The latest celeb name to be hooked to the adoption bandwagon is that "La Vida Loca" guy, Ricky Martin. (Who, incidentally actually played here in Seychelles once a few years back ... before anyone had heard of him outside of Puerto Rico.)

Quick to ward off the usual star-power-does-adoption stuff, he says he's planning to "do it right".

Deeply involved in children's issues through his work as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and the Ricky Martin Foundation, including anti-trafficking efforts, and even an affiliation with the International Organization for Migration I wrote about on today's International Blog, which I'm please to note doesn't appear to have dented his respect for international adoption.

You have to wonder who should get kids, though, when coming across stories like this one out of Australia ... a two-year-old girl who ate Ecstasy off her parents' floor apparently belongs with them, according to welfare authorities there.

This, after two reports unrelated to drug use lodged in concern over the child's health, has the Department of Community Services deeming the parents 'fit'.

Sigh ...

Called "research orphans, girls with autism get little attention, as this comprehensive article illustrates.

The Centers for Disease Control puts the number of autistic kids under 21 at about 560,000, and with estimates of percentages saying 1 in 4 would be girls that would add up to about 140,000.

Very interesting in the information this provides, a look into the special problems girls face in living with all forms of autism points out that an Asperger's boy might have an easier time because, "... like it or not, awkwardness is a more acceptable male trait."

... so girls with autism and normal intelligence may end up at a particular disadvantage. In a new study published in May, a group of German researchers compared 23 high-functioning autistic girls with 23 high-functioning boys between the ages of 5 and 20, matching them for age, I.Q. and autism diagnosis. Parents reported more problems for girls involving peer relations, maturity, social independence and attention.

The difficulty may continue into adulthood. While some men with Asperger’s marry and have families, women almost never do ...

And parents working to make their kids smarter might want to take a read of this from a pediatric study ... apparently educational DVDs may have the opposite effect.

Researchers at the University of Washington and the Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute found that, "... for every hour infants aged eight to 16 months watched such videos as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby, they understood six to eight fewer words than their peers."

Wow.

Calling this a "large negative association", they're asking parents to think again before plopping baby down and hitting the 'play' button.

Speculating that the harm comes when videos take the place of parental interaction, the report does have its critics, not surprisingly the "Baby Einstein" people who sent out an e-mailed response saying that the company had "serious concerns" about the study.

The research data was collected by a phone survey of 1,000 parents in Washington and Minnesota.

Just for what it's worth ... and that's not much, I'll admit ... I'm thinking how many words a kid knows at 17 months old has very little to do with how much they'll jabber your ears off when they're four, and I rather like the fact that Sam and Cj recognize Mozart when they hear his music.