This Week’s Top Posts

Almost everyone had something to say about Autism: The Musical which can still be seen on HBO’s website. I’m wondering when someone will make Autism: The Comedy—enough already about “the tragedy of autism”!

• Drinking While Pregnant Linked to Autism
  Dr Maggie Watts, vice chairman on alcohol for the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, suggests that moderate drinking during pregnancy could be “the hidden cause” of autism, attention deficity hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and other neurodevelopmental disorders in children.
• Race, Diagnosis and Identity
  It’s not only categories like “race” that are not simply “black-and-white,” but also notions like “normal” and “typical”: What does it means to be normal, or average, or (neuro)typical, or weird, or quirky, or strange, or different? Will we ever be able to put the days of “normal or abnormal” behind us?
• Insurance Coverage for ABA: On Treatment and Teaching
  Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano signs House Bill 2847 into law, requiring private health- and disability-insurance plans to cover the diagnosis and treatment of autism and, specifically, for ABA..
• Is Medication Use in Autistic Children Increasing?
  A study in the March 2008 volume of Pediatrics notes that “medication use is common among children with ASDs and seems to be increasing.”
• Does Your Child Know She or He is Autistic?
  Whatever Charlie thinks when he hears the words “autism” and “autistic,” we do seek to emphasize that he’s fine just as he is and because he is who he is.
• Legal Standards, Science, and the Cause of Autism
  In determining what causes autism, you would think that scientific evidence would have the final say. But again and again, the public’s attention has been drawn to legal decisions in cases involving an autistic child and claims of injury by a vaccine.
• Lots of Hope When You Hear About “That Autism Thing”
  What’s a parent’s first thought when someone mentions “autism” about a child?
• Saying It With and Without Words
  On verbal and non-verbal communication and the goo sound of Charlie’s voice.
• “His Duty as a Human Being”—and As a Doctor?
  How far did Dr. Andrew Wakefield (currently under investigation by the General Medical Council on allegations of “serious professional misconduct”) think through—did he think through—-the potential results of claiming that there was a link between a vaccine that all children are supposed to take and autism?
• Do You Talk to Yourself?
  Autistic children talk to themselves often and in ways that are similar to non-autistic children, according to a new study.