Lighthouse Autism Center Blog

Just before leaving Washington for a month-long break, the U.S. Senate acted to renew the nation’s primary autism legislation, sending the measure to the president’s desk. The autism bill was approved by unanimous consent late Thursday night. The move comes after the legislation, which cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in June, had been held up for weeks […]

Tim Sharp is an Australian artist and the creator of  superhero Laser Beak Man. When Tim was diagnosed with autism at 3 years of age, doctors advised his mother Judy to institutionalize him. She did no such thing and worked with Tim at home in the hope of one day hearing him speak. After several […]

Spotting False or Misleading Claims April is National Autism Awareness Month, a fitting time to think about the growing need for concern and awareness about autism. One thing that is important to know up front: There is no cure for autism. So, products or treatments claiming to “cure” autism do not work as claimed. The […]

Paula Tyrie’s family is moving to a house just two blocks from the Rahway River, and she already has her emergency plan: If her 10-year-old autistic son goes missing, one of her teenage twins will look in the park. The other will head to the river. That’s because half of all children with autism are […]

(July 11, 2014) – Blockbuster prequel “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” is in theaters today and it is jam-packed with dazzling special effects. Some of those scenes were done by digital artists on the autism spectrum. 20th Century Fox contracted six distinguished students from Exceptional Minds to work on 43 shots in the film. Exceptional Minds is […]

Autism Speaks, the Simons Foundation and the Autism Science Foundation have launched “It Takes Brains,” the new donor registration site for Autism BrainNet. Autism Speaks Chief Science Officer Rob Ring joined Autism BrainNet Director David Amaral and the Simons Foundation’s Marta Bennedetti in making the announcement at the annual Stakeholders Luncheon at the International Meeting for […]

With Insurance Payments Being Cut, What’s Happening to the Autism Industry? Autism is big business in Indiana.   Therapists work with kids with autism at the Behavior Analysis Center for Autism in Fishers. (IBJ photo/Eric Learned) Since 2001, when Indiana became the first state to require health insurers to cover autism therapy in a meaningful […]

The fourth round of the AGI Residential/Daily Living Support Course will begin Monday, June 23rd! This first-of-its-kind course, funded by a 2011 Autism Speaks grant to the Autistic Global Initiative of the Autism Research Institute, was developed by a team of 15 curriculum experts from across the United States and is instructed by world-renowned faculty. The Autistic Global Initiative is […]

The World’s Largest Genomic Database on Autism Autism Speaks, an autism science and advocacy organization, is launching a program to develop the world’s largest database of genomic sequence information on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. It’s partnering with Google to store the database, called the Autism Speaks Ten Thousand Genomes Program (AUT10K), on […]

The parents of children with autism often have to cut back on or quit work, and once they reach adulthood, people on the autism spectrum have limited earning potential. Those income losses, plus the price of services make autism one of the costliest disabilities – adding $2.4 million across the lifespan if the person has […]

A new study reveals that exposure to environmental pollution may cause autism or schizophrenia. While the link pollution and autism has previously been investigated, researchers from the University of Rochester have uncovered the biological mechanism that may explain how pollution can put people at a higher risk for both autism and schizophrenia. “From a toxicological […]