Autism

A child crawls over a sensory slide with assistance from an adult at Q's Corner in High Point.

How one local business helped High Point become a Certified Autism Destination

2:03pm April 25, 2025

In 2023, the city became the first Certified Autism Destination on the East Coast, now with 20 different partners, including museums, a library, restaurants, hotels and a business known as Q’s Corner.

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The student journalist smiles with her mom

Overcoming a Speech Delay

8:00am March 02, 2025

by Khloey Key

Most speech pathologists agree: by 12 months old, babies should be saying their first words. When that milestone doesn’t come, parents are left with questions—How? When?

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Gender

Community conversation to explore neurodiversity and gender identity connection

5:41pm June 26, 2023

by Paul Garber

Transgender and nonbinary people are more likely to have neurological differences such as autism or attention-deficit disorders compared to the overall population. A community conversation this week will explore the connection.

Dr. Mai Pham is an internist and former senior Medicare and Medicaid official with degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities, but she still struggled to find care for her son with autism, Alex Roodman.

Health & Safety

Kids with autism struggle to adapt to adulthood. One doctor is trying to change that

1:14pm February 12, 2022

by Noam Levey

Dr. Mai Pham left a corporate career to spark change in a system that is failing millions of Americans with autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient.

Author Helen Hoang Talks Sex, Autism And Freedom

5:30pm July 30, 2021

by Alyssa Jeong Perry

This summer, Code Switch is laser-focused on books that teach us about freedom. Today, we're in conversation with a romance novelist whose own identity helped inform a rich cast of characters.

Sandra's 17-year-old daughter, Lindsey, has autism. Lindsey thrives on routine, and got special help at school until the coronavirus pandemic cut her off from the trained teachers and therapists she'd come to rely on.

'I've Tried Everything': Pandemic Worsens Child Mental Health Crisis

11:47am January 18, 2021

When schools closed last spring, children with severe mental illnesses were cut off from the services they'd come to rely on. Many have since spiraled into emergency rooms and even police custody.

Feda Almaliti with her son, 15-year-old Muhammed, who has severe autism. "Muhammed is an energetic, loving boy who doesn't understand what's going on right now," she says.

Health & Safety

'He's Incredibly Confused': Parenting A Child With Autism During The Pandemic

11:12pm May 22, 2020

Feda Almaliti is the mother of a 15-year-old son with severe autism and an advocate. She describes how the challenges of the coronavirus crisis are exponentially more difficult for families like hers.

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This image from an electron microscope shows a cross-sectional view of an oligodendrocyte (blue) among nerve fibers coated with myelin (dark red). In models of autism spectrum disorder, oligodendrocytes appear to create too much or too little myelin.

Researchers Link Autism To A System That Insulates Brain Wiring

5:45pm February 03, 2020

by Jon Hamilton

Brains affected by autism appear to share a problem with cells that make myelin, the insulating coating surrounding nerve fibers that controls the speed at which the fibers convey electrical signals.

Dogs' olfactory capacity — they can sniff in parts per trillion — primes them to detect disease.

How Super Sniffer Dogs Are Helping Detect Disease Around The World

8:55pm January 25, 2020

by John Henning Schumann

Our canine buddies can do more than play fetch. Turns out dogs' incredible sense of smell is a secret weapon in medicine.

The University of Iowa is working to include teens on the autism spectrum in its programs for gifted students.

Health & Safety

Gifted Students With Autism Find An Intellectual Oasis In Iowa

7:08pm October 16, 2019

by Jon Hamilton

A center at the University of Iowa is making sure that its programs for gifted teens include those with autism spectrum disorders.

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