December 04, 2023
- The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee has released its 2022 Report to Congress. The report provides an overview of coverage policies for supportive autism services under federal programs. It also describes activities and programs related to supportive services conducted by multiple federal departments and agencies, including agencies and offices within the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Departments of Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs, and the Social Security Administration. IACC’s report “highlights needs and opportunities for strengthening supportive services for individuals with autism.” The organization discovered several critical areas of need, including long waitlists for services, the “services cliff” experienced after high school, workforce shortages, service delivery, benefits for older adults, and racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities in access to quality autism services and care.
- A new research article has examined early gait development in toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing (TD) toddlers and assessed its impact on their motor and behavioral development. The study found that despite the average age of onset of walking in the ASD group being within the normal range, there were differences in gait between the ASD and TD toddlers that could negatively affect their motor and behavioral development. The authors found that toddlers with ASD had gait features characterized by a slower pace compared to TD children, which could impact social engagement and physical activity in childhood. The research also highlighted the importance of monitoring atypical motor development beyond the onset of walking and implementing appropriate interventions to impact broad developmental outcomes in children with ASD positively.
- Researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec à Montréal have found that although eye-to-eye contact during conversations occurs rarely, it communicates essential messages that are vital for subsequent successful social behavior. Participants in the study were paired and presented with an imaginary survival scenario, and their eye-gazing behavior was recorded using mobile eye-tracking glasses. The analysis discovered that participants spent only 12% of conversation time looking interactively, with mutual eye-to-eye contact occurring only 3.5% of the time. However, the time spent looking directly into each other’s eyes predicted subsequent gaze-following, indicating its importance for social dynamics. This study opens promising paths for future investigations into the content of social messages conveyed by eye gaze and the variability of eye-to-eye engagement with changes in interactive context.
- New data released by the U.S. Department of Education reveal that students with disabilities are far more likely than other students to experience restraint and seclusion, be suspended or expelled, or be referred to law enforcement. The data collection occurred during the 2020-2021 school year and comprises information from over 17,000 school districts and over 97,000 public schools. The data also shows that students with disabilities account for a more significant percentage of public school students than a few years ago. The Education Department contends that it remains committed to working with school communities to ensure that students with disabilities receive all the civil rights protections that federal law demands.
