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Tero Toivanen

Research Unearths New Treatments for Autism - 2 views

www.apa.org/...pi4.html

autism research TEACCH Young Autism Project Lovaas DIR ABA PRT Pivotal Response Training social engagement system middle ear music intensity

shared by Tero Toivanen on 01 Jul 09 - Cached
  • The Utah researchers found that children receiving a combination of the two treatments (Lovaas-type training at school and TEACCH methods at home) showed three to four times greater progress on all outcome tests than did children who received only the school-based treatment. That study was reported in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (Vol. 28, No. 1, p. 2532).
  • Researchers in Washington, D.C., are comparing a discrete trial training approach with a "developmental, individual-difference, relationship based" (DIR) approach, says child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan, MD, professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical School.
  • Psychologist Robert Koegel, PhD, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his colleagues are attempting to tailor a standard treatment to the specific needs of an autistic child and family. The standard treatment is called pivotal response training
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • An initial retrospective study is comparing two groups of 20 children initially diagnosed with autism who were functioning well after two or more years of treatment, either with a discrete trial training approach or the DIR approach. The study aims to determine if treatment differences lead to subtle differences in outcome, for example, in terms of flexibility, emotional range, creativity and richness of the child's inner life. Investigators are planning to follow this research with a prospective, randomized, more rigorous study of the two approaches.
  • "In our previous studies we found out that it looks like you can't just deliver a standard treatment to autistic kids, that there's so much variability among the children that what works for one child doesn't work for another child," he says. "Our hypothesis is that...unless you individualize treatment, you're not going to get the best effect."
  • Researchers at the University of Maryland are testing an intervention to trigger children's "social engagement system," which includes behaviors such as listening, looking, facial expressions and vocalizations that support social interaction, says psychologist Stephen Porges, PhD. The treatment is designed to improve autistic children's ability to interact with others, thereby making them more receptive to traditional therapies.
  • The intervention is based on the theory that tensing the middle ear muscles enables people to pick out the human voice from lower frequency sounds in the environment, Porges says. Treatment involves exercising middle ear muscles by playing music that has been altered to include only frequencies associated with the human voice, which improves one's ability to listen to human voices. This, in turn, stimulates the entire social engagement system, Porges says. About 80 percent of 50 children with autism or other behavioral problems receiving this treatment via five 45-minute sessions in a double blind, randomized controlled study showed marked improvements in listening, language and other communication skills.
  • In a report last year in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (Vol. 28, No. 1, p. 15-23) evaluating an intensive home-based discrete trial training intervention, Stephen Sheinkopf, PhD, of the University of Miami and Bryna Siegel, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, noted that children receiving an average of only 21 hours per week of treatment showed gains in IQ comparable to those achieved by children receiving 32 hours per week. The intensity question remains an issue of importance for the autism community. "If we need 40 hours a week, fine," says psychologist Geraldine Dawson, PhD, of the University of Washington. "But if you only need 25, you have to realize that 40 hours is a tremendous burden not only financially, but on families and on the child."
  • Tero Toivanen on 01 Jul 09
     
    Several treatments, and combinations of treatments, are under intense study.
Angela Ann

Personal Loans With Bad Credit - Cash Advance Without Any Credit Check Formalities - 0 views

www.personalloanswithbadcredit.net/how-it-works.html

personal loans with bad credit installment payday loans bad credit loans short term loans

shared by Angela Ann on 05 May 16 - No Cached
  • Angela Ann on 05 May 16
     
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  • Angela Ann on 05 May 16
     
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Child Therapy

Child Therapy Works - 2 views

I have the chance of asking professional help for my kid who has been depressed for the past few weeks. We did not know what the reason was and so we asked help from NLP4Kids a reputed therapy orga...

