If you’re the parent of autistic child or adult, and you are also horrified by the blatant misinformation being peddled and swallowed by MAGA truthers, you should be just as concerned about grievance-based autism parents and organizations.
Tag: autism science foundation
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com Photo © Jeffrey Beall | Flickr / Creative Commons [image: Photo of metal letters spelling “Science” affixed to a brick wall.] At a recent workshop on How to Find Autism Information That Will Help You, I noted that a key factor for evaluating an autism resource is: Who does the approach primarily benefit? Autistic people themselves, or people affiliated with autistic people, such as families or teachers? It’s important to identify this aim, because approaches that support autistic people in living lives of maximized happiness and potential can be very different from the parent-centered approaches—which too often portray autistic people as problems to be managed and controlled. We at Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism support the helping approach, and routinely criticize the problem/control approach—an ongoing effort as the latter remains pervasive both in popular culture, and in research. The problem/control approach is also a theme…
Autism Science Foundation is featured on Philanthroper.com today giving us a simple way to donate. The Autism Science Foundation provides funding to scientists and organizations conducting, facilitating and promoting autism research, and has our shared desire to seek evidence-based therapies. ASF was the initial support behind the grant that allowed TPGA editor Shannon Rosa to go to IMFAR, and helps fill in the gaps that federal cuts have left in research budgets; sometimes it only takes a seed grant to get a driven researcher on their way. Today you have the opportunity to make a quick, small donation to a great organization, and Philanthroper makes it easy to do. Philanthroper has been described as the “Groupon” of the nonprofit world raising funds $1 at a time for a selected nonprofit and today that’s Autism Science Foundation: https://philanthroper.com/deals/autism-science-foundation#/ Philanthroper is about group giving. If everyone gives a little bit it…
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.thinkingautismguide.com As an autism parent, I have a deep interest in seeing autism research proceed toward understanding and results with as few roadblocks or distractions as possible. So, for me, one of the most notable elements of IMFAR 2011 was seeing the Autism Science Foundation and Autism Speaks working alongside each other toward common goals, in the Autism Science Foundation’s tradition of “Funding Outstanding Science.” Anyone who has read my personal blog for more than a month or two knows I have been openly critical of Autism Speaks’ actions. I believe they have made some questionable decisions in how they approach and portray autism — but then so have I. If I’m going to give myself permission to evolve, I can’t very well fault them for past choices when their present direction includes wide-ranging funding of promising science, and listening to the community by broadening their…
TPGA Editor Shannon Des Roches Rosa will be at IMFAR, the International Meeting for Autism Research, for the next four days. She’ll be blogging as much of the conference as she can, right here at The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, starting with today’s 11 AM PST press conference — so stay tuned! The number of IMFAR sessions and panels [PDF] is incredible. If you want to make a case for a specific session Shannon should report on, leave a comment and she’ll do her best. Thanks again to the Autism Science Foundation for the travel grant that made Shannon’s attendance possible. And if you’re actually at IMFAR, do find our roving editor and say hello, or DM her on Twitter: @shannonrosa.
Liz Ditz http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/ http://lizditz.typepad.com/academic_remediation/ I have been thinking about this issue, and this post, for several days now, since a friend who is a science blogger sent on an email from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) about yesterday’s revelations alleging Andrew Wakefield’s fraud. I couldn’t speak or write about it, as the BMJ had strongly requested that the story not be made public (“embargoed”) until 4 pm January 5 2001 PST. That email had links to the full text of editorial, article, and references revealed yesterday. As I studied the material and references, one of the things that I kept in mind was the community that has grown up here at The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, and how we have managed to keep talking through differences of points of view and of opinion. I treasure that continued conversation and I believe it is one of the most valuable things…
Here at the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, we’re about (a) having fun with our families (b) evidence-based approaches to autism (d) innovative fund-raising and (c) social media. So naturally we are participating in The Autism Science Foundation’s campaign, Recipe4Hope. There are a lot of needs in the autism community, but we believe that funding sound autism research comes high on the list. So won’t you join us? Every dollar donated to the Autism Science Foundation from now through December 31 will go directly autism research. This video (1 min 13 seconds) explains the campaign. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Autism Science Foundation, here’s a short statement of its goals: The Autism Science Foundation funds scientific research to find the causes of autism and to develop treatments that will make a difference in the lives of children, teens and adults. This holiday season, outstanding research is…