Big plan NHS England’s Long Term Plan was published in January 2019 and outlined proposals to improve the health and wellbeing of autistic people - Robyn Steward considers what the plan means for people on the autism spectrum and offers some simple tips for NHS staff and services. More

Under pressure "I was born autistic and I will die autistic. As I grow, the pressure to act “less autistic” grows, but guess what — I can’t do that." More

Excluded A Sheffield mum is calling for more support and awareness about a form of autism called Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) after her seven-year-old son has been excluded from school four times in the past year. More

Online and safe When Stuart Duncan started Autcraft, a private Minecraft server for people on the autism spectrum, he had no idea it would become the community it is today. With more than 8,200 members, Autcraft lets children and adults on the autism spectrum play Minecraft in a judgment- and troll-free space. More

Brother to brother Many autistic children in Turkey can't get a place in school and struggle to get an education.
So when Zafer Elcik realised his autistic brother, Alper, wasn't getting the support he needed, he created some games on his smartphone to help him learn. Now thousands of autistic children are using their app. More

Waiting no game A Gwynedd mum says she has had to wait almost a decade so far for an autism diagnosis for her son.Helen Whitney, from Llanbedrog, started the process in 2009, when son Adda was just two years old. More

Making sense of sensory Experts once considered sensory and motor problems, such as hypersensitivity to sound or an unusual gait, to be only secondary traits of autism. But mounting evidence suggests that such traits play a central role in the condition. More

Sleepless on the spectrum Sleep problems can impact daytime behaviour, quality of life, and overall health. Reserachers have compared sleep habits in young children with autism with children from the general population. More

Care concerns The Care Quality Commission(CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England, says there is a problem with the profile of learning disability and autism services. More

Stop (motion) success Students who have spent months crafting stop motion films have seen them make it to the big screen at a special premiere. More

Spotting solutions "When Calum's in a meltdown, it's like a whirlwind going off in his head - you can't speak to him or reason with him". Read how plane spotting helps one Scottish youngster keep negative feelings off the radar. More

One to watch Films that focus on disability, autism, intelectual impairment etc are sadly few and far between. Excellent ones are even rarer! Watch Keep the Change - you won't be disappointed more

Demands explained The PDA Society has developed a new resource: Keys to Care for PDA. It provides a brief summary of top tips and key points about the demand avoidance profile of autism in an easy to digest format. More

Help with Tech help How can technology help with autism? Here's a nice overview of the kind of apps that ight help a person on the spectrum More

Autism explained A 12-year-old girl from Crawley has been inspired by her brother to write a book about autism. Sienna Manuel's nine-year-old brother Cruzie has autism, and she wants to protect him from being bullied. More

Forgotten females For many females, diagnosis doesn't come until they are well into adulthood. That can mean decades of social rejection, depression, anxiety, and unrelenting confusion. More

Connection! A Canadian firm gets tech contracts, then supplies its clients with workers, who happen to be people with autism. “They’re exceptionally good at what they do,” Meticulon’s Garth Johnson said. “Precise, diligent, accurate beyond anybody else.” More

Girl friends It's often said that girls with autism are harder to identify (and diagnose) because they 'fit -in' more easily than boys. However, researchers from Macquarie University have found that girls with autism  struggle with friendships to a greater extent than their male peers. More

Numbers right? One in every 40 children in the United States could have autism or an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a new article published in the journal Pediatrics. How does that compare to other research? More

Autism plays a part Actress and playwright Anna Kyle talks about how realising she had Asperger Syndrome has helped her understand and cope with life More

Art of autism At the age of 15, Niam Jain has achieved a level of respect and recognition in North American art circles typically reserved for much older artists. More

Seeking social My brother Michael leaves the best voicemails, is a great traveling companion and does a spot-on impression of our late grandmother. Michael is also on the autism spectrum, and has been my life’s best reference for loving someone who is neuroatypical. More

Crisis? this crisis "We had to fight for even a basic assessment. Now we’ve been told the school setting he needs is not available" More

Not helping A survey of Scottish autistic people has found that over half have had negative experiences while trying to access mental health services. More

'Getting' autismThree golden rules for supporting autistic pupils - we need to move beyond generalisations and bust some of the myths around autism, says Luke Beardon. More

That's part of it Mounting evidence supports the idea that motor and sensory differences are notable features of autism. More

I declare If you have autism should you disclose that fact when you're trying for a job? If you've been hired without sharing your spectrum condition with your boss, should you tell him or her about it? More

