A little education for you

April is rolling to a close, and I haven't gotten around to saying it till now- But in case you didn't know, April is Autism Awareness Month. And in honor of that, I thought I would bring a little more awareness to you the reader by giving you my:

'Top 10 Lesser Known Facts about Autism'

1. April is Autism Awareness Month (duh), but Autism also shares the title with 'National Poetry Month' and 'National Sexual Assault Awareness Month'. It should also be noted that April 2nd is WORLD Autism Awareness Day- take that poetry!
2. Jenny McCarthy is sort of crazy.
3. Her teaching-kids-to-play video actually isn't that bad.
4. But no, Jenny McCarthy did not cure autism.
   
5. The Gluten-free Casin-free diet has no empirical evidence to support it.
6. While I'm at it, chelation doesn't work either.
7. If you have seen one kid with autism, you have seen one kid with autism.
8. Those vaccines don't cause autism. And in fact, the preservative that was thought to be the culprit (thiamine) has not been in the vaccine since the mid-nineties.
9. Not all people with autism have a savant skill, like in Rain Man.
10. Behavior therapy (or more specifically ABA) does not always mean drills sitting at a table, Incidental Teaching and PRT are two great empirically supported ABA treatments that do not involve any tables. In fact, you my friend engage in ABA based behaviors every day- you aren't going to work in the morning for the pleasure of it. It just isn't as obvious because your reinforcer comes in the form of a paycheck every other week.