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The New Sesame Street Julia Doll: An Autistic Review

Kris Guin queerability.tumblr.com Update August 6, 2019: The author no longer supports Sesame Street’s “See Amazing” project because of their promotion of Autism Speaks. Please also note the following insights from Cal Montgomery: If you have a Julia doll, be gentle with her. She is just now learning that Big Bird thinks the world would be a better place if she weren’t in it. It is an ugly shock whenever you find out the people you love feel that way. And a lot of people love Big Bird. — Cal Montgomery (@Cal__Montgomery) August 6, 2019 The new Julia toy! Photo courtesy Kris Guin [image: Stuffed “Julia” doll with orange hair, green eyes, yellow skin, big happy mouth, pink dress, green pants, and black shoes.] Sesame Street is a staple in children’s television, and has used its platform to educate children about topics that need to be talked about and that children…

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New 1 in 59 CDC Autism Prevalence Rates Approach Reality

Shannon Des Roches Rosa Today the CDC released new autism prevalence numbers of 1 in 59, or 1.7%. As we wrote in 2014 after the CDC adjusted its autism prevalence rate to 1 in 68, it’s important to keep calm and think critically about what these readjusted numbers actually mean: We are getting better at finding and diagnosing autistic kids. This is good news. As the CDC press release states, “Autism prevalence among black and Hispanic children is approaching that of white children.” This means that more autistic kids who need support will have the opportunity to get it. Many researchers and experts have long considered the CDC’s estimated autism prevalence rates to be too low, and consider the 1 in 38 estimate from a 2011 study of autism prevalence in South Korea to be more realistic. This is not evidence of some sort of “autism epidemic.” Much of the…

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On Hans Asperger, the Nazis, and Autism: A Conversation Across Neurologies

by Maxfield Sparrow and Steve Silberman How complicit was Hans Asperger with the murderous eugenic policies of the Third Reich in his role as the head of the Children’s Clinic at University of Vienna in the 1930s and 1940s? This painful question, which has vexed autism history for decades, has been reopened by the simultaneous publication of Edith Sheffer’s book “Asperger’s Children” and Herwig Czech’s paper in The Journal of Molecular Autism, “Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and ‘race hygiene’ in Nazi-era Vienna.” By unearthing new information from the municipal archives in Vienna that was mistakenly believed to be lost, Sheffer and Czech make the case that Asperger was more culpable than historians previously believed. They portray him as a calculating, ambitious young physician who never joined the Nazi party but was “prematurely promoted” over the heads of his Jewish colleagues as they were purged from the university in the increasingly…