The Morning News du lieu suivant : Wilmington, Delaware • Page 13

CUV The Morning News, Tuesday, July 24, 1973 13 Labrador retriever Champ' helps autistic children learn to speak Ity Hotly Burroughs massive Uib to the museum at u.adds Ford last week. know it. They cannot think nurse, started the school at St. with words." Georges four years ago. 1 ''i- jr 4-.

i jw-' vvk 'r uL KP3ti ty Xv 'if w-'4h i-ik-T i 7j Si' 3Ps S1Y mY CI Hence, teaching these children to talk is a vital part of the therapy at Au Clair. While Champ is an acciden Mazik says they accept only those who meet the school's diagnostic standards; that is, children who fall into the extreme autistic category known as Kanncr's Syndrome. "We like to work with the every five autistic children are hoys. The age range at Au Clair at present is 7 to 19. Almost without exception they come from high-income families and solid home backgrounds with both parents of above-average intelligence.

Not one is an "only child." "They seem to crop up in between," says Mazik. The cause of "infantile autism" is unknown and there are divided camps as to how or if it may be cured. There are certain traits true autistic children have in common. They are musically gifted, often with perfect pitch; and nearly all are quite beautiful of face and form. Nearly all also are afraid of dogs which makes Champ's conquest all the more One purpose of the trip was to introduce Champ to his hig-ger-than-lifc statue for which ho modeled last year, sitting for two hours at a stretch for Hockessin sculptor Charles C.

Parks. The result is a striking likeness of Champ alongside of which the 120-pound model is somewhat dwarfed. The lifelike fiberglass Lab sits laughing in the courtyard outside the entrance to the museum, an imposing figure in the current exhibit of works by Parks and his sons Christopher and Eric. Although Champ laughed back at his oversized likeness, the canny canine did not choose to speak, shake or even sniff. Champ wasn't fooled.

He'd seen it before. After all, he Champ met his match at Rrandywine River Museum the other day. The big, black Uibrador retriever didn't even bark, growl, shake paws or say, "hello." He could have done any one or all of these things because the 4-year-old mascot of the Au Clair School for autistic Children at St. Georges actually can talk. The dog was taught by the same method used at Au Clair to teach these deeply disturbed children to speak.

Kenneth M. Mazik, the school's owner, director and psychologist, says Champ happened to be observing one day and responded to instruction being given the children. From then on it has been easy. Mazik and his wife, Claire, just took it from there and Champ and the children have been learning together. The dog, once feared by every autistic child entering the school, now is their friend, their classmate, their idol.

They talk to one another and one of the first words the heretofore mute children say is "Champ." Another name they have for him is "main man," because Champ is just that around their Gingerbread House, as Au Clair is known. Three of his Au Clair buddies, who haven't been talking as long as Champ has, accompanied the Maziks and the -) in ui I tal appendage to the technique, he definitely has lightened the learning process for some of the most difficult cases. When Champ says his piece to the satisfaction of his instructors, he gets a goodie. So do the children. With Champ it's become a case of "C'mon kids.

If I can do it, you can do it." To prove their pet is no dumb dog, Mazik played a video tape of Champ during one of his early class sessions when his vocabulary was not as extensive as it is now. "Of course," Mazik explains, "a dog cannot reproduce the human voice. What Champ does is approximate the sounds of words." This, too, is -what the children do and having the normal vocal equipment they eventually become coherent. Nevcrthless, the children recognize their own names and other words as articulated in the low, gruff voice of their friend, Champ. None of the 23 residents of Au is from Delaware, they come from a'l par's of the United States, also London and Hawaii.

"We have the largest population of autistic children in the world," says Mazik who with his wife, a psychiatric worst cases ones who couldn't be helped at other institutions," he adds. Mazik notes that the only Delaware children he knows about who qualify are being treated at the Terry Children's Psychiatric Center at Farn-hurst. There also is a cost factor. Au Clair is a private school, dependent on donations and in-c from tuition which necessarily is high. In order to achieve results, the Maziks have a large staff.

