Autism Awareness

Hypersensitivities (often misinterpreted as ESP) and other phenomena in autism

Sometimes sensory hypersensitivities are misinterpreted as extrasensory perception (ESP) as ‘normal’ people not only fail to see, hear,...

Autism: Sensations last too long

A painful truth Sensory stimuli can be experienced very differently by autistic individuals. Just because we may not feel something, it...

'Involuntary echolalia'

There are other types of echolalia that are difficult to explain, for example, involuntary echolalia, when the person blurts out words or...

Communicative echolalia in autism

Though echolalia can be non-communicative, in many cases it is used for communication. Parents of autistic children (with echolalia) can...

Non-communicative echolalia in autism:

If it’s not for communication, what’s the point? As I didn’t know much at the time, I made a mistake thinking that as soon as my son...

Placebo and Nocebo Effects

The placebo effect can be defined as the power of the mind and the unconscious to heal in response to something (whether sugar pills or...

The Role of Sensory Perceptual Differences in Autism:

The Intense World Syndrome and other ‘sensory theories’ Although already in the very first descriptions of autistic children, researchers...

Empathy in autism (and alleged lack of it)

Autistic people are said to be (severely) impaired in their ability to empathise with other people which is reflected in the...

Looking for triggers of ‘challenging behaviours’ in autism.

It is not as simple as ABC When we come across a behaviour that’s difficult, there’s a popular method that’s used to help parents and...

AutismS, Fruit Salad, Jigsaw Puzzles and a Bit of Linguistics

Let’s start with linguistics: The way we label things around us means a great deal. Let’s look at the widely used terms in an ‘autistic...

A MODEST PROPOSAL

April is Autism Awareness Month. 30 years ago, parents of autistic children were doing their best to bring autism awareness 12 months a...