Syracuse, N.Y. -- When Heather Patrick was growing up, she knew she was different. At the age of 16, she was diagnosed with autism. She graduated from high school at 21, and went from one community ...

“He’s autistic,” I say, responding to a question about my 9-year-old son. After shifting in her chair, a co-worker responds: “It must be hard to have a child on the spectrum.” A version of this ...

You're looking at a truck. You're with a young child and he follows your gaze. He's interested in the object you're looking at without you pointing at it. This is called joint attention and it is one ...

The idea of the “autism spectrum” is widely used in diagnosis, education and public discussion. First developed by the psychiatrist Lorna Wing in the 1980s, the term was intended to reflect the wide ...

Communication is vital to expressing and getting what we want and need, bonding with other people and navigating the world in which we live. But, by definition, autistic people often deal with ...

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness that autistic girls tend to present differently than autistic boys. This often leads to the underdiagnosis (or delayed diagnosis) of girls with ...

April marks Autism Acceptance Month with World Autism Day occurring on April 2 every year. The month is meant to be a time for uplifting autistic voices and sharing in the community's joy. But for ...

Autistic people often experience difficulties with social communication. It’s so common, in fact, that it’s one of the central criteria for an autism diagnosis. For as long as we have been diagnosing ...