Prevalencia, incidencia y causas del autismo

Entendiendo la prevalencia, incidencia y causas del autismo | Autismo Diario
Un artículo muy interesante para comprender la relación entre estos conceptos.
Buenas referencias también.

National Autism Assn (@NationalAutism) twitteó a las 2:20 p.m. on vie, oct 19, 2012: Our conference location, TradeWinds Island Resorts is Autism-Friendly: Trained staff, safety kits, social... http://t.co/I9vGYjMV (https://twitter.com/NationalAutism/status/259267875360079874)

Simplemente un comentario.... cuando un establecimiento afirma ser «autism-friendly» no se hace referencia al entorno construido (al edificio, las instalaciones, el mobiliario, los colores, la iluminación....)

Los grados de severidad en Autismo y Asperger

Los grados de severidad en Autismo y Asperger

La escucha dicótica en el Autismo y su relación con el lenguaje

Se pone en marcha un estudio europeo sobre la intervención en niños con TEA menores de 6 años

Déficits sensoriales en el autismo | Autismo Diario

Academia de especialistas

AutismoDiario (@AutismoDiario) twitteó a las 1:10 p.m. on dom, sep 30, 2012: Academia de Especialistas, el nuevo cortometraje de Miguel Gallardo y la Fundación Orange sobre el Aut… http://t.co/0MmZqUSK (https://twitter.com/AutismoDiario/status/252364740985253888) Consigue la aplicación oficial de Twitter en https://twitter.com/download

Es extraño que personas que tienen sentimientos honestos y una sensibilidad, que ni siquiera pensarían en burlarse de un desgraciado nacido sin brazos, sin piernas o ciego, no sientan el menor escrúpulo en poner en ridículo a otro desgraciado nacido con poca inteligencia

Andrew Wakefield y el fraude del autismo | Autismo Diario
Un recordatorio (y actualización) de cómo se gestó la falsa creencia de que la vacuna triple vírica tiene relación con la aparición del autismo en niños. Desmonta este argumento esgrimido por los grupos "anti-vacunación"

The Emerging Biology of Autism Spectrum Disorders http://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2012/09/18/emerging-biology-autism-spectrum-disorders

ASDAid: Autism and Lego Therapy Doing Great Things

ASDAid: Autism and Lego Therapy Doing Great Things:

Previously, I’ve written about the work of ASDAid and its work supporting and engaging with the autism community through Lego builds and the promotion and exploration of Lego Therapy.
The organization continues to do some fantastic things and are also big fans of GeekDad (as you can see from the t-shirt Rob Deakin is wearing in the above photo). Recently, the team came together at Scienceworks in Melbourne to build the Lego Atlas. ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The ATLAS detector is searching for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy.
It went really well and builds like this one are becoming regular events, along with specific workshop days where families come together with their children to build and create using Lego. There is a video of the build if you are interested.
You can find out more about ASD Aid and the work they are doing globally via their new Facebook page.

Una novela

Título: La velocidad de la oscuridad Título original: The Speed of the Dark Autor: Elizabeth Moon Año de publicación: 2003 ISBN: 84-666-2139-3

Las familias de niños con autismo ganan la batalla contra el Diccionario

http://www.abc.es/20120219/sociedad/abci-autismo-diccionario-201202191327.html

Una definición en el Diccionario no cambia la vida de miles de niños diagnosticados de autismo, pero bien vale una batalla lingüística para defender su dignidad, iniciada por un grupo de familias hace más de tres años con la Real Academia Española, que están muy cerca de ganarla. Han conseguido el compromiso de la RAE de incluir una nueva definición de autismo en la actualización de su edición impresa, en 2014, que debe ser consensuada con las 21 Academias de la Lengua Española restantes, explica un portavoz de la institución. En la nueva definición, se eliminaría que el síndrome esté caracter...

