I read quite a lot of news stories, watch videos, comment on blogs – all about autism – quite a lot. I realised it might be useful to record, and share, what these are!

Here’s the first in the series of my “What I’m reading about autism this week”.

Technically this isn’t a read at all (way to go Devina); it’s a YouTube video. A TED talk by geneticist Wendy Chung about the possible causes of autism, which uses hard-core science to try and find out what’s going on, and emphatically debunks the “vaccines cause autism” myth. Here’s a look:

The next story is one on BBC News, titled “Admiring Autism: Busting ‘autism myths’ with a camera“. It’s about a photographer, based in the UK, who has documented her experiences with her son and other families who deal with autism on a regular basis through the medium of photos. Sarah Dunn and her photographic journey can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

Then it was off to the NY Times for an opinion piece called “Autism and the Agitator“. It’s essentially about Jenny McCarthy‘s sudden declaration that she’s been misunderstood and that she’s actually “pro-vaccine”. What do you think about this brouhaha, I’d be interested to know.

Potentially the most famous autistic in the world, Dr Temple Grandin participated in an online chat Q&A over at Talk About Autism. It happened on April 22, but you can still read the transcript over at the link.

And one of my favourite bloggers, Lisa Maree Domican has a guest post on her blog, titled “Guest post from Ethan, Eli and Jodi: Autism’s other half” and it features short write-ups from two young boys with autism, who have written from their perspective what they think about it! Loved the idea and the photos added to the post.

A feel-good story here about a Minecraft server called Autcraft – it’s for children with autism and their families.

Then I was following an interesting timeline by Stuart Duncan (also in the previous story), or as he is known on Twitter @autismfather. Here’s a look at some tweets a few days ago (there are more on his timeline, please have a look):

What If I Told You #autism edition: Autistics may experience light, sound, smell, taste & touch more extremely than you. This includes pain.

— Stuart Duncan (@autismfather) April 22, 2014

What If I Told You #autism edition: Some autistics read, write & think as clearly as anyone yet their mind/body does not allow for speech.

— Stuart Duncan (@autismfather) April 22, 2014

What If I Told You #autism edition: Approx 20%-35% of autistics have a seizure disorder. About 1 in 4 begin to have seizures during puberty.

— Stuart Duncan (@autismfather) April 22, 2014

What If I Told You #autism edition: Autism is not a disease & can not be cured, removed or punished out of a child nor do you grow out of it

— Stuart Duncan (@autismfather) April 22, 2014

 

That’s all I’ve got this week… until the next time! 🙂