Autism and the Media

Each year, American Idol produces a handful of contestants who give memorable performances during the audition rounds, immediately making them odds-on favorites to win. Last night, millions of American Idol viewers were introduced to just…

Temple Grandin was thrust into the national spotlight nearly one year ago year after the release of HBO's critically acclaimed movie, Temple Grandin. She then became a near-household name last month after Claire Danes, who portrayed her…

With the autism rate now "officially" at 1 in 110 (the unofficial rate is much higher), many find it surprising that so many around us are affected. Autism is a "spectrum disorder," meaning there are varying degrees…

In a recent one-on-one interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Bill Gates discussed his foundation's $10 billion pledge over the next ten years to develop and deliver vaccinations to children worldwide. When the recent Andrew Wakefield…

An eleven-year-old autistic boy in Edgewood, Washington with a keen interest for X-Box games, was recently labeled a ¨Cheater¨ by Microsoft for allegedly tampering with his account to boost his gaming scores. This comes from a boy who…

On January 21, 2011, CNN.com ran an Op-Ed by Dr. Rahul K. Parikh stating that parents of unvaccinated children should pay substantially higher insurance rates than those who are in compliance. He argued that the discrediting of Dr. Andrew…

One of the first guilt trips given to parents of newly diagnosed autistic children is the "too much television" bullet. Let's get the timeline correct. Your child had autism before he started watching TV and it is no more…

Parents are inundated with the warnings about the perils of cyberspace and the necessity of protecting their children, a task made more daunting if that child is a guileless autistic. When my fourteen-year-old son gushed that he had met…

Former "Big Brother 9" contestant Adam Jasinski will be sentenced this week for attempting to sell 2,000 pills of oxycodone to a DEA informant, as well as his failure to file a tax return for 2008, the same year he won $500,000…