The ratio of staff to children is 1 to 2. Mazik, a Wilmington native, is a graduate of Salesianum School and the University of Delaware with his master's degree in psychology from Temple University. He worked with emotionally disturbed and retarded children in Delaware and with the Pearl Buck Foundation before he and his wife started Au Clair. The Maziks have no children of their own but they run their school as a family. 21of their present family of 23 (not counting Champ) are boys.

posed for it. The big, black-coated purebred was on his dignity. Maybe it was because he had read the sign on the outside gate "No dogs admitted." Champ was a special guest this day. So were his Au Clair colleagues. Nevertheless, Mazik is not spoofing about their talking dog.

It's a serious business and very much a part of the therapy that has helped even the most extremely withdrawn of the young patients. Somehow they identify with Champ, which is astounding in itself since by Mazik's definition an autistic child is one who does not identify, does not imitate and "has not developed a thought process as we ME AND MY SHADOW -Champ, (above) the Au Clair School's big black Labrador retriever is more interested in being with his "gang" than fraternizing with Charles C. Parks' sculptured likeness for which the big dog posed for many hours. With Champ at the Brandywine River Museum (left) are Richy Raczkowski, 12, of New York; Phil Schuster, 13, of Philadelphia, and Simon Diamond, 7, of London, all artistic children from Au Clair School, St. Georges (Staff photos by J.

Glenn Crawford). This figures because four of Sound of scissors once again heard cutting hairstyles By Phyllis Feldkamp Christian Science Monitor News Service NEW YORK Next to hemlines, nothing in fashion has so stirred things, in the long view, as hair. Just a short time ago fun was poked at the bouffant style on girls who seemed, to paraphrase Joyce Kilmer, to wear a nest of robins in their hair. Swinging hair by the yard followed. Youth 1 was transmogrified by the musical "Hair," and there ensued the furor caused by the new longhaired young man, as parents despaired and barbers looked gloomily out the windows of their empty shops.

Now the snip, snip, snip of the hairdresser's scissors is heard in the land, yet no one is say SHORTER HAIR Three ex-ample of the shorter, simpler hairstyles for women are the low-layers bob hairstyle, above; the short soft contours featured at right; and the selected layer, face-forming waves shown ing boo. Can it be the taste for controversy has dulled in the 1970s? Men's hairdressers report a return to the close-cropped head with the F. Scott Fitzgerald cut a leader for show business, fashion, advertising and other avant-garde male types. In women's fashions, designers and hair stylists concur on the chic of the small head, shorter hair being a part of the "less is more" simplificailon that has been coming about. The new lengths go from skull-hugging clips and little-boy cuts to straight, smooth, shoulder-grazing hair.

In between the shortest and the longest of the latest hairdos are softly waved helmet styles and chin-length page boys For anyone whose facial contours demand depth and breadth there arc ruffle and other cuts that follow the natural lines of the head yY CJ. JOHN WANAMAKER FACES SUMMER SKIN and do not give the wearer a skinned or scalped appearance. A dated hairstyle is not somethng one can easily pack up and send off to Goodwill along with last year's misbegotten clothing. Altering a long-time favorite hairdo takes a certain courage. Length, however, is not so important as the shaping of the hair to suit the head, features and body structure, say John and Suzanne Chadwick, who direct Gleniby-Now, an international network of hairdressing salons.

Their hairdressers arc trained in Ixmdon at a seminar attended by representatives from the United States and Canada to give hair shape and form through the cut, thereby dispensing with teasing, spraying and using gooey lotions to hold a set. Their system, similar to that of Vidal Sas-soon and others of the London crimpers, means more lime spent in regular visits to the hair-drwser lor expert culling. the shaped cut saves many minutes daily and is certainly worth a tryoul this summer for anyone now wedded to a style dependent on curlers and backcombing that is going to will, in any case, in humid weather. PROBLEMS HEAD ON WITH ESTEE LAUDER COSMETICS STOP IN AND RECEIVE A BONUS Does the sun make your skin too oily? Too dry? Is soap harsh on your sensitive face? Fear not. Estee Lauder has a refreshing cosmetic program specially designed for summerphiles.

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