by Michelle Diament | February 5, 2021
Under pressure from advocates, changes are in store for a forthcoming movie about a girl with autism that picked up two Golden Globe nominations this week.
Australian pop singer-songwriter Sia reportedly will remove scenes and add a warning to her directorial debut “Music,” which is scheduled to be released at some IMAX theaters Feb. 10 and on demand Feb. 12.
The move comes after months of controversy surrounding the film about a newly-sober woman who becomes the guardian of her half-sister named Music who has autism.
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Originally, the backlash focused on the casting of Maddie Ziegler, who does not have autism, to play a character on the spectrum. More recently, disability advocates were alarmed by scenes in the film depicting physical restraint.
Many children with serious emotional or behavioral difficulties depend on schools for vital therapies. When schools and doctors stopped providing in-person services, kids became untethered.
Mental Health Issues Affect 3 In 4 Kids With Autism
by Shaun Heasley | January 26, 2021
The vast majority of children with autism have at least one mental health condition too, new research suggests.
Almost 78% of kids on the spectrum are diagnosed with some type of mental health condition and almost half have two or more. Even among preschool-age children with autism, 44.8% have such conditions.
By contrast, just 14.1% of young people without autism have mental health conditions.
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That’s according to a study published recently in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The findings are based on interviews with 42,283 caregivers of children ages 3 to 17 years across the country that were done as part of the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health.
Employing Staff On The Spectrum, Car Wash Looks To Expand
by Scott Luxor, South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS | January 19, 2021
Leonardo Coakley details a car dashboard in 2013 at Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Fla. (Joe Rimkus Jr./Miami Herald/TNS)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The ripple started in Parkland. Then it became a wave in Margate. Now there’s a Rising Tide coming to Coral Springs.
Rising Tide Car Wash, which hires mostly people on the autism spectrum, has now found enough success in its business model to expand to a third location.
John D’Eri co-founded the car wash business with his son Thomas in Parkland back in 2013. His mission was to create a social enterprise to give people with autism an opportunity to have real opportunities and real jobs that would challenge them and give them skills.
Lawsuit: Teen With Autism Died After Police Sat On Him For More Than 9 Minutes
by Michelle Hunter, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate/TNS | January 18, 2021
NEW ORLEANS The parents of a teenager with severe autism who died last year following an encounter with Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies have sued the Sheriff’s Office, claiming it is responsible for the actions of seven officers who restrained the teen in a face-down, handcuffed position for more than nine minutes while trying to take him into custody.
Eric Parsa, 16, of Destrehan, lost consciousness and later died after being restrained by the deputies outside of a laser tag in Metairie on Jan. 19, 2020.