autism research and guidance

"Restless nights aren’t always hours of busy heightened activity into the early hours, or absolute melt-down. It’s often an exhausting in-between of endless enforced “resting" and not sleeping".

Jordyn Zimmerman recently graduated with her bachelors degree in education policy from Ohio University. Diagnosed as autistic, Jordyn did not have access to a communication system until 2014, at the age of 18 years old. She writes for Learning Disability Today about how the world can be made more inclusive of autistic people who use alternative and augmentative communication (AAC).

Emily Burke uses her experience of being admitted to psychiatric wards to highlight the adjustments that can be made to make this already unfamiliar and often uncomfortable environment a bit less distressing for autistic people. 

Studies have revealed symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in around two thirds of autistic people. But are autism and ADHD symptoms of the same underlying condition? Academic Dr Simon Bignell has questioned whether autism and ADHD may be “one overarching disorder with a range of subtypes”

When the team behind the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5 redefined Asperger's Syndrome as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2013, it would spark a conflict that continues to rage. Here, Darren Devine speaks to one of the psychiatrists behind the controversial move.

'What It Feels Like' is a short film that looks at a form of auditory hallucination known as voice hearing. Steven Fraser created the film to show a side of voice hearers that is rarely represented in the media.

For the first time, the government has pledged to work with the Office for National Statistics to include autistic spectrum conditions on the Labour Force Survey.

Disability charity United Response launches their Am I Your Problem? campaign which aims to challenge the indifference, hidden discrimination, and sometimes outright hostility faced by people with learning disabilities and autistics. 

Trials are underway for a wristband that monitors physiological changes that may precede aggression. Darren Devine discusses how such technology could change the lives of autistic people, their families, and their carers.

Rahman Kebbie, 29, and Murtaza Ali, 37, are on the autism spectrum and are supported by the disability charity United Response. The two men have travelled to the busiest of European airports and train stations alone.