April 2012
3 posts
2 tags
Clinical research: Study suggests four autism... →
From SFARI:
Diagnosis of autism is based on a core set of symptoms in each of three domains — social interest, language ability and repetitive behaviors — and differences among individuals with the disorder are often considered a question of degree. But the vast diversity of genetic profiles that appear to underlie the disorder often prompts researchers to call it ‘the autisms,’ emphasizing the...
2 tags
Presuming Competence →
“Because my parents presumed my competence, they included me in the family, they believed I was able to understand what I already knew I could: anything a girl my age would.”
Please click through to read Amy Sequenzia’s full post here.
3 tags
Cognition and behavior: Language defect identified... →
From SFARI:
To better understand the interaction between autism, intellectual disability and language, researchers in the new study compared the language ability of 36 children with both autism and intellectual disability, 26 children with intellectual disability only and 34 typically developing controls. Children were matched on the basis of mental age, independent of language ability. The mean...
March 2012
1 post
4 tags
February 2012
7 posts
4 tags
Training parents is good medicine for children... →
From Science Daily:
The children in the study were randomly assigned to medication alone for six months or medication plus a structured training program for their parents for six months. Parent training included regular visits to the clinic to teach parents how to respond to behavior problems to help children adapt to daily living situations. The study medication, risperidone, is approved for...
4 tags
Watch
TED Talks: Daniel Wolpert
Pretty sure Daniel Wolpert is my new science hero. A neuroscientist and self-proclaimed movement chauvinist, his research attempts to decipher how the brain directs movement:
“Research areas include motor planning and optimal control, probabilistic (Bayesian) models, motor predictive and modular approaches to motor learning.”
As he posits in this TED...
3 tags
IQ, Intelligence, and Underestimation
Here are two articles, both from Science Daily, describing research that demonstrates how poorly standardized tests predict academic ability in kids with autism and Aspergers.
IQ Scores Fail to Predict Academic Performance in Children With Autism
New data show that many children with autism spectrum disorders have greater academic abilities than previously thought. In a study by researchers...
3 tags
Augmented play helps children with autism →
From Science Daily:
“Making play sets more interactive and giving children with autism greater opportunities to control and add content of their own to the game could improve cooperative play with other children as well as giving them greater confidence in understanding how objects interact.
William Farr and Nicola Yuill of the University of Sussex, UK and Steve Hinske of ETH Zurich,...
1 tag
Six to nine-month-olds understand the meaning of... →
5 tags
Hearing metaphors activates brain regions involved... →
From Science Daily:
Linguists and psychologists have debated how much the parts of the brain that mediate direct sensory experience are involved in understanding metaphors. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, in their landmark work ‘Metaphors we live by’, pointed out that our daily language is full of metaphors, some of which are so familiar (like “rough day”) that they...
January 2012
4 posts
4 tags
Nap-deprived tots may be missing out on more than... →
From Science Daily:
The study shows toddlers between 2 and a half and 3 years old who miss only a single daily nap show more anxiety, less joy and interest and a poorer understanding of how to solve problems, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Monique LeBourgeois, who led the study. The results indicate insufficient sleep alters the facial expressions of toddlers — exciting events are...
3 tags
Are the anxious oblivious? →
From Science Daily:
Anxious people have long been classified as “hypersensitive” — they’re thought to be more fearful and feel threatened more easily than their counterparts. But new research from Tel Aviv University shows that the anxious may not be hypersensitive at all — in fact, they may not be sensitive enough.
As part of a study on how the brain processes fear...
4 tags
To children (but not adults) a rose by any other... →
From Science Daily:
Two vital parts of mentally organizing the world are classification, or the understanding that similar things belong in the same category; and induction, an educated guess about a thing’s properties if it’s in a certain category. There are reasons to believe that language greatly assists adults in both kinds of tasks. But how do young children use language to...
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The Hormone Surge of Middle Childhood →
From the New York Times:
“In middle childhood, the brain is at its peak for learning, organized enough to attempt mastery yet still fluid, elastic, neuronally gymnastic. Children have lost the clumsiness of toddlerhood and can become physically gymnastic, too, and start practicing their fine motor skills. And because they are still smaller than adults, they can grow adept at a skill like,...
December 2011
4 posts
4 tags
The curious case of the reversed pronoun
From Jon Brock’s Cracking the Enigma research blog, an unpacking of the phenomenon of reversed pronouns in children with and without autism.
“You made a circle”, exclaimed Ethan, looking up from his drawing. “You did make a circle”, his mum acknowledged, ignoring the fact that, not for the first time, Ethan had reversed the pronoun, saying “you” when he should have said “I”. Ethan was one...
3 tags
Should the World of Toys Be Gender-Free? →
This is from a New York Times Op-Ed piece from Peggy Orenstein:
Among the “10 characteristics for Lego” described in 1963 by a son of the founder was that it was “for girls and for boys,” as Bloomberg Businessweek reported. But the new Friends collection, Lego says, was based on months of anthropological research revealing that — gasp! — the sexes play differently.
