Back in July, it was reported that the rate of autism in Somali children in Minnapolis was notably high. According to the Minnesota Department of Education:
in the Minneapolis’ early childhood and kindergarten programs, more than 12 percent of the students with autism reported speaking Somali at home. According to Minneapolis school officials, more than 17 percent of the children in the district’s early childhood special education autism program are Somali speaking.
Almost 6 percent of the district’s total enrollment is made up of Somali-speaking students, and about 6 percent of the children in the district’s overall early childhood and kindergarten special …read more

Tuesday afternoon I got into a long conversation with a friend about race and a sociology class she’s teaching and had to run out to my car. I made it home with five minutes to spare, Charlie looked at me intently through the window as the bus pulled up and the aide said “hurry Charlie time to go and get a snack,” he indeed ate a (large, as usual) snack, we went the pharmacy to pick some things up, we came home and we went to the pool.
Charlie went right to the pool’s edge smiling and stood looking into the …read more

Compassion Deficit Disorder is the title of an August 7th article by writer Judith Warner in the New York Times. Starting with Michael Savage’s over-the-top claims that autism is incorrectly diagnosed in 99% of cases and that it’s just a way to seek “undue sympathy, victim status, and services” for autistic children, Warner writes in the next paragraph about comments by Rick Davis, Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, last week about Barack Obama as
….[playing] “the race card” by noting that Republicans appeared to be trying to suggest to voters that the Democratic candidate “doesn’t look like all those other presidents …read more

Professor Stanley Fish of Florida International University, in Miami and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, opens a post about “norms and deviations” on his New York Times blog by citing a letter published in Time magazine:
A letter published in the May 26 issue of Time magazine protests the inclusion, in Time’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people, of two researchers allied with the organization Cure Autism Now (a name that speaks for itself). The letter writer declares himself to be “outraged” because, in his view, “Autistic …read more

There’s been plenty of debate about whether or not there is an epidemic of autism; about whether or not the increase in the prevalence rate of autism (now 1 in 150) is due to our being better able to diagnose and count cases of autism, or whether there is some actual something that can be pointed to that is actually causing more children to become autistic. Recently, I’ve noted mention of an “autism pandemic,” a term which strikes me as a not exactly subtle attempt to make the rise in the prevalence rate of autism seem to be a much …read more

Cure or acceptance?
Does one strive to do everything one can to cure, heal, recover a child from autism with the goal of the child “losing” her or his diagnosis? Or, does one learn to accept that one’s child is different, disabled, autistic?
Parents and others in the autism community tend to align themselves with one “side” or the other, and whether one puts oneself in the “cure” camp or the “acceptance” one tends to determine the types of therapies and treatments that one pursues. Be a “curebie” and you’re an annual attendee at DAN! conferences and (whether or not your …read more

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 …read more

A mother writes about getting a call from the Centers for Disease Control about her daughter’s vaccinations. Her response leads to a pause at the other end of the line: What did she say……some strongly worded statement about a link between vaccines and autism?
What this mother—-who is writer Peggy Orenstein in the March 23rd New York Times magazine—-says to the CDC researcher is this:
“Caucasian and Asian”
It’s Orenstein’s daughter being biracial that stumps the CDC researcher. The title of Orenstein’s essay is Mixed Messenger; her essay is about Barack Obama who, while he has “increasingly positioned himself as a black man,” …read more

Monday. The The Archives of General Psychiatry publishes Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to California’s Developmental Services System: Mercury in Retrograde. The trial of Karen McCarron begins.

Tuesday. A new documentary, Today’s Man is shown and discussion ensues.

Wednesday. Three articles about CNTNAP2 as an autism-susceptibility gene are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday. A lot of discussion ensues.

Today’s Man: A Documentary about Nicky GottliebA new documentary about 28-year-old Nicky Gottlieb, who has Asperger’s syndrome; the film was made by his sister, New York director Lizzie Gottlieb.
Thimerosal Exposure Declines, Autism Rates IncreaseFrom a study published in the Archives …read more

Autism occurs in individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, family income and educational levels. But how might race, ethnicity, and other cultural factors affect whether or not a child is identified as autistic?

A January 11th Newsday article by John Hildebrand looks at why affluent school districts Long Island, NY (including Half Hollow Hills, Manhasset and Roslyn) “classify more than five times as many of their students with autism as districts at the opposite end of the economic spectrum, including Brentwood, Copiague, Freeport and Hempstead.” The Newsday survey drew on state data from school districts whose enrollments were more than 500.

Advocates who …read more