Autism News

If NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace gets any luckier, then he should find a way to bottle his good fortune and sell it.

Wallace, one of the most visible drivers in the sport, won the Mobil High-Endurance Poker Challenge at the Golden Nugget. His treasure chest was $50,000, which he donated to the Autism Society of America.

Why has there been such an enormous rise in the number of children diagnosed as ‘autistic’ in the last 20 or so years? How can we account for the quite astonishing increase in cases of this harrowing and alienating affliction? The question frightens parents; it bamboozles scientists. It leaves our politicians looking shifty and averting their gaze.

Whether one believes that incidences of autism are on the rise, or that it's the detection of the condition that's on the increase, one undeniable fact is that in a relatively short period of time an identifiable autistic community has emerged. And as with any definable group, it has organized and is starting to fight for what it believes is right. Read the full article about the rise of Asperger's Syndrome.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have discovered that in autistics, direct eye contact leads to increased activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with 'fight or flight' responses.

Read the original article from Scientific American here.

Brain tests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggest that children with autism shy from eye contact because they perceive even the most familiar face as an uncomfortable threat. The work deepens understanding of an autistic brain's function and may one day inform new treatment approaches and augment how teachers interact with their autistic students.

BENNINGTON -- When Anne Allen came to live on Vail Road in 1946 at the age of 13, she was already suffering from the alienating effects of undiagnosed Asperger syndrome.

Asperger, a developmental disorder, mimics autism. Allen was exhibiting the classic symptoms - intense and narrow interest in specific topics, sophisticated vocabulary that makes children sound like little professors, clumsy movements, and socially and emotionally...

The Autism Awareness Campaign in the United Kingdom are firmly behind the nation's London 2012 bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

[ClickPress, Mon Feb 28 2005] The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid is causing a great deal of excitement, the bid has gathered momentum after the visit of officials from the International Olympic Committee. Support for the Paralympics has come from disability organisations in the United Kingdom.

If home is where the heart is, then home for a dozen people with Asperger Syndrome could be a 16-acre island blessed with lush gardens and rolling green hills.

The island is called "Brigadoon," but unlike its literary namesake, this place is real — or real enough in a 21st century way. "Brigadoon" belongs to a public virtual world called "Second Life," a popular online 3-D environment frequented by tens of thousands of users.

WrongPlanet.net has an excellent article on the upcoming movie about two individuals with Asperger's Syndrome who fall in love. Torley Wong, who has recently been too busy to post as much as he used to, wrote this article quite a while ago.

Anyway, let me get back to the topic of Mozart and the Whale. I also added a module to allow you to view the trailer for the upcoming movie. Mozart and the Whale looks like it is going to be very good and...

I am proud to announce that WrongPlanet.net now has more than 1000 members. The site was started in June of 2004 by two Aspies who had a mutual vision for a friendly site, without elitism or fighting, but made just for those with Asperger's Syndrome. Since then, we have been consistently growing in size. This isn't because we have the coolest features and the slickest interface (even though most of you have agreed that we do). What makes...