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Tero Toivanen

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Experts point to lack of gesturing as reason for smaller vocabular... - 0 views

bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/...t-to-lack-of-gesturing-as.html

bps gesturing vocabulary children

shared by Tero Toivanen on 11 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The use of gestures, such as pointing, has been recognised as an important aspect of child development for some time. For example, the amount a child gestures at a young age predicts her later vocabulary size.
  • Rowe and Goldin-Meadow found that parents and children from poorer backgrounds (i.e. of low socioeconomic status) used a narrower range of gestures when they interacted with each other compared with parents and children from more affluent backgrounds.
  • Combining this observation with the earlier finding about the role of parental gesturing, implies but by no means proves, that one reason children from poor backgrounds develop smaller vocabularies is because their parents gestured to them less when they were younger.
  • Tero Toivanen on 11 Mar 09
     
    BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Experts point to lack of gesturing as reason for smaller vocabulary in poor children
Tero Toivanen

Childhood disintegrative disorder: Causes - MayoClinic.com - 0 views

www.mayoclinic.com/...DSECTION=causes

disintegrative mayoclinic

shared by Tero Toivanen on 27 Feb 09 - Cached
  • Causes There's no known cause of childhood disintegrative disorder, also known as Heller's syndrome. Most experts agree that there's likely a genetic basis for autism spectrum disorders. The theory is that an abnormal gene is switched on in the early stages of development, before birth, and that this gene affects other genes that coordinate a child's brain development.
  • Tero Toivanen on 27 Feb 09
     
    Causes There's no known cause of childhood disintegrative disorder, also known as Heller's syndrome. Most experts agree that there's likely a genetic basis for autism spectrum disorders. The theory is that an abnormal gene is switched on in the early stages of development, before birth, and that this gene affects other genes that coordinate a child's brain development.
Tero Toivanen

Real Autism - What Is Real Autism - 0 views

autism.about.com/...realautism.htm

autism diagnosis autism spectrum Real Autism

shared by Tero Toivanen on 10 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Here are answers from a top expert, Dr. Susan Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
  • Dr. Levy says, while about 80% of autism is idiopathic (of unknown cause), there are at present many known causes of autism including FAS, rubella, Fragile X Syndrome, and more. In addition, according to a a report published in Pediatrics in 2009 entitled "Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007," as many as 40% of children who received an autism spectrum disorder at some point in their lives are no longer diagnosable on the autism spectrum.
  • Tero Toivanen on 10 Jan 10
     
    Here are answers from a top expert, Dr. Susan Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Tero Toivanen

Journal Says No Proof Special Diets Help Autistic Children - The World Newser - 2 views

ow.ly/SQyx

autism diet digestive problems diets research

shared by Tero Toivanen on 05 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 05 Jan 10
     
    The report from a panel of experts finds no scientific proof that digestive problems are more common in children with autism and no evidence that special diets work.
Tero Toivanen

Facilitated communication: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article - 1 views

www.absoluteastronomy.com/...Facilitated_communication

autism Facilitated Communication FC facilitator dyspraxia mental retardation research Independent Typing

shared by Tero Toivanen on 14 Mar 10 - Cached
  • The procedure is controversial, since a majority of peer reviewPeer reviewPeer review is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field. Peer review requires a community of experts in a given field, who are qualified and able to perform impartial review...ed scientific studies conclude that the typed language output attributed to the clients is directed or systematically determined by the therapists who provide facilitated assistance. Some peer-reviewed scientific studies have indicated instances of valid FC, and some FC users have reportedly gone on to type independently.
  • Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units... psychologist Daniel WegnerDaniel WegnerDaniel M. Wegner is an American social psychologist. He is a professor of psychology at Harvard University and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is known for his work on mental control and conscious will, and for originating the study of transactive memory and... has argued that facilitated communication is a striking example of the ideomotor effectIdeomotor effectThe ideomotor effect is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. As in reflexive responses to pain, the body sometimes reacts reflexively to ideas alone without the person consciously deciding to take action..., the well-known phenomenon whereby individuals' expectations exert unconscious influence over their motor actions. Even FC users and proponents do acknowledge the possibility of facilitators at times "guiding" users, consciously or unconsciously. Other theorists (Donnellan and Leary, 1995) argue that autism is in significant part characterized by dyspraxia (a movement disorder), and that there exists a synchronistic "dance" to communication in all mammalian social interaction which accounts for the mixed results in validation studies.
  • Stephen von Tetzchner, the author of another leading textbook on Augmentative and Alternative CommunicationAugmentative and alternative communicationAugmentative and alternative communication is communication for those with impairments or restrictions on the production or comprehension of spoken or written language.-Definition :... has done theoretical research about facilitated communication. In his opinion "The existing evidence clearly demonstrates that facilitating techniques usually led to automatic writingAutomatic writingAutomatic writing is the process or production of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. Practitioners say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written...., displaying the thoughts and the attitudes of the facilitators."
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Mark Mostert (2001) says: "Previous reviews of Facilitated Communication (FC) studies have clearly established that proponents' claims are largely unsubstantiated and that using FC as an intervention for communicatively impaired or noncommunicative individuals is not recommended." In March 2007, Scott Lilienfeld included facilitated communication on a list of treatments that have the potential to cause harm in clients, published in the APSAssociation for Psychological ScienceThe Association for Psychological Science , previously the American Psychological Society, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, teaching, and the improvement of human welfare... journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.
  • The phrase "independent typing" is defined by supporters of FC as "typing without physical support", i.e., without being touched by another person. Skeptics of FC do not agree that this definition of independence suffices because of the possibility of influence by the facilitator. For example, Sue RubinSue RubinSue Rubin is a functionally non-verbal published autistic author who was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Autism Is A World in which she communicated via the controversial communication technique of facilitated communication...., an FC user featured in the autobiographical documentary Autism Is A World, reportedly types without anyone touching her; however, she reports that she requires a facilitator to hold the keyboard and offer other assistance.
  • Tero Toivanen on 14 Mar 10
     
    The procedure is controversial, since a majority of peer reviewed scientific studies conclude that the typed language output attributed to the clients is directed or systematically determined by the therapists who provide facilitated assistance. Some peer-reviewed scientific studies have indicated instances of valid FC, and some FC users have reportedly gone on to type independently.
samantha armstrong

FixComputerpProblemsSite Surely Knows How to Fix Computer Problems! - 1 views

I was having problems with my laptop before. Good thing FixComputerpProblemsSite helped me fix it. And they are really the experts when it comes to solving any computer related issues. They can eas...

fix computer problems

started by samantha armstrong on 03 Jun 11 no follow-up yet
Tero Toivanen

Toddler brain difference linked to autism - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...autism.brain.amygdala

autism research amygdala

shared by Tero Toivanen on 09 May 09 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 09 May 09
     
    The size of a specific part of the brain may help experts pinpoint when autism could first develop, University of North Carolina researchers report.
Tero Toivanen

The Blog's First Question « Growing up on the Spectrum, the Blog - 0 views

growinguponthespectrum.com/...the-blogs-first-question

autism spectrum

shared by Tero Toivanen on 21 Mar 09 - Cached
  • I don’t have Lynn Koegel at my side so these are the answers of a mom who’s been through a lot of this and NOT of an autism expert who runs a clinic, so any mistakes I make are my own, not hers!
  • But the whole point of speech is to nail down that one-to-one correlation between the sound and the object it represents.
  • As far as the “up” thing goes, one thing that Lynn and I strongly agree on is that even though kids with special needs may at times require special attention, they also need to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around them–just like every kid needs to learn.
  • Tero Toivanen on 21 Mar 09
     
    The Blog's First Question « Growing up on the Spectrum, the Blog
seth kutcher

The Best Remote PC Support I Ever Had - 1 views

The Remote PC Support Now excellent remote PC support services are the best. They have skilled computer tech professionals who can fix your PC while you wait or just go back to work or just simpl...

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started by seth kutcher on 12 Sep 11 no follow-up yet
Tero Toivanen

facilitated communication - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com - 0 views

skepdic.com/facilcom.html

skepdic facilitated communication autism FC

shared by Tero Toivanen on 26 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The American Psychological Association has issued a position paper on FC, stating that "Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that facilitated communication is not a scientifically valid technique for individuals with autism or mental retardation" and describing FC as "a controversial and unproved communicative procedure with no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy."
  • Frontline Program on facilitated communication:
    • Tero Toivanen
      Tero Toivanen on 26 Mar 09
       