Vaccines Don't Cause Autism, Please Vaccinate Your Children [Science]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/x4FU5SsqRQY/vaccines-dont-cause-autism-please-vaccinate-your-children
Yet another study has found no association between vaccines and autism. Mercury, the ingredient in vaccines suspected of causing learning disabilities, hasn't been used to preserve the medicines since 2001. And since then, the incidence of autism has still increased. More »

Italia cerrará sus hospitales psiquiátricos calificados como «cárceles del horror»

Via abc.es

Son conocidas como las "cárceles del horror" y un "infierno de olvidados". "Lugares de torturas", los califica el Consejo de Europa. Mil cuatrocientas personas viven en seis hospitales psiquiátricos italianos, auténticos manicomios "en condiciones de tercer mundo, absolutamente inaceptables, sin ningún respeto por la dignidad del ser humano, sin ninguna atención higiénico sanitaria, hombres y mujeres abandonados, en camas sucias, entre orina, considerados como desechos humanos, los últimos de los últimos, con penas sin fin". La denuncia es del senador Ignacio Marino, médico cirujano, presiden...

Su próxima receta médica, una aplicación para el móvil

Via abc.es

Cuando tenía dos años y medio, Darío era un silencio absoluto, hiperactivo y con un considerable déficit de atención. Era un caso de autismo claro, que sus padres manejaban como podían. Aprendieron el lenguaje de Pecs, basado en fotografías y pictogramas, para tratar de entender las necesidades del pequeño. Juan Carlos, el padre, que trabaja en la sección de tecnología de unos grandes almacenes, un día asoció el problema de Darío con los iPad que vendía a sus clientes. Le dio vueltas, y empezó a enhebrar sus planes en torno a una aplicación que pudiera acelerar la enseñanza de su hijo, que la ...

Developer Profile: Brighter Futures for Beautiful Minds – EdTech for Autism

Via: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/01/profile-bfbm-autism/

Brighter Futures for Beautiful Minds (BFBM) evolved from a parent’s own personal journey seeking out resources to support her child’s learning and development.

The story of Tricia Sulpizio Estrada and her son is one of exploration, trial and error, many challenges and celebrations of the discoveries and successes that has helped Tricia support her child’s learning and development in ways that best meet his needs. You see, in 2007 Tricia’s son was diagnosed at two and a half with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), an autism spectrum disorder.

The story that follows is not an uncommon one. The actual specifics are different, but the emotional roller coaster, the doors that close, the doors that open, trying different therapies and approaches, the searching for new and different therapists who may have just that extra bit of knowledge or specialty that relates to the needs of this one amazing, beautiful child – they are all pretty similar. Parents of children with autism share an experience of raising and caring for children that belongs to that community, and we can hear their stories and imagine, but we can’t fully know.

What is always wonderful is when developmental success happens. As Tricia writes in her story: As my son turned 3, he continued with limited spontaneous speech, yet began talking frequently in scripts from movies or shows he saw on TV. In 2008 a new series began on the Disney Channel called Special Agent Oso. This show was a fun engaging series that focused on a 3-step process to perform basic tasks. They showed episodes about teaching children how to brush their teeth, or how to wash dishes and rake leaves. After watching different episodes of this show, my son learned more from a 20 minute video than I had seen from months of trying to teach him different behaviors myself; such as brushing your teeth, or how to put on his shirt.

It was the experience of seeing the potential of media to support her son’s development that lead to Tricia to develop her knowledge around the different learning styles of children and specifically children with autism and to begin to explore how the skills and knowledge they need could be best developed in multimedia environments. It is in this way that BFBM is different: they don’t just develop iOS apps. They do have an app – the Wonkido Mood Journal - for children to learn emotions and then journal their moods during the day, allowing them to send mood entries to a parent or teacher via email. But they also have animations, videos and books. This is because they are an organisation focused on creating and providing modern, visual tools that allow children to learn social, organizational and developmental skills for home, school and life-long success. They recognize that one platform and one teaching method is not enough. The organization leverages technology, but they provide the same and similar content presented in different ways to meet the different learning needs of children with autism.

All children learn in different ways – not just kids with autism. So, what BFBM is doing is demonstrating through their approach to designing and developing learning tools a level of best practice that very few providers of educational technology and tools meet. A way of approaching development that should be applied to all children. BFBM is a fine example of what we should see more of. Transmedia as a concept is so often about narrative and taken over by large media organizations and big budget movies. But here, we see transmedia education at a different scale and providing impact in substantial ways.

