Special Series of Articles for Parents, Families New to Autism Diagnosis

BabyZone.com, a website for parents of young children, has just published a four-article series I wrote to help parents and families who are new to autism spectrum disorders—what autism is, what it means for their families, how to find ways to help their children. You can find the links to all four articles below:

What to Do When Your Child Gets an Autism Diagnosis
When your child receives an autism diagnosis, there are many more questions than answers about what it means and what you need to do. Here's how to start the effort to help your child grow and develop—and how to make sure you take care of everyone in your family (yourself included). More

Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorders
Experts like to point out that no two children with autism are quite alike. While that lack of clarity can be frustrating for parents, it demonstrates that researchers and doctors continue to refine their understanding of autism. Here is brief description of the places on the autism spectrum. More

A Basic Guide to Well-Known Autism Therapies

Because autism is a serious disability, and early intervention so important, families tend to do as much for their diagnosed children as they can fit into their lives and budgets. Here is a guide to the most well-known treatments and techniques for helping young children with autism make developmental gains, along with advice for evaluating these approaches and resources to find more information. More

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Finding Support & Resources
If your child was recently diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder or you're just looking for support and advice from families in similar situations to yours, read on. More

A Basic Guide to Well-Known Autism Therapies

BabyZone.com, a website for parents-to-be and parents of young children, has published another article I wrote to help parents and families who are new to navigating the world of autism services.

You can find the article here: A Basic Guide to Well-Known Autism Therapies. The article notes:

Because autism is a serious disability, and early intervention so important, families tend to do as much for their diagnosed children as they can fit into their lives and budgets. Here is a guide to the most well-known treatments and techniques for helping young children with autism make developmental gains, along with advice for evaluating these approaches and resources to find more information.

The article includes information on many services families consider to help their kids, with links to other articles and organizations which can provide more information on each kind of service. The article's sections include:

• The Calculations Families Must Make
• Therapy Questions to Consider
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• TEACCH
• DIR/ Floortime
• Speech Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Relationship Development Intervention
• Special Diets & Other Alternative Treatments
• Social Stories & Other Communication Tools

Please note that people have written books about each of these subjects above; this article is designed to provide families confronting an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis with useful information. It's an effort to help families get started on their efforts to help their child.

Notes on Assistive Technologies for People with Autism

An Autism Bulletin reader who watched MTV's "True Life: I'm Autistic" show this week e-mailed me to ask about the technology tool that one of the teenagers profiled in the show used. What was it called and how can we find out more about it?

The communications device that Jeremy uses is called Lightwriter -- it's a device that a television reviewer for The New York Times, recapping this MTV show called "a keyboard that talks for you."

Here is a photo from the website of Toby Churchill Ltd., the company based in Cambridge, England, that makes Lightwriter:













Toby Churchill makes a number of different models of Lightwriter, and I can't verify yet whether this is the one used on the MTV documentary.

What is clear, however, is that this Lightwriter fits into a growing industry for developing, manufacturing and marketing technology-based tools to help people with disabilities including autism spectrum disorders communicate.

For example, David Dikter, executive director for the Assistive Technology Industry Association appeared on ABC News recently to discuss an array of products that help visually impaired people read and people who can't speak communicate with others and express their thoughts and emotions. One of the devices he demonstrated was a communications tool made by a company called Dynavox that allows people with autism to interact with others. (It's also marketed to those who are stroke victims, who have cerebral palsy and ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease.)

You can view an online video of this presentation at ABC News by clicking here. It's about 7 minutes long.

For more about MTV's "True Life: I'm Autistic" you can see:

* MTV's website for the "True Life" series here.

* Read The Times very positive review here. (It will be available to subscribers only very soon.)

* See background information, including links to one of the families highlighted in the show, here.

Other thoughts:

I called this article "Notes on Assistive Technologies" because I realize this is just a start, where mentions go to only fraction of the offerings on the market. You can share more information with me about what you have found helpful -- and why -- in your family's life by posting a comment on Autism Bulletin at the end of this article, or by writing to me at michaelsgoldberg AT yahoo.com.

And because many families with autistic kids are strapped for resources, I would just add a note of buyer diligence. If you are looking to buy something, please consider checking out more than one product and ask people who work with your autistic son, daughter or relative what they know about it. Don't buy something based solely on the positive difference you see one product making in one person's life on TV. Check it out with a couple of other knowledgeable people you trust.

Review of Recent Autism-Related News

A roundup of recent news covered in Autism Bulletin:

Research news

A consortium of 11 universities led by researchers at University of Michigan is tackling a DNA study with samples from 3,000 patients to better understand the nature of autism spectrum disorders. Read more here.