While as toddlers they...
4 tags
Sewing Audio to Video, and Rubber Hands Onto...
From Discover Magazine’s Mind & Brain blogs, Carl Zimmer summarizes research that highlights how the brain uses multi-sensory processing to construct perception.
The whole article is worth reading, but I was especially drawn to the opening paragraph, in which the author describes the mundane incident that inspired him to write about it. He uses the anecdote to elucidate how our...
2 tags
What's Behind A Temper Tantrum? Scientists...
This is so great! From NPR’s Shankar Vedantam reports on research by Michael Potegal and James A. Green into the “natural phenomenon” of tantrums.
Now research suggests that, beneath all the screams and kicking and shouting, lies a phenomenon that is entirely amenable to scientific dissection. Tantrums turn out to have a pattern and rhythm to them. Once understood,...
November 2011
10 posts
Happiness is All the Rage: SMELLS LIKE HOLIDAY... →
loverly:
I’m hosting a toy and warm clothing drive to benefit Treehouse for Kids here in Seattle. I could really use your help! Learn more (and thank you in advance for dealing with my babble):
I’ll admit it. I really love this time of year. I’m smitten with twinkle lights and reading by the fire and…
4 tags
Much Ado about Mirror Neurons: Empathy, Autism,... →
Please click through to read this post by Anne Corwin on the Autism and Empathy blog, a critique of the popular conception that autism is caused by dysfunction or absence of a mirror neuron system.
A hideout for kids with autism (Chicago Parent) →
2 tags
Joint Effort
From the SFARI Blogs, evidence that suggests joint or shared attention is a skill that can be developed when supportive and responsive adults use affect and pacing to explore a child’s natural interests:
The researchers tested whether preschool teachers who have no formal training in autism could apply a targeted joint attention intervention, developed in 2006, to improve social skills...
3 tags
Interactive play with blocks found to facilitate... →
The headline fails to capture the most interesting aspect of this study, specifically, that it’s not enough to simply provide the child opportunities for playing with blocks, but that working collaboratively in guided play helps to develop spatial language and introduce spatial concepts.
“There is evidence that variations in the spatial language young children hear, which directs...
Earlier autism diagnosis could mean earlier... →
This article, from Science Daily, doesn’t really provide any new information, but summarizes early screening and benefits of early intervention.
“The group of children that eventually develop autism spectrum disorders looks different from typically-developing kids,” Ingersoll says. At 12 months, children who will later develop autism are less likely to show “joint...
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'The neurobiology of self-learning' - the birth of... →
Yesterday, I shared another post from Bjorn Brembs Blog, about the possible role of the FOXP2 gene in differentiating “self” from “other.” This, a related post, references a series of interesting studies about the neural processes of learning and proposes a new field of study in neuroscience: the neurobiology of self-learning.
… this paper detailing experiments in...
3 tags
Babies understand thought process of others at 10... →
From Science Daily:
This comes as no surprise, but highlights the importance of early social referencing and monitoring to develop emerging perspective taking and theory of mind.
“Understanding other people is a key factor in successful communication, and humans start to understand this at a very young age,” said Yuyan Luo, associate professor of developmental psychology in the...
1 tag
Is FoxP a coin with autism on one side and... →
While typically, it’s difficult for us (as clinicians) to derive functionally relevant information from the research into the genetic correlates of autism, this post, from Bjorn Brembs Blog is intriguing:
The FOXP2 gene is well-known for its involvement in language disorders. We are just getting ready to publish our discovery that a relative of this gene in the fruit fly Drosophila, dFoxP,...
5 tags
WatchThis TED Talk by Daniel Wolpert is a delightfully succinct breakdown of sensory processing and praxis for the purpose of guiding motor actions. Absolutely brilliant!
October 2011
3 posts
2 tags
Watch
Some kids learn by listening; others learn by doing. Geoff Mulgan gives a short introduction to the Studio School, a new kind of school in the UK where small teams of kids learn by working on projects that are, as Mulgan puts it, “for real.”
Project based learning isn’t really a new idea; the arts high school I attended was based on very similar model and I went on to assist...
3 tags
Inflexibility may give pupils with autism problems... →
From Science Daily:
Young people with autism may find it difficult to multitask because they stick rigidly to tasks in the order they are given to them, according to research led by an academic at the University of Strathclyde.
The study also found that difficulty with ‘prospective memory’- remembering to carry out their intentions- may contribute to the challenges they face.
...
3 tags
Anxiety interferes with some children's capacity... →
From Science Daily:
As children move toward adolescence, they rely increasingly on close relationships with peers. Socially withdrawn children, who have less contact with peers, may miss out on the support that friendships provide. In a new study about the peer relationships of almost 2,500 fifth graders who are socially withdrawn in different ways and those who aren’t withdrawn, researchers...
September 2011
10 posts
4 tags
School support for ADHD children may be missing... →
From Science Daily:
New research from the University of Montreal shows that inattention, rather than hyperactivity, is the most important indicator when it comes to finishing a high school education.