The BFBM characters, as well as the learning processes, jump across platforms and in doing so meet the different learning and development needs of different children. BFBM is doing its best to provide a breadth of entry points to support all children to build their social and organizational skills. All that said, the product development is something any movie studio would be proud of. BFBN also offers the characters that are in their animations as soft toys. BFBM’s commitment to bringing together the best of educational technology and child-development research needs to be applauded. It is evidenced in their approach and products like their Wonkido Animated Social Skills. These videos are available as downloads on the BFBM website and can be synced with any mobile device. (Recognizing the importance of being platform neutral is another thing that developers need to contemplate more). These videos teach children visually and step by step necessary developmental skills that every child needs to know how to do independently. They have also turned these videos into a series of Developmental Interactive eBooks with titles like Going Potty and Getting Dressed. They are also colorful and visual tools for learning social skills, but in a different format for children who need to learn, or have their learning consolidated at a different pace with parents reading and working with them on a particular skill.

Of course, BFBM is not “the answer” for parents of children with autism; there isn’t one answer. For some children these resources and tools won’t be of help for any number of reasons. But that is okay. The point here is that the approach BFBM is taking is an excellent one from a learning and development perspective. They are attempting to be as platform neutral as possible, provide learning environments for different types of learners and are driven by a philosophy that is child-centered and recognizes the need for more individualized approaches.

Los cambios previstos en el DSM-5 podrían "encoger" el espectro autista

Se están alzando algunas voces críticas con las modificaciones propuestas el el DSM-5. Algunos enlaces al respecto (iré actualizando la lista):

• Proposed DSM-5 Changes and Autism: Ed vs. Med | Special Education & IEP Advisor
• Do you reside somewhere on the autism spectrum? In the near future, you may not
• New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests
• New Definition of Autism: Parents, Let's Talk

Lo difícil de entender, si los artículos a los que hago referencia están en lo cierto, es cómo la nueva clasificación propuesta por el DSM, que hace uso del término "espectro autista" ("Autism spectrum"), lo que haría sería realmente restringir el campo de aplicación, el ámbito, al que es aplicable tal denominación. Precisamente, por tanto, se estaría negando, al menos parcialmente, la existencia de un continuo de trastornos con límites no muy definidos, ligados entre sí. Las personas que estuvieran "situadas" en el "contorno exterior" de ese espectro podrían quedar fuera de la nueva definición (y, por consiguiente, quedarían sin atención específica en materia educativa o sanitaria, por ejemplo). A ver si suenan (sonamos) con suficiente fuerza esas voces. 

Support Australia’s First Lego Therapy Group for ASD Kids

Support Australia’s First Lego Therapy Group for ASD Kids:

Image via Wikipedia

Rob Deakin is a Lego fan and incredibly passionate about supporting children with developmental issues through organized Lego play.

Rob has seen first hand the powerful benefits of Lego for children with Autism and Asperger’s in helping them to communicate, learn to play and develop social skills. There is increasing research and evidence that Lego is useful because it is both open-ended, but with a specific structure and order when building. Rob is part of a team that has established a foundation called ASD Aid. GeekDad recently featured a piece on ASD Aid that is committed to supporting the development of children on the spectrum through the use of Lego-based therapy and play.

Together with a number of people, Rob is looking to establish two Melbourne-based Lego play clubs specifically for kids with Autism or Asperger’s and their families and he is holding a benefit on the weekend of Melbourne’s annual Brickvention Expo which showcases the best of Australia’s AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) creations.

On Saturday evening of the expo, ASD Aid will be launching their program for 2012. I’m told it will be a fairly informal event where you can wander around and see the amazing creation whilst enjoying a glass of wine with significantly less crowds than the 15,000+ expected through the exhibits over the weekend. The evening will include the opportunity to hear a talk from Ryan McNaught – Australia’s only Lego Certified Professional.

If you are in town, this is one worth supporting on Saturday, January 21. From 6.30pm onwards there will be finger food and a bar will be available for drinks - you can book here.

Or, if you’d like to know more about the work Rob has been undertaking and supporting you can drop him an email at info@asdaid.org.