Therapies & Services

People on the autism spectrum usually have one or more sensory issues. Mine happens to be a sensitivity to sounds, especially bass. Because of this I’ve tried a variety of things to make life bearable ranging from soundproofing my apartment, using white noise machines or fans to sleep, and getting noise cancelling headphones as well […]

When I was first contacted by The Autism Science Foundation about being involved in the It Takes Brains campaign, I honestly didn’t know what to think. The campaign has the goal of urging families and individuals on the spectrum to “make the heroic decision to register for brain tissue donation.”  It was certainly one of the […]

Yesterday a new hashtag campaign appeared in my Twitter feed – #MSSNG. It seemed to refer to autism, and a new research project. I had an immediate reaction, based on my interpretation of the letters in the context of the autism discussion – I thought, Missing?  Certainly not.  We may be gifted or we may […]

CBS News Reports 'Eleven-year-old Parker Weishaar is just about the most well-behaved kid you'll ever meet — now. Parker has a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome. CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports that one of the symptoms can be meltdowns." His parents, Wendy and Mark, "couldn't deal with it. We would have incidences in the classroom where he would kind of clear off the bookshelves."

What worked for them was Candy. Not...

Dear Aspie:
“I only recently stumbled on this website and I've found it really interesting. I’m 24 years old, and I was wondering what steps I would take if I thought I had Asperger's. Also, if I did have it and I was diagnosed, would it even be beneficial to know?”

--ip_outcast




Read on for GroovyDruid's response!

Motorola's MOTOFWRD competition challenged college students nationwide to depict the future of mobile technology.

Duke University student John Finan's "mood phone" placed first among five hundred submissions. The phone, designed to interpret the mood of the person on the other end of the line, is meant to help individuals with Asperger's syndrome who may have difficulty recognizing emotional and social cues in the speech of others.

Medication is often a difficult issue for people on the spectrum. Erika Hammerschmidt has been on medication for quite some time. Unmedicated recounts some of her experiences with medication, what it does and doesn't do for her, and how she manages when she doesn't take it.

The following article is the second in a series of three, excerpted from the book "Born on the Wrong Planet, Second Edition" By Erika Hammerschmidt. ISBN 09748570-6-8.

Jaiden.net reports: "Brian Scassellati is a robotics researcher in Yale's computer-science department, and is part of an interdisciplinary group on campus that includes doctors and others. Part of his contribution has been to build very simple robotic heads -- more like smart toys -- then to watch how different children, autistic and nonautistic, respond to them.

"These devices can be programmed to monitor where the child is, or whether the...

Google News reports:

Laughter research a first Ballarat Courier, Australia - Sep 13, 2005 ... first. Errin Jones, 24, is focussing on the social behaviour of humour and laughter in children with autism and Asperger's Disorder. ...

Link to article

Jaiden.net reports: "In treating children with autism, it is critical in many programs and services to track significant amounts of data, both for reporting purposes and in assessing learning, behavior and intervention effectiveness. Current data collection techniques can be extremely time consuming, may inhibit the caregiver-child interaction, may be subjective, and do not always communicate all of the information needed to fully assess the...