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Autism Vox

Archive for the ‘Statistics’ Category

November 20th, 2008

About the “Cluster” of Autism Among Somali Children in Minneapolis

Back in July, it was reported that the rate of autism in Somali children in Minnapolis was notably high. According to the Minnesota Department of Education:
in the Minneapolis’ early childhood and kindergarten programs, more than 12 percent of the students with autism reported speaking Somali at home. According to Minneapolis school officials, more than 17 […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments

November 18th, 2008

Keeping the (School) Data Straight

I guess you could say, I have something of a love-hate-”just deal with it” relationship with data.
Being a humanities sort of person with an inclination to poetry, I’m not overly drawn to calling on the “hard data” of statistics, numbers, and the like.
Being my son’s mother, I’ve learned, there’s comfort, and a need, for columns […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 4 comments

October 3rd, 2008

Still a Lot to Learn: FIT Survey on Attitudes about Autism

Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) has commissioned what is described as the “first national survey of attitudes toward autism.” Today’s Physorg notes some highlights of the report; more results of the survey will be revealed at an autism conference to be held at FIT this weekend. The Scott Center for Autism Treatment is located at […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 2 comments

August 21st, 2008

In Search of Accurate Autism Prevalence Information

The prevalence rate for autism among children in the US is 1 in 150, according to the most recently released figured from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007. The 1 in 150 figure is based on data from the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM); the figure represents an […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 11 comments

August 10th, 2008

Incidence, Not Incidents

Autism incidents rising, is the headline for an August 9th story in the Grand Rapids Herald-Review. Two different school districts report having 35 and 52 students diagnosed with autism, versus five and maybe two students ten years ago: It’s been the past ten years that have seen the results of changes in the diagnostic criteria […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 comments

August 4th, 2008

The Secret’s In the Ocean

The discovery of how a 2000 year-old astronomical computer created by the ancient Greeks—we have its remnants, a broken wooden and bronze case containing more than 30 gears—was used to predict solar eclipses and calculate the 4-year-cycles of the Olympiad (video here at Nature) was (if I may lapse into ancient Greek) mega ti—-”something […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 2 comments

July 25th, 2008

False Controversy: Autism and Vaccines

This is perhaps an example of medicine acting despite an absence of what we’d recognize as science, a case of peoples’ fears getting the better of them.
This statement was made in reference to a “well-respected senior scientist” issuing a warning about cell phones being linked to cancer, as discussed in Ars Technica today. Other […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 33 comments

July 24th, 2008

Rates of Autism in Somali Children in Minneapolis

Today’s MinnPost.com reports that “First generation U.S.-born Somali-speaking children in Minneapolis schools are disproportionately identified as having autism.” There are 15,000 to 40,000 Somalis living in Minnesota, a 2001 state health department study reports. According to the Minnesota Department of Education:
in the Minneapolis’ early childhood and kindergarten programs, more than 12 percent of the students […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 45 comments

June 29th, 2008

Now Where Was It You Heard About the Autism Epidemic?

So why are you hearing more about autism? According to Huliq News in a June 29th piece mentioning The Boy in the Window, a book by 66-year-old Barbara Coppo, whose autistic son, Kenny, is 29 years old, this is why:
Perhaps we are hearing more about autism in the news because there are more autistic […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 23 comments

June 21st, 2008

Vaccines, Diagnosis, and Databases

After my son was diagnosed with autism in July of 1999 and we had started him in a home ABA program in September of 1999, and as we found ourselves spending more time with families with autistic children, and as we read more and more (in books, on the web) about autism, I started to […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 16 comments