This talk will provide an overview of a cognitive behavioral treatment (Facing Your Fears) to reduce anxiety in children/adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We will carefully review the child and parent components of the treatment so that by the end of the webinar, participants would be familiar with specific strategies to reduce anxiety symptoms in this population. We will also describe how the program is currently being adapted for adolescents with ASD/IDD.
View the webinar here.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Archived Webinar - Toilet Training Yes, You Can!
Are you ready to move on from diapers? Is your child ready? What do you need to think about and prepare for when toilet training a person of any age? We will discuss planning, barriers, and strategies to successfully implement a toilet training program.
View the archived webinar here.
View the archived webinar here.
Music therapy for autism shows minimal social benefit
Music therapy does not alleviate social difficulties in children with autism, suggests a large international study1.
Engaging with music is thought to help children become more flexible, responsive and attentive, leading to better social and communication skills. But participants with autism who received improvisational music therapy scored no better on a standard diagnostic test for the condition than did children with autism who did not get the therapy. The results were published 8 August in JAMA.
Still, researchers should not give up on investigating music’s potential to ease autism features, says lead investigator Christian Gold, professor of music therapy at the University of Bergen in Norway. The study may have missed improvements in a subset of the participants, he says.
Read more here at Spectrum.
Engaging with music is thought to help children become more flexible, responsive and attentive, leading to better social and communication skills. But participants with autism who received improvisational music therapy scored no better on a standard diagnostic test for the condition than did children with autism who did not get the therapy. The results were published 8 August in JAMA.
Still, researchers should not give up on investigating music’s potential to ease autism features, says lead investigator Christian Gold, professor of music therapy at the University of Bergen in Norway. The study may have missed improvements in a subset of the participants, he says.
Read more here at Spectrum.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Implementing Social Thinking Concepts and Vocabulary: A Day to Develop Team Creativity
Great Falls - October 11, 2017
Havre - October 12, 2017
It’s time to get practical! Learn about three core treatment-based frameworks and more than 20 unique strategies based on Social Thinking Vocabulary and related activities. Teach students to better interpret and respond to their social world by exploring how to engage in richer social observation and making smart guesses to discover hidden social rules. Learn systematic and logical ways to encourage social responsibility by learning about our own and others’ social thinking. Explore how our thinking about a situation and what we know about others can help us navigate and create the expected behaviors that support our relationships. Learn how we make these abstract concepts more concrete by reviewing a variety of activities through clinical examples.
Participants will work in groups to learn how to use Social Thinking concepts across settings, creating one or two lesson plans of their own. We explore how to make lessons applicable across a variety of environments and focus on enabling students to apply these lessons in their lives.
Register here.
Havre - October 12, 2017
It’s time to get practical! Learn about three core treatment-based frameworks and more than 20 unique strategies based on Social Thinking Vocabulary and related activities. Teach students to better interpret and respond to their social world by exploring how to engage in richer social observation and making smart guesses to discover hidden social rules. Learn systematic and logical ways to encourage social responsibility by learning about our own and others’ social thinking. Explore how our thinking about a situation and what we know about others can help us navigate and create the expected behaviors that support our relationships. Learn how we make these abstract concepts more concrete by reviewing a variety of activities through clinical examples.
Participants will work in groups to learn how to use Social Thinking concepts across settings, creating one or two lesson plans of their own. We explore how to make lessons applicable across a variety of environments and focus on enabling students to apply these lessons in their lives.
Register here.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Teens and Screens: Resources for Parents
The video of the first joint SPARK and SSC@IAN webinar, Teens and Screens: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is now available. Here are some websites, books, and tools that might be helpful.
The following resources may help your teens with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (and other family members) cut back on the time they spend gaming and watching videos, and keep them safer online:
Read more here on Interactive Autism Network.
The following resources may help your teens with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (and other family members) cut back on the time they spend gaming and watching videos, and keep them safer online:
- Common Sense Media provides a collection of resources for helping children “thrive in a world of media and technology.” Though not focused on teens with ASD, the section on parent concerns addresses many of the worries that parents of teens with ASD have. They also have an article that discusses parental controls.
- Unplug: Tips for Parents to Help Students with Autism Get off Electronics provides advice from the College Internship Program (CIP) for parents of teens with ASD.
- A family media plan can help you structure media and technology time and allow time for other activities. The American Academy of Pediatrics provides a tool, the Personalized Family Media Use Plan.
- People who attended the webinar mentioned a few tools for helping monitor and control teens’ digital activities. We haven’t tested these products, but you could take a look at Disney’s Circle and Dinnertime Plus.
- Some teens and young adults with ASD may end up in trouble with the law because of their inability to understand what they should and shouldn't be looking at online. The Autism Spectrum, Sexuality and the Law: What every parent and professional needs to know provides a cautionary tale told by a man with autism and leading autism experts.
Read more here on Interactive Autism Network.
New diagnosis covers ‘borderlands’ of autism spectrum
Children with social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SCD) have the same features as children with autism — just fewer of them, according to a large study of children with either condition1. The results suggest that the condition is a useful addition to doctors’ diagnostic repertoire.
SCD was introduced in 2013 with the release of the fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5). The move spurred criticism from some experts who said there was little evidence that SCD differs from other conditions such as autism.
SCD is characterized by social difficulties and communication problems, which are also features of autism. The addition of SCD to the manual was part of a diagnostic shake-up that also redefined autism and removed a related condition called pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
Researchers feared some children would fall through the cracks of the reworked divisions. But the new study suggests SCD captures children with autism features who would not otherwise receive an autism diagnosis.
Read more here at Spectrum.
SCD was introduced in 2013 with the release of the fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5). The move spurred criticism from some experts who said there was little evidence that SCD differs from other conditions such as autism.
SCD is characterized by social difficulties and communication problems, which are also features of autism. The addition of SCD to the manual was part of a diagnostic shake-up that also redefined autism and removed a related condition called pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
Researchers feared some children would fall through the cracks of the reworked divisions. But the new study suggests SCD captures children with autism features who would not otherwise receive an autism diagnosis.
Read more here at Spectrum.
Friday, August 25, 2017
Parental concern may skew scores on autism test
A widely used test for diagnosing autism may miss children whose parents are not concerned that their child may have the condition, according to a new study1.
The tool, called the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), is a 93-item questionnaire that caregivers fill out. It is often used with another test, called the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), that clinicians complete. Results on the two tests usually agree, but children who score high on the ADOS sometimes score low on the ADI-R.
The study provides a possible explanation for this mismatch: Some parents do not recognize autism features in their children, or do not consider them to be problematic.
Read more here at Spectrum.
The tool, called the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), is a 93-item questionnaire that caregivers fill out. It is often used with another test, called the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), that clinicians complete. Results on the two tests usually agree, but children who score high on the ADOS sometimes score low on the ADI-R.
The study provides a possible explanation for this mismatch: Some parents do not recognize autism features in their children, or do not consider them to be problematic.
Read more here at Spectrum.
Archived Webinar - Succeeding on the Job: Using Technology to Boost the Skills Employers Want
Once you have the job, it is important to be able to meet your employer’s expectations. Assistive technology (AT) can play an important role on the job in a wide variety of work environments. AT helps to increase independence, access to a physical environment, productivity, and access to information and tools.
This webinar will present tools and strategies to support essential work performance, such as being on time, communicating, following directions, staying organized, and completing tasks. Presenters will explore a wide range of technology to support success, including smartphone apps, wearable devices, a smart pen, and alternative computer access devices.
Parents’ interactions with infants may alleviate autism features
Teaching parents to respond to cues from babies at high risk of autism eases the severity of autism features at age 3, a new study suggests1.
The research is a follow-up to a 2015 study that showed that a parent-delivered behavioral therapy decreased autism signs in their high-risk babies at age 15 months2. The new study suggests these gains persist for months to years.
“We seem to have a sustained effect on reducing symptoms,” says lead researcher Jonathan Green, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
“It suggests we’ve done something in the mechanics of the development of the child to change it.”
The 2015 study involved 28 babies who have an older sibling with autism. These so-called ‘baby sibs’ are 20 times more likely than a typical child to be diagnosed with autism. The new study followed the same babies until age 3.
Read more here at Spectrum.
The research is a follow-up to a 2015 study that showed that a parent-delivered behavioral therapy decreased autism signs in their high-risk babies at age 15 months2. The new study suggests these gains persist for months to years.
“We seem to have a sustained effect on reducing symptoms,” says lead researcher Jonathan Green, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
“It suggests we’ve done something in the mechanics of the development of the child to change it.”
The 2015 study involved 28 babies who have an older sibling with autism. These so-called ‘baby sibs’ are 20 times more likely than a typical child to be diagnosed with autism. The new study followed the same babies until age 3.
Read more here at Spectrum.
Magnetic promise: Can brain stimulation treat autism?
There are hints that transcranial magnetic stimulation, which uses electricity to change how brain cells function, might improve the symptoms of autism. But hopes are running way ahead of the facts.
“There’s tremendous excitement at the potential to have something that’s noninvasive, non-drug-based, with potentially fewer side effects,” says Michael Platt, a neurobiologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who is studying the effects of TMS in monkeys. “But the fact of the matter is we don’t understand very much about how it works.”
The small studies so far have mainly used TMS as a research tool, gathering data on symptoms as an aside, so they cannot prove that it works as a treatment. Of the studies that specifically assessed it as a therapy, only one meets the highest standards for research of this type. Overall, the results have been mixed: Some people with autism benefit; others do not.
Still, some for-profit clinics have already begun treating people who have autism with TMS, a practice researchers say isn’t yet justified. “It’s worrisome,” says Lindsay Oberman, an autism researcher at Bradley Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, who has studied, among other things, how TMS changes neuronal connections in response to experience. “You could make somebody worse if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Read more here at Spectrum.
“There’s tremendous excitement at the potential to have something that’s noninvasive, non-drug-based, with potentially fewer side effects,” says Michael Platt, a neurobiologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who is studying the effects of TMS in monkeys. “But the fact of the matter is we don’t understand very much about how it works.”
The small studies so far have mainly used TMS as a research tool, gathering data on symptoms as an aside, so they cannot prove that it works as a treatment. Of the studies that specifically assessed it as a therapy, only one meets the highest standards for research of this type. Overall, the results have been mixed: Some people with autism benefit; others do not.
Still, some for-profit clinics have already begun treating people who have autism with TMS, a practice researchers say isn’t yet justified. “It’s worrisome,” says Lindsay Oberman, an autism researcher at Bradley Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, who has studied, among other things, how TMS changes neuronal connections in response to experience. “You could make somebody worse if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Read more here at Spectrum.
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