Awesome article via a friend.

"Slipping the 'Cognitive Straitjacket' of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Psychiatry's diagnostic bible meets the awkward facts of genetics by Steven E. Hyman ( Read more... )

Amanda Tapping Article on Helen Magnus and Sam Carter

She talks about her most recent project:

I recently did a film called Dancing Trees, and I play the mother of an autistic girl, so it was a real departure. It was a very small part, but it was with a director I have wanted to work with forever, Anne Wheeler. So when I got the call, I said, “I ( Read more... )

Racism and White Privilege, a Video
True Colors: Discrimination in America, 2006I don't remember where I first saw this link, but thank you. This is an news report from 2006 where two guys with similar resumes and backgrounds, one black, one white, shopped, applied for jobs, for apartments, and were observed by Diane Sawyer. Their experiment, in ( Read more... )

Parents of kids on the autism spectrum, read this soliciting your contributions on how you do it.

There are so many stories of what our children are like, how delightful they are and the joy they bring to our lives. There are happy stores, and some that are so sad, others that bring hope in the wake of tragedy. I am in the process of researching ( Read more... )

This is, of course, a very different situation from the one in Minnesota in terms of the ability level of the children involved, but, in other ways, it shows a very compassionate and inclusive approach to children with disabilities in religious communities.

Faith in a Nonverbal World tells about the bar mitzvah of an autistic boy in Massachusetts ( Read more... )

For those who haven't seen them yet, I have two stories that went national in the past couple of weeks to share. In both, I truly sympathize with the parents. In the first, I think the parents should sue the pants of of someone. In the second, I think that the parents, while desperate and in need of support and assistance, are not the ones who ( Read more... )

"The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know" By David Wolman.

Excerpts:
Autistics like Baggs are now leading a nascent civil rights movement. "I remember in '99," she says, "seeing a number of gay pride Web sites. I envied how many there were and wished there was something like that for autism. Now there is." The ( Read more... )

OMG! Benjamin just showed me a fake tarantula he got in Speech and explained which were the legs, which were the fangs (which are what bite, you know), and how the bits that stick out at the back aaren't fangs although they look a little like it, but rather are "spinnerettes" and is now explaining how jumping spiders jump on bugs before they're ( Read more... )

ladyvivien sent me this link and it is interesting and reflects much of my experience.

Girls and Autism: What are autistic girls made of?

Ben's new response to someone he's upset with is to do what we do to the kids. He puts up a hand like a police "Halt!" and says, "NO! No." He glowers ( Read more... )