Music Game For Children with Autism

Music Game For Autistic Children Unveiled At The University Of Abertay Dundee

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

VIRTUAL Dolphin Therapy for Autism

BBC News - East Yorkshire man invents dolphin therapy device

A marine engineer has invented a substitute for swimming with dolphins.

The device, called the Dolphin Dome, uses video screens and the sounds of the sea to recreate the sensation of being in the ocean with the animals.

Interacting with the aquatic mammals is claimed to have a beneficial effect for people with certain conditions, such as autism and cerebral palsy.

Paul Obernay hopes his invention will offer a cheaper and more accessible therapy for people with special needs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-13544115

Related:

• Is Dolphin Therapy Dangerous? (Great Penn and Teller Video too)
• Call for Ban on Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy Does Not Aid Recovery
• Miracles Of Dolphin Assisted Therapy Research
• A contribution to the science of Dolphin-Assisted Therapy
• Is Dolphin Assisted Therapy Research The Answer?
• Dolphin Therapy For Autistic Children
• Controversial Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT): A Note from Ann Novek
• The Promise Of Dolphin -Assisted Therapy
• Dolphins and People...
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Swimming With Dolphins May Not Have Any Health Benefit
• Dolphin Experience 2008
• Swimming With Dolphins An Aquatic Adventure
• Dolphins and Kids
• Something's Fishy
• Does dolphin-assisted therapy really work?
• Swimming With Dolphins Doesn't Confer Any Benefits
• Dolphin Disappointments
• Healing yourself in the new earth
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Dobbs defends dolphins rights to interact with people.
• Dolphin Therapy Smells Fishy
• Dolphin way of life

Rethink Autism Reader: Too Old for ABA?

Rethink Autism Reader: Too Old for ABA?

Can you be too old for ABA? It’s universally acknowledged that younger brains have more elasticity and receptivity to learning new patterns, so they will likely experience faster results. It is also true that the older the child, the more entrenched their problematic behaviors.

That said, we should look at the main tenets of ABA to determine whether any child can truly be too old.

• Skills are broken down into a series of manageable steps that are easier to learn
• Students are provided multiple opportunities to practice and perfect each step of the skill
• Success is rewarded with positive reinforcement, maintaining high motivation for improvement
• Goals are targeted to meet the needs of the individual learner
• Teachers track progress through systematic collection and evaluation of data
• Skills are taught with an eye toward their use and integration into a learner’s daily life

(For more info, see our ABA Page) There is clearly nothing intrinsically “young” about this teaching strategy.

New Research Study On Most Effective Seizure Treatments For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

New Research Study On Most Effective Seizure Treatments For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Roughly 25-35% of individuals with autism eventually develop seizures and many of the remainder have subclinical seizure-like brain activity. However, little is known about which traditional epilepsy treatments and commonly used non-traditional alternative treatments are effective for treating seizures or epilepsy in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder.

A study just published in BMC Pediatrics by Dr. Richard E. Frye from the University of Texas in Houston and Dr. James B. Adams from the Arizona State University in Tempe has now provided insight into which traditional and non-traditional medical treatments are most beneficial for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and seizures. These researchers surveyed 733 parents of children

Social Communication Emotional Regulation Transitional Support (SCERTS) Model

List of Interventions - EM Autism

Social Communication Emotional Regulation Transitional Support (SCERTS) Model(originated by Dr. Barry Prizant and colleagues) is a family-centered support for children with autism across age groups. Using social-communication, positive behavior, and visual supports, this model helps improve the core challenges in autism (i.e. social communication emotional regulation and transitional support). Also, this model believes that children with autism should learn in natural and inclusive environments through natural routines in home, school, and community contexts. This model considers the family as the “expert” and creates goals for the child based on his/her strengths and weaknesses.

