What is Autism Reading Room?

Autism Reading Room is the first social project of MindSpec, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit scientific organization performing bioinformatics research on neurodevelopmental disorders. The main goal of Autism Reading Room is to explain cutting-edge research on autism to a broad audience.

What is autism?

To date, autism is behaviorally diagnosed by trained clinicians following guidelines set forth by American Psychiatric Association’s manual called DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual).
According to DSM-5, released in May 2013, an autism diagnosis involves deficits in the following two areas:
1. Social interactions and Communications
2. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior and interests
The range and degree of autism symptoms falls on a continuum, called the autism spectrum. Therefore, both children with severe deficits as well as those who are mildly affected are considered to have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Why do we conduct surveys about autism?

We conduct surveys to learn more about the current needs of the autism community, to provide better resources for you. Our surveys cover a broad range of topics, including website feedback, therapy options, useful autism tools, and more. Every survey response we receive helps us tailor the Autism Reading Room to our specific audience.

Surveys also help us gather information about the needs of the autism community and current trends in autism treatments. We can then share our survey findings with other research groups who work on autism-related topics, such as therapy or diagnostics, through peer-reviewed publication. By completing a survey, you will be contributing to the future of autism research.

Thank you to the autism community for your help

We sincerely appreciate your participation in our online surveys. Whether you are a family member, friend, or therapist of someone with autism spectrum disorder—or have autism yourself—every survey result matters.