Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 9, 2012, 9:33 pm
Sharyl Attkisson, CBS journalist best known here for her bias towards those promoting autism as a vaccine injury, was slated to accept an award Thursday from Accuracy In Media (AIM). This was discussed on Left Brain/Right Brain recently. Media Matters is r...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 8, 2012, 9:22 pm
The Panic Virus came out just over a year ago. We discussed it on Left Brain/Right Brain (here and here). As one who has spent a great deal of time reading and writing about the autism/vaccine discussion, I found the book to be extremely well researched and very well w...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 8, 2012, 9:09 pm
For most within the autism communities, I suspect that charities are chosen with great care. Whether under- or un-employed autistic or a parent concerned about providing for a child, each dollar counts to many of us. But if you will allow me to suggest a charity to con...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 7, 2012, 9:21 pm
Sharyl Attkisson has been one of the less reliable members of the media when it comes to the autism/vaccine discussion. She promotes the purported link, defended Andrew Wakefield and gave David Kirby (of Evidence of Harm fame) a platform to promote his views. ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 7, 2012, 12:24 am
This by way of the Sam Jose Mercury News: Redwood City teacher accused of slapping, kicking special needs students If the title of the news story isn’t enough, here are some details: A Redwood City special needs teacher faces nine mi...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 5, 2012, 1:22 am
This study came out towards the end of last year. Given the current interest in the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and how they may impact the numbers of individuals diagnosed with PDD-NOS and Asperger syndrome, this seems timely. The study had a large number o...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 3, 2012, 12:12 pm
The proposed changes to the way autism is diagnosed with the DSM 5 has sparked a lot of discussion in the online autism communities and elsewhere. A surge in the discussion came in response to a New York Times article New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study S...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 2, 2012, 1:00 am
With the defamation suit by Mr. Wakefield filed in Texas there is the strong possibility that the discussions will ensue again about what actually happened during Mr. Wakefield’s research at the Royal Free hospital. The one record of this is in the transcripts for th...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Feb 1, 2012, 1:00 am
The idea that parental age could be a risk factor for autism has been around for some time. A number of studies have been performed (for example Effects of familial risk factors and place of birth on the risk of autism: a nationwide register-based study in 2005 and Adva...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 31, 2012, 9:19 pm
You may recall that a couple of years ago a study came out looking at the prevalence of autism in adults in the United Kingdom. They found a prevalence of about 1%, the same as in children. There’s now a follow up study. The press release is below. The...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 31, 2012, 8:08 pm
Dan Burton, representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana announced today he would not seek re-election this year. Mother Jones has an article to mark the end of Dan Burton’s career in congress: Rep. Dan Burton’s Legacy: Lots of Sick Kids. The l...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 31, 2012, 4:57 pm
The U.S. Institutes of Medicine (IOM) will hold a meeting to discuss the feasibility of studying health outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule will be held on February 9. ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 31, 2012, 1:55 pm
Below is a joint statement by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and the Autism Society of America on the DSM-5. Dear Friend, As two national organizations committed to working to empower the autism and Autistic communities today and int...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 27, 2012, 12:46 pm
The news that the diagnosis of autism may be brought forward is primarily of importance because it may help identify children who will require specialised support. However, it is also interesting because it breaks the co-incidental temporal association that has been part...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 26, 2012, 8:25 pm
A study out today is causing much discussion. Infant Neural Sensitivity to Dynamic Eye Gaze Is Associated with Later Emerging Autism is by researchers from the UK, Canada and Australia: 1 Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, Univer...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 23, 2012, 8:32 pm
A recent article in the New York Times has sparked a renewed heated discussion on the topic of Autism and how the DSM 5 may change how it is diagnosed. The Times article, New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests, has already been discussed here at Left...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 21, 2012, 1:00 am
The Omnibus Autism Proceeding (OAP) was held in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to group the large number of claims filed involving autism and vaccines. The Docket was opened on July 3, 2002, nearly 10 years ago. The last entry was placed 1 year ago. Since then many...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 20, 2012, 7:09 pm