Inside story Disproportionately higher numbers of people with learning disabilities are in prison. Around 7% of people in the criminal justice system have a learning disability, compared with around 2% of the population. More

Staying up late Bubble Club describes itself as a “super fun and inclusive club night that is safe and hosts some of London’s most fantastic performers”. It has been running for 13 years, and provides an opportunity for people with a learning disability to enjoy a night out. The club is also inclusive for people with other disabilities, autism, and people without. More

More than autism More than half of people on the spectrum have four or more other conditions. The types of co-occurring conditions and how they manifest varies from one autistic person to the next. More

In a spin Multi-Sensory Rooms are expensive but any room can become a sensory room. Richard Hirstwood must be the World Champion of cheap sensory ideas. His salad spinner light show has to be the best idea yet. More

...and whild we are on the subject, Gatwick is the first UK airport to open sensory room for passengers More

Girls missing According to Professor Francesca Happe, director of the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at Kings’ College London, autistic girls aren’t being diagnosed. The professor claims that there are up to 200,000 undiagnosed autistic women in the UK, which may affect their mental health. More

Got concerns The UK has an array of bodies that safeguard the rights of vulnerable adults. Here's a handy guide More

Phone hero A youngster with autism who struggles to hold conversations has earned an award for bravery after he called 999 and guided paramedics to his house when his mother collapsed. More

Course Dates for Diary:

ADOS2 Administration and Coding 12th - 15th November 2018 - A course for professionals involved in diagnosis/research with children or adults with autism. More

Autism, Behaviour and Learning 14 November 2018 & 21st November 2018 More

Training for Autism Trainers 1st - 2nd April 2019 This exciting two day course aims to provide a solid platform of training skills and training ideas for new or existing trainers to enable them to deliver autism training that is engaging, imaginative, adult learning. More

Positively positive Debby Elley (one of the super-brains behind Aukids Magazine) looks at how we can help children with autism to feel good about themselves More

Reality please An autistic woman writes that the world of neurotypicals needs to listen to people on the spectrum and stop thinking of them in clichés. More

DIY advice Do you find that you have to remind your child over and over and over to calm down, slow down, use a quiet voice, listen, get something done from start to finish? then Heather Mackenzie has some advice More

Attention please Struggling to get and keep attention in students on the spectrum? Read 'The Science of Attention: How To Capture And Hold The Attention of Easily Distracted Students. More

Building success Dr Gina Gomez de la Cuesta is passionate about LEGO-based therapy and how this can help autistic children to improve social communication skills. More

Spectrum insights Autism: ‘If only I knew then what I know now’ Special school teacher Siobhan Barnett shares what working with autistic students has taught her about autism. More

No more scapegoats Schools attempting to exclude 'poorly-behaved' children with special educational needs will need to make adjustments to support pupils before they can exclude them, a court has ruled. The landmark judgment will make it harder for schools to exclude children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) because of their challenging behaviour, which could be a direct result of their disability. More

Wait no longer A new study on the effectiveness of ECHO Autism shows that the programme significantly reduces diagnostic wait times for young children at highest risk for autism. More

Who me? 'As she drove along listening to the radio, Katherine May couldn't believe her ears. At 37, after a lifetime suspecting she saw the world differently to everyone else, she finally realised why". More

Musically speaking 'When I work with the students in my ‘Autism All Star Choir’ (many of whom are completely non verbal) absolutely love Music. They may not be able to verbalize the words, but their eyes and hearts are singing and their Brains are being nourished as is their emotional well being.' More

How big? An increasing number of American children are being diagnosed with autism, according to new government figures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that 1 in 59 children are on the spectrum. More

Help at hand Find out how the 'Emotional Robot' could help children with autism express themselves better. "The idea is that it's going to be something that follows them from their house all the way to school, so it's the one constant that they have," More

Unfair Children with autism may be at greater risk of bullying because they are more willing to accept unfair behavior, say psychologists at Lancaster University. More

Terms of engagement How to approach the difficult world of dating on the spectrum More

Make time make sense “First, then” is a technique used to help organize the day, or the session, or the next three minutes. More

Home is where it's at In a new guideline, NICE says children, young people and adults with learning disabilities, who have behaviour that challenges, should have the right support to live their lives in the community like everyone else. More

Also Adults "Autistic children become autistic adults and, as the first generation of mainstreamed students grow up, we need to start having 'an adult conversation' around autism." More

Designed by autism Every detail of the new Shrub Oak International School near NYC—from windows to wall colours—was crafted with autistic students in mind. More

