Unfortunately, the everyday world has yet to catch up. Only 16% of adults diagnosed with autism in the UK are in full-time, paid employment. In 2014 Baron-Cohen’s team found that two-thirds of the patients in their clinic had either felt suicidal or planned to kill themselves, and that a third had attempted to do so. “To my mind, this is nothing to do with autism or Asperger syndrome,” he says. “These are secondary mental-health problems. You came into the world with autism, and the way the world reacted, or didn’t react, to you has led to a second problem, which is depression. And that’s preventable.”

Read the full article by John Harris in The Guardian

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd

A 12-year old boy with Asperger’s was beaten up so badly at school, he had to be hospitalized. More on the story at KCTV 5 online (To donate to his medical expenses, look for the link at the bottom of that news story).

A mother of an autistic daughter wrote an open letter on her blog thanking a stranger who chatted with her child on a plane. The letter has gone viral, and even reached the stranger to whom it was addressed, ‘Dear ‘Daddy’ in in Seat 16C Flight 1850 From Philly’. Read more about it in The Independent.

“You could have shifted uncomfortably in your seat. You could have ignored her. You could have given me that ‘smile’ that I despise because it means; ‘manage your child please.’ You did none of that. You engaged Kate in conversation and you asked her questions about her turtles. She could never really answer your questions but she was so enamored by you that she keep eye contact and joint attention on the items you were asking her about. I watched and smiled. I made a few polite offers to distract her, but you would have none of it.“  [excerpt from the letter]