Assessment is the cornerstone of creating appropriate and effective interventions. Two common assessments used for youngsters with autism are the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R) and the Verbal Behavior – Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP). You’ve…

SignGlasses, a company based out of Salt Lake City, UT, is changing the way deaf students interact with sign language interpreters and professors in classrooms. SignGlasses offers a pair of glasses that show a miniature video of the sign language interpreter on one side of the lenses signing in rea…

Update 4/24/2018 I’m collecting favorite quotes about autism from some of my favorite people. Please share your own in the comments and if I like it, I may add it to the list. 1. “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism,” Dr. Stephen Shor…

Dually diagnosed with autism and Down syndrome, Dana Anderson has found her voice through art. Dana Anderson is a 25-year-old emerging artist who paints with acrylics on canvas and boards. Instead of conspicuously or deliberately altering or representing a subject, Dana’s color, texture, line, and f…

It’s been a few years since I first heard the phrase, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.”  I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I just accepted those words without question, for quite a long time.  Today I see them differently.Growing up on a farm …

The sibling relationship is often the most long lasting relationship a person has in their lifetimes. It is often life-changing for the sibling who is not disabled. Siblings tend to be more sensitive to others being bullied, more empathetic to people with differences, and often times go into careers…

By Helen Wallace-Iles I was recently introduced to the amazing work of a young autistic man called Chris Baker – a self-taught pencil artist from Cardiff, South Wales, UK. I found his art truly inspiring and decided to find out more. What I discovered was the story of an ordinary family whose …

“Vibrant waves of sequenced patterns emerged in my head whenever I looked at musical notes and scores. Like pieces of a mysterious puzzle solved, it was natural for me to see music and its many facets as pictures in my head. It never occurred to me that others couldn’t see what I saw.” By Stephen S…

By Kaelynn Partlow Often those of us on the autism spectrum do things that neurotypical people have difficulty understanding. To outsiders, autistic behavior can look “odd” or seem “not to make sense.” Sometimes a person’s behavior can even be frightening. It’s not uncommon for autistic…

By Ramy Mahmoud In my 10 years of teaching ninth grade, I, as have many of my colleagues, struggled with a certain category of students; the low performers. These are the boys and girls who walk into our classes on the first day of school EXPECTING to fail. They know nothing about us, but we represe…

Mito… a progressive disease that affects almost every part of my body in some way. In fact, it’s almost certain that whatever the genetic error that has caused my mito is responsible for my autism as well, as autism is pretty common in mito. Suffice to say that I’ve had more than a few h…

Billy was my favorite Power Ranger and I love that they chose him to be on the autism spectrum in this movie. By Brent Anderson Go, Go, Power Rangers! I saw the Power Rangers movie last weekend and I loved it. I have been a Power Rangers fan since it came out in 1993. Growing up, I watched the show …

By Angela Weddle When the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil came on the scene, I immediately knew I had to have it. This was the digital art platform I had been dreaming of. I had done digital art off and on since high school. Using Photoshop version 4 and Mac G4s, and later crude digital painting apps on v…

Autism Sonata by Neena Wagh A world viewed with squinted eyes different sounds howling in the ears spinning and swirling like a derwish, laughing at me, laughing with me, a mystery waiting to be unfold, catch me..catch me if you can, breathless, I am caught unaware! making sense of things beyond me,…