Northwest Airlines dispatchers. The New Jersey Senate poised to vote on a same-sex marriage bill Thursday. The bill narrowly cleared the Senate's judiciary committee last night. A vote of 7-6. If it passes, New Jersey would be the sixth state in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage. Joe.
[Johns:] With all of the focus on climate change in Copenhagen, it's hard to know what a global summit can really accomplish for you. If our leaders agree to environmental rules, how is it going to hit your wallet? What are some of the things you can do now to go green and maybe save some green too. Here for the "A.M. Breakdown" is Diane Brady, senior editor with "Business Week." And we hear of 100 different things, and there are some people, like me, for example who are a little bit worried how this is going to affect the pocketbook. Because it does sound like it could get a bit expensive. The first thing, one of the most interesting things I've heard about, is in Boston, where if you have one more trash can, say, two, and you put them out at the curb, they'll charge you for the second one but won't charge you for the first. How would that work if you were to put that idea all over the country?
[Diane Brady, Senior Editor, "businessweek":] Well, a lot of places are doing this now, where they are actually trying to quantify the fact that garbage and collecting garbage costs money. And one of the issues in Boston, is you're seeing people from surrounding suburbs where they are charged $3 per bag actually bring some of their garbage into neighboring municipalities. In effect, states are saying we don't want to pay to pick it up, we're going to limit how much garbage you have.
[Johns:] So two trash cans or two bags? Which one is it? Is it bag or can?
[Brady:] It's often bags. And what will happen is they'll give you a city-issued bag. This happens in candor right now. You have to divide your organic waste. People are used to recycling bottles and newspapers. I think we're going to have to get used to very quickly having to recycle almost all of our waste, because there will be a real limit. And states are highly motivated right now. Cities are motivated. They don't have the money to be doing pickup more than once a week in many cases.
[Johns:] Another thing, I think all of us have heard about energy star appliances and how they are supposed to save money and energy at the same time. There is now talk about energy star homes. What does that mean? It's just more of the same?
[Brady:] This is a big trend happening. It's where home builders basically with new homes, build homes that are at least 15 percent more energy efficient than the code and what that does is it promises to save you thousands of dollars on insulation and energy costs and it helps your resale value and it's also something that the home builders can use as an extra perk which they need in this market to try and get you to buy their home. Now there has been some controversy though, hasn't there, about whether these energy star appliances are actually as energy efficient as people say they are. Do we have a sense that eventually somewhere down the road, we're going to see some sort of commonality in the way you can judge the amount of money and the amount of energy you're saving? Well, I think that there's always controversy, in part because of the technologies keep improving. So every appliance built today is more energy efficient than 20 years ago. But the reality is you're going to probably save at least 15 percent, probably 30 percent if you're replacing an old appliance. And ultimately this is the right thing to do, this is the Department of Energy, it's the EPA. They are trying to get more Americans to use less energy. So you see it in appliances and homes everywhere.
[Johns:] And there's the idea of the commuter tax, which there had been a 100 different reasons for that. People talk about it in the District of Columbia as a way to raise revenue. But here in New York, it's seen as an energy-saving device. If you charge for cars coming into the city, fewer cars will come. Is that really an effective idea, you know, given the way America is sort of addicted to driving and addicted to petroleum?
[Brady:] We are an anomaly. When you look at Europe, when you look at Singapore even Mexico City, they either have congestion pricing where basically you pay more to go downtown, you have alternate street. They tried to do it in New York. Of course, it was pushed back in part because people in the boroughs said that it was regressive to people coming into the city. But the reality is you have to start passing the costs on to people, and the money that you save by
[Johns:] Passing the costs along, that sort of raises the overarching question here and it is, is going green be cheaper for us in the long run or more expensive?
[Brady:] You know, it's almost like, if you remember 20, 25 years ago, buying green toilet paper was twice as expensive as buying the regular stuff. As more and more people use it, what will happen is the price will come down. We've seen it happen with organic food and you look at something like wind energy. Right now, it's optional. People pay more to have that, but ultimately it's something that everyone absorbs the costs, and once we do that, it will just become the norm and we'll get used to it.
