RFK’s comments on autism stir passions

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. recently made a series of remarks about autism. RFK spoke about “severe autism” and said he lamented the difficult lives that people with severe autism have to lead. He even talked about creating a “national autism registry,” although his office later walked back that idea. Meanwhile, researchers — including those within his own agency — are pushing back on a number of claims RFK has made about some of the facts surrounding the condition. This hour, Evan and co-host Sarah Murphy Abbamonte sit down with a local clinician and autism awareness advocates to discuss the facts, their experiences, and the ways that autism has affected them. In studio:

• Dylan Dailor, autistic self-advocate
• Jerri Lynn Sparks, autism acceptance, appreciation, awareness, and inclusion advocate for nearly 30 years, and proud mother of a son with autism (and his three siblings)
• Laura Silverman, Ph.D., associate professor and clinical child psychologist in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center