To tell or not to tell about your autism, that is the question.
Dire predictions on the future of children’s brains are shocking, not least because of how flimsy the evidence is to support these views.
zeitfaenger.at/Flickr
Baseless claims about the damage done to kids’ development create needless panic. And they distract from legitimate, evidence-based concerns with which parents need to engage.
Writing out a cure?
genes by gopixa/shutterstock.com
Technologies that predict the possibility of a neurological disorder have the weight of affecting conceptions of not just “what” these children have but “who” these children will become.
Research found children with autism understand social cues when prompted, but they usually choose not to interact.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
People with autism spectrum disorder don’t get the same benefits from socialising with other people. So why force them to with methods that aren’t true to life anyway?
Vasopressin may be used to treat social deficits in children with autism.
kids with ball, from shutterstock.com
Increasing autistic children’s levels of vasopressin, a hormone that regulates social behaviour, could help treat the social deficits common to autism, research suggests.
The transition between school and further education can be difficult for young people with learning difficulties.
Teenagers at school via l i g h t p o e t/www.shutterstock.com
Autism is usually diagnosed between the ages of two and five. But studies show therapies delivered earlier in childhood could help children at risk of developing autism.
Jim Carrey’s anti-vaccination tweets employ a number of techniques used by anti-science cranks. By understanding them, we can shield ourselves from well-intentioned but ill-informed voices.
But it doesn’t mean teachers and therapists should abandon picture-based therapy.
Dubova/Shutterstock
In our study, it was the comparison groups of children who showed a visual learning style, not the children with autism.
Epigenetic molecules play a different melody on different people’s genomes, and this might be contributing to some developing autism.
Jesse Kruger/Flickr
Jeffrey Craig, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Anthony Hannan, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, and Yuk Jing Loke, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
The epigenetic ‘musicians’ that play our genomes in different ways might help us understand the causes of autism.
Harder climb if you don’t conform.
Up by Shutterstock
A review has been announced into school policies in Canberra after it was reported that a school was restraining a child with Autism in a cage-like structure.
A newborn baby undergoes music therapy at a hospital in Slovakia. The hospital uses music therapy to treat infants who have been separated from their mothers.
Petr Josek Snr/Reuters
Scientists may have consigned fad therapies to the dustbin of pseudoscientific history, but that doesn’t mean the knowledge has filtered to the mainstream.
A diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder is based solely on behaviour and is usually diagnosed by age four.
Shutterstock