Dear Members, Families, Friends, and Fellow Spectrumites,

            I am so excited to be writing this letter to you today as the new Executive Director of GRASP.  As the facilitator of the Hudson Valley support group chapter, I have had the privilege of working closely with Michael John, the Board, and the members of this wonderful organization.  I have been a witness to and a participant in the great work that we do to spread the word of our mission:  which is to improve…

Dear spectrumites, families, friends, and colleagues,

As you have heard, I will be stepping down as the Executive Director of GRASP and shifting into a role of "Founder," while retaining a Board seat. In this new position I will continue to act as a spokesperson (media and otherwise) for GRASP, but will no longer run our day-to-day operations. 

In essence, and with your support, we accomplished everything we set out to do in 2003 when we started GRASP. And in…

To recap a rough few months . . . 

1. In the fall, GRASP had the displeasure of having to dispute, on a webTV show, that Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) was a “fad.”

2. In that same season, we participated in the first-ever Congressional hearings on autism—unaware of how skillfully…

Click here to listen to the story. Our segment is between timings 19:16 and 26:12.

A very familiar thing I hear, quite often actually. First and foremost, allow me to explain to you what an "Invisable Illness" is in case you don't know what that is. An "Invisable Illness" is one that is not usually show, or doesn't seem to be affecting someone's physical features. They are generally more inward and mental. Though some, like Lupis, do affect your mobility as well. This being said, I would like to take this time for anyone willing to listen to explain what is like living…

All,

A slew of articles have emerged rebuffing the earlier attempts to negatively the autism spectrum in the wake of the Newtown horrors. As many of you all no doubt saw, certain media outlets described autism and Asperger's Syndrome as signifying a great potential for violent behavior . . . even though studies show the exact opposite. While TV news gives a lot of charlatan clinicians airtime, it really seemed more the cause of an irresponsible rush to report than to demonize…

We here at GRASP (and I as the father of two school-age boys), cannot be more saddened and devastated by the news of the shootings in Newtown, CT. Our thoughts, wishes, prayers, and heaviest hearts go out to the victims and their families.

While it has not been confirmed, two major news outlets are now speculating that the shooter, Adam Lanza, had been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Much remains to be seen to provide the full picture of who this man was, but AS may…

All:

In what will come as no surprise to those who suspected as much, and according to the attached study from Focus Autism Other Dev Disabl published online 5 December 2012, by Crosland, Clarke and Dunlap . . . research studies have failed to examine the spectrum in its entirety, thus perhaps skewing many of our perceptions.



Huge thanks to research pro and GRASP friend, Dr. Brenda Smith Myles, who comments . . .…

All:

Unfortunately, we lost this one. The changes to the proposed criteria for ASD in the new DSM, due out next Spring, were finalized as argued against. 

Things to take heart in:

1. GRASP will be encouraging clinicians to use the new ICD (International classifications of Diseases)…

First off, I want to thank everyone who wrote or posted messages of thanks and/or congratulations. As those of you who watched the proceedings easily saw . . . nobody was expecting THAT. Wow. Four hours of vaccine-causes-autism theory. I was stunned. We haven't been in conversations like that since 2005. This subject didn't just dominate the proceedings, it monopolized them.

What appears to have happened—which I can explain—is that SafeMinds, a vaccine theory organization,…

Whew...GRASP members WILL be represented, and there will be some (if not all) spectrum representation! Thank you for all your calls that made this happen!…

Please forward and/or re-post to anyone and anywhere you deem appropriate . . .

Understanding the Spectrum of Dysfunction with the DSM-5:

A Report to GRASP’s members

By Michael John Carley

On June 19, 2012, GRASP had a chance to talk with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Workgroup of the proposed fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). Higher-ranking Committee members present…

All:

DSM-5 developments have slowed down a tad, and we're partly responsible as we huddled close and (1) waited to see how the DSM Committee responded to the criticism, and (2) mapped out what we hope to, and can, do.

In short, the Committee isn't budging. Despite the controversy, the flawed field trials, the disingenuous damage control conducted by Committee members, and Fred Volkmar's certainty that more studies are forthcoming that back up the Yale and LSU…