Therapy for children

started by Child Therapy on 23 Feb 12 no follow-up yet
Tero Toivanen

Genes implicated in twins' autism | The Autism News - 1 views

www.theautismnews.com/...nes-implicated-in-twins-autism

autism genetics genes twins research diagnoses environment

shared by Tero Toivanen on 05 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Researchers have known for years that when one identical twin has autism, the other is also likely to be diagnosed with it – evidence that autism likely has a genetic component.
  • Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute studied 277 pairs of twins and found that when one identical twin had the disorder, the other developed it 88 percent of the time; for fraternal twins, that figure was 31 percent.
  • Despite this progress in unlocking the mysteries of autism, scientists have simply confirmed that there are likely numerous genetic links to autism.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Each discovery explains just a tiny fraction of autism’s causes. Researchers think the great majority – 90 percent – of autism cases have a genetic cause, but they’ve found fewer than 10 percent of the triggers.
  • researchers have found about 50 genes so far that might be tied to autism, which explain very few cases, he said.
  • Autism isn’t one disease; it’s too individual to locate just one genetic cause. It’s not like cystic fibrosis, a disorder for which researchers have identified one gene – and tests to diagnose it.
  • autism researchers envision that a wide variety of gene defects are responsible for the symptoms collectively known as autism spectrum disorders. The disabilities, different in each child, range from the mild Asperger syndrome to more severe impairments in social interaction and communication.
  • “It’s going to take some work before we understand the true causes of autism,” he said. “We need to make much more headway to ever have enough understanding so that patient management and therapies can be improved.”
  • None of the new findings explains why more children are being diagnosed with autism. Genes, said Goldstein, tell only part of the story.
  • “The idea is there is an environmental interaction with the genetic component,” he said.
  • Autism may be inherited to some degree, but even twin studies show that not all sets of identical twins have autism. And when they do, they don’t always have the same severity of the disorder
  • That connection between genes and the environment, called epigenetics, might explain these distinctions
  • Tero Toivanen on 05 Jan 10
     
    Researchers have known for years that when one identical twin has autism, the other is also likely to be diagnosed with it - evidence that autism likely has a genetic component.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Therapies and Outcomes -- Outcomes and Autism - 0 views

autism.about.com/...abachoice_8.htm

autism therapy behavior progress learning

shared by Tero Toivanen on 10 Dec 09 - Cached
  • The view of the behavior analyst should be that the subject is always right. If the child isn't learning, you need to know why. It's not that the child is defective, it's that the approach isn't working. The therapist needs to ask, "what do I need to do to teach this child?" ...Being autistic shouldn't stop children from learning. It has nothing to do with their ability to learn. They just don't learn typically. That's the problem we have. You can't use "autism" as way to explain behaviors: it is the behaviors. Why do the behaviors occur? We don't always know. But that doesn't mean we can't teach children with autism language and social interaction. They don't need us to have fun -- they can create their own reinforcers. The therapist has to find a reinforcer that's better than what the child can do on his own. That "better thing" should always have a social component.
  • Tero Toivanen on 10 Dec 09
     
    It's important to remember that, when it comes to therapy for children with autism, failure to progress is never the fault of the child. If you hear from a therapist that your child doesn't progress because of his behaviors, attention span, intelligence level, or stubbornness, it's time to question the therapist's technique.
Tero Toivanen

Inside the Mind of a Savant: Scientific American - 1 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

autism Kim Peek savant brains disability

shared by Tero Toivanen on 24 Dec 09 - Cached
  • In the meantime, we draw some practical conclusions for the care of other persons with special needs who have some savant skill. We recommend that family and other caregivers “train the talent,” rather than dismissing such skills as frivolous, as a means for the savant to connect with other people and mitigate the effects of the disability. It is not an easy path, because disability and limitations still require a great deal of dedication, patience and hard work—as Kim’s father, by his example, so convincingly demonstrates.
  • Tero Toivanen on 24 Dec 09
     
    Kim Peek possesses one of the most extraordinary memories ever recorded. Until we can explain his abilities, we cannot pretend to understand human cognition.
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...

remote PC support

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.
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  • 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

What Do New Genetic Findings Mean to Families with Autism? - 0 views

autism.about.com/...an-to-families-with-autism.htm

autism genetics research

shared by Tero Toivanen on 02 May 09 - Cached
  • reply from lead researcher Hakon Hakonarson:
  • The variant we detected at the 5p14 locus (common variant) has been present for a long time in the genome (most likely since man moved out of Africa) and this region is highly conserved between species which means that it is regulating gene expression and gene function (the CHD10 gene being the most critical one).
  • We know that the association is strongest in those individual who have the greatest abnormalities in social skills/interactions and those that show least interest in interactions; we have not detected any other characteristics yet, but we keep working on it.
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  • Once we learn about this difference, we can then look for medications that block the consequences of the variant and once we make sure they are safe, we can then start testing these new medications in children who are at risk of developing autism, with the objective of preventing autism (i.e., avoid breakdown in connections between nerves and abnormality in brain connectivity).
  • Response: Yes, all of them could be tested in utero; we have identified 10 new variations (9 rare and 1 common) and we have replicated (and confired) four other once that were previously published (neurexin 1, contactin 4, 15q11 and 22q11). However, we do not have a yes or no answer as to whether the fetus will be autistic -- but if we are testing a fetus in an autistic family the value of the test is much higher.
Tero Toivanen

