John McCain incorrectly says Trig Palin has autism?

From The AP:

JUNEAU, Alaska — Sarah Palin is frequently seen at campaign stops cradling her infant son Trig, who has Down syndrome. Her decision to give birth to Trig even after learning her fifth child would have the condition has burnished her anti-abortion views with conservatives.

So viewers of Wednesday night's presidential debate might have been somewhat taken aback when John McCain said his running mate understands "what it's like to have an autistic child." Not directly, perhaps, but Palin does have a 13-year-old nephew with autism.

The McCain-Palin campaign said his mother is Palin's sister, Heather Bruce.

McCain used that family background during the debate to bolster her credentials. Palin, he said, was "a role model to women, a reformer, understood special needs like autism" and understands special needs families better than "anyone in the country."

Palin touted her own record supporting special needs children in an interview conducted via e-mail that was published Sept. 30 in her hometown newspaper, The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

"It is our hope that by providing the necessary funding support, we can touch more children with special needs who did not have opportunities before due to the prohibitive costs of providing the appropriate care," Palin wrote.

That said, programs and spending for special needs children haven't been a highlight of Palin's 21 months in office as Alaska's governor, during which she has focused on cutting a deal for a natural gas pipeline.

Spending remained flat for the Department of Health and Social Services during her first year in office, although she oversaw a 6 percent increase in spending on agency operations a year later. State funding for disabled children this year included $500,000 for diagnostic services for autistic children, a program that was started last year, and another $250,000 to train workers in providing early intervention for them.

The governor also successfully pushed for an increase in education funding for severely disabled students that raised the level from $26,900 to $49,300 per student this year.

But Palin's vetoes to the state capital budget also struck hard at a project serving such children. Two months after Trig was born, Palin sliced half of the $550,000 capital request for an indoor training facility for Special Olympics Alaska, the local arm of the international nonprofit organization.

"We didn't know what happened," said Valdez Republican Rep. John Harris, who serves on the organization's board. "Especially in light of the fact that the governor herself had a child who very well would qualify for Special Olympics. It's a great learning tool."

Autism is a complex disorder usually not diagnosed in children until after age 3. It is characterized by a range of behaviors, including difficulty in expressing needs and inability to socialize. The cause is not known.

Down syndrome is due to a chromosomal condition that can be detected through prenatal testing. People with Down syndrome usually are mildly to moderately intellectually disabled and they have a distinctive facial appearance. The chance of having a child with Down syndrome increases as a woman ages.