Kids get bullied, and special needs kids even more so. Doesn’t make it right. But what happens when people are so proud of it that they want it recorded to video and posted to the web? That’s what happens in this video. A group of kids are bullying a...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 20, 2012, 5:42 pm
The New York Times reports New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many, Study Suggests. The study is not published yet and was presented at a conference in Iceland. The Times reports: The study results, presented on Thursday at a meeting of the...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 19, 2012, 1:40 pm
In 2010 a paper was published called “Timing of increased autistic disorder cumulative incidence.” The paper has made very little, if any, impact on the scientific community. But it has become part of the stable of poor quality papers used by those claiming that va...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 18, 2012, 1:43 pm
IMFAR, the International Meeting for Autism Research is approaching and that means that it is time for the Autism Science Foundation’s Travel Grants. These are grants for stakeholders which reimburse up to $1,000 of expenses to attend IMFAR. I was an ASF...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 17, 2012, 7:38 pm
2012 is a presidential election year in the United States. With the campaigns comes the courting of voters. Newt Gingich, Republican Hopeful, has posted an article to his site: Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate. It’s an excerpt from a Tea Party website article. &...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 14, 2012, 11:21 am
Add Time magazine to the list of those calling out Andrew Wakefield a fraud. Not just any fraud, a “great science fraud”: Great Science Frauds 2 comment(s) for this post:MikeMa: 2012-Jan-14 ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 12, 2012, 5:11 pm
Peter Bell of Autism Speaks has been appointed to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. As I read about the appointment I felt that there would be some reaction. Perhaps even a strong reaction. And, as you will see, I was correct. The...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 12, 2012, 4:54 pm
When I first wrote about the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism (TPGA) I mentioned I planned a series of articles. Multi-part discussions of books have been done before on Left Brain/Right Brain but usually for books that are, shall we say, less helpful than TPGA. ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Jan 10, 2012, 2:12 pm
Much attention has been focused on Andrew Wakefield again recently. This follows Mr. Wakefield’s lawsuit against Brian Deer, Fiona Godlee and the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Also, a lengthy complaint authored by David Lewis was made public, detailing his views abo...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Nov 1, 2011, 2:00 am
Just as there shouldn’t be any one “Autistics Speaking day” (ASDay), there shouldn’t be any one “autism parent’s listening day”. That said, since this is “Autistics Speaking Day“, and I’m not autistic, I felt I would contribute by listening. &#...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 31, 2011, 3:38 pm
In a great response to a bad event last year, Corina Becker sparked “Autistics Speaking Day”. From her post: “On November 1, there is an Autism awareness campaign called Communitcation Shutdown, whereas people are encouraged to stay off Twitter and Facebook for t...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 31, 2011, 3:14 pm
The internet is rife with bad information, some of it dangerous. This is not news. Unfortunately autism is a hotbed of bad and sometimes dangerous information. Unfortunately, in an attempt to revive the XMRV/autism link, Kent Heckenlively of the Age of Autism blog is...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 28, 2011, 5:46 pm
With the passing of the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act (CARA), the IACC will continue to meet and plan autism research strategy. The terms of the original members of the IACC ended with the sunset of the original Cobating Autism Act (CAA). Those members can serve...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 27, 2011, 5:49 pm
... trial. She claims her attorney was not doing his job properly and ... resurrected without autism. Only later when McCarron realized her daughter was not ... the McCarron family in real life. My heart goes out to them ... for Katie -- and tried to wrap my mind around Karen's plea.&# ... lo...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 27, 2011, 4:55 pm
The National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S. has put out a short book (27 pages) to inform parents about Autism. A Parent’s Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorder can be read online, downloaded as a pdf or purchased as a hard-copy. The book is broken d...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 27, 2011, 2:00 am
ASAN have launched a project on navigating college. This includes a website, NavigatingCollege.org and a book “Navigating College: A Handbook on Self Advocacy Written for Autistic Students from Autistic Adults” (available for download from the website, and in print ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 27, 2011, 1:03 am
