Starting over: A child who fled Ukraine with her family attends school in Romania. The war in Ukraine has displaced millions of children, including those with autism, who now need services in unfamiliar countries. Two months ago, a two-story peach-colored building with a playground housed a kindergarten for 30 autistic children in Kyiv, Ukraine. But […]
We’re honoring Autism Acceptance by publishing April Accommodations—meaning adjustments that other people can do for the autistic people in their lives. (For the flipside, as in things that make life harder for autistics, please see our Autism Checklist of Doom.) Today, we’re hearing from Kate Ryan, who wants people to stop asking her open-ended questions […]
Note: We’re grateful to Anne Dachel for sharing these stories with our AoA readers weekly. While they may seem repetitive, they are indicative of the scope of the problem the autism epidemic continues to present. Every story represents families in turmoil, school districts in a quandary and nations in trouble. ### By Anne Dachel There’s […]
Early overgrowth: In their first few weeks of development, organoids with two intact copies of CHD8 (top) developed excitatory neurons more slowly than organoids missing a copy of the gene (bottom). Editor’s Note This article was originally published 11 January 2021, based on preliminary findings presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. The results […]
We’re honoring Autism Acceptance by publishing April Accommodations—meaning adjustments that other people can do for the autistic people in their lives. (For the flipside, as in things that make life harder for autistics, please see our Autism Checklist of Doom.) Today, we’re hearing from Ava Gurba, who wants other people to please just answer her […]
Note: The mask mandates have been particularly difficult, and even discriminatory, for people with sensory issues and autism. Some good news from Health Freedom Defense Fund. While airline travel may be seen as a luxury, public transportation is not. Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF) wins federal lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s Travel Mask Mandate. Judge […]
Anna Penn associate professorColumbia University A decade ago, Anna Penn received a call from a Scientific American reporter who wanted to know what to call the area of research that probes connections between the placenta and disorders of the brain. “Neuroplacentology,” Penn said, providing a word of her own invention. it has since become the […]
We’re honoring Autism Acceptance by publishing April Accommodations—meaning adjustments that other people can do for the autistic people in their lives. (For the flipside, as in things that make life harder for autistics, please see our Autism Checklist of Doom.) Today, we’re hearing from Ann Memmott, who wants people to respect when she needs tech […]
A 19 year old with autism left home in September of 2019, and was neither seen nor heard from by his family, until concerned police saw him shivering outside of a gas station hundred of miles from home, and asked him to come warm up in their car. They used instinct (his communication was different) […]
research roundup Deletion of the autism-linked gene CHD8 in progenitor cells destined to be excitatory neurons in the cerebellum causes motor problems and behavioral changes in mice. Journal of Genetics and Genomics Childhood infections may contribute to diagnoses of autism or intellectual disability, according to a study of a Swedish register-based cohort of about half […]
THIS IS FANTASTIC! Thank you NAA, always fighting for families. XOX Click National Autism Association Give A Voice Program ### The intent of NAA’s Give A Voice program is to provide the opportunity for meaningful, effective communication to individuals with autism who are nonspeaking or unreliably speaking, and whose communication challenges put them at increased […]
Illustration by Laurenne Boglio Welcome to the first monthly edition of Null and Noteworthy. We’ve doubled the newsletter’s frequency to deliver more notable null results and replications direct to your inbox. Thanks, as always, for your feedback, and please continue to send your thoughts, ideas, interesting studies and cat photos to laura@spectrumnews.org. Let’s dive in. […]
