My Brother Has Autism

This NPR story is generating buzz.

New Discovery Health Program

Sorry I have not been posting. Vacation and school preparation got in the way.

Discovery Health will be airing a program on October 1st called "Autism X6" which profiles a family in which all 6 children have been diagnosed somewhere on the spectrum. Here is a press release.

Resources for Learning to Tie Shoelaces

Shoe tying is still a challenge in our household. When I saw this post in ParentHacks, I thought it might be a good one to share. Check out the links in the comments, too.

Advice for Employers

Here is a document created by something called the Job Accomodation Network (ultimately part of the US Department of Labor) entitled "Employees with Asperger Syndrome". It looks like it could be very useful for employers who might not know much about AS. It's full of simple, specific suggestions for supervisors. This could be a great help for parents of young adults trying to ensure a positive first experience for someone with AS.



I found this via the PDF Search Engine. Just type in a term like "Asperger" and you will find all sorts of interesting things. You will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat in order to view these documents.

Reading Fiction Improves Social Skills

A group of Toronto researchers discover that "readers of narrative fiction scored higher on tests of empathy and social acumen than those who read non-fiction texts. And follow-up research showed that reading fiction may help fine-tune these skills: People assigned to read a New Yorker short story did better on social reasoning tests than those who read an essay from the same magazine.

Full article here.

Autism Storyline on "Days of Our Lives"

Autism hits the soaps.

New Study Pinpoints 6 Autism Genes

"Research on large Middle Eastern families has helped scientists pinpoint six new genes implicated in autism, a new study published Thursday said.
The research "strongly supports the emerging idea that autism stems from disruptions in the brain's ability to form new connections in response to experience -- consistent with autism's onset during the first year of life when many of these connections are normally made," a team led by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and members of the Autism Consortium said."
Full article here.