A musical computer game to help children with autism learn and relax has been unveiled to the public at the Abertay Digital Graduate Show.
John Steven, a Creative Sound Production student at the University of Abertay Dundee, built a game designed to help autistic children learn about colour and shape recognition while also helping to keep them calm and focused.
The game works in a similar way to popular musical titles like Guitar Hero: different coloured shapes appear on screen, prompting the child to press a matching key.
Each of the different shapes plays a different chord, and when the right buttons are pressed a flower grows on the screen. The calming music and the positive reinforcement of showing success on screen is designed to be enjoyable and help autistic children develop independent learning skills.
John said: "I really wanted to use the creative skills I learnt at Abertay University to help children with learning difficulties, and giving them the opportunity to use music to learn and relax at any time felt like a really important thing to do.
"There's very little available in terms of interactive games for children with autism, which is a huge shame. By bringing together shape and colour learning with relaxing music and interactive play, I hope this project can make a real difference.
"Even though this is the end of my degree, I don't see the project ending at all. There's so much more work to do, from testing and developing the game further to finding a company to work with to build a prototype controller. This is just the start."
More ... http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/226661.php
Liane Kupferberg Carter is leaving for Paris this afternoon. Probably. Almost definitely.
It will be the first time she and her husband have left their son for this long. Yes, a 30th anniversary is a reason to celebrate. And no, a week is not a very long time. And, true, Mickey is an adult. But he is an adult with autism. And a seizure disorder. And, as Ms. Carter writes in a guest post today, that can make Paris feel very, very far away.
Autism Research Study on the effectiveness of the Miracle Belt & Sensory Belt with children diagnosed with Autism. One of the little girls in the video rarely talks and decides to speak up during this therapy session. Watch as her therapist gets very excited as this little girl speaks up for the first time.
iPads for Autism Workshop to Benefit Reach for the Stars Learning Center The Soho Gallery for Digital Art New York, NYAutism and iPad advocate Shannon Des Roches Rosa leads this in-depth workshop on the role of iPads for people with autism. Ms. Rosa will demonstrate how iPads can be a dynamic and cost-effective learning tool for autistic children and adults, and will discuss the additional benefits of the iPad as well as fundraising, research, accessories, and – of course – apps.
So if you’re considering an iPad for your loved one with autism, already have an iPad but aren’t sure how best to use it, or just want to talk about all things iPads & autism, this is the workshop for you!
Workshop proceeds benefit Brooklyn’s Reach for the Stars Learning Center, “dedicated to the education of children with autistic spectrum disorders utilizing every possible tool to further their development.”
Event URL: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/176035
More workshop information at: http://tinyurl.com/NYCipadAutismWorkshop
Leo’s success with his iPad as profiled in Apple’s iPad: Year One video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpiVeC1Z3yI
Leo’s iPad success detailed in the popular SF Weekly article, iHelp for Autism http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-08-11/news/ihelp-for-autism
Shannon also maintains a spreadsheet of recommended apps for our families http://www.squidalicious.com/2011/01/ipad-apps-for-autism-spreadsheet-of.htm
HOCUS FOCUS is a new, cutting-edge approach to instruction that helps to build confidence, self-esteem, and academic skills in children with varying degrees of learning challenges and abilities, including those with Autism and ADHD. A new government report states that children with developmental disabilities has been climbing over the past decade reaching nearly 1 in 6. Parents and educators need to find news ways to engage these children in the learning process if they are going to live successful, productive lives. The teaching strategies in HOCUS FOCUS have been enthusiastically received by educators around the world as an inspiring and creative approach to experiential learning. What HOCUS FOCUS brings to education is nothing short of magical!
FREE Live Video Streaming
AutismOne/Generation Rescue Conference Goes Worldwide! Live Video Streaming of all Conference Presentations is confirmed!
http://www.throughtheroofministries.org/
We are a faith based, nondenominational ministry and have a vision that reaches internationally around the globe. Our focus is sharing the Gospel, ministering to the underprivileged and those affected by disability.
