The post Webinar: Orrin Devinsky discusses cannabis compounds for epilepsy appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

A widely used test for autism misses some children with delays in motor, social and communication skills — suggesting that improvements to this test and others may help clinicians pick up on these signs. The findings appear today in Pediatrics1. The test, called the Modified Checklist for Autism in …

Here are some strategies for helping a person on the spectrum control their behavior.Source: The Autism Site

An interview with Stuart Duncan, creator of the computer game Autcraft, a safe alternative to Minecraft By Stephanie King Stuart Duncan has given the community something to talk about, Autcraft, a Minecraft server with special admins and rules designed with children on the spectrum in mind. I wasn’t…

The post Cerebral palsy connection; misleading expressions; multiple maladies and more appeared first on Spectrum | Autism Research News. Source: Spectrum News

Using two existing techniques, researchers have traced the routes of hundreds of individual neurons in the visual regions of the mouse brain1. The resulting map shows how information flows in the brain. It could help researchers pinpoint alterations in neuronal networks in mouse models of conditions…

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 …

The behavior should last at least six months.Source: The Autism Site

What’s “NR” you ask? A common way to collect data after a trial in which the learner not only did not give a correct response, but didn’t respond at all, is to score “no response” (NR). While motor actions can be prompted if the learner does not do anything, vocal responses cannot. I say to my staff…

Megan explores her feelings about her three teenage daughters and how soon they will be adults. By Megan Amodeo I just realized that I will soon have three teenage daughters. Wow! When did life start moving so fast? In less than two years all of my children will be in high school. In less than six y…

A new finding challenges the long-held assumption that fragile X syndrome, a condition related to autism, stems from an overproduction of proteins in neurons. Many people with fragile X syndrome have average rates of protein production, the study suggests1. Fragile X syndrome is characterized by int…

For those on the autism spectrum a 9 to 5 job doesn’t always work By Morgan Giosa One of my biggest struggles in life has been adhering to a structured work environment. In school, my teachers and I were always at odds. I was a bit of an eccentric troublemaker and experienced a lot of anger,…

Michael McCreary sees himself as "an enigma cloaked in mystery and wrapped in bacon."Source: The Autism Site

The bulk of the increase in autism prevalence the United States between 2000 and 2012 can be attributed to children on the mild end of the spectrum. The findings come from prevalence data gathered by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM) of the U.S. Centers for Disease …