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A New Way of Thinking About Autism
On April 29, 2013 Dr. Thomas Insel, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), wrote on the NIMH Director’s Blog that the Institute will be re-orienting its research away from currently used diagnostic categories (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or “DSM”) and...
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What is Normal?
Nearly every day someone asks me something like, “When did you know that Jack wasn’t normal?” And then they stop themselves, stammer a bit, and apologize for saying normal. Their faces turn all red and they look away and stare at their feet. “I mean, you know, what’s normal, there is no...
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What Are Your Legal Entitlements Now That Your Child Has Been Diagnosed?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal law that governs the education of children with disabilities, including developmental delays. Your child with autism has the right to a free appropriate public education under the IDEA. Each state must provide all eligible...
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Some Thoughts on Early Diagnosis and Effective Treatment of ASD
I am the director of an Early Intervention agency and until recently was its primary Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) evaluator. I am a bilingual child psychologist and have been diagnosing and ruling out ASD in children below age three for several decades. We’ve seen ever-earlier diagnosis (down...
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ASN Winter 2012 Issue
"Science Matters: The Latest Advances in Autism Research" Articles in This...
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Autism and Asperger’s: Two Distinct Disorders or One Disorder of Varying Symptom Severity
Autism has been conceptualized as a biologically determined set of behaviors occurring with varying presentation and severity that is likely as the result of varying cause (for review, see Goldstein, Naglieri, & Ozonoff, 2008). The disorder occurs significantly more often in boys (Smalley,...
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The Lighter Side of the Spectrum: A Mom’s View – Our Story
People often ask me how I knew something was wrong with Jack, and how old he was when we noticed warning signs. Obviously autism unfolds differently for each individual; some demonstrate symptoms very early on, while others grow and interact normally until a particular age and then they seemingly...
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Welcome to My World – A Mother’s Annual Letter to New School Teachers
After seven years of parenting a child enrolled in the local public school system, I’ve come to understand that, at least in our neck of the woods, each new grade begins with an automatic and inherent “do-over” mechanism in place. Regardless of how many copies of reports, summaries of...
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What Do You Do When Relatives Don’t Believe the Diagnosis and Question Your Parenting?
“Give him time.” “She’s the last child born in the family; everyone does the talking for her.” “Your expectations are too high, every child has his/her own timetable.” “Don’t put him under a microscope. Relax and he will be fine.” “When I had my kids, the world was...
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The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R)
A Scale to Assist the Diagnosis of Autistic Disorder in Adults 18 Years and Older The RAADS-R is an eighty item scale specifically designed to assist clinicians diagnosing Autistic Disorder (AD) in adults eighteen years and older. It contains a total of eighty questions. Sixty-four short...
