The Autism Retort Blog

Researchers will use music as a tool to explore the ability of children with ASD to identify emotions in musical excerpts and facial expressions.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders show profound deficits in social interactions and communications and display repetitive behaviors and abnormal responses to sensory experiences. One aspect of an autistic child's impaired social abilities is their lack of affiliative behaviors, i.e., behaviors such as touching and hugging that strengthen social bonds.

A mutated gene has been discovered as the key behind epilepsy and mental retardation specific to women. The new discovery, published in Nature Genetics, shows that although men carry the 'bad' gene, only women are affected.

I seldom see a newspaper article about a child learning to read through the use of phonics. I guess that’s not surprising. Most people know that phonics is an effective method to teach someone to read. There’s nothing that makes it especially interesting enough to make the news. As Autism Awareness month ends, I noticed that I seldom saw newspaper articles about children with autism learning new skills through behavioral treatment. Most articles or TV coverage I saw focused on the latest medication, diet, or novel intervention that has made a big difference in one child’s life. Again, I guess that’s not surprising.

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