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Autism Vox

May 12th, 2008

“Open Questions” about Autism, and Vaccines, and Much More

In The “Open Question” on Vaccines and Autism, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson interviews Dr. Bernardine Healy, a former head of the National Institutes of Health and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Noting that Dr. Healy’s credentials “couldn’t be more ‘mainstream’”—no DAN! doctor she—Attkisson writes:
According to Healy, when she began researching autism […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 17 comments

May 9th, 2008

Where Are All the Autistic Adults?

The British government has announced that it is planning to calculate the number of autistic adults in England. The £500,000 project is the first to specifically study the number of adults who have autism, the BBC reports.
It will be interesting to see how the study is conducted: The tools for diagnosing autism in adults are […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 103 comments

May 7th, 2008

Supported Living Facility in NJ?

Herb Heflich, executive of 10 NJ properties for senior citizens, has a plan to create a supported living facility for autistic adults—”a group home without the stuffiness of an institution“—in central NJ:
Designed to give adults with autism around-the-clock care — ranging from physical and occupational therapy to “vocational rehabilitation” — the two-story building proposed by […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 6 comments

May 6th, 2008

Symposium on Employment for ASD Adults

In yesterday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer, journalist Paul Nyhan writes about parents as the “invisible casualties” when a child has autism. 4-year-old Sharky Munat’s mother, Lillie Addams, recalls when the police showed up because Sharky’s screams permeated the thin walls of their apartment. After her son was diagnosed with autism, Addams went through “depression, chest-seizing anxiety attacks, […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 17 comments

May 3rd, 2008

What is a Special Needs Trust?

Something that we are preparing to create for Charlie. A definition from Michael Davidov, Esq., in the April 30th Queens Courier:
A Special Needs Trust ensures that its beneficiary receives the benefit of assets transferred to the trust, while permitting the beneficiary to retain access to public government resources. Parents do not need to wait until […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 comments

May 3rd, 2008

Last Week’s Top Posts: Awareness Month Ends and an Award

Autism Awareness Month 2008 ended Wednesday; here in my state of New Jersey, Senator Robert Menendez marked the closing of the month by unveiling the Helpings HANDS for Autism Act. The act calls for the creation of “autism navigators” to assist families in figuring out services; training for law enforcement and other primary responders; and […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 4 comments

May 3rd, 2008

IACC in California Today

Today, a daylong “town hall” meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) is being held at the UC Davis Cancer Center, as reported in the May 2nd Sacramento Bee. (Previous meetings of the IACC this year and last year have been held in Washington, D.C.) The meeting offers a chance to express one’s views […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 25 comments

April 26th, 2008

Mostly Talking About Things

A philosopher, a clinical linguist, and a psychiatrist working in collaboration have found that, while autistic persons have difficulties using language appropriately in social settings—with using what are called language “pragmatics”—their use and comprehension of pragmatics in some settings is higher than previously tought. In particular, understanding of pragmatics is greater in a literal […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 7 comments

April 25th, 2008

Diagnosis at 30, Magic Years in Her 50s

Organic brain disorder, brain-injured, multiply handicapped, aggressive personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder: 51-year-old Anne Carpenter received all of these labels before being diagnosed with high-functioning autism at the age of 30. Read her story in today’s Lansing State Journal; you can contact Anne via email here. Says Carpenter, who now runs the library at […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 7 comments

March 14th, 2008

Study on Adult Sexuality in Autistic Individuals: Response from the Researchers

A post here on adult sexuality in autistic individuals led to a very interesting exchange, including critique of the survey itself. The survey is being conducted by the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System is and the University of New Brunswick and the researchers have sent me a response (see below, after […]

By Kristina Chew, PhD -- 8 comments

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