One of the tenets of ABA is to provide evidence-based practice. The best way to help us do this is to keep up with the literature! Each month, Sam Blanco, PhD, LBA, BCBA will select one journal article and provide discussion questions for professionals working within the ABA community.  Read thi…

Apps spell big business in the healthcare industry: Dozens of apps are marketed to people with conditions including depression, anxiety and autism. And Google parent company Alphabet announced Friday that it will buy wearable fitness tracker company FitBit. But many app developers sell users’ data, …

Autistic Author Interview Travis Breeding Travis Breeding has written over 15 books about his experiences with autism. Writing is a special interest and hobby for Travis. He feels it is important that people on the autism spectrum use their knowledge and talent to communicate what it feels lik…

Some people with autism have an unusually large head: This fact has been known since autism was first described in the 1940s. But debate about this finding has raged ever since. How many people with autism have a large head? What causes the enlargement? And does it have any bearing on outcome? Here …

Autistic Author Interview Laurie Kennedy After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Digital Film and TV Production, Laurie Kennedy found out that he would have to make extreme changes to his living situation if he wanted to pursue a career in film or television. He got cold feet and also felt it w…

ABA often gets a bad rap due to misunderstandings about reinforcement. In my career alone, I’ve had people tell me that people are not like rats and pigeons, that reinforcement harms intrinsic motivation, and that when I do produce behavior change, it has nothing to do with ABA but with my abilities…

Hello, and welcome to the Community Newsletter! I’m your host, Chelsey B. Coombs, Spectrum’s engagement editor. The first study to spark online exchanges this week looked at the link between autism traits and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults aged 50 and older who scored high on a meas…

By Aaron Bouma For my peoples with disabilities, stigma is something we continuously face. It is how we are perceived to be, to act, and what we are believed to be capable of as well as what expections people have when they become involved with us. Expectations can be like a scale. It can be good …

A new technique lets researchers watch brain circuits as they’re being built — starting from the individual neurons’ birth1. The method, applied in zebrafish, represents the first time scientists have visualized this entire process and may provide clues to how the brain develops in people with autis…

This boy with autism was bullied at school. So a celebrity stepped in.Source: The Autism Site

Thoughts on the role of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, from an autistic person.  Note that the views in this essay are my personal opinions only, and not the views of the committee or any government agency.  One role of this committee (IACC) should be to serve as a bridge b…

Children with autism inherit a greater burden of common genetic variants associated with autism than would be expected by chance1. These variants combine with rare, spontaneous autism mutations to boost autism risk. The unpublished results were presented today at the 2017 International Meeting for A…

By Christa Holmans, Neurodivergent Rebel I spend a lot of time sitting in the background, listening and observing, and soaking in other people’s conversations, especially online, where I can engage in my native language – text. Writing and reading have always been more accessible and mor…

Lovastatin, a drug that lowers cholesterol levels, prevents memory problems in a rat model of fragile X syndrome, a new study suggests1. The drug’s effects seem to last after treatment ends. The results offer the promise of a treatment for people with fragile X syndrome or, perhaps, autism. The synd…