Two novel algorithms that analyze where a child looks as she views a video could help clinicians spot autism. They might also provide clues to the severity of the child’s autism features, according to a new study1. Clinicians typically diagnose autism using both a caregiver questionnaire (the Autism…

By Taylor Cross Something you should ask yourself before continuing on with the rest of this article is “Why do people in general play video games?”  With that, I would tease “Why do people go the movies?” or “Why do people read horrible gossip magazines?” It’…

He had bruises all over his body.Source: The Autism Site

In autism research, as in other fields, a small sample size can lead to false findings. Insufficient sample size can fail to distinguish signal from noise, confounding attempts to determine which patterns are real and which are merely an artifact. Most studies of treatments for people with autism in…

Genes linked to autism in sequencing studies tend be located in long stretches of DNA that are duplicated or missing in some people with developmental conditions. Researchers presented the unpublished results yesterday at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics conference in San Diego, Californi…

By Pamela Urfer A lot of people are put off by Jesus because they think of him as a stern taskmaster who is just waiting to whack us if we step out of line. This concept is particularly anxiety-making for neurodiverse people who are, by definition, always out of line. As a woman on the spectrum, I h…

Brushing teeth and going to the dentist can often trigger sensory issues for children with autism.Source: The Autism Site

So much to say on this topic, far more than anyone would actually want to read. Does ABA therapy require/demand/force individuals into a narrow and specific box titled “NORMAL”? No. (Well, it shouldn’t anyway) But the myth persists. I mean this in the best way, but many of the chil…

The motion perception difficulties seen in people with fragile X syndrome, a leading cause of autism, stem from a faulty visual circuit in the brain, a new study suggests1. Activating certain neurons in this circuit improves motion perception in a mouse model of the condition. The results indicate a…

The largest autism sequencing study to date implicates 99 genes in the condition — but nearly half show tighter ties to intellectual disability or developmental delay than to autism. Researchers presented the unpublished results yesterday at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics conference in …

By Ron Sandison On August 21st my second book Thought, Choice, Action was published. I spent over 1,200 hours researching and writing this book. I now have two traditionally published books and speak at over 70 events a year on autism including 20 plus educational conferences. In the process of wri…

Dr. Ariana Anderson, a professor and statistician at UCLA, has created a new app that can help deaf parents determine the reason why their baby is crying. The reason can be anything – the baby is in pain, being fussy or is hungry (there can be more reasons but for now the app figures out these…

Elephant therapy in Thailand https://www.theautismnews.com/2011/05/12/elephant-therapy-in-thailand/ We’re all familiar with the practice of animal therapy for individuals with a range of disabilities from common household animals like dogs and cats to equine therapy, the newest animal to be include …

automatic punishment  Punishment that occurs independent of the social mediation of others (i.e., a response product serves as a punisher independent of the social environment). Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., & Heward, W.L. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson…