By: Caitlin Reilly Lostan, PsyD, BCBA, NCSP (Breakthrough Learning Group) and Marcia Questel, MSEd, BCBA (Association for Science in Autism Treatment) The following is an excerpt from Lostan, C., & Questel, M.’s “How can I structure playdates for success?” featured in …

About 1.8 percent of schoolchildren in England are autistic, according to one of the largest autism prevalence studies to date. The prevalence is highest among Black children — about 2.1 percent. The findings, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, represent a slight uptick from a 2009 estimate of 1.6 …

If you're like most people, your new year's resolutions are anything but a path to long-lasting positive change. You make a resolution, stick with it for a couple weeks before letting it lapse, and then beat up on yourself for not being able to stick with it.  Instead of setting yourself up to fail …

“Mom why does my brain get so much fear when my food is different? I like chocolate, but I can’t eat this chocolate pudding because my nose freaks out with the wrong smell of the weird chocolate.” We have always been open and direct with Finley about differences. All of our kids really. …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the Swiss drug company Roche a rare ‘breakthrough therapy’ designation for a drug that may ease some features of autism. The breakthrough designation means that the drug, balovaptan, can move more quickly to FDA approval. Experts are hopeful ab…

Autistic mom, Megan Amodeo, uses her autistic daughter’s watching, listening and mimicking her as a teaching opportunity. By Megan Amodeo Do you ever feel like someone’s watching you? Like maybe someone is watching and recording everything you say and do? Guess what, if you have a child on the…

When I first came across this study, “Behavioral Training for Siblings of Autistic Children,” I was immediately hesitant. There’s something about the idea of sibling-as-therapist that makes me cringe a little bit. When I work with the families of children with autism, the hope is that th…

This is part two in a series on ethics and effective treatment. Part one can be found here.   In Part One, I discussed the right to effective treatment as detailed by the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts. An essential part of effective treatment is providing, as t…

The post Spotted around the web: Week of 18 February 2019 appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

When clinicians suspect someone has autism, they often turn to screening tools — standardized questionnaires or checklists that measure autism traits. If a high score corroborates their hunch, they refer the person to a specialist for a diagnostic evaluation. These screening tools typically come wit…

Infants born prematurely have a higher risk of autism than infants delivered at term, and this risk climbs the earlier a baby is born. But it’s unclear whether these autism features are merely a by-product of the complications of prematurity. Autism in premature infants is no different from classic …

A 32 year old woman in India, whose tuberculosis manifested in her spine, ended up with a curved posture that obstructed her spinal cord, resulting in progressive weakness in her limbs. The disease caused so much damage to her spine in 10 different vertebrae that there was no support between her sku…

By Walter Suskind Parts of the story of my life with Owen will ring familiar to many people reading this. For the now almost 1 in 50 people diagnosed as Autistic in this country, there is often a brother or a sister who has been by their side since the beginning—and will be there for as long as they…

…Or rather, let the next generation of assistive technology say “hello” to you. From the beginning, our friends at Bluebee Pals have been committed to children with special needs. Their robotic, huggable, plushie toys have been front and center in learning environments and homes helping children of …