If you ever get a chance to hang with Finley, you may notice that she sometimes “looks” at you peripherally. Particularly when the situation is intense. Doctors have asked us to work with Finley to “let us see her eyes” to help facilitate communication. And this has always bo…

A new test claims to assess a child’s risk of autism based on abnormal folds in the placenta, and is being offered to pediatricians in the U.S. But with little evidence to support its use, experts say the test is premature and unethical. Yale University researcher Harvey Kliman introduced the Placen…

The child was trapped in a parking lot in the school transportation van for four hours.Source: The Autism Site

Two imaging techniques together reveal architectural features of the brains of preterm infants of various ages1. The results hint at a pattern that could serve as a benchmark for typical brain development; deviations could raise a red flag for conditions such as autism. The fetal brain undergoes rap…

Issue 16’s Big Question What coping skills or accommodations help you/ and or your child with Autism Spectrum Disorder when traveling? Gretchen McIntire, our Guest Editor, asked this question to the #ActuallyAutistic Community on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s what they had to say: “I’m pretty cool w…

Few of the most popular early treatments for autism are supported by strong evidence, a systematic review suggests; even treatments with relatively strong evidence did not meet the review’s high standards1. A second analysis reviewed studies that support pivotal response treatment (PRT) and found th…

Reposted with permission from How To ABA All kids have trouble waiting for things that they want. They even have trouble waiting in line at the grocery store. Waiting is a huge skill. So once our learners have mastered some early instructions, like come here or sit down, then we typically start w…

By Debra Muzikar Last year The Art of Autism posted a blog on Person First Language (PFL) which proved to be educational for me and I hope for others. This year I’m tackling the word neurodiversity, which is much more complex. I didn’t know some people object to the word until I moderated a neurodiv…

Read this essay in Zoom Autism Magazine! “Your son is amazing!” That’s what a woman said to me at a reception the other day. Jonathan was doing some volunteer work for an organization that helps autistic teens and adults develop social skills and friendships through filmmaking. They were having a fi…

By Megan Amodeo In life, there are many rites of passage. For most teenagers, the biggest and most sought after rite is driving a car. Of course if you want to drive, you need a driver’s license. If you want a license, you need to take driver’s education. In our school district, driver’s education i…

“Mindfulness has freed me from years of sadness and frustrations that I originally thought were because I was autistic but now I feel that those past experiences with sadness and frustration were because I did not know how to be mindful and create my own happiness,” Travis Breeding By Tr…

Women who take folic acid or other vitamins before or during pregnancy decrease their chances of having a child with autism, suggests a study published last week1. But some experts are skeptical that the vitamins provide this protective effect. Vitamins — and in particular vitamin B9, or folic acid …

By Taylor Cross Hrgrsdsdsidflghrltr Resident Evil 2 2019 Is AMAZING!!!! Okay I got that out of my system … now for the real stuff. As a fan of the Resident Evil series, it does a lot really well. The controls are intuitive, the art direction is amazing, the atmosphere is taut…

The genetics of autism is extremely complex, with mutations in any of several hundred genes conferring small amounts of risk. To slice through this complexity, scientists have focused on related conditions that are caused by mutations in a single gene. These conditions may point to common pathways a…