For more information, see http://scerts.com/

Insurance Coverage for ABA Services - Lovaas Blog - ABA Treatment for Children with Autism - Lovaas

Insurance Coverage for ABA Services - Lovaas Blog - ABA Treatment for Children with Autism - Lovaas

The small subgroup of families that even have ABA services included in their health insurance plans are now finding out that the only ABA services authorized require 100% implementation by licensed clinicians. Now as a licensed clinical psychologist myself, I know that it is unrealistic for me to be present for every hour of a child's intervention. Not only is it cost-prohibitive for a licensed provider to be present for every hour of ABA intervention, it isn't evidence-based practice! The data on intensive ABA programs has historically relied on the undergraduate student implementers of the intervention, not licensed professionals.

Autism Treatment – Spring Allergies, Regression and Autism, Part 1 of 2 | Autism Recovery Treatment

Autism Treatment – Spring Allergies, Regression and Autism, Part 1 of 2 | Autism Recovery Treatment

Autism Treatment – Well, it’s that time of year again, spring is upon us and for many kids on the Autism spectrum, spring brings on yeast. It’s interesting, I’ve seen this pattern over the past many years where kids who are susceptible to yeast overgrowth or they have a yeast overgrowth issue and it’s been well controlled, whether through supplements or medications, all of a sudden spring hits, the pollens are out, the flowers are blooming and all of a sudden kids start to regress into yeast behavior, the goofiness, the giddiness, the silliness, the inappropriate laughter, the self stimulatory behavior just odd types of things that we often associate with yeast overgrowth come about.

Special Report: Horse Therapy - KYTX CBS 19 Tyler Longview News Weather Sports

Special Report: Horse Therapy - KYTX CBS 19 Tyler Longview News Weather Sports

Medical marijuana for Autism

Medical marijuana: I give my autistic son pot. - By Marie Myung-Ok Lee - Slate Magazine

For two years now, my husband and I have been using medical cannabis—legally—to help soothe our autistic son's gastrointestinal pain and decrease his concomitant violent behaviors. As I've been chronicling in a series of columns for DoubleX, pot has allowed us to bypass the powerful psychotropic drugs that are often used to dull such aggressive outbursts but have a host of serious potential side effects—including permanent tics, diabetes, and death—and did nothing to address J's pain.

Some of the responses to these columns suggest that I will not be up for Mother of the Year any time soon. "No poor child deserves to be attacked by marijuana when it is SUPPOSED to be protected!" read one such response on the parenting site Babble.com. But I've received vociferous support from parents who say that, were they in my situation, they would do the same thing in a heartbeat. I've also heard from parents who've started using cannabis for their own autistic children, with mostly good results and no serious side effects.

In our case, I would call our experiment a qualified success. Not because cannabis has cured J, who's now 11, or anything near it. But it's alleviated some of his severest symptoms so that he, my husband, and I can actually enjoy each other, rather than being held hostage by his autism in a house full of screams, destruction, and three very unhappy people.

Over the years, we've experimented with dozens of marijuana strains to find the ones that work best for J, and we continue to fine-tune the formula. Our grower has figured out how to extract the plants' active properties into an olive oil tincture, which we can administer in precise amounts from a dropper. With more experience, we've learned to finesse the dose: more when J appears to be in a lot of pain, less when he's okay. When the dosing is perfect, J spends three or four hours much more relaxed and engaged than he was before; at night, he sleeps peacefully.

What is most exhilarating—and frightening—about this venture is the feeling that I have to reinvent the wheel for my son, and often have to re-reinvent it every day. Certainly no one is saying, "Pot for your kid, what a great idea!" There is no cannabis-autism doctor-expert, no book, no protocol for me to follow. The best I can do is get tips from J's grower, who has helped other patients, and puzzle out the biochemical aspects with help from J's neurologist.

Alternative autism treatments can be appealing to desperate parents - KansasCity.com

Alternative autism treatments can be appealing to desperate parents - KansasCity.com

After her daughter Jodie was diagnosed with autism, Alison Singer went online, searching desperately for anything that looked like it might help her little girl.

