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WASHINGTON, DC (October 10, 2013) -- Autism Speaks today issued Autism-specific resources to help families understand the Affordable Care Act and the new changes that will affect health insurance coverage, beginning in 2014. These resources are a prelude to the “Autism Speaks Insurance Link,” a new interactive web tool Autism Speaks will unveil shortly to help families determine whether they are eligible for Autism benefits under their current coverage.

Click here to register for this event What: For too long, autism has been under-served and under-heard. At autism Speaks, our goal is to change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders. We are dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments, and a cure for autism; to raising public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society; and to bringing hope to all who deal with the hardships of this disorder. As the nation's leading autism organization, we are excited to be coming to your community.  Please register today for the Montana Walk Now for autism Speaks! If you are interested in being involved in autism Speaks in your area: Please contact Susan Mauro at jaysusanseth@msn.com. We need the entire community to help in these efforts so please take a moment to contact us and discover how you can be a part of these efforts. When: Sunday, September 11, 2011 Registration: 1:00 pm Walk Starts: 2:00 pm Where: Thomson Park Laurel, MT

Researchers at the National Autism Center at May Institute today released the results of the largest systematic review to date of interventions for Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Their findings identify 14 “Established Interventions” for children and adolescents that have the most research support, produce beneficial outcomes, and are known to be effective, and one Established Intervention for adults on the Autism spectrum.

Introduction by Steve Silberman: Six years ago, the United Nations declared April 2 to be World Autism Awareness Day. For most of the 20th Century, Autism was rarely talked about in public, because the psychiatric establishment — led by a psychologist and popular author named Bruno Bettelheim, considered the preeminent authority on the subject in the 1960s — blamed the condition on the emotional trauma of being raised by a cold, unloving mother. The “refrigerator mother” theory was utterly discredited long ago as an elaborate fraud, and Autism is now understood to be a life-long disability caused by complex interactions between genes and the environment. Autistic people and their families are still subject to stigma, however, in part because many of the organizations that view Autism Awareness Day as a fundraising opportunity use fear-mongering language like Autism Speaks’ oft-repeated refrain that “more children are diagnosed with Autism each year than with juvenile diabetes, AIDS or cancer, combined.”

Sometimes the difficulties of autism can lead to behaviors that are quite challenging for us to understand and address. Most individuals with autism will display challenging behaviors of some sort at some point in their lives. autism Speaks has created this Challenging Behaviors Tool Kit to provide you with strategies and resources to address these behaviors, and to help support you and your loved one with autism during these difficult situations.

Sometimes the difficulties of autism can lead to behaviors that are quite challenging for us to understand and address. Most individuals with autism will display challenging behaviors of some sort at some point in their lives. autism Speaks has created this Challenging Behaviors Tool Kit to provide you with strategies and resources to address these behaviors, and to help support you and your loved one with autism during these difficult situations.

The advocacy organisation Autism Speaks estimates there are hundreds of apps built for use on iOS devices, specifically for Autism. A search of the Apple iTunes store brought more than 580 Autism-related apps, while an Android Market search for Autism apps yielded about 250 results. "The more we dig, the bigger the rabbit hole is and we're starting to think tech is a really big key for how we can develop therapies quickly," said Marc Sirkin, vice president of social marketing and online fundraising for Autism Speaks. However, the organisation is cautious about the iPad's popularity. Its quick ascent means no one has actually studied which apps are of therapeutic benefit. Sure, Sirkin said, parents may hear anecdotal stories of apps completely changing a child's life, but there is no measurable proof yet that the apps really work. "The challenge with iOS apps is a lot are developed by well meaning parents but under no guidance with Autism experts," Sirkin said. "For us, it brings in questions as an evidenced-based organisation and we're starting to ask: Does any of this actually make any difference... the danger is that the iPad becomes a really expensive toy." But some parents are OK without the proof just yet. Eric Tanner, the father of an 8-year-old with Autism, said what the iPad really offers is accessibility and hope that a better life is possible for his child.

CARY, N.C., July 7 -- A new coalition of six national autism non-profit organizations, autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Response Education (AWAARE), launched its website today (www.awaare.org) in a collaborative effort to prevent wandering-related injuries and deaths, apparently on the rise in the autism community. Coalition member organizations are autismOne, autism Speaks, the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for autism, the HollyRod Foundation, the National autism Association (NAA), and Talk About Curing autism (TACA.)

Under pressure, Autism Speaks removed a controversial video from its Web site Thursday and privately apologized to a number of disability organizations. Despite this, critics are pressing forward with a public letter condemning the nation’s largest Autism advocacy organization. The controversy surrounds a video called “I am Autism,” which was released in September at Autism Speaks’ World Focus on Autism event.

