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Tailored Professional Development for Licensed Care Staff to Support Community Living for Adults with Autism
Across the next decade, we can expect a 123% increase in the number of youth with autism transitioning out of school-based services (IACC, 2017). These increases have placed a growing demand on the service systems supporting transition-aged youth and adults and magnified the need for effective and...
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Autism Treatment Should be Guided by Recent Research Reflecting the Expansion of the Diagnoses
When I first began working as a behavioral interventionalist while pursuing my undergrad psychology degree in 1996, we treated children with autism in much the same way many providers do today. Over the past three decades, we’ve learned a great deal about autism. So, why are many still relying on...
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Exploring Autism Traits Among Jeopardy Contestants
The popular television quiz show Jeopardy requires contestants to have broad trivia knowledge. As rote memorization is a common strength among individuals with High-Functioning Autism (HFA), it is of interest as to whether Jeopardy contestants have higher symptomology of HFA than the general...
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Genetics, Diagnosis, and the Male-Female Gender Gap in Autism
I hesitated to write this article. What business does a psychologist like me have writing about genetics and the gender gap in autism? I am not a geneticist. At most, genetics plays a small role in my professional life. But questions kept nagging at me. Some are specific to autism spectrum disorder...
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Helping Youth with Autism and Co-Occurring Low Vision and Blindness
The prevalence of autism has been increasing over the years. The CDC estimates that 1 out of every 44 children has an autism spectrum condition (CDC, 2021). It has changed from a low-incidence disability (i.e., 1 in 10,000) to a more common one. Blindness, on the other hand, is currently considered...
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Opportunities Abound for “Students of Autism’
Countless ‘students of autism’ work tirelessly every day, all over the world, to learn everything possible about the neurological disorder. They read voraciously, observe closely, and listen deeply. In many cases, their thirst for knowledge is so insatiable and their passion for the cause so...
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Is It Genetic? My 40-Year Journey of Misdiagnoses for My Son
Forty years ago, my son Matthew was born. At the time of his birth, he had no apparent health issues. We began noticing that he wasn’t developing like a neuro-typical child when he wasn’t hitting milestones like rolling over. Since then, we have gone through countless tests and been given...
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Research-Based Recommendations for Building Self-Advocacy Competence
Self-advocacy, an essential ingredient in our quest for satisfaction and fulfillment in life, is a learned skill that involves self-awareness, social and communication strategies, and behavioral competencies. Self-advocating involves communicating a person’s needs so that another person is able...
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EarliTec Diagnostics Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for the EarliPoint Evaluation for Autism Spectrum Disorder
The EarliPoint Evaluation is the first FDA-cleared tool to assist clinicians in diagnosing and assessing autism in children as young as 16 months old. On June 10th, 2022, EarliTec Diagnostics, Inc. (EarliTec), a digital health company developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic products for...
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Increasing Inclusion in Biomarker Research
A new study being conducted by researchers in the McPartland Lab at the Yale Child Study Center is using technological advancements to bring biomarker discovery research to minimally verbal and cognitively impaired autistic individuals. These individuals have historically been underrepresented in...
