Approximately 25–30 percent of people with autism either cannot speak or have a vocabulary of 30 words or less. Many others have an ability to speak that’s categorized as unreliable. They resort to scripting (using phrases or sounds from movies, or parroting back what other people say), and they’re unable to find the correct words…

Good outcomes like this aren’t the norm, but are the exception. Autistic children are often attracted to bodies of water, such as pools and lakes, but that can be a dangerous combination, as one Kansas family learned the hard way on May 18. Mom Alexis was in the bathroom of her apartment in Lawrence, and…