The father of a 7-year-old Chicago boy who was diagnosed as a toddler with autism has sued the Naperville and Florida doctors who treated his son, alleging they harmed the child with "dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments."

James Coman and his son were featured last year in "Dubious Medicine," a Tribune series that examined risky, unproven treatments for autism based on questionable science.

The defendants — family-practice physicians Dr. Anjum Usman of Naperville and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. — are prominent in the Defeat Autism Now! movement, which promotes many of the alternative treatments the Tribune scrutinized. Both have spoken to groups of parents at Autism conferences and trained other physicians in their methods.

What: This conference will provide information and hands-on training in the latest technology being used to enhance communication and social skills for individuals living with autism. This conference is for everyone who loves and works with children and adults with autism every day. This year we will highlight Communication and iOS devices - iPads, iPods and iPhones. Today’s technological advances offer highly interactive tools that can be used to help build communication skills. During our event you will learn how to choose applications appropriate for your needs, whether you are a parent, educator or practitioner. Through demonstration and actual hands-on training you will be introduced to a variety of applications that use interactive text, illustrations, painting, animation, voice recording, stories, songs and speech/language based activities that may be helpful in developing communication abilities of children and adults on the autism spectrum. Practitioners can use these devices to help people with cognitive-behavioral needs through applications that target social skills and executive functioning like planning, organization, attention and memory.  We will also benefit from meeting and hearing from people of all ages who are navigating through life on the spectrum. Their stories will inspire, educate and bring us closer as a group as we take action to improve the lives of individuals with autism. This conference is for everyone who loves and works with children and adults with autism every day. Join us as we continue our work for Montana families living with autism. When: July 27 & 28, 2011 8:00am - 5:00pm (both days) Where: MSUB Main Campus - Library Room 148 Billings, MT Register: Call 406-896-5890 to register for this event; visit http://www.msubillings.edu/autism/ for more information.

April is known as Autism Awareness Month, but this year there's a movement to re-brand it Autism Acceptance Month. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), an advocacy group for and by people with Autism, is calling for April to be a "celebration of Autistic culture and community." For me, this resonates a lot more than Autism Awareness Month. I'm already very much aware of Autism. Two of my four kids have Asperger's syndrome, and I've been living and breathing Autism awareness for quite some time now. So have my husband, our two kids with ASDs, their siblings, our entire extended family, and our friends.

Western Psychological Services, a publishing company based in Los Angeles, owns many of the common autism screening and diagnostic instruments. These include the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a widely used screening questionnaire that Constantino developed, as well as the autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), often referred to as the gold-standard tests for diagnosis of the disorder. Each time one of these tests is administered, the publisher charges a fee, and passes a portion of the royalties on to the test’s developers. “I don’t think there’s any other condition in medicine in which you have to pay a royalty to a publishing company in order to make the diagnosis,” says David Skuse, professor of behavioral and brain sciences at University College London. Skuse has helped develop two freely available tools, the Social and Communication Disorders Checklist (SCDC) and the developmental, dimensional and diagnostic interview (3di). In many countries, paying royalties of even a few dollars represents a substantial hardship. Durkin and others say these costs not only limit access to diagnosis for individuals, but also forestall epidemiological studies, which require surveying thousands of individuals. One reason researchers have traditionally turned to publishers is a lack of alternative distribution channels, Durkin says. A new online clearinghouse of information, DisabilityMeasures.org, attempts to address this issue by gathering free diagnostic tools for developmental disabilities such as autism.

Steve Silberman, investigative reporter for Wired and other national magazines, declared Thinking Person's Guide to Autism his Book of the Year (!): Covering a wide range of nuts-and-bolts subjects — from strategizing toilet training and and planning fun family outings, to helping your kid cope with bullying, to identifying the issues that a skilled speech-language therapist can work on with your child, to spotting and avoiding “Autism cults,” to navigating byzantine special-needs bureaucracies and providing your child with appropriate assistive technology, to fighting for your kid’s right to an individualized education — the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism is bracingly free of dogma, heavy-handed agendas, and pseudoscientific woo. What distinguishes it from, say, the fine guide for parents recently made freely downloadable by the National Autism Center, is the heart, soul, fierce intelligence, and subversive wit of the authors and editors, which shines on every page. Offering observations from parents, professionals, and autistics themselves, the book is a welcome dose of optimism and uncommonly good sense.

Some researchers estimate that over half of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have some sort of issue with food. These feeding issues can be of significant concern to parents because they might impact their child’s health and wellbeing.  The autism Speaks autism Treatment Network (ATN) created Exploring Feeding Behavior in autism: A Guide for Parents to help parents and professionals better understand the “nuts and bolts” of feeding issues.