From Disability Scoop: App May Help Nab Handicap Parking Violators. A smartphone app may soon be all that’s needed to crack down on illegal parking in handicap spots. Officials in Austin, Texas are set to vote this week on a resolution that ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 26, 2011, 8:32 pm
Two stories out in the past couple of days point to physical differences in autistics: faces and lungs. One study found that facial features were quantitatively different in autistic children than in non-autistic children. In MU study links facial features to autism, J...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 26, 2011, 6:13 pm
Two stories out recently point to the tightening budgets that the This one isn’t caused by economy. This is mismanagement. In AUDIT: Inland Regional Center must repay $10 million, the Press Enterprise discusses the results of an audit of one of Californ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 25, 2011, 1:30 am
This story was discussed online a few years ago. It has haunted me ever since. The story can be found online in Google Books (which carries The Rotarian) or at the Disability History Museum as “We Committed Our Child“. The image says it all: a happy 1...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 24, 2011, 2:00 am
A recent Letter in the Journal Nature takes on the question of how stable is intelligence in teenagers. The title is pretty self explanatory: Verbal and non-verbal intelligence changes in the teenage brain. Consider teenagers. Is their IQ “set in stone...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 21, 2011, 2:00 am
A recent news story on autism discussed: Common Link Suggested Between Autism and Diabetes: Study Implicates Hyperinsulinemia in Increased Incidence of Autism. I figured I’d take a day or two to read up on this and try to write about it. I didn’t figure on Emily Wi...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 20, 2011, 2:00 am
This from the National Down Syndrome Congress. Their page for new and expectant parents. After reading this, imagine a future where autism is diagnosed via some biomarker, potentially prenatally. If you have arrived here, there is a good chan...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 19, 2011, 12:49 pm
A recent article in the journal Pediatrics has gathered a lot of news coverage this week. Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adolescents Born Weighing Here is the abstract: Objective: To estimate the diagnostic prevalence of autism spec...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 19, 2011, 12:17 pm
Dr. Paul Offit, founding board member of the Autism Science Foundation, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine. From the Autism Science Foundation Blog: Autism Science Foundation Founding Board Member Dr. Paul Offit has been elected to ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 18, 2011, 2:00 am
Reading about Andrew Wakefield gets old and tiring. I’m sure that isn’t news to readers here. Writing about Andew Wakefield gets very tiring. Who wants to keep reminding him/her self about a man who has caused so much harm to both the autism communities and public...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 17, 2011, 7:20 pm
This from CNN: Landlord finds mentally disabled people locked in basement; 3 arrested This is one of those stories where I have to take some time before writing any more. Here is video from a CNN affiliate: TACONY - Octobe...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 17, 2011, 1:29 pm
With the passing of Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs, there have been numerous stories and blog posts. The iPad and iPod touch are very popular amongst a segment of the online autism communities, leading to a number of stories and articles from this community. &#...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 14, 2011, 2:00 am
In Illinois charges DAN doctor with unethical behavior, LBRB writer Ken Reibel discussed the case recently brought against alternative medical practitioner Dr. Anju Usman. These charges follow on a civil suit brought by the parent of an autistic child seen by Dr. Usma...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 13, 2011, 7:54 pm
I recently wrote about a series of rather unfactual articles on EmpowHER, EmpowHer blogs the autism vaccine story…and fails. I checked back on her discussion. Here’s part of her latest comment: Actually, most of the transmission of whooping cough to n...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 13, 2011, 5:48 pm
According to the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has charged a well-known Naperville physician with “unprofessional, unethical and/or dishonorable conduct.” Dr. Anju Usman, a familiar face at anti-vaccin...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 12, 2011, 6:59 pm
Empowher is a blogging network that bills itself as “Improving Health. Changing Lives”. EmpowHER.com “facts” include this statement: EmpowHER.com provides credible, evidence-based health content from over 400 world-class health care professionals, ...
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Kevin L. posted an article on Autism Blog - Autism news and opinion - Oct 11, 2011, 6:30 pm
A lot of abstracts come out each day in autism research. Some are controversial. A few make big advances. Many make small advances. One can never tell what one will learn by following the flow of abstracts. For example. Did you know there is a “Soni...
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