      Here is the video about Facilitated Communication (FC). If you have something to do with FC, I think you should watch it.
  • Parents are grateful to discover that their child is not hopelessly retarded but is either normal or above normal in intelligence. FC allows their children to demonstrate their intelligence; it provides them with a vehicle heretofore denied them.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Facilitated Communication therapy began in Australia with Rosemary Crossley. The center for FC in the United States is Syracuse University, which houses the Facilitated Communication Institute (FCI) in their School of Education.
  • A very damaging, detailed criticism was presented on PBS's "Frontline", October 19, 1993. The program was repeated December 17, 1996, and added that since the first showing, Syracuse University has claimed to have done three studies which verify the reality and effectiveness of FC, while thirty other studies done elsewhere have concluded just the opposite.
  • Furthermore, FC clients routinely use a flat board or keyboard, over which the facilitator holds their pointing finger. Even the most expert typist could not routinely hit correct letters without some reference as a starting point.
  • Facilitators routinely look at the keyboard; clients do not. The messages' basic coherence indicates that they most probably are produced by someone who is looking at the keyboard.
  • Anyone familiar with Helen Keller, Stephen Hawking or Christy Brown knows that blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or physical or neurological disorders, do not necessarily affect the intellect. There is no necessary connection between a physical handicap and a mental handicap. We also know that such people often require an assistant to facilitate their communication. But what facilitators do to help the likes of a Hawking or a Brown is a far cry from what those in the facilitated communication business are doing.
  • But the vast majority of FC clients apparently are mentally retarded or autistic. Their facilitators appear to be reporting their own thoughts, not their patient's thoughts. Interestingly, the facilitators are genuinely shocked when they discover that they are not really communicating their patient's thoughts. Their reaction is similar to that of dowsers and others with "special powers" who, when tested under controlled conditions, find they don't have any special powers at all.
  • It is interesting that the parents and other loved ones who have been bonding with the patient for years are unable to be facilitators with their own children.
  • And when the kind strangers and their patients are put to the test, they generally fail. We are told that is because the conditions made them nervous. These ad hoc excuses sound familiar; they sound like the complaints of parapsychologists.
  • Skeptics think the evidence is in and FC is a delusion for the most part. It is also a dangerous delusion. Critics have noted a similarity between FC therapy and repressed memory therapy: patients are accusing their parents and others of having sexually abused them. Facilitators are taught that something like 13% of their clients have been sexually abused. This information may unconsciously influence their work.
  • Tero Toivanen on 26 Mar 09
     
    You find here a very about Important Video about Facilitated Communication (FC). The American Psychological Association has issued a position paper on FC, stating that "Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that facilitated communication is not a scientifically valid technique for individuals with autism or mental retardation" and describing FC as "a controversial and unproved communicative procedure with no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy."
Tero Toivanen

Asperger Syndrome Tied to Low Cortisol Levels - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...yndrometiedtolowcortisollevels

autism Asperger Syndrome stress hormone Cortisol Asperger's Disorder Asperger

shared by Tero Toivanen on 04 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Low levels of a stress hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism.
  • The body produces cortisol, among other hormones, in stressful situations. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among other duties, to signal the body's need to adapt to changes occurring around it.
  • People with Asperger syndrome notably have very repetitive or narrow patterns of thought and behavior, such as being obsessed with either a single object or topic. Though tending to become experts in this limited domain, they have otherwise very limited social skills, according to the study.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "Although these are early days, we think this difference in stress hormone levels could be really significant in explaining why children with AS are less able to react and cope with unexpected change,"
  • If these Asperger symptoms are caused primarily by stress, caregivers could learn to steer children away from situations that would add to anxiety, the researchers said.
  • "This study suggests that children with AS may not adjust normally to the challenge of a new environment on waking,"
  • The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, will next study if this lack of cortisol upon waking also occurs in children with other types of autism.
  • Tero Toivanen on 04 Apr 09
     
    Low levels of a stress hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Blog - » Blog Archive » Is there an autism epidemic - the latest science - 0 views

leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=2023

autism epidemic Eric Fombonne autism-epidemic epidemiology omnibus experts science

shared by Tero Toivanen on 26 Mar 09 - Cached
  • A new paper from Eric Fombonne is in electronic print at the journal Pediatric Research.
  • The title is ‘Epidemiology of pervasive developmental disorders’
  • Combining all these categories together Fombonne presents a prevalence of 60-70/10,000.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Pervasive Developmental Disorders, including Autistic Disorder, Asperger Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.
  • For autistic disorder, Fombonne says: The correlation between prevalence and year of publication was statistically significant and studies with prevalenceover 7/10,000 were all published since 1987. These findings point towards an increase in prevalence estimates in the last 15-20 years.
  • recent autism surveys have consistently identified smaller numbers of children with AS than those with autism within the same survey.
  • How much lower is difficult to establish from existing data, but a ratio of 3 or 4 to 1 would appear an acceptable,
  • We therefore used for subsequent calculations an estimate of 6/10,000 for AS, recognizing the strong limitations of available data on AS.
  • Eight studies provided data on childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD). Prevalence estimates ranged from 0 to 9.2/100,000.
  • The upper-bound limit of the associated confidence interval (4.0/100,000) indicates that CDD is a very rare condition, with about 1 case to occur for every 103 cases of autistic disorder.
  • Current evidence does not strongly support the hypothesis of a secular increase in the incidence of autism but power todetect time trends is seriously limited in existing datasets.
  • Whilst it is clear that prevalence estimates have gone up over time, this increase most likely represents changes in the concepts, definitions, service availability and awareness of autistic-spectrum disorders in both the lay and professional public.
  • The possibility that a true change in the underlying incidence has contributed to higher prevalence figures remains, however, to be adequately tested.
Tero Toivanen

