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Why Autistic Children Struggle with Developing Friendships
What makes it difficult for children with autism to develop friendships? Children with autism often struggle with social skills and attendant social cues. This includes both conveying and interpreting social cues. Social cues are the form of communication individuals develop and utilize to assess...
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Tips for Parents and Teachers to Support Autistic Children in Developing and Maintaining Friendships
Friendships play an important role in the lives of children and teenagers. These relationships help with childhood social and emotional development in many ways, including: managing emotions, responding to the feelings of others, listening, problem solving, navigating conflicts, sharing and...
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A World Without Emotions: Alexithymia and Autism
Before we delve into defining alexithymia and autism I’d like to paint a picture in your mind. Imagine living in a world where emotions do not appear to exist - no clear indications of anger, sadness, or happiness. So much so that even categorizing these emotions does not exist - a neutral...
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Evaluating and Treating Restrictive Eating in Children with Autism
Picky eating is common for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autistic individuals often show atypical eating patterns and have more difficulty with mealtime behaviors in comparison to their non-autistic peers (Christensen et al., 2019; Mayes & Zickgraf, 2019; Sharp et al., 2013)....
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A Meeting of Worlds: Multidisciplinary Teams in Autism Treatment
As Dr. Stephen Shore said, “if you’ve met one individual with autism, you’ve met one individual with autism.” Autism is a spectrum disorder with great variability in support needs from one person to the next. Given the spectrum of the disability, services and care for children with...
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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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Planning a Summer Vacation: Travel Tips for Families of Children With Disabilities
Summer travel season is well underway. While traveling with children can be both fun and exhausting, if you are a parent or caregiver of a child with disabilities, even more planning may be required to have a safe and successful trip. This summer, I decided to take my daughter Annie on her first...
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Language Development and Communication for Nonverbal Autistic Children
Autism spectrum disorder is one that has a broad range of symptoms, but many with its diagnosis have similar “core” symptoms. Difficulties with language and communication is a shared struggle for many. Thankfully, with today’s constantly evolving technology and research, individuals with...
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Why I Made the Difficult Decision to Not Have Children
In the last year, I have accomplished a lot. More than I used to think I could do in my life. I made a life decision never to have kids. I underwent a procedure to keep from getting pregnant. I have become a confident woman. I know what I want in my life. My decision is based on childhood...
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Crisis Management in Children with Autism and First Responders
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to engage in challenging behavior than their neurotypical peers. Severity of these behaviors range from mild to very severe and include topographies such as aggression, self-injury, destructive behavior, pica, and elopement...
