


Archive for January, 2011
 
Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy
HBO’s critically acclaimed “Temple Grandin” told the remarkable real-life story of the bestselling author and groundbreaking agricultural scientist who struggled early in life to learn to cope with autism before the disease was widely known.
On Sunday, the biopic, which had to overcome what was widely perceived in the industry as challenging subject matter to make its way to the screen, claimed five Emmy prizes, including outstanding made for TV movie.
Attired in red and black rodeo gear, Grandin herself became a palpable presence at the ceremony, at one point, rising and excitedly swinging her hand lasso style from the audience. And while standing on stage after the movie had won its top award, she warmly embraced a sobbing executive producer Emily Gerson Saines, who said she found inspiration in Grandin’s life story as her own child had been diagnosed with autism.
“I hope this movie is going to educate a lot of people about autism because there’s a lot of people who don’t understand it,” Grandin said backstage. “Somebody [with autism] might be a Silicon Valley genius, and somebody might be handicapped and non-verbal.”
The biopic turned out to be one of the biggest winners at this year’s Emmys, taking home prizes as well for actress Claire Danes, who portrayed Grandin; supporting actress (Julia Ormond); supporting actor (David Strathairn); and director (Mick Jackson).
During their acceptance speeches, all of the winners paid tribute to Grandin. Danes described her as “the most brave woman I’ve known.” Jackson called her “spunky, smart and vivid,” saying he wanted to make a movie that was “never sentimental.”
Read in Full:Â http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la-et-emmy-temple-20100830,0,3760606.story
Â
1 September 2010 Last updated at 00:03
Nine out of 10 people in Britain have never had a disabled person in their house for a social occasion, claims a survey from a disability charity.
Scope says the survey shows that disabled people are socially excluded.
While the survey found widespread backing for equal opportunities, in practice few people have any personal dealings with people with disabilities.
The charity’s chief executive, Richard Hawkes, says disabled people are “invisible in day-to-day life”.
The Scope survey, based on a sample of more than 2,000 adults across Britain, suggests public support for the rights of disabled people to be part of mainstream society is not matched by everyday experience.
It suggests people with physical and mental disabilities remain excluded from many people’s social or work life.
‘Fringes of society’
According to the Scope survey, almost two in five people do not know anyone outside of their own family who is disabled.
And only a fifth of people in the survey have ever worked with a disabled person.
According to Scope, about one in 10 of the non-pensioner population is disabled.
Read in Full:Â http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11139534
 
Article Date: 31 Aug 2010 – 1:00 PDT
Canadian teenagers enjoy more freedom than French and Italian peers, according to a new study published in the Journal of Adolescence. The investigation, which examined how parents fashion emotional bonds and exert behavioural control with adolescents, was led by scientists from the University of Montreal, the Universite de Rennes in France and the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy.
Canada, France and Italy were compared because the countries have commonalities: Latin languages, Catholic history and advanced industrialization. Questionnaires were answered by adolescents whose parents were born in their country of residence: 522 Canadians from Montreal (54.8 percent girls; 45.2 percent boys); 336 French from Rennes (65.8 percent girls; 34.2 percent boys); 398 Italians from Milan (47.2 percent girls; 52.8 percent boys). Teens were asked to describe parents according to emotional bonding, communication, frequency of conflict, rules, discipline and tolerance of friend-related activities.
“Parents are perceived as emotionally bonded by teens from all three countries, yet perception of parental control contrasted between Italy and Canada. Of all three countries, Italian mothers and fathers are perceived as using the most constraining practices,” says first author Michel Claes, a University of Montreal psychology professor. “Italian parents are seen as more demanding in rules and authorizations. They take more punitive actions when rules are broken and are less tolerant of peer socialization. They uphold family regulations and require their adolescents to ask for authorizations until a much later age.”
“Our study found Canadian parents to be the most tolerant. They, had less rules and less disciplinary actions,” says Dr. Claes. “Canadian mothers and fathers were seen as less punitive, less coercive and more tolerant than French and Italian mothers.”
The French were found to parent in a moderate style. French fathers, however, were perceived by teens as emotionally distant, rigid and prone to intergenerational conflict. French mothers, for their part, were reported to foster closer bonds as their children grew into adolescence.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/199383.php
 
St Albans, Hertfordshire
12:00pm Tuesday 31st August 2010
A MOTHER who claims her disabled son is being neglected by social workers is threatening to take her case to court.
Deborah Bulling claims Hertfordshire’s social services have failed to correctly deliver a care plan promised to her autistic son Daniel O’Connell, leaving him to fend for himself.
Daniel, 21, moved out of the family home in Harpenden last September to a warden assisted block of flats at Ellis House in St Albans, where he is supposed to receive help with basic household tasks, including cooking, cleaning and washing.
But Deborah claims Daniel’s care plan, which includes 25 hours of support a week at a cost of £25,000 a year to the taxpayer, has become virtually non existent.
She told the Review: “I have been over to see my son on a number of occasions to find his kitchen bin overloaded with stinking waste, the kitchen sink filled up with dirty dishes and cups from previous days, dirty laundary all left with wet washing still in the machine from days before and staff not supporting my son with his own care needs.”
Hertfordshire County Council pays contractors Hightown Praetorian and Churches Housing Association to provide care packages for nine of its residents who live independently but require support.
But Deborah says there has only been one member of staff on duty for most of the time in any 24 hour period to support the vulnerable residents.
Deborah said: “When we agreed to Daniel moving in we were told there would be two to three members of staff from High Town to support. Each client needs breakfast and evening meal support which can take up to an hour. Staff are meant to help with all their care plan needs, which can consist of helping with washing, hoovering, cleaning, and food shopping.
“Since Daniel moved in we have had to make so many complaints regarding lack of care, neglect, and incompetence from staff.”
Deborah added: “Physically he’s neglecting himