Hyperlexia: A Literary Journal Celebrating the Autistic Spectrum is looking for your fiction, poetry, and personal essays. Our inaugural issue is planned for October 2008. Send submissions to submissions@hyperlexiajournal.com and please include the full text of your writing in the email if you send a PDF or a Word file. Deadline for submissions is August 31, 2008.

Hyperlexia is interested in honest, thoughtful, well-written poetry and prose about being autistic, and loving someone with autism. Our journal is a celebration of real life with autism, both the good and the bad. We want genuine and truthful writing about autism. You can be serious, sad, or funny. We believe in respecting the diversity of the human mind and discriminatory writing or hatred of any kind will not be published. Submissions should be 1500 words or less.

South Lake Tahoe, CA (PRWEB) July 1, 2008 — Lyme disease may play a role in causing autism according to a recent study published in Medical Hypothesis, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

“The Lyme-Autism Connection” was written by Tami Duncan and Bryan Rosner

A team of five physicians led by Robert Bransfield, M.D., analyzed the two diseases and discovered a connection based on epidemiological findings, symptom similarities, case reports, and laboratory test results.

The Lyme-Induced Autism (LIA) Foundation has paved the way for studies such as this one. Led by Tami Duncan, herself the mother of an autistic child, the LIA Foundation was established in 2006 by a group of parents who suspected the connection but recognized the need for scientific research.
(more…)

ScienceDaily (2008-07-24) — Picking up on innuendo and social cues is a central component of engaging in conversation, but people with autism often struggle to determine another person’s intentions in a social interaction. New research sheds light on the neural mechanisms that are responsible for such social difficulties in autism, and on the workings of these social brain mechanisms in all of us.

The Autism Society of America has queried both Barack Obama and John McCain on their stance on autism. Here are a few snippets from the official statements:

Barack Obama’s Statement on Autism

That’s why I am committed to increasing federal funding for autism research and treatment to $1 billion annually by the end of my first term in office. I also believe that we should increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to truly ensure that no child is left behind.

John McCain’s Statement on Autism

But beyond the school system, we must ensure that individuals with autism have the services and supports they need throughout their lifespan. I’m sure that many of you today are wondering what will happen once the school bus stops coming. We must ensure that individuals with autism have the supports they need to find employment, housing, transportation, and other services they need to be productive, independent, and contributing members to their communities and to our great country.

Kudos to Obama for looking at the educational concerns and McCain for supporting adult autistics. More can be read in the links above.

The 2008 US Autism and Asperger Association Conference will be held from September 4-7, 2008 in Austin, Texas. The USAAA has just published a press release announcing celebrity autism mom Holly Robinson Peete as the keynote speaker.

Actress, singer, and author Holly Robinson Peete will deliver the Keynote address at the USAAA 2008 Autism & Asperger International Conference which will also include more than 30 of the world’s leading Autism Spectrum Disorder experts who will discuss new treatment regimes and effective therapies never before presented to the public.

The US Autism & Asperger Association (USAAA) is set to hold its third annual conference, the 2008 International Conference, from September 4-7, 2008 in Austin, Texas. The event will be kicked off by well-known actress, singer, and author Holly Robinson Peete who, along with husband Rodney – a former NFL quarterback, has become a vocal national advocate for autism-affected families. The Peetes have successfully managed marriage challenges and the difficulties faced in raising their son Rodney Jr. who is affected by autism… and they are still going strong as a family after 12 years! Ms. Peete will offer her compelling testimony on the twin miracles of compassion and communication.

In response to the Autism Speaks/Pennsylvania Autism Insurance Bill fiasco - the following email was sent from PA Speaker O’Brien.

AN OPEN LETTER TO AUTISM SPEAKS FROM SPEAKER O’BRIEN
July 12, 2008

Mr. Robert C. Wright
Co-Founder, Autism Speaks
2 Park Avenue
11th Floor
New York, NY 10016

Dear Bob:

We have a collective mission to create a world in which persons with autism have every opportunity to participate fully in society, to live meaningful and independent lives, to receive the respect they deserve and to have the supports necessary for them to reach the innate potential we know them to have. It’s never been an easy mission, and it doesn’t often permit us the luxury of a pause in the action to reflect on success.
(more…)

SAN DIEGO, Calif. and WASHINGTON, DC - July 8, 2008 - The Autism Research Institute, a leading non-profit organization, has launched a mobile Internet Web site, http://autism.mobi, designed specifically for users of mobile devices and mobile phones, including the Apple iPhone.
(more…)