She tried gluten-free and casein-free diets and supplements. She sprinkled something called DMG on her daughter's French toast. She even heard from a doctor who suggested buying a giant electromagnet that could reorganize ions in the brain.

"Parents are very vulnerable when their children are diagnosed. They want to do anything and everything to help their children, and they fall prey to these charlatans peddling the 'cure du jour,'" said Singer, who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y.

Singer's experience illustrates the frustration that often drives parents of autistic children to alternative treatments - including a controversial regimen by a Maryland doctor whose license was suspended recently by the Maryland Board of Physicians. That doctor, Mark Geier, injects some patients with Lupron, a drug approved for use in treating prostate cancer in men and endometriosis in women.

Geier sought Wednesday to have his license reinstated, but the board declined after a hearing that was closed to the public. His lawyer, Joseph A. Schwartz III, framed the situation as a "difference of opinion," with "just as many doctors on our side." Schwartz also said the parents of Geier's patients have signed affidavits calling the charges "a bunch of baloney."

"All we can say now is this stuff works. You can call it a crazy therapy, but it works," Schwartz said about Lupron.

Many parents are desperate to find something - anything - that works.

Families participating in a database at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore - the largest autism database in the world - report using 381 different treatments. On average, families use five treatments simultaneously and spend $500 a month on them. A few use dozens, and the record is 56.

The problem, autism experts say, is that mainstream medicine has been very slow to identify the causes of autism and to identify effective medical or behavioral therapies. Among those now regarded as supported by randomized, controlled scientific studies are the Applied Behavior Analysis and Early Achievements Program used at Kennedy Krieger; certain speech, language and occupational therapies, and melatonin therapy.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/16/2878283/alternative-autism-treatments.html#ixzz1MWhP0ZQa

Dogs, Dolphins and... Elephant Therapy for Autistic Children?

Dogs, Dolphins and... Elephant Therapy for Autistic Children?

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.

Related:

• Is Dolphin Therapy Dangerous? (Great Penn and Teller Video too)
• Call for Ban on Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy Does Not Aid Recovery
• Miracles Of Dolphin Assisted Therapy Research
• A contribution to the science of Dolphin-Assisted Therapy
• Is Dolphin Assisted Therapy Research The Answer?
• Dolphin Therapy For Autistic Children
• Controversial Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT): A Note from Ann Novek
• The Promise Of Dolphin -Assisted Therapy
• Dolphins and People...
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Swimming With Dolphins May Not Have Any Health Benefit
• Dolphin Experience 2008
• Swimming With Dolphins An Aquatic Adventure
• Dolphins and Kids
• Something's Fishy
• Does dolphin-assisted therapy really work?
• Swimming With Dolphins Doesn't Confer Any Benefits
• Dolphin Disappointments
• Healing yourself in the new earth
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Dobbs defends dolphins rights to interact with people.
• Dolphin Therapy Smells Fishy
• Dolphin way of life

‘Dolphin Boy’ documentary draws attention to value of dolphin therapy | Good News - Yahoo! News

‘Dolphin Boy’ documentary draws attention to value of dolphin therapy | Good News - Yahoo! News

By all accounts, Morad was a regular 17-year-old boy from a loving home in a small northern Israeli village. He excelled in school and enjoyed spending time with his friends.

That was before an innocent text message sent to a female classmate got intercepted by the girl's older brother, who misinterpreted the text as flirtation.

That night, the brother kidnapped Morad, and along with several cohorts, beat him within an inch of his life. Morad's injuries were so severe he required 11 days of hospitalization. When he regained consciousness, he was so traumatized he had effectively dissociated from reality.

"I haven't seen that degree of severity even in older people," said Dr. Ilan Kutz, former director of Psychiatric Services at the Meir General Hospital, where he treated Morad. "It usually lasts a few hours at most; never anything this long."