Travel chaos Travelling on public transport can be pretty stressful at the best of times. However, for someone who is autistic, venturing on their everyday commute and facing the unknown can be an incredibly overwhelming experience. More

Ready or not? The number of individuals with ASC entering adulthood each year is expected to double over the next 6 years. What can they expect? Jobs, independence, somewhere of their own? More

Problem diagnosed Putting autism diagnostic services in the hands of a private provider hasn't worked in Kent and hundreds of children are still waiting. More

Help at hand Biometric technology could be the future of autism care. Wristband sensors can monitor tiny physiological signs and alert support workers and clinicians to an individual’s growing anxiety. More

Sensory Spectrum Satsuki Ayaya remembers finding it hard to play with other children when she was young, as if a screen separated her from them. Sometimes she felt numb, sometimes too sensitive; sometimes sounds were muted, sometimes too sharp. More

Adults too Although autism is predominantly diagnosed in childhood, increasing numbers of adults are finding out that they too have autism. This issue, of later life diagnosis, was brought to light recently after nature photographer and TV presenter, Chris Packham, went public with his experiences. More

It's all about the individual A person-centred approach can make a huge difference when helping people with autism to develop their personal skills. More

Winning words 'Communication is a basic human right': How this man with nonverbal autism found his voice. More

Sleep first  A world first first study will help determine if improving sleep habits of children with autism will result in better concentration and improved behaviour. More

A fair byte Microsoft has said that its ongoing drive to hire autistic talent and spearhead inclusive design is driving creativity and innovation across the business - "We have to ask ourselves, are we trying to get people in the organisation who are successful at interviews or are we trying to get people in with the best talent?" More

Depressing news Nearly half of adults with autism will experience clinical depression in their lifetime, according to  new research. More

All change "Hearing that your child has autism, or any neurological disorder, is so unbelievably scary. Maybe you knew deep down. Or maybe you were oblivious. It honestly doesn’t matter because in an instant everything is different". More

What's the hold up? That was the question that a team from the University of Edinburgh asked in terms of the NHS provision for autism diagnosis in one area of Scotland. More

Pig in a poke How an earth could anyone suggest that watching the TV cartoon Peppa Pig might cause autism? Life stranger than fiction. More

Writing autism “Being diagnosed turned my life the ‘right way up’” PJ Hughes lives in Sheffield, England. PJ speaks and writes about his experiences of having Asperger Syndrome. Read the Autism Europe interview. More

Without care A lack of training for health professionals could be contributing to 1,200 avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability in England each year, research has found. More

Two minute wonder Can something as diverse and complex as autism be revealed by a two minute test? Researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School claim to have developed a two-minute questionnaire. More

Where's our story? The limited and skewed portrayal of autism in chldrens literature means it is often misrepresented rather than represented in fiction. For an autistic child or young person this can be extremely isolating. More

Female voices Spectrumly Speaking is the podcast dedicated to women on the autism spectrum, produced by Different Brains®. More

Speaking without words David James “DJ” Savarese has accomplished far more than the average 25 year old. Not only did he graduate  in 2017 with a double major in Anthropology and Creative Writing, but Savarese also co-produced Deej, which highlights the obstacles he faced as a non-speaking student with autism. More

Autism independence 'Autism and Enablement' is a new, practical guide to enablement and  shows how to help adults with autism achieve greater independence and become more self-sufficient. More

Growing skills Unique agriculture project 'Lettuce Work' is helping young people with autism develop socially and acquire great work skills. More

We know what you mean Harry When Harry Redknapp was visiting Portfield School in Christchurch, Dorset, and learnt how overwhelming a football match can be for a child with the condition, he asked what could be done to make the game more accessible. More

Autism is in Africa Many African children with autism are hidden away at home. Efforts to bring the condition into the open are only just beginning. More

French revolution  France has a long  history of being out of step with modern theories of autism. After lagging behind other countries for decades, France is working on a new national plan for autism. More

Hearing voices Three- to five-year-old children with autism and delayed language development appear to process voices differently than typically developing children, according to a new study. More

Seen Rain Man? "There are no typical autistic people, despite the savant stereotypes. My son is just himself: he’s me, with a coating of autism". More

Through Glass Once ridiculed as a failed innovation, Google Glass is emerging as an important tool to help with educational and behavioral needs of children with autism. More

Right at the museum Things are getting sensory at the Museum. Many museums are now offering early entry and sensory-friendly activities to those on the spectrum of any age. More

Our stories We must never stop listening to real experiences of autism. Here, four men and women speak about how autism touches their lives. More