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That Shouldn't Happen: The Just World Fallacy and Autism

Everyday, we hear about tragedies, some that hit too close to home for comfort, and our reactions...

Heaviness: Euthanasia For Expediency

It's all over the internet now, the story of the twin brothers in Belgium who were deaf and going...

What's the Harm: When Reality and Wishful Thinking Clash

I'm digging around for posts people have written on what to say/what not to say to autistic people...

Facilitated Communication: Same As It Ever Was (Same As It Ever Was)

In the past couple years, I’ve written over a dozen articles examining facilitated communication...

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Kim WomblesRSS Feed of this column.

Instructor of English and psychology and mother to three on the autism spectrum.

Writer of the site countering.us (where most of these articles will have first appeared) and co-administrator

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Another Dubious Autism Treatment: Listening Therapies

Another Dubious Autism Treatment: Listening Therapies

Jul 08 2011 | comment(s)

Parents are always looking for new treatments to help their children with autism; it can be daunting to keep up with the multitude of new therapies constantly popping up on the internet, many with similar sounding names. There are several different “listening therapies” or auditory integrative training programs available online promising relief for autism symptoms. According to Sinha, Silove, Wheeler, and Williams (2006), “treatments to overcome variations in auditory sensitivity commonly encountered in people with autism have been developed and are collectively called auditory integration therapies. They include auditory integration training (AIT), the Tomatis method and Samonas sound therapy.”

Empathy Erosion is a Logical Response

Empathy Erosion is a Logical Response

Jul 04 2011 | comment(s)

Empathy erosion is a logical response. You know it is. Or you wouldn't be able to eat meat. If you turn the dial up all the way on empathy, you end up like that strange offshoot of Hinduism, walking around with your mouth covered for fear a fly will fly in and you'll swallow it. You'll do silly things like only eat fruit after it's fallen on it's own to the ground cuz you don't want to hurt the tree.
Beware Onbilgi: They're Taking Our Posts From Here as Their Own

Beware Onbilgi: They're Taking Our Posts From Here as Their Own

Jul 02 2011 | comment(s)

I discovered several of my articles at http://onbilgi.com/ today, all of them lifted from here, all of them without my name as author, all of them without links back to here. Not only did I find my work, it looks like all the articles they have are taken from here. They've taken your posts, too.
Widely Obvious: Obesity Spreads Socially

Widely Obvious: Obesity Spreads Socially

Jul 02 2011 | comment(s)

Joanna Dolgoff covers new research on how obesity spreads through social contact over at Huffington Post. I'm sure this comes as a huge surprise to those of us who have watched our waistlines spread along with the waistlines of our friends. Well, at least until we lose sight of our friends because they can no longer get out of their house and we can no longer get out of ours.

Memory Like Wine? Not So Much: New Study Simply Reaffirms

Memory Like Wine? Not So Much: New Study Simply Reaffirms

Jul 01 2011 | comment(s)

An article on Science 2.0 addresses a new study  on just how easy it is to create false memories. According to the article, researchers "show a unique pattern of brain activity when false memories are formed – one that hints at a surprising connection between our social selves and memory." The conclusion of the article is that "social reinforcement could act on the amygdala to persuade our brains to replace a strong memory with a false one." (video on study available here.)

Skepticism Of Stories To Good To Be True

Skepticism Of Stories To Good To Be True

Jun 29 2011 | comment(s)

On a recent post, I was asked how facilitated communication supporters explain the tests that show FC doesn't work. On something so easily shown to be false, why does this persist?

Why are major organizations like the Autism Society (and apparently Autism Now) supporters of the thoroughly debunked facilitated communication?

Why can't more people see through feel-good stories where previously locked-away children suddenly start doing college-level work when they get facilitated, or just as bad, rapid prompting?