News from around the states, and Canada

A leading advocacy group for people with Asperger Syndrome, the Asperger's Association of New England, sought to reassure the public that the condition was not known to precipitate violent behavior; this came in the wake of a fatal stabbing at a Boston area high school on Jan. 19, in which the alleged perpetrator has an Asperger's diagnosis. You can read more here, and also here (the Asperger's Assocation) and here (column by Boston area parent Susan Senator).

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt proposed spending $3.9 million to improve autism diagnostic and treatment services. Blunt made this proposal in his state of the state speech on Jan. 24. Read more here.

Texas lawmakers are poised to consider a bill that would make it possible for families to use school vouchers to send autistic children to private school. The idea runs headlong into a longstanding debate in Texas over school vouchers. Story here.

A New York assemblyman filed a bill that would make health insurers cover services for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. More information here.

A New Jersey appeals court ruled Jan. 17 that a health plan for state workers improperly denied coverage for parents who sought services such as occupational therapy for their autistic children. Read coverage, including links to court decisions, here.

Arizona is piloting a program to address a wide gap in available services for kids with autism. More on that development here.

Pennsylvania lawmakers elected a new Speaker of the House who has a nephew with autism and pledges to put autism-related services at the forefront of his agenda. More on that development here.

A Washington State autism task force has submitted a set of forward-thinking recommendations designed to support people with autism throughout their lives. The governor and Legislature are supposed to consider what to do next. More on this issue here. The Washington report follows on the heels of another effort in Kentucky to define the scope of the problem and propose solutions for people with autism.

The Ontario government said it would provide autism-related services for 225 children on the province's waiting lists. The province said it also would train more teachers. But families pointed out the waiting lists continue to grow faster than investments in services and people to deliver them. Read more here.

Technology news

British autism researchers released a special DVD intended to help teach children with autism to recognize emotions. Read more here.

Note to readers

Dear readers: Do you find this "news in review" format useful? Please let me know by posting a comment here or sending me an e-mail (michaelsgoldberg AT yahoo DOT com). Thank you for reading Autism Bulletin.

Video From British Autism Researchers Teach Children To Recognize Emotions

Which face is happy? "The Transporters" provide lessons in recognizing emotions.

The British government, working with autism researchers at Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre, have produced a new video program called "The Transporters" designed to help young children with autism learn how to recognize emotions, and to practice generalizing what they learn. The government plans to make 30,000 DVDs of the video program available to children with autism in the U.K. via the National Autistic Society.

While it does not appear that this video is available outside of Britain, the materials associated with the project provide some good background information for parents in other countries about the use of video technology to teach about emotions. You can read the government announcement issued last week by clicking here, and you can see a video preview of the program at a special Transporters website, with explanations about the thinking and research behind the video. I would recommend this page from the website which covers information for "parents, teachers and carers" -- issues such as using facial features to convey emotions, and generalizing lessons learned in the video to other situations in daily life. The materials say:

Bringing the understanding of emotions from the series to the real world is a principal educational aim of the series. There are several things you can do to help with this. Look for similar emotional expressions on TV, in films and newspapers, as well as in real life when watching other people. Talk about what happened, who the characters were, how they felt and how they showed their feelings.

Choose pictures from magazines that convey different emotions. Try to work out what the people could be thinking or saying, looking at the similarities to emotions in the series. Associate the emotions presented in the series with the child's immediate environment. Discuss examples from their lives. Ask the child to mention such examples from his or her experience. Ask the child to create similar stories to those in the series with his or her own toys.

Since children with autism spectrum disorders often show little interest in other people's faces and emotions, the video program puts human faces onto very familiar transportation vehicles. The vehicles move in a predicable fashion, on the road, over a railroad track; the researchers say the children are responding to them. "What we're trying to do is to bring them back into the social world. By putting emotions onto the vehicles, they learn to understand the social world," says Simon Baron-Cohen, a prominent British autism researcher who is director of the Autism Research Centre.

In addition to the typical range of emotions -- happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised -- the Transporters stories cover more complex feelings such as jealous and joking. Baron-Cohen says that the video stories are tailored not only to show these emotions, but also to create a context for what gives rise to the various feelings in stories that last four or five minutes. Each episode, designed to appeal to children between the ages of 2 and 8, covers one or more emotions. There's a quiz for children to take after each episode, asking viewers to identify the emotions on the faces like those above.

British actor Stephen Fry is the narrator, so the program sounds a bit like Jeeves the butler speaking to the kids. If anyone knows of a similar project in North America that is worth watching, please feel encouraged to leave a comment here or e-mail me.