I was at the store today when I overheard two women talking. “Our pediatrician wants Sarah to get that Gardasil vaccine,” the first one said. “And I said absolutely not. She’s 9 years old. I am not giving her a shot for a sexually transmitted disease. That’s absurd. She [...]
Clarifying Complex Ideas
Tag Archive: autism
Autism and Social Development
Recently, NPR’s Morning Edition was profiling a program for autistic kids in Baltimore. The idea behind it is to teach these kids how to interact socially, often the most limited skill set in an autistic child, who is typically a whiz at math and science. They teach them how to carry on a [...]
Vaccines
“Vaccines don’t cause autism, do they?” asked my sister-in-law, as she was strapping her 4-month-old son into his car seat for a doctor’s visit.
“No,” I replied.
“Promise?” she asked.
What could I say to that? No, I can’t promise. No, I have no idea if he’ll end up with autism, or what the cause of [...]
Autism and Fever
You can hardly turn on the radio or read the news this week without hearing something about the study that indicates that fever seems to relieve the symptoms of autism. When I first heard the news, I was fascinated. What is it in the human brain that gets “fixed” by fevers? It’s [...]
