A rich new lens

By bobb |

Jessica Horner

Being diagnosed as autistic as an adult made these people want to make a change. Now they’re flipping the switch on the negative perceptions of autism.

ABC Riverina

“I am a broken person, trying to put the pieces back together in the (perhaps vain) hope that maybe the repaired version will be more beautiful than the scars that pain left behind …”

'It's absolutely disgraceful': Perth boy faces two-year wait for autism assessment

By bobb |

A Perth mother says she has been pushed to the edge of despair after being told she will have to wait at least two years to get an autism assessment for her 10-year-old son.

"When I got the letter telling me about the wait time I just burst into tears," Tanya Wheat said.

"It is absolutely disgraceful, we can't wait two years, my son needs support now."

Autism research at the crossroads

By bobb |

Brady Huggett

In April of 2021, Emilie Wigdor finished up a paper titled “The female protective effect against autism spectrum disorder” and put it on the pre-print server medRxiv. Wigdor is a Ph.D. student in human genetics at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, and the paper had taken three years to complete. It was also the first paper on which she was first author. She was proud of that, and she took to Twitter to promote the work in an 11-part thread.

'Only home he knows’: Family facing deportation over son’s autism seeks minister's intervention

By bobb |

The Lim family is facing a struggle to stay in Australia after the residency application for their son was rejected on medical grounds. They are now seeking intervention from Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil to be allowed to stay permanently.

Key Points

  • The Lim family’s permanent residency application was denied due to son Seongjae’s medical condition
  • They are now seeking ministerial intervention to remain permanently in Australia
  • An online petition has been launched to drum up support for the family’s appeal to Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil

Hyunsin Lim and his wife Yoojin Yang hoped to provide a ‘safe and fulfilling' life for their two children in regional Australia.

From deficits to a spectrum, thinking around autism has changed. Now there are calls for a ‘profound autism’ diagnosis

By bobb |

This article by Professor Andrew Whitehouse, Bennet Chair of Autism at Telethon Kids Institute and from The University of Western Australia originally appeared in The Conversation on November 9, 2022.

A heated debate about autism was reignited after the recent publication of an article advocating for use of the term “profound autism”.