by Nils Skudra Recently I had the opportunity to watch A Man Called Otto, a heartwarming comedy-drama starring Tom Hanks as Otto, a grumpy and bitter retiree who routinely insults his neighbors and enforces the traffic rules of his condominium neighborhood until he is befriended by an immigrant fami…

The United Nations has declared April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. We love this image by contributing artist Steve Selpal. While some including the White House are lighting it up blue, others are lighting it up gold or sharing rainbow-infused images. We at the Art of Autism believe Autism Awaren…

Margaux is an #ActuallyAutistic blogger who lives near Vancouver, Canada. She loves art, crafts, cats, tea, traveling, and watching a few of her favorite reality TV shows. She blogs about her life as one of the ways she advocates for herself and the autistic community. Your blog: Navigating Life: My…

Peruse our picks (above) for the best science photos published on Spectrum this year. We’ve showcased two videos below, too. Vascular view: A new technique provides a three-dimensional picture of blood vessels in the brain and spinal cord of a rat.   Sneak peek: This video speeds through a …

David Celiberti, PhD, BCBA-D, Maithri Sivaraman, MSc, BCBA, and Yash GuptaAssociation for Science in Autism Treatment Resistance associated with dental visits is an all-too-common challenge for many individuals with (and without) autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  Such resistance can lead…

Go is a 3D printed wheelchair. Customized to user’s body dimensions for comfort, safety, and flexibility. Allows users to participate in design process. Customer gets it in 3 weeks.  Just like crutches, wheelchairs haven’t seen much of a design overhaul over a long period of time. Many …

Into Your (Joe’s) World by Michael C. Kregler As a composer, I’ve always tried to follow this self-imposed advice: in order to create authentic and convincing music, be sure to a) study great composers, and b) write within your own experience. The latter would become especially significant when, in …

Who are the people from the disability community making the world better for all of us? That’s what the inclusion team at San Francisco Bay Area libraries wanted to know. They reached out to the public for their opinions and were enthusiastically overwhelmed with responses. As a result, 54 individua…

“What people forget is that autism is a developmental disability. It’s not a learning disability. We’re not all nerdy guys who are good at math like Sheldon on the ‘Big Bang Theory.’ We come in all shapes and sizes. I want to create a paradigm shift to view students with autism as the bright…

A lot of advancement has been made recently in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) where electrodes implanted in a person’s brain can track “thoughts” and send them to a device (like a computer) to either communicate with others or to perform actions. Typically, these impl…

“What does it mean to be autistic?” Amy Goodman “It means you have special talents and skills inside you,” Owen Suskind “What are those talents?” Amy Goodman “Being a good artist, and a piano player, and a good writer, author, and a storyteller, and a possib…

“I know of nobody who is purely autistic, or purely neurotypical. Even God has some autistic moments, which is why the planets spin,” Jerry Newport, author of Your Life is Not a Label By Ron Sandison Every person experiences fear and anxiety. It’s part what makes us human. Sensory issues…

For more than five decades, I have studied how our physiology influences mental processes and behavior. During this period, I have studied people — including autistic children — who have trouble regulating their behavior and emotions. Based on my research, I have developed a theory: The neural regul…

Researcher Randi Hagerman is a big proponent of metformin — a diabetes drug that helps people manage their weight. In fact, Hagerman takes the drug herself as a preventive measure against cancer. Metformin has also unexpectedly shown promise for improving cognition in people with fragile X syndrome,…