A community portal about Autism with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests in delays of "social interaction, language as used in social communication...
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A community portal about Autism with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests in delays of "social interaction, language as used in social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play," with "onset prior to age 3 years," according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The ICD-10 also requires symptoms to "manifest before the age of three years." Autism is often not physiologically obvious, in that outward appearance may not indicate a disorder, and diagnosis typically comes from a complete physical and neurological evaluation.
January 1, 2015 CDC Autism News Update
In a New Years day media briefing the CDC has explained that its latest autism prevalence data, released two days before Christmas this year, and showing a sharp rise in ASD, short for Autism Social Difference, diagnoses, from 1 in 75 in 2012 to the current estimate of 1 in 50, is probably due to diagnostic definition changes and increased awareness.
New CDC Director Arnie Newman, who is himself "on the spectrum" with an ASD diagnosis of... Read Full Story
The New York Times is not exactly a "go to" resource for well informed, objective discussion of autism interventions.
In October 2008 it presented a slanted article on DIR/Floortime. In that article the guest author praised DIR/Floortime as a new modern improved form of autism intervention without mentioning the lack of scientific evidence in support of of the DIR/Floortime approach. The article also made unsubstantiated derogatory comments about ABA as "rote learning".
With its... Read Full Story
The autism rates of been on the rise for years and though there are many theories, there are no definite explanations to the increase of cases.
On December 1st, 2009, in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, a report was released comparing cases of Autism with the MMR (Measles-Mumps Rubella) Vaccine. Some earlier cases suggested an association between the two, while other studies showed otherwise.
In this newest, small scale study, there were 96 autism cases of children from ages 12... Read Full Story
While the mainstream media and prominent on line sites ignore the existence of the 80% of persons with Autistic Disorder who are intellectually disabled they love to talk about how talented individuals and historical geniuses were autistic or displayed autistic traits.
In Research Reports Link Between Handwriting and Autism Digital Journal manages to reference actor Dan Akroyd along with talented historical figures including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and George Orwell as displaying... Read Full Story
Missouri's top House official pledged his support for legislation requiring health insurers to cover an expensive therapy for autistic children. Legislation proposed for the 2010 session would require group health insurance plans to cover up to $72,000 of behavioral therapy per year for autistic people under age 21. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees would be exempt if they proved the requirement would raise the cost of their premiums by at least 5 percent. The legislation is similar to... Read Full Story
Autism and related development disorders are becoming more common, with a prevalence rate approaching 1 percent among American 8-year-olds, according to new data from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study is a partnership between UAB, the CDC and 10 other U.S. research sites. It shows that one in 110 American 8-year-olds is classified as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD... Read Full Story
The tragic death in Nova Scotia last week of young James Delorey touched people across Canada, particularly parents of autistic children. Autistic children and adults going missing is not an uncommon story. Sometimes things turn out well. But not always as we all saw this past week. The sad events in Nova Scotia reminded me of how I felt when my son Conor went missing six years ago at age seven. Fortunately, and because of the actions of a person I do not know, things ended well with Conor's... Read Full Story
Edward K. Morris is scheduled to give what should be a fascinating keynote speech at the 28th Annual Regional Conference of the California Association for Behavior Analysis. Professor Morris's topic will be The Gernsbacher Lectures: Cut Aways, Outtakes, and Bloopers - and Essentialism. The CalABA conference is scheduled for February 18 to 20, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine California. Professor Morris published a scathing article in the Behavior Analyst, A Case Study in the... Read Full Story
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When one identical twin develops the developmental disorder autism, the risk of the other developing it is high -- substantially higher than it is for fraternal twins, a new study confirms. The study, which gathered information from 277 twin pairs in which at least one had an autistic disorder, found that when one identical twin developed an autistic disorder, the other one also did 88 percent of the time. That compared with 31 percent among fraternal twins... Read Full Story
Some reassuring news for people concerned about a possible link between autism and childhood vaccinations. An article published recently in the Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing says there is no convincing scientific evidence supporting a relationship between vaccines and autism.
Researchers explored vaccination history, vaccine safety monitoring systems in the U.S., and the two most publicized theoretical vaccine-related exposures associated with autism - the vaccine... Read Full Story