Many autism families would like to be able to attend church, but have given up on that possibility due to the obvious stress and strain of their child having to sit still for an hour (or more) or properly behave in a children’s ministry. Missing not only the worship aspect, but the support of a church community is difficult and isolating for them. And of course, people of faith want their child with autism to engage in a spiritual life as well.
The Maryland panel that oversees doctors in the state has charged a man with practicing medicine without a license just weeks after his father's license was suspended for putting autistic children at risk.
The Maryland Board of Physicians says David Geier worked with his father, Dr. Mark Geier, at the Rockville and Owings Mills offices of Genetic Consultants of Maryland, where they used a drug therapy that autism experts say is based on junk science.
The pair has built a national following among parents who believe autism is linked to the mercury in vaccines, a theory discredited by mainstream medicine. They developed a treatment using Lupron, a testosterone suppressant approved for prostate cancer and ovarian fibroids, as well as in chemically castrating sex offenders.
The US Department of Justice has ruled that a state-funded private preschool program, Beginning Montessori Academy in Baldwin Park, California, discriminated against an autistic child. According to the settlement agreement, after attending the school "for some time," the child's mother, Kathy Castaneda, was informed by the school that
...[the child] would not be accepted for the following school year and that as of July 1, 2008, the Montessori Academy would no longer accept any child with autism or any specialized condition or need.
A gene-sequencing study of children with autism, described in an advance online publication in Nature Genetics on 15 May, offers a sneak peek at a technique which, combined with other approaches, may explain 40 to 50 percent of the genetic causes of the disorder within just a few years, proposes the study's lead investigator. This approach, says Evan Eichler of the University of Washington in Seattle, will potentially allow clinicians to "lift the hood on what has gone wrong in each individual child with autism," with the hope of ultimately devising individually-tailored drug therapies.
Autism spectrum disorders manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways, and researchers believe that they are highly genetically diverse, involving mutations in any of several hundred genes. While studies of twins suggest that as much as 90 percent of autism is genetically based, large-scale genetic screens over the last decade that searched for common genetic variants underlying the disorder have been disappointing. A growing body of evidence suggests that, especially in families with no prior history of the disorder, autism results not from the inheritance of an unfortunate combination of common gene variants, but from rare, spontaneous — or de novo — mutations in the egg or sperm.
Over the past few years, this theory has been supported by numerous microarray studies showing that children with spontaneous autism are more likely than their unaffected siblings to have de novo copy number variants, mutations in which a large chunk of DNA is duplicated or deleted.
Now, in work funded in part by the Simons Foundation, Brian O'Roak, a joint postdoc in Jay Shendure's and Eichler's labs at the University of Washington, has sequenced the exome — the protein-coding regions of the genome — of 20 families consisting of one child with an autism spectrum disorder and unaffected parents and siblings. In contrast to most previous studies, which had sufficient resolution to detect only large copy number variants, the new study could detect even point mutations, in which just a single DNA nucleotide is affected. "Our approach has the advantage of taking a snapshot of an individual's protein-coding genome and quickly identifying the one or two new sporadic mutations they carry," O'Roak says.
The families in the study were drawn from the Simons Simplex Collection, a large repository of genetic, phenotypic and biological data from families with just one affected child and unaffected parents and siblings. The collection was created for the express purpose of facilitating the search for rare, de novo autism mutations.
While the 20 children with autism did not have significantly more de novo point mutations than would be expected in the population at large, their mutations were much more disruptive to the proteins they encoded than is typical. What's more, a significant number of the mutations occurred in regions of the genome in which mutations are rarely found, probably because these regions are so crucial to bodily functioning that individuals with defects in those regions usually die without reproducing.
In four children, the researchers identified de novo mutations that are so deleterious that they likely play a causative role in these children's autism. Probably not coincidentally, these four children are among the most severely affected in the study group.
Three of the four mutated genes — FOXP1, GRIN2B and SCN1A — have previously been implicated in autism, and are thought to play roles in speech and language disorders, intellectual disability and epilepsy, respectively. The fourth gene, LAMC3, has not previously been linked to autism, but is known to be expressed in many areas of the cortex and limbic system. "Finding a LAMC3 mutation will probably set the stage for some new research agendas," Eichler says.