“Children with attention problems need preventative intervention early in their development,” explained lead author Dr. Jean-Baptiste Pingault, who is also affiliated with...
4 tags
Social cues from bodies in motion lost to those... →
This is from SFARI News and Opinion:
In 1973, psychophysicist Gunnar Johansson attached ten reflectiveam patches to the body of an actor and filmed him moving around in a dark room. A group of healthy adults who watched the film were not only able to recognize human motion in the pattern of lights, but also to infer the sex of the walker1.
More than two decades later, researchers...
Children with autism benefit from early, intensive... →
3 tags
Secure attachment to moms helps irritable babies... →
This, from Science Daily, validates much of what we believe.
Children with difficult temperaments are often the most affected by the quality of their relationships with their caregivers. New research suggests that highly irritable children who have secure attachments to their mothers are more likely to get along well with others than those who aren’t securely attached.
These findings,...
3 tags
Autism linked to focused attention →
From SFARI News and Opinion In Brief, Cognition and Behavior:
Children with autism have more trouble switching their focus between sounds and pictures than do typically developing controls or children with intellectual disability, according to a study published 1 July in theJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders1.
Similarly, adults with autism are less likely to be distracted by a face...
3 tags
Autism and Empathy: Dispelling Myths and Breaking... →
I’ve read several terrific entries at this blog, whose aim is to dispel the popular media myth that people with autism do not experience empathy. It features writing by people with autism, parents of children with autism, and professionals. This excerpt is from the most recent post by editor and publisher Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg:
After this experience, I began to think about what the world...
3 tags
Inside the infant mind: Babies can perform... →
Since we’re on the subject of infant cognition, here is another one from Science Daily:
Scientists are working to develop a computational model of infant learning:
Over the past two decades, scientists have shown that babies only a few months old have a solid grasp on basic rules of the physical world. They understand that objects can’t wink in and out of existence, and that objects...
4 tags
Watching the world in motion, babies take a first... →
This is from Science Daily:
An upcoming study in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, finds that infants at seven to nine months are able to slice up the flow of events, even before they start to speak. And the researchers believe they’ve identified the way that babies accomplish this feat.
Infants use “statistical learning”...
2 tags
Toy Prepares Child To One Day Pull Around Real...
This headline is, obviously, from The Onion.
While I see the humor, I suspect that this is often how adults perceive the complex and multi-faceted task known as play. Instead, I marvel at the exquisitely well integrated postural awareness that allows the child to visually attend to the sound of the telephone as it rolls behind him, the perfectly graded muscle contractions that maintain the...
3 tags
Early motor experiences give infants a social jump... →
Thanks to Rosemary, for bringing this fascinating study to our attention.
From Science Daily:
In a new study published September 9 in the journal Developmental Science, researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Vanderbilt University found that early motor experiences can shape infants’ preferences for objects and faces. The study findings demonstrate that providing infants with...
July 2011
2 posts
4 tags
How to Land Your Kid in Therapy →
An interesting perspective from The Atlantic, describing roads paved with good parental intentions.
“Happiness as a byproduct of living your life is a great thing,” Barry Schwartz, a professor of social theory at Swarthmore College, told me. “But happiness as a goal is a recipe for disaster.” It’s precisely this goal, though, that many modern parents focus on obsessively—only to see it...
June 2011
9 posts
4 tags
The Case Against Caution
From the excellent SFARI, an opinion piece by Jessica Wright outlining why potential benefits outweigh potential risks in routine early autism screening.
A new opinion piece argues that the risks of early screening for autism outweigh the benefits. But the article does a poor job of articulating what these risks might be, instead focusing only on the fact that there are few good options...
2 tags
Brain Got Your Tongue?
Discovery Mind & Brain blog, Vital Signs presents a thoughtful case study introducing selective mutism:
“I understand your daughter is having some problems with her speech. Can you tell me what your concerns are?”
The mother was also petite and neatly dressed. She looked directly at me and said, “Well, she seems to have trouble talking.”
OK, maybe I was wrong. This was probably a child...
3 tags
Can Brain Scans Diagnose Autism? →
A quick and dirty overview of the allure and limitations of using brain scans to diagnose autism.
3 tags
New Recruit in Homework Revolt: The Principal
From the New York Times:
After Donna Cushlanis’s son kept bursting into tears midway through his second-grade math problems, which one night took over an hour, she told him not to do all of his homework.
“How many times do you have to add seven plus two?” Ms. Cushlanis, 46, said. “I have no problem with doing homework, but that put us both over the edge. I got to the point that this is...
2 tags
Five-Minute Screen Identifies Subtle Signs of...
From Science Daily:
This was announced a while back:
A five-minute checklist that parents can fill out in pediatrician waiting rooms may someday help in the early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Published in the Journal of Pediatrics, the study’s design also provides a model for developing a network of...
Women who start prenatal vitamins early are less... →