By Rebecca Burgess *** Rebecca Burgess is a freelance comic artist and illustrator living in the UK. She has an interest in history and folk songs that runs through alot of her work. Her obsession with comics runs into her spare time, where she draws two webcomics! Rebecca also likes to pla…

Why are you so loud? Why can’t you whisper? Why are you holding your spoon like that? Why do you run weird? Why do you do that stretching thing like every four seconds? Why can’t you sit nicely like the other girls? Why do your tights fall apart after one wear? Why can’t you keep t…

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Mutations in an autism-linked gene called AUTS2 do not cause the condition’s core social features, according to the most comprehensive clinical portrait to date1. However, the mutations almost always lead to intellectual disability. Deletions in AUTS2 trigger a constellation of symptoms, including s…

By Debra Muzikar We were honored that people came from miles away for yesterday’s screening of the new film Normal People Scare Me Too a film about autism at Plaza Cinema 14 in Oxnard, California. As people came into the theater, Susan Sheller captured the mood with a Bob Dylan song. She spot…

Adding folic acid to foods such as cereal and bread — long considered one of the most successful public health interventions to prevent birth defects — may be a less effective strategy than once thought, according to a provocative new study from Stanford University. In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug A…

The mutations that men accumulate in their sperm as they age don’t account for most of their increased risk of having a child with autism, reports a study published today in Nature Genetics1. Instead, the researchers suggest, men who carry risk factors for the condition simply tend to have children …

A tribute to Remo Belli who made the “heart drum.” By James Billington, Hidden Wings The drum is tuned to approximate the frequency of the heart. As you drum closer to the center of these wide circular table drums you come closer to the common frequency of the heartbeat. The note is c#. …

Researchers depend on mouse models to study certain conditions, and to test candidate drugs. The argument against using mice has always been that they are poor mimics of human behavior. In the case of fragile X syndrome, an autism-linked condition, that concern is proving all too valid. A strain of …

We’re celebrating Better Speech & Hearing Month with a special focus on auditory processing and expressive language skills. Today through the end of May, use our promo code SPCHLANG when you check out to take 15%* off some of our favorite speech and language workbooks! These workbooks pro…

A new gene-editing system allows researchers to switch one DNA letter for another in cells. It may enable researchers to engineer animals to evaluate the consequences of these ‘point mutations.’ The new tool builds off of the CRISPR-CAS9 system, in which a scissor-like enzyme homes in on specific sp…

By Parasuram Ramamoorthi, Ph.D. To understand role play means you know the difference between natural behavior and acting behavior. In the case of young adults with ASD, we teach acting behavior through role playing, and through this we teach what is socially acceptable natural behavior. Western the…

Update 5/25/2016 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…

You may know that video games that are played on video game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation require a lot of proficiency, and can be physically quite taxing. They require a lot of interaction through the game controller - think of mashing buttons constantly during a fight sequence or when a door …