On 22nd December 2017, Spectrum published an article with the headline: “Partnerships with people on the spectrum yield rich research insights.” We had agreed to be interviewed for this article. We felt it was an opportunity to inform Spectrum’s readers about the scope and importance of the roles autistic people may play in autism research.…
On Christmas Day this year, multiple clinicians and academics wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern about the impact of ‘screentime’ on children’s health. In this post, we will extract key phrases from the letter, which can be seen in its entirety here, and explore whether the evidence upholds the statement. In this, I am joined by…
In a new(ish) paper (first published a year ago), Lorcan Kenny of the Centre for Research in Autism and Education asks “Which terms should be used to describe autism?“. The paper provides a much-needed empirical analysis of this question which has beset the autism community for years. Conflict over the appropriate terminology to describe both autism itself and specific…
This is the third part in a mini-series of blog posts all aiming to address the big concerns that parents and practitioners tend to have about children using technology. The themes were derived from a series of discussions, but particularly a pair of workshops on technology and autism held in February 2016 as part of Innovative…
So here’s the second in a series of blog posts which I’m aiming to write over a fairly condensed period of time, all drawing on recent discussions which were particularly crystallised by a pair of workshops as part of Innovative Learning Week 2016. All the posts are aiming to provide an evidence-based response to current concerns…
In February 2016, together with my colleague Alyssa Alcorn, I held a couple of workshops at the University of Edinburgh as part of the annual Innovative Learning Week. The theme of ILW2016 was ‘Ideas in Play’. So we decided so gather a bunch of people interested in technology and autism, give them some iPads and apps, and get…
Recently you may have seen a few headlines announcing that having a mother who goes out to work confers benefits on her children: the daughters earn more and do less housework, the sons share more of the burden of domestic responsibility. I work, and have always worked, full time in paid employment and have children aged 4…
Smartphones making children borderline autistic, warns expert This was the headline of an article published in the Telegraph – a respected UK newspaper – 4 days ago. My immediate response is summed up in the following tweet: This Telegraph piece is codswallop. I'll be posting an evidence-based response on my blog next week. https://t.co/KR46gCSDhp —…
You may have seen this headline in the news a little recently… As a resarcher who specialises in the study of technologies for autism, I was obviously intrigued. In case you’re not famliar with this blog and website, I should just quickly mention what work I’ve done which I think qualifies me to comment on…