BBC NEWS | Health | Genes 'have key role in autism' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8020837.stm

autism genetics

shared by Tero Toivanen on 09 May 09 - Cached
  • The changes influence genes which help form and maintain connections between brain cells.
  • The Nature study highlighted one common genetic variant which, if corrected would cut cases of autism by 15%.
  • Previously, other genetic variants have been linked to autism, but they are all relatively rare.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • It found several genetic variants commonly associated with ASD, all of them pointing two specific genes found on chromosome 5 which control production of proteins which help cells stick to each other, and make nervous connections.
  • One variant, linked to a gene called CDH10, was so common - present in over 65% of cases of autism - that the researchers calculated that fixing it would cut the number of autism cases by 15%.
  • They also linked ASD rather less strongly to a group of about 30 genes which produce proteins that play a key role in enabling brain cells to migrate to correct places, and to connect to neighbouring cells.
  • Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, an autism expert at the University of Cambridge, said 133 genes had now been linked to the condition, and much work was needed to piece together how they interacted with each other and the environment.
  • The National Autistic Society said the exact causes of autism were unknown. In a statement, the society said: "There is evidence to suggest that genetic factors are responsible for some forms of autism. "However, the difficulty of establishing gene involvement is compounded by the interaction of genes and by their interaction with environmental factors. "Various studies over many years have sought to identify candidate genes but so far inconclusively."
  • Tero Toivanen on 09 May 09
     
    Scientists have produced the most compelling evidence to date that genetics play a key role in autism.
Tero Toivanen

The link between autism and extraordinary ability | Genius locus | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm

autism savant extraordinary ability

shared by Tero Toivanen on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
  • A study published this week by Patricia Howlin of King’s College, London, reinforces this point. It suggests that as many as 30% of autistic people have some sort of savant-like capability in areas such as calculation or music.
  • Francesca Happé of King’s College, London, is one of them. As she observes, obsessional interests and repetitive behaviours would allow someone to practice, albeit inadvertently, whichever skill they were obsessed by. Malcolm Gladwell, in a book called “Outliers” which collated research done on outstanding people, suggested that anyone could become an expert in anything by practising for 10,000 hours. It would not be hard for an autistic individual to clock up that level of practice for the sort of skills, such as mathematical puzzles, that many neurotypicals would rapidly give up on.
  • Simon Baron-Cohen, a doyen of the field who works at Cambridge University, draws similar conclusions. He suggests the secret of becoming a savant is “hyper-systematising and hyper-attention to detail”. But he adds sensory hypersensitivity to the list. His team have shown one example of this using what is known as the Freiburg visual acuity and contrast test, which asks people to identify the gap in a letter “c” presented in four different orientations. Those on the autistic spectrum do significantly better at this than do neurotypicals. That might help explain Dr Happé’s observations about coins and raindrops.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The upshot of these differences is that the columns in an autistic brain seem to be more connected than normal with their close neighbours, and less connected with their distant ones. Though it is an interpretative stretch, that pattern of connection might reduce a person’s ability to generalise (since disparate data are less easily integrated) and increase his ability to concentrate (by drawing together similar inputs).
  • Dr Snyder argues that savant skills are latent in everyone, but that access to them is inhibited in non-savants by other neurological processes. He is able to remove this inhibition using a technique called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.
  • Tero Toivanen on 24 Apr 09
     
    A study published this week by Patricia Howlin of King's College, London, reinforces this point. It suggests that as many as 30% of autistic people have some sort of savant-like capability in areas such as calculation or music. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that some of the symptoms associated with autism, including poor communication skills and an obsession with detail, are also exhibited by many creative types, particularly in the fields of science, engineering, music, drawing and painting.
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