Two of the four children appear to have experienced a genetic double-whammy, having inherited a deleterious mutation from a parent in addition to having a de novo mutation. The child with a FOXP1 mutation also inherited a defective copy of CNTNAP2, another gene that may be involved in language development. "It's like getting hit by lightning twice," Eichler says. That child has severe autism and the greatest language deficit of any individual in the study.
The child with the epilepsy-related SCN1A mutation also inherited from his mother a deletion that increases the risk for epilepsy; and indeed, that child has been diagnosed with epilepsy. The findings support the 'multi-hit' theory of autism, the idea that it may take a combination of mutations in the same pathway to cause severe autism or related disorders.
Studying 20 families is just a start — "a teaser," as Eichler puts it. At the same time, the study offers two important proofs of principle: It provides compelling evidence that de novo point mutations may underlie many cases of autism, and it shows that exome-sequencing is an effective way to discover which of the more than 20,000 genes in the human genome are responsible for autism spectrum disorders.
"It's like having a dartboard with 20,000 candidates — the fact that we could pick off four outstanding candidate genes is a great success," Eichler says. "It's proof on the ground that this technique is fruitful."
The Simons Foundation is providing funding for Eichler's team and several other groups to do whole-exome sequencing of several hundred families in the Simons Simplex Collection over the next few months. As whole-exome and eventually whole-genome sequencing become more accurate and affordable, it won't be long before it will be possible to sequence several thousand families, which should be enough data to provide statistical arguments about which genes are responsible for autism spectrum disorders, Eichler says.
"Within a couple of years, we should have a pretty comprehensive view of the genes that cause autism," he says.
Contact: Anastasia Greenebaum
agreenebaum@simonsfoundation.org
212-524-6097
Simons Foundation###
More children aged 3 and younger are now being treated for autism in Massachusetts, a new study finds.One in 129 children in Massachusetts born between 2001 and 2005 was enrolled in early intervention programs for an autism spectrum disorder by their third birthday, according to the study.
Over the five-year period, the proportion of children aged 3 and younger getting treated rose from one in 178 among children born in 2001 to one in 108 for those born in 2005 -- a 66 percent increase.
There have been numerous reports of the benefits of therapy dogs for autistic children and some have sung praises for having autistic children swim with dolphins. In Thailand, elephant therapy with, yes, elephants has been found to help some autistic children. Nuntanee Satiansukpong, head of the occupational therapy department at Chiang Mai University, first thought that elephants might be beneficial for the sensory issues that many autistic children struggle with.
Here's a description from CBS news:
The kids scrub and soap the elephants' bristly hides, play ball games with them, and ride them bareback, smiling.
"Chang, chang (Elephant, elephant). Children, have you ever seen an elephant?" the group sings, clapping hands to the traditional Thai nursery tune and hugging the elephants' trunks. Disco-like, Nua Un bobs her head and sways....
Wittaya Khem-nguad is the founder of the project. So far, claims of the therapy's effectiveness rest on the experience of only four autistic boys. Rebecca Johnson, who heads the at the University of Missouri, says a larger sample size of participants needs to be studied.
More at http://www.care2.com/causes/education/blog/dogs-dolphins-and-elephant-therapy-for-autistic-children/
Open Casting Call
We are looking for camera-friendly individuals who would like to participate in the making of the film — people who can provide the insight we are looking for to give viewers a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that will never be forgotten.
At the moment, we are leaving the window of opportunity open but as we dig deeper into our research, we will be seeking out candidates whom
we feel will add the much-needed texture to shape the documentary: moms, dads, brothers, sisters, Western & Eastern medical experts and practitioners, ASD support groups and organizations, nutritionists, treatment and therapy specialists… anyone who has something to say about ASD and is not afraid to make his or her VOICE heard.