Harvey Karp: Cracking the Autism Riddle: Toxic Chemicals, A Serious Suspect in the Auti... - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...the-autism-riddl_b_221202.html

autism toxic chemicals research endocrine disrupting chemicals EDC

shared by Tero Toivanen on 03 Jul 09 - Cached
  • One group of substances of particular concern is a ubiquitous family of hormone twisting compounds, known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
  • Our exposure to EDCs is no mere theoretical concern. In 2000, a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study found detectable phthalates in 99.9% of adults including women of childbearing age.
  • there is evidence that even minuscule amounts of these chemicals -- levels commonly present in a woman's body -- may disturb fetal brain development during highly sensitive periods of neural development known as windows of vulnerability.
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  • Our increasing exposure to EDCs lends support to a new hypothesis about the cause of autism, called the "extreme male theory." This theory, proposed by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues, speculates that autism is caused by something changing a fetus' hormonal balance that then leads to over-masculinization of the developing brain. Could that "something" be the slurry of hormone-altering chemicals we're exposed to every day? Are EDCs the reason autism-type disorders are 4-9 times more common in boys? (Vaccine side effects never show such lopsided impact on boys versus girls...a glaring fact that is totally ignored by those promoting the vaccine theory of autism.)
  • Here is where the very interesting link to EDCs comes into play: EDCs often act as weak estrogens and estrogen feminizines the body, but in a fetus' developing brain estrogen actually has the opposite effect...it causes masculinization.
  • The NCS will establish over one hundred study centers across the US to test the blood of 100,000 newborns for scores of synthetic chemicals, including many EDCs. (Workers have already begun going door-to-door enrolling pregnant moms into the program.) For the next 21 years, scientists will carefully follow the children's health, comparing the body burden of chemicals at birth to diseases developed later in life.
  • Within 3-4 years, we expect to have enough data accumulated to start detecting what chemicals might be linked to autism.
  • Beside the NCS, I support other new studies to look at: 1) the autism risk in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated kids; 2) the metabolism of vaccine ingredients (like aluminum, added to make shots work better), 3) more accurate determinations of the true incidence of autism.
  • Tero Toivanen on 03 Jul 09
     
    The presence of EDCs in women of child-bearing age is especially worrisome. That is because there is evidence that even minuscule amounts of these chemicals -- levels commonly present in a woman's body -- may disturb fetal brain development during highly sensitive periods of neural development known as windows of vulnerability.
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.
Tero Toivanen

Sensory Friendly Classrooms with Dr. Roya Ostovar - The SPD Blogger Network - 3 views

www.spdbloggernetwork.com/...lassrooms-with-dr-roya-ostovar

classrooms sensory friendly accommodations school SPD special education special needs SPED classroom autism

shared by Tero Toivanen on 01 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Having sensory friendly settings is common sense and it benefits everyone, all students and learners as well as teachers and staff. Changing the classroom also teaches all students how to find practical and adaptive ways of making their setting work for them to allow for optimal learning and functioning, a skill that is beneficial to everyone. It also makes more sense to change the environment to fit the child’s needs and not the other way around. Changing the classroom helps the child with SPD blend in with other students, and it is not isolating, or stigmatizing.
  • A sensory friendly classroom improves attention, concentration, ability to focus for longer periods of time, learning, social functioning, and it also reduces the overall level of stress
  • For more specific and multiple examples of the accommodations that can be made, a book I authored titled “The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Processing Disorder” offers a comprehensive guide.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Vision: Reduce/ eliminate clutter and visual distractions; modify assignments to be shorter; use a highlighter
  • Auditory: Reduce/eliminate distracting noise; play Mozart or calming music in the background when possible
  • Tactile: Allow students to use chalk on the board because it is more tactile rich
  • Olfactory: Use scented markers to wake kids up; have lavender lotion or soap; and avoid noxious odors in the classroom
  • Vestibular: Allow movement and breaks; offer therapy balls to sit on; Movin-Sit cushions benefit the whole classroom; stretch breaks, start class with movement activities
  • Properioception: Movement, Movin-Sit cushions, Brain Gym, Yoga, Chair push ups (i.e. sitting on hands and pushing up); chairs and tables at right height and positioned correctly
  • A sensory friendly classroom gets the kids with SPD and ASD ready to learn; improves the overall functioning of the child including learning, attention, concentration, social functioning, and behavioral presentation; and lowers their stress and anxiety levels
  • Two quick suggestions: 1) Simplify the classroom: Less is more. Take a minimalistic approach to setting up the room and; 2) Support all learning styles: Some kids learn through auditory channels, some visual, and some through kinesthetic and hands on activities. By the same token, incorporate activities that support the sensory channel and each child’s sensory profile
seth kutcher

Fast and Reliable Computer Repair Services - 1 views

One day, I was working on my thesis which was due in three days and then suddenly my computer shut down. I then browsed for companies that offer computer repair services and found Computer Hardwar...

computer repair services

started by seth kutcher on 02 Nov 11 no follow-up yet
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