Even though autism is now widely discussed in the media and society at large, the public and some experts alike are still stymied be a couple of the big, basic questions about the disorder: What is autism, and how do we identify—and count—it? A close look shows that the unknowns involved in both of these questions suffice to explain the reported autism boom. The disorder hasn’t actually become much more common—we’ve just developed better and more accurate ways of looking for it.

Among the challenges of raising children with Asperger syndrome are the emotional ones placed upon the family. The collection of glaring social issues, mixed with subtle thinking variations and occasional unpredictable emotional swings, transforms parenting into a confusing trip of trial and error. When errors mount, family life is often mired in conflict, and the child’s issues are exacerbated. Parents may resort to blaming one another, leading to further downward spiraling.

As many as 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT, and a new Williams Institute study of youth shelters confirms this estimate. Between October 2011 and March 2012, 354 agencies completed surveys about their clients and found that about 40 percent of their homeless and non-homeless clients were LGBT (9 percent of whom identified as bisexual). About 30 percent of clients using housing-related services (like emergency shelter and transitional living programs) were LGBT.

On Tuesday, July 10, the US Department of Education (ED) hosted "What Teachers Need to Know about Personalized Learning" as part of their Teacher Summer Seminars. Richard Culatta, Deputy Director of the Office of Educational Technology, Matthew McCrea, Science Instructional Lead Teacher at G. James Gholson Middle School in Maryland, and I discussed our perspectives on promoting personalized learning in schools from the policy, classroom, and staff development perspective.

Too often, when students with disabilities are moving from school to the workplace—a phase typically called transition—some of the basic tenets of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are ignored, said Jeff Spitzer-Resnick, managing attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin.

Davis, a 30-year quadriplegic, Missoula resident and a powerful voice for people with disabilities, died in her home on June 28 from cancer at the age of 58. She was a calming, caring voice for those struggling with their disability and a strong, confident voice when it came to testifying before the Legislature for funds to pay for home-care services.

Three-year-old Kasan Allison idolizes his older brothers, Keenan and Kylan, likes to play games with his dad, Dave, and is always on the go, a toy tractor or his best bud, Mickey Mouse, in hand. When he’s unsure about something, he reaches for his mom, Amie, and he loves macaroni and cheese.Almost from the day Kasan was born, his parents recognized differences in his development. He did not lift his head, roll over, start crawling when his older brothers had.The Allisons didn’t know it at the time, but Kasan has XXXXY, commonly called 49 Chromosome Syndrome, and the chromosomal abnormality affects not only his life, but his family’s too.

Being able to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch gears is like having an air traffic control system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways. In the brain, this air traffic control mechanism is called executive functioning, a group of skills that helps us to focus on multiple streams of information at the same time, and revise plans as necessary.

In particular for families of children with disabilities, Thursday's Supreme Court ruling upholding most of the Affordable Care Act may come as a huge relief. Other government health insurance programs, including Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, have filled some of the gaps in health insurance coverage for people with disabilities before the health care law, but they didn't go far enough.

We are all connected in a global web of interdependency. Long before the Internet, when Twitter was a sound and Liking someone meant you actually liked them, Martin Luther King Jr. prophesized the nature of things in the 21st century: "We are all tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality." Today, given the ubiquity of technology, we are, indeed, inexorably connected in worldwide economic, social, environmental and other systems. That interdependence requires us to rethink the consequences of our actions and the potential scope of our influence. As adults and educators, it requires a conception of ourselves as global citizens and global advocates, responsible for the development of our own children, the children next door or thousands of miles away.

It’s summer time and that means new routines and less structure for your child with special needs. Summer can be a season of growth and learning for you child if you structure their day in the right way. Outdoor activities, trips and family time can provide some great experiences that your child would never receive in a classroom. To help you come up with activities we scoured the web and came up with several blog posts that provide summer activities to children with special needs.

One reason for the dramatic increase in children diagnosed with autism in Utah is the expanded definition of the disorder, according to a new study. University of Utah researchers applied today’s criteria for autism-spectrum disorders to children who were considered challenged in the 1980s and who participated in an autism study at that time. The new study found a majority of those kids would now be classified as autistic.

For some parents of children with special needs, separation anxiety can be an emotionally intense experience that stretches over several years and limits a family’s activities.  I know because I go through the whole process every day with my own children.  It has been helpful to me to understand the differences between typical and atypical separation anxiety – and even more helpful to find ways to work through the anxiety not only without tears, but also with increased self-confidence and independence for my children.

HELENA — After hearing stiff criticism of the state institution for the developmentally disabled, a legislative panel Monday voted to draft a bill requiring the state to develop a plan for closing the Boulder center by 2015.The bipartisan Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee also voted to draft two other bills to increase oversight of the Montana Developmental Center in Boulder, including placing its “client protection specialist” under the state Department of Justice.

In 2009, the Civil Rights Division launched an aggressive effort to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., a ruling that requires states to eliminate unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and to ensure that persons with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. President Obama issued a proclamation launching the "Year of Community Living," and has directed the Administration to redouble enforcement efforts. The Division has responded by working with state and local governments officials, disability rights groups and attorneys around the country, and with representatives of the Department of Health and Human Services, to fashion an effective, nationwide program to enforce the integration mandate of the Department's regulation implementing title II of the ADA.

Bullying and cyber-bullying can leave anyone feeling hurt, angry, frightened, and even depressed or overwhelmed. Those who bully often experience their own psychological problems as well. Because bullying is so common, many people think it's normal and should be tolerated. But it doesn't have to be. By learning about why some kids bully and why others are bullied, you can help yourself or a loved one deal with bullying, and develop the resilience and self-confidence to succeed in life.

When Lara Duranti's husband Anthony was transferred to Malmstrom Air Force Base from Colorado this time two years ago, she was on the phone immediately with the school district working to make sure that when her special needs daughter enrolled at Loy Elementary, she wouldn't fall behind.

Researchers from the Oregon Immunization Program took a look at the various alternative schedules out there, everything from published advice to homegrown plans, and decided to focus on two specific alternative schedules that parents commonly follow. Both are created by physicians — Dr. Stephanie Cave and Dr. Robert Sears — and both limit the number of shots received at any particular visit to one or two, but Cave’s plan is more restrictive.

Chosen to be a torchbearer at the 2012 Summer Games, blind ultra-runner Simon Wheatcroft will carry the Olympic Flame running solo -- with only the guidance of his iPhone. “If you had asked me three years ago if training alone was possible while being blind I would have said no," Wheatcroft told FoxNews.com. "Now I do it and ... I realize perhaps a lot of things are possible.” The RunKeeper app uses the GPS tracker in the iPhone to track your runs, including duration, distance, pace, calories burned, and path traveled on a map. The app reads your current stats over your headphones as you run, and the virtual coach warns if you are ahead or behind pace. “This allowed me to match distances with markers on my route. So I would pair a dip before a turn with a distance marker from RunKeeper," Wheatcroft explained.