The first stage will involve a brief interview to assess each candidate’s suitability and fit into the film’s storyline. We are not looking for talented actors but real people who can interview well and have either a fascinating story to tell or the professional credentials to backup (or dispute!) the facts, figures, and findings behind the disorder. If you are selected to appear in the film, we will advise you on the next steps at that time.
In the meantime, if you would like to put your name in for consideration, drop us an email with your name, phone number, email, the city or community where you live, and a brief overview of what you feel you can contribute to the making of In the Dark: Voices Behind Autism.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!
Max Maccari, Writer & Production Manager
The search for the genetic roots of psychiatric illnesses and behavioral disorders such as schizophrenia, autism and ADHD has a long history, but until recently, it was one marked by frustration and skepticism. In the past few years, new techniques have begun to reveal strong evidence for the role of specific genes in some cases of these conditions but in a way few people expected.
In the state named after a great champion of freedom, freedom has just suffered a chilling setback. Parents who chose not to vaccinate their children will now be forced to attend meetings with medical professionals designed to harass them into accepting unwanted vaccines. Reminiscent of Chairman Mao's reeducation camps, these meeting are finding great favor among the community of do-gooders comprising the public health and medical establishments.
One who is particularly enamoured with the new law is Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a.k.a. Seattle Moma Doc,a pediatrician and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s school of Bioethics, home of vaccine cheerleader Art Kaplan. She's taken the time to write a blog post celebrating the type of nanny state progressivism that would have George Washington spinning in his grave
In recent years, initiatives have taken shape to try and protect individuals with autism or other conditions that lead to wandering, including:
1. AWAARE (Autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Education), was launched by a cooperation of six major autism advocacy groups to increase public understanding of autism-related wandering and reduce the number of fatalities associated with wandering.
2. Project Lifesaver, technology and education dedicated to improving safe outcomes for wandering children and adults. From their mission statement:
Project Lifesaver develops public outreach programs to educate others about the issue of wandering, and they constantly work toward developing public policy and effective law enforcement response to help save lives and "bring loved ones home."
3. Mason Allen Medlam Foundation, founded last year by Sheila and Kenneth Medlam's who lost their 5-year-old autistic son, Mason, to wandering-related drowning. The Medlam Foundation lobbies the United States Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and Congress to establish the Mason Alert, a national wandering child alert program run much like the Amber Alert program for suspected child abductions.
The fight about Wakefield is a fight about the past ... that fight has actually hurt scientific research that could eventually help many autistic people. It's time to move on.
About
I was gung-ho for vaccines before our daughter was born in 95. I was that expectant dad reading all the parenting books and wanting to do everything just right. I told my wife we'd have to get all the shots and right on schedule. Just going by what one hears in the culture, I remembered how scared everyone was of polio. Then I heard on a daytime talk show what was very uncommon then: someone questioning the safety and wisdom of vaccination. I started looking into it (sadly, back then there was no internet and few books on the subject) I had to go to medical school libraries to get anything on vaccine studies. It finally came down to realizing these illnesses were not nearly as scary as imagined. Back then I thought by this time everyone would have figured that out. I was wrong.
There is still great hope in humanity, and this video shows that when the entire crowd at Fenway Park comes to the aid of an autistic man singing the National Anthem. Praise God, this is so inspirational.
well, it's been almost two months since sir dantes turned four years old...and still no words. am i hoping for miracles? sigh! okay, maybe i am a bit over anxious waiting for that day he'll say "hi mommy", but i do have other milestones to report.
i know i have said it before, but progress with a child who has autism often happens in a pattern that resembles a staircase; a burst of advances followed by a period with stagnation. at least, that is how our therapist explained it. a typical child's progress is more like the side of a steep hill. this comparison got me to thinking why so many parents don't really notice the signs of autism until around the age of two and their child is suddenly (though not really suddenly) so far behind other children the same age.
Having a child with autism can put stress on the parents’ marriage, and a frequently cited statistic leads to a common perception that the divorce rate among these families is as high as 80 percent. But Dr. Brian Freedman, clinical director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute, and his team conducted a study revealing that a child’s autism has no effect on the family structure.
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