More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade researching autism. In some ways, the search for its causes looks like a long-running fishing expedition, with a focus on everything from genetics to the age of the father, the weight of the mother, and how close a child lives to a freeway. read more..
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. families with autistic children earn nearly $18,000 less than parents of normally developing kids, according to a new report. The gap is mainly due to mothers not having a job or working fewer hours, researchers found. "The needs of children with autism really straddle a number of service systems and there is a tremendous amount of finger pointing in terms of who's going to pay," said David Mandell, associate director of the Center for Autism Research at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. ... read more..
