Some of our favorite stories this year went beyond the news to lay bare critical controversies or highlight real-world implications of research. Here, in no particular order, are our top 10 picks. 1. Wide awake: Why children with autism struggle with sleep Half of children with autism have trouble f…

At 10 months of age, infants later diagnosed with autism rarely draw others’ attention to an object or event, a new study suggests1. The results hint that early treatments that focus on joint attention — a behavior in which two people focus on the same thing — could ease communication problems in au…

These specific waffles are pretty much all 10-year-old Jerico has eaten for the last year. Now they're discontinued. The post Community Comes Together to Help Autistic Boy Who Will Only Eat Discontinued Waffle Brand appeared first on The Autism Site News. Source: The Autism Site

I’m an adult with sensory sensitivities and diagnoses of both Aspergers and selective mutism. I remember what it was like to be a child with those challenges. Low-lifes took advantage of me. Adults who knew better laughed at me. Peers waved their hand in front of my face: “Yoo hoo! Is anybody …

“Audio can give you information, but it can’t give you literacy.” – Chris Danielsen for the National Federation of the Blind Even though Braille literacy is associated with better job outcomes, estimates suggest that only ten percent of blind children learn how to read Bra…

Lego sets are possibly the most fun construction toys that are enjoyed by both children and adults. Through these fun lego sets, children learn a lot about planning, communication (if they are building with others), and team work while working on their motor skills. However, lego sets are very visua…

You like to categorize things into ‘it is’ or ‘it is not’. It helps you keep track of the world around you, but I have to tell you are going about it the wrong way. This is not a world of binaries. Certainly some binaries do exist, but this is largely a world of spectra- vibrant, living, breathing, …

February is Black History Month. If you have someone you’d like to add to this post, please comment below. 1. Anita Cameron Anita is one of the original disability rights activitists in the United States. She worked on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Read more about…

By Nils Skudra This weekend I had the opportunity to finish watching the second season of Love on the Spectrum, the acclaimed Netflix miniseries chronicling the dating lives of several individuals on the autism spectrum. Picking up from where the first season left off, this season explores the conti…

Last week I went to Washington to review autism research proposals for the Department of Defense.  Most people have no idea Defense does autism research so I’d like to take a moment to explain . . .A NIH Autism committee in session (DoD is similar)The proposals I reviewed are part of a program …

A new patent on variants in an autism gene is unlikely to hold up in court, some experts say, but may still hamper research. In December, LabCorp, a healthcare diagnostics company in Burlington, North Carolina, received a patent that appears to cover any test that can identify three variants in the …

If you’re living with a disability that makes it challenging to carry out normal activities in the typical home, it can be overwhelming to tackle the necessary modifications. There are many types of disabilities, and each has its own set of helpful home modifications. Of course, these recommendation…

Continuing their trend of making shoes that works for everyone, Nike just announced a  new shoe that’s easy to take on and off for people with disabilities. The Air Zoom UNVRS was created keeping in mind WNBA player Delle Donne for basketball games and someone  like her sister Lizzie, who has …

A new gene-editing system allows researchers to switch one DNA letter for another in cells. It may enable researchers to engineer animals to evaluate the consequences of these ‘point mutations.’ The new tool builds off of the CRISPR-CAS9 system, in which a scissor-like enzyme homes in on specific sp…