[Johns:] The other question, given the economy and where a lot of us are right now, trying to cut back rather than spend more, doesn't it make it a little harder to sell the idea of going green, if you're trying to save money in the short term?
[Brady:] Well, I think people have a sense of false economy. We love our cars. But let's face it, it is more expensive to drive your car to work every day than it is to take public transportation. The reality is, it's less convenient for most people to take public transportation. You have to weigh the costs and the benefits, but as it becomes more expensive, people will start to make choices that ultimately may be better for the planet.
[Johns:] Are we talking about going over a 10-year period to get to that point where it's less expensive, or a two-year period? I mean, short term, long term?
[Brady:] I think it depends on how many people are forced to absorb the cost. I get my con ed bill, for example, and it's optional whether or not I choose to, you know, pay a little extra for wind energy. Right now, utilities do that. Only two percent of Americans are willing to do it, because they feel like suckers. Why am I paying for wind energy when the guy next door isn't? If you make everybody pay, this will happen a lot quicker. If you get legislation in place we saw it with gas prices. When gas prices go over $4 per gallon, people suddenly start getting excited about taking the train or the bus. There are a lot of things that will come into play that will encourage people to make better decisions.
[Johns:] Diane Brady, thank you so much for that.
[Brady:] Thank you.
[Johns:] Kiran.
[Chetry:] Joe, thanks.
[Steve Barrett, Reporter, Wftv:] Basically, another bizarre night out of this Windmere area, Isle Worth, where Tiger Woods lives. Here's what we know, at 2:30 in the morning, approximately, this 911 call comes in. Shortly after that at the hospital right behind me, you're looking at, basically an ambulance arrives, and a woman gets out. Then an Escalade comes with what the videographer tells me looked like Elin Woods, Tiger Woods' wife. She gets out of an Escalade that has almost the precisely the same license number as the Escalade that he crashed that sort of started all of this. Of course, this all comes on the heels of several other women making claims that they have some relationship with him. Also, FHP, now Florida Highway Patrol coming forward and saying that they do now have a witness believed to be Tiger's wife saying he may have been drinking, may have also been taking some prescriptions like Ambien the night before the crash, and, of course, now we have this incident overnight. 2:30 in the morning. This ambulance shows up here, with a license plate that appears to be from the same leasing company that Tiger Woods, at least that crashed SUV. So there's a lot more happening on this story here today. We're expecting more information from FHP as well today on who this witness is that's making some claims that there may have been some drinking involved. Of course, FHP, Florida Highway Patrol, saying that they have no charges to make against Tiger Woods on this accident that might be based on those claims. Back to you.
[Chetry:] One of the questions, Steve, just because of the intense interest surrounding this, and, of course, the huge amount of questions now because of this woman being brought into the hospital. Is hospital staff going to be or administration or the police or the the rescue crews going to be weighing in at all, giving any detail on who this may be?
[Barrett:] It's not likely at this point. They are really kind of keeping their lips tight on this. The woman that we saw being taken into the hospital is a woman that is older. There has been some sort of speculation it may have been Tiger Woods' mother-in-law, Elin's mom. But we don't know that for sure Of course, with all of the rules and regulations around, you know, medical information, very difficult to get information, and, of course, this story itself is even more difficult. A will the of people clamming up around here. The best information, of course, coming out of FHP. We do have calls though into the Orange County Fire Rescue Service, and we'll, of course, bring you all of that latest information as we get it.
[Chetry:] All right. Steve Barrett for us of WFTV, live outside of the hospital there. Thanks so much. Well, Marines from Camp Lejeune heading into Afghanistan. Chris Lawrence is there this morning with more on what it's going to be like for these families facing yet another deployment. Hey, Chris.
[Chris Lawrence, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Kiran, how would you spend this morning? How would you treat your family if you only had a few weeks together? Stay with us after the break, so we can show you the other side of this new military deployment, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.