TV presenter Melanie Sykes has revealed that she’s been diagnosed as autistic at 51 years old. She says... The post TV Presenter Melanie Sykes Receives Autism Diagnosis At Age 51 appeared first on The Autism Site News. Source: The Autism Site

Hello, and welcome to the Community Newsletter! I’m your host, Chelsey B. Coombs, Spectrum’s engagement editor. The research community jumped on a new paper this week that looked at the relationship between autism and the gut microbiome, which some work suggests may be less diverse in autistic peopl…

13-year-old Grant Loftin may not be old enough to drive just yet, but he loves classic cars and... The post Autistic Boy Who Loves Classic Cars Is Surprised With His Own Car Show For His Birthday appeared first on The Autism Site News. Source: The Autism Site

Growing numbers of autistic children are diagnosed with the condition before age 3, in the United States, and those diagnoses tend to precede the start of any interventions or developmental services, according to a new study based on parent surveys. Children traversing autism’s ‘diagnostic odyssey’ …

The post Spotted around the web: Gut microbes, clinical genetics, brain organoid ethics appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

Welcome to this month’s edition of the By the Numbers Newsletter. At Spectrum, we do our best to summarize the latest autism research findings. Sometimes, the best summary comes in the form of a chart or map. In this newsletter, we boil down interesting new research that is conveyed most succinctly …

A form of autism marked by a distinctive pattern of brain overconnectivity arises from an excess of synapses, according to a new study in mice. The findings bolster the theory that autism subtypes have different biological roots and may require different treatment approaches. Autistic people have al…

Two new methods make it possible to delete long sections of the genome, expanding the capabilities of the gene editor CRISPR. The techniques could lead to therapies that excise large insertions or duplications tied to autism, such as the DNA repeats that underlie fragile X syndrome. To remove a segm…

By Jill MacCormack There are certain autumn nights when the quality of air is of such utter perfection that no matter my exhaustion I must heed the call of a walk under the auspices of darkness. Tonight was one such night. A gentle rain had fallen early in the eve, just enough to deepen the damp sme…

My own introduction to prompting and fading I was first introduced to the idea of prompting and fading when I co-ordinated a home based early learning program for my eldest son, Christopher, who is on the spectrum of autism. I soon came to appreciate how important these strategies were and are in…

Autistic children tend to rate cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as less effective at treating their anxiety than their parents and clinicians do, according to a meta-analysis of 19 randomized clinical trials. The result, based on data from 833 autistic children up to 18 years old, raises concerns …

Guest post by Andréas RB Deolinda, BA, BSc. As an educational facilitator who has worked in special education... The post Benefits of Theater and Dramatherapy for Children with Autism appeared first on The Autism Site News. Source: The Autism Site

Since sensory differences became part of the diagnostic criteria for autism in 2013, an increasing number of autism researchers have been drawn to the thalamus, the egg-shaped sensory relay station nestled deep in the brain. The flurry of interest has built a case for the thalamus as an important se…

Adding non-neuronal brain cells called microglia to cortical organoids speeds up the rate at which their neurons mature, increases the synchronization of their firing and appears to reduce cell stress, according to a new study. These changes, as well as others, help the clusters of cultured cells re…