Repeated attempts to reach Morad failed, and after two months of non-responsiveness and a deteriorating psychological condition, Kutz decided to try an experimental method: dolphin therapy.

Related:

• Is Dolphin Therapy Dangerous? (Great Penn and Teller Video too)
• Call for Ban on Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy Does Not Aid Recovery
• Miracles Of Dolphin Assisted Therapy Research
• A contribution to the science of Dolphin-Assisted Therapy
• Is Dolphin Assisted Therapy Research The Answer?
• Dolphin Therapy For Autistic Children
• Controversial Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT): A Note from Ann Novek
• The Promise Of Dolphin -Assisted Therapy
• Dolphins and People...
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Swimming With Dolphins May Not Have Any Health Benefit
• Dolphin Experience 2008
• Swimming With Dolphins An Aquatic Adventure
• Dolphins and Kids
• Something's Fishy
• Does dolphin-assisted therapy really work?
• Swimming With Dolphins Doesn't Confer Any Benefits
• Dolphin Disappointments
• Healing yourself in the new earth
• Dolphin Assisted Therapy
• Dobbs defends dolphins rights to interact with people.
• Dolphin Therapy Smells Fishy
• Dolphin way of life

Autism Treatment – Regression, Gut Problems and Autism Part 2 of 2 | Autism Recovery Treatment

Autism Treatment – Regression, Gut Problems and Autism Part 2 of 2 | Autism Recovery Treatment

Autism Treatment – And what I’ve seen in having these kids, I wish I could do more, but in having had many of these kids evaluated by doing intestinal scoping through a gastro-enterologist is you will often find inflamed guts and what is characteristic of Autistic enterocolitis. Now, the main doctor I refer people to from a pediatric gastroenterologist is Dr. Krigsman who’s in Texas. He’s been my sort of go-to doctor for these types of assessments now for years. The reality is in my experience there just aren’t a lot of doctors around who are willing to evaluate kids on the spectrum from a GI perspective to level that they need to be evaluated and really understand the complexities of it. And what I’ve seen through doctor Krigsman’s assessments is that these children have inflamed guts, sometimes quite significant, but kids have an amazing ability to compensate for pain.

CharmTracker - Female Autism

CharmTracker for Female Autism Issues - AGE OF AUTISM

A group of parents who have daughters with an autism diagnosis are networking to form a group for researching the similar health issues our precious girls are having to endure. We want to see the common patterns or differences so that we can gather data to help pinpoint valuable information. A website for this has been developed, a treatment tracking system for autism called ChARMtracker (check it out at http://www.charmtracker.com). It is free to families and there are over 2,000 users worldwide now, all tracking histories, interventions, diets, medications, supplements etc. of their children. The pre-teen/teen girls would be done in a similar fashion but kept together as a group for data and specific age/sex similarities. This is parent-driven and has no connections to any government or pharmaceutical companies. We will be in communication with each other and the researchers as we journey. This will not take the place of a doctor or a medical plan but will hopefully aid in determining any correlations in our girls thus, guide treatment planning.

More at http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/05/charmtracker-for-female-autism-issues.html

Elephant therapy program for Autism

Elephant therapy program for Thai autistic kids - FoxNews.com

LAMPANG, Thailand – Kuk-kik, a 14-year-old boy, punctuates his few, slurred words with yelps. Kong screams and bites his fingers when he can't figure out how much to pay for bananas. Other children freeze mid-motion, fix their gazes on minute objects and withdraw.

Enter Nua Un and Prathida — two gentle, lively and clever female elephants — and the mood among the autistic teenagers in Thailand changes as they begin their therapy, the world's first using these charismatic animals.

They scrub and soap their bristly hides, play ball games with the well-trained pachyderms 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.

Everyone cheers in a rousing climax to another day in this program in the forests of northern Thailand, which seeks to help autistic children through interaction with elephants.

Animal therapy for people with developmental disabilities — notably using dolphins, dogs and horses — is not new, and has provoked skepticism — especially in connection with expensive swimming-with-dolphins programs. But some anecdotal evidence and studies have shown positive results.

Wittaya Khem-nguad, the elephant project's founder, says parents "see improvements after the elephant therapy and that gives them this hope."

A small preliminary observation found improvements among four boys after three weeks of elephant therapy, but more research with larger samples is needed, says Rebecca Johnson, who heads the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri. A presentation on the Thai program was recently made at the school's Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Autism is incurable but therapy and medication can improve speech, learning and social problems, and reduce behavior like tantrums.

Elephants have lost their traditional roles in Thailand as trucks, teak loggers, and battle tanks, Wittaya, who gave up a career in advertising to work with elephants, started the project as a way to help the endangered animals regain their usefulness. After reading about horse riding therapy, he approached Chiang Mai University, where Nuntanee Satiansukpong, head of its occupational therapy department, suggested elephants might help those with autism.

Elephants, she says, provide the rich, attention-grabbing "sensory menu" beneficial to the autistic, while the animals' intelligence and other traits allow for a wide range of interactions with humans. Additionally, elephants are woven into the fabric of Thai culture, familiar to children since birth.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/11/elephant-therapy-program-thai-autistic-kids/#ixzz1MGUQJrdp

Affectiva Q™ Sensor 1.0, A Wearable Sensor For Measuring Emotion

Affectiva Launches Q™ Sensor 1.0, A Wearable Sensor For Measuring Emotion - Press Release - Digital Journal

Waltham, MA (PRWEB) May 09, 2011

Affectiva released today the Q™ Sensor 1.0, a wireless, wearable biosensor that measures a key physical component of emotions such as excitement, stress, fear, engagement, boredom and relaxation.

Available in a prerelease version since November 2010, the Q Sensor has enabled over 100 organizations to gather emotion data as part of their market research, media measurement and clinical and therapeutic research.

Customers include Boston University, Dartmouth College, Inter Public Group, IvyMount School, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), STAR Center (Sensory Therapies And Research), University of Notre Dame, University of Oregon, University of Wisconsin and Stanford University.

The Q Sensor measures electrodermal activity -- also called skin conductance or galvanic skin response (GSR) -- motion and temperature. It provides objective biomarkers and can be used in natural settings over days or months, unlike traditional wired sensors that require lab settings.

Here is how one customer is using Q Sensors to help with therapeutic research:

"For over 30 years, my team has conducted research in children with autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorders, sensory processing disorders and other neurodevelopmental conditions. Since 1995 our emphasis has been on trying to understand the physiological underpinnings of inappropriate arousal. Our investigations of biomarkers and the effects of treatment for children with these challenges has been fruitful, but it is hampered by the costly and constrained laboratory setting we have been required to use.

"Now my team uses Q Sensors to monitor arousal in children and therapists during actual treatment sessions to 'see' the children's physiological arousal in real time in a non-laboratory setting. We also monitor the therapists' arousal to study when they are best able to co-regulate their clients. We even use the real-time data as biofeedback with children as young as five, who realize they can control their own arousal.

"It is a beautiful process watching both children and therapists 'see' their sympathetic activation and gain control over previously unmanageable arousal. The options are limitless, and I believe the Q Sensor will radically transform the ability for researchers to obtain data in natural, non-laboratory settings," said Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., director of the STAR Center (Sensory Therapies And Research) in Greenwood Village, CO.

The Q 1.0 includes a hardened case, 24-hour battery life and storage for three months of data. It comes in a wristwatch-style unit that is 2" x 1.5". An additional version, available this summer, is a 1.5" square unit that can be inserted into a soft band for use with children and on locations other than the wrist. Both versions include downloadable software for viewing data or for exporting it to common formats. The Q 1.0 is priced at $2,000 per unit, with discounts available for bulk purchase and non-profit uses.

The Q Sensor's core technology, which was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been validated in peer-reviewed journal papers demonstrating the accuracy of the electrodermal activity sensors used on the wrist compared to FDA-approved electrodermal activity sensors wired to fingertips. The validation is especially key for scientific researchers who have been constricted in the past to using wired sensors in lab settings.

"My primary area of research is depression in patients with heart disease. One of my research fellows and I are developing a project that examines whether sympathetic physiologic arousal is different in patients with depression or anxiety than in those without. The Q Sensor's unobtrusive form and validated data-readings will help make this possible without wiring patients to bulky devices," said Jeff Huffman, a physician in the psychiatry and medicine division at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.

Affectiva was founded in 2009 by MIT Media Lab Professor Rosalind Picard and Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, two scientists who came together with National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to develop technologies to help people on the autism spectrum. Silicon Valley executive David Berman, formerly president of worldwide sales and services at Cisco WebEx, joined the company as CEO in 2010. It is privately held with funding from individuals and the Peder Sager Wallenberg Charitable Trust, represented by Lingfield AB.

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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8398226.htm

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/301827#ixzz1LxQ0iKg8

Adeli Suit Therapy for Autism?

AllTernative Gym Transforms the Lives of Those With Special Needs - EIN News - News Media Monitoring

AllTernative Gym is transforming lives with its state-of-the-art fitness and therapy programs developed specifically for those with special needs such as cerebral palsy, autism and other neurological disorders.

DALLAS, GA, May 05, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- AllTernative Gym is transforming lives with its state-of-the-art fitness and therapy programs developed specifically for those with special needs. Founded by Certified Fitness Trainer and Expert, Angie Gomez, AllTernative Gym provides Adeli Suit Therapy, Fitness Training and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

"As a parent of a child with special needs, I truly understand what parents are looking for in a therapy center. And, I treat each child as if he were my own and each adult as if they were a family member," states Angie Gomez, founder of AllTernative Gym. Angie is an expert in the Adeli Suit Therapy method. She is the only person from the original 3 people that completed the entire Adeli Suit Therapy training program in Poland and Russia that is actually working with the Adeli Suit and its methods today. "We're the only center to have and use a 9 foot cage "UEU" (universal exercise unit) which enables us to provide therapy treatment to adults."

AllTernative Gym is ideal for cerebral palsy patients, stroke survivors, brain and spinal trauma, multiple sclerosis, near drowning, down syndrome, obesity and autism. Although patients receive a world-class therapy program, therapy at AllTernative Gym costs less than other centers because the staff members are fitness trainers and not physical or occupational therapist. Angie and her team make it much more affordable for parents and their loved ones to get the care they need.

"The AllTernative Gym has been an answer to our prayers. Riding a bicycle with minimal assistance is something we never even dreamed of! Angie and her team not only provide our family with genuine sense of belief that Morgan can accomplish her goal of walking, but, they have also given her the confidence and attitude of "I CAN DO IT". The quality of therapy Morgan receives is outstanding and her continued advancement shows that we made the right decision," stated Morgan's mom, Jennifer Johnson. This is just one of the many success stories from the patients of AllTernative Gym. "Our motto is, every day brings another success story at AllTernative Gym," says Angie.

Limited space is available for the 2011 summer schedule. Please visit www.alternativegym.com to register and read more testimonials.

Art Therapy for Autism | Autism Key

Art Therapy for Autism | Autism Key

Individuals with autism have innate visual prowess, as I discussed in a previous article. Given that children with autism are so visually oriented, it makes perfect sense to engage them in art activities, be it formally with an art therapist, casually in other classes or at home.

Because children on the autism spectrum struggle with communication, traditional psychotherapy is not a viable option for them, but art therapy is. Art therapists report that children with autism who engage in one-on-one sessions show an improved ability to imagine and think symbolically, enhanced ability to recognize and respond to facial expressions, new ability to manage sensory issues such as a range of texture and greater fine motor skills.

Cost often puts autism treatment out of reach | Iowa Independent

Cost often puts autism treatment out of reach | Iowa Independent

Willey Gale, a 13-year-old Coralville boy with autism, sat close to his mother, Casey, one March evening counting the days to spring break on her fingers.

“Saturday, one. Sunday, two,” he said, clutching a finger for each number.

What did Willey plan to do during these days?

“Play video games!” he answered loudly.

Moments later, he wriggled from Casey’s arms and darted up carpeted stairs. He ran past a ketchup stain, the mark of another of Willey’s endearing quirks – he loves ketchup – and into his room. That’s his haven; it’s where he acted out scenes from two shows he was watching at once – one from his television, another from his laptop.

Treatment Lets Mom, Willey Connect

“No school tomorrow,” he told Casey, as she sat next to him in his room. “Don’t you wake me up.”

Willey has his own way of doing things, and in all likelihood, he will never talk to his family in a typical way. But with speech treatment, he has made progress, and Casey loves his unique language of short sentences.

“We can have conversations with him now, and that’s important,” she said.

Autism treatment out of reach for many struggling families | The American Independent

Autism treatment out of reach for many struggling families | The American Independent

Willey Gale, a 13-year-old Coralville boy with autism, sat close to his mother, Casey, one March evening counting the days to spring break on her fingers.

“Saturday, one. Sunday, two,” he said, clutching a finger for each number.

What did Willey plan to do during these days?

“Play video games!” he answered loudly.

Moments later, he wriggled from Casey’s arms and darted up carpeted stairs. He ran past a ketchup stain, the mark of another of Willey’s endearing quirks – he loves ketchup – and into his room. That’s his haven; it’s where he acted out scenes from two shows he was watching at once – one from his television, another from his laptop.

Treatment Lets Mom, Willey Connect

“No school tomorrow,” he told Casey, as she sat next to him in his room. “Don’t you wake me up.”

Willey has his own way of doing things, and in all likelihood, he will never talk to his family in a typical way. But with speech treatment, he has made progress, and Casey loves his unique language of short sentences.

“We can have conversations with him now, and that’s important,” she said.

Autism Blog - Maryland Board of Phyicians: Mark Geier “endangers autistic children and exploits their parents” « Left Brain/Right Brain

Autism Blog - Maryland Board of Phyicians: Mark Geier “endangers autistic children and exploits their parents” « Left Brain/Right Brain

Yoga Beneficial for Children with Autism | Autism Key

Yoga Beneficial for Children with Autism | Autism Key

The ancient art of yoga is proving to have great benefits for children on the autism spectrum. Yoga comprehensively addresses their heightened anxiety, poor motor coordination and weak self-regulation, something that otherwise is very difficult to do.

Yoga is particularly instrumental in helping kids with autism learn self-regulation. By becoming aware of their bodies and aware of their breathing, yoga provides them with the ability to cope when they start to feel anxious or upset.

Doreen Granpeesheh: Approaching Autism with CARD

Doreen Granpeesheh: Approaching Autism with CARD

Early intervention is imperative in the treatment of children with autism for the best possible outcome. Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh has the most comprehensive approach to the treatment of these children worldwide through the CARD system of ABA which is the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree. Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh will discuss the details of this systematic approach to the assessment and evaluation of behavior, and the application of interventions that alter behavior. ABA is the most objective discipline focused on the reliable measurement and objective evaluation of observable behavior to this date. Programs based upon ABA methodologies are grounded in the well-established principles of learning and operand conditioning, as influenced by the works of researchers such as Edward L. Thorndike and BF Skinner. The use of single case experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized interventions is an essential component of ABA programs. ABA generally focuses on the process of behavior change with respect to the development of adaptive, pro-social behavior and the reduction of maladaptive behavior. Specific "socially significant behaviors" include academics, communication, social skills and adaptive living skills.