Autism
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Teaching and Conveying Empathy to Children with ASD
Psychology Today Parenting Center &bull Dec 15, 2011
Imagine for a moment what your relationships with others would be like if you constantly struggled to understand their perspective. Imagine not being able to decipher accurately what others are feeling or communicating. Think about a time you were in a situation in which you felt you could not "read" the other person, could not sense… Full Story »
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Brain-heart link may explain sudden death in Rett syndrome
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Dec 14, 2011
In a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, BCM researchers and colleagues found that heart problems that occur in nearly 20 percent of children with Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder, originate because the Rett gene (MeCP2) is lost in nerve cells -- not in heart muscle cells. The finding in mice opens the door to tailoring treatments to prevent heart rhythm problems and even deaths in girls with the disorder," said Dr. Jeffrey Neul, associate professor of pediatrics at BCM, a researcher at the Jan and… Full Story »
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Learning by Imitation Holds Promise for Early Autism Intervention
Psych Central News >> Children and Teens &bull Dec 13, 2011
Learning by imitation appears to be a successful method to improve social skills in autistic youth. Michigan State University researchers say the findings come at an important time in autism research as investigators have learned to detect behaviors and symptoms… Full Story »
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Topics:
- Autism
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Blink Patterns May Be a Window Into Autistic Mind (HealthDay)
Yahoo! News - Parenting/Kids News &bull Dec 12, 2011
MONDAY, Dec. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Toddlers with autism show different blink patterns than other children, a finding that researchers say may provide a clue to the way people with autism process what they see. Blinking is largely an involuntary process that helps keep the eyes hydrated and protected. During that split second that your eyes are closed, you are temporarily blinded. And throughout a typical day,… Full Story »
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Teaching children with autism to imitate others may improve social skills
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Dec 12, 2011
The findings come at a pivotal time in autism research. In the past several years, researchers have begun to detect behaviors and symptoms of autism that could make earlier diagnosis and even intervention like this possible, said Brooke Ingersoll, MSU assistant professor of… Full Story »
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Judge to Hear Request to Ban Film About Autism
Psychology Today Parenting Center &bull Dec 8, 2011
The documentary, The Wall, consists of interviews of 30 French psychoanalysts (many of them lead psychiatrists at treatment centers and department heads of notable French hospitals) who place the blame for autism on mothers who are either too cold or… Full Story »
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Weekly Round-Up: Week of November 28
About.com Parenting Special Needs &bull Dec 4, 2011
Here's your weekend round-up of all the new content you may have missed from the past week in About Parenting Special Needs. New Articles and Features Site of the Day: December 2011 Autism Parenting News - 2011 Autism Parenting News… Full Story »
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Groupon, Glee, and More of Your Comments
About.com Parenting Special Needs &bull Dec 2, 2011
Join the Discussion: Here's a list of the blog posts that have received comments over the past few weeks. See what your fellow readers are talking about and add your opinion: Groupon Finds Food Allergies Funny Glee and Faking Disabilities… Full Story »
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Boys with regressive autism, but not early onset autism, have larger brains than age-matched healthy counterparts, study finds
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Nov 28, 2011
The study is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition. It was led by Christine Wu Nordahl, a researcher at the UC Davis MIND Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and David G. Amaral, Beneto Foundation Chair, MIND Institute Research Director and University of California Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The finding that boys with regressive autism show a different form of neuropathology than boys with early onset autism is novel," Nordahl said. Brain enlargement has been observed in previous studies of… Full Story »
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Neurons grown from skin cells may hold clues to autism
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Nov 28, 2011
Potential clues to how autism miswires the brain are emerging from a study of a rare, purely genetic form of the disorders that affects fewer than 20 people worldwide. Using cutting-edge "disease-in a-dish" technology, researchers have grown patients' skin cells… Full Story »
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Topics:
- Autism
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Weekly Round-Up: Week of November 14
About.com Parenting Special Needs &bull Nov 20, 2011
Here's your weekend round-up of all the new content you may have missed from the past week in About Parenting Special Needs. New Articles and Features Book Excerpt: Manners and Social Rules Help for Children With Special Needs in Illinois… Full Story »
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New Intervention Program Benefits Preschoolers with Depression
Psych Central News >> Children and Teens &bull Nov 19, 2011
Preschoolers who display symptoms of depression are better able to function and regulate their emotions when taught through a new psychosocial approach, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Recently, studies have shown that symptoms of clinical depression can be… Full Story »
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Minding Your Child's Manners
About.com Parenting Special Needs &bull Nov 16, 2011
Manners are kind of a minefield for families of children with special needs. Sure, I know, I hear some parents insist that they insist on good manners and get them, and more power to those folks. I've often thought of… Full Story »
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Research provides clues to neurodevelopemental disorders
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Nov 15, 2011
New studies show in new detail how the brain's connections, chemicals, and genes interact to affect behavior. The research findings were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science health. Neurodevelopmental disorders like autism-spectrum disorders and fragile X syndrome… Full Story »
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Study: Possible Link Found Between Autism and Excess of Neurons
Growing Your Baby &bull Nov 15, 2011
A recent study, published in the Journal of American Medical Association, may have found a possible link between autism and an excess of neurons in the brain. Full Story »
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Topics:
- Autism
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Study Links Extra Brain Cells with Autism
Psych Central News >> Children and Teens &bull Nov 10, 2011
A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence reveals that boys with autism have an abnormal, excessive number of neurons in areas of the brain associated with social, communication and cognitive development. The… Full Story »
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Topics:
- Cognitive Development
- Autism
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Ariane Zurcher: What They Didn't Tell Me About My Child's Autism
Huffington Post - Parenting &bull Nov 10, 2011
Having a child with autism may cause you to feel things you never dreamed possible. You may know moments of joy and moments of despair you could not have imagined. Read more: Healthy Living Health News , Living With Autism… Full Story »
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Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders vary widely across clinics
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Nov 9, 2011
To diagnose autism spectrum disorders, clinicians typically administer a variety of tests or scales and use information from observations and parent interviews to classify individuals into subcategories listed in standard psychiatric diagnostic manuals. This process of forming "best-estimate clinical diagnoses"… Full Story »
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Topics:
- Autism
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Abnormal number of neurons in brains of children with autism, preliminary study finds
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Nov 9, 2011
Brain and head overgrowth in children with autism and neural dysfunction are evident at young ages in multiple brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), that are involved in higher-order social, emotional, communication, and cognitive development. In the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) report of early brain overgrowth in autism a decade ago, it was theorized that excess numbers of neurons could be an underlying cause, perhaps due to prenatal dysregulation of proliferation, apoptosis [cell death], or both. However, the neural basis of early overgrowth remains unknown and can only be known from direct quantitative studies of the young postmortem… Full Story »
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Pre-birth brain growth problems linked to autism, study shows
ScienceDaily: Children's Health News &bull Nov 9, 2011
Earlier studies of head circumference and early brain overgrowth have pointed us in this direction, but there have been few quantitative neuroanatomical studies due to the lack of post-mortem tissue from children with autism," said Thomas R. Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of NIH. "These new results, along with an earlier study reporting altered wiring of the prefrontal cortex, focus our attention on this critical area… Full Story »
