The post Spotted around the web: Week of 4 November 2019 appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

Rats with a mutation in CACNA1C, a gene linked to autism, make fewer happy squeaks while playing than controls do, and ignore other rats’ requests to play, a new study suggests1. The findings indicate that the gene plays an important role in social communication. CACNA1C codes for part of a protein …

According to WHO, there are 285 million people worldwide that are visually impaired and 90% of this population lives in poverty. It goes without saying that visually impaired people face challenges on a daily basis. However, it is also refreshing to see makers and individuals out there building solu…

By Megan Amodeo I have been thinking about social norms lately. These thoughts were prompted by my youngest daughter’s refusal to conform to certain social niceties. Ever since my youngest bright eyed, dark haired, third daughter was born, she has refused to follow socially acceptable forms of…

Gabriel is 8 years old and happens to be non-verbal with autism. His family thinks he’s super!  Some of his favorite things include Batman, the color orange, reading, animals & letters! Super G? We think you’re super too! Welcome to the Mighty League: Would you like us to feature yo…

By Samantha Craft I am a neurodivergent individual. The modern-day term of what it means to be neurodivergent is extremely fluid in nature. Mood disorders, such as PTSD, are appearing under the neurodivergent umbrella, as are brain injuries that cause cognitive impairments or differences. Neurodiver…

Infinitely Polar Bear articulates an encouraging message about the ability of neurodivergent individuals to be successful parents, a goal they can achieve through love and support from their partners and from their children. By Nils Skudra This week I had the opportunity to watch Maya Forbes’ 2014 p…

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Maternal miss: Unlike a control mouse, female m…

The post Webinar: Evelina Fedorenko discusses language processing in autism appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

A few years ago, I received a phone call from the mother of a young man with autism. She had just learned that her son, who was in his 20s, has a deletion in SHANK3, one of the genes my team discovered is mutated in some people with autism. I was surprised by her news because I had met her son and f…

Thanks to 3D printing, prosthetic limbs have become extremely affordable for a lot of amputees. Even then, the use of prosthetic limbs, especially in children, is fairly limited. In order to understand what it would take to accelerate the transformation provided by 3D printed limbs, researchers at U…

Mental Health Awareness By Christa Holmans, Neurodivergent Rebel May is Mental Health Awareness Month, one month a year where people wear green and talk about mental health. As someone who struggles with their mental health, I wish we would spend more time talking about these issues because th…

The First Step of Teaching Self-Monitoring andImplementation of The Self & Match System Educators have long known the wide-range of variables that impact the behavioral success of our students.  Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of students were educated in-person; l…

Teaching language skills is one of the most frequent needs for children with autism, but also one of the most misunderstood skillsets amongst both parents and practitioners. The desire to hear your learner speak in full sentences can be overwhelming, making it especially difficult to take a step bac…