This Week’s Top Posts

Last week saw a constant stream of news items about autism. Here are some highlights:

• Aide Files Charges Against 6-year-old
  Nathan Darnell is to appear in juvenile court on September 25.
• Would you want him Tased or hit by a car?
  Orange County sheriff’s deputies use a Taser stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Taylor Karras who had fled from his parents.
• He’s a Really Good Swimmer, Really
  I try to get Charlie some time swimming in the big pool at our YMCA.
• Is IQ Testing Still Necessary?
  What do IQ tests really measure? What is intelligence?
• Jenny McCarthy, Autism Mother
  A celebrity appears on Oprah, People magazine, 20/20, to discuss her new book about her autistic son.
• The Trouble With Rain Man
  What do you say when you say “My child is autistic” and someone says “I’ve seen Rainman!”
• Wanted: Jobs for Adults with Autism
  If an employer does not hire someone with an ASD, is this discrimination?
• The Pleasures of Reading, Rediscovered
  I read the Histories of Herodotus to Charlie, and he listens (I think).
• The Symptoms of Pseudoscience
  Is the notion of “getting the autism” out of a person perhaps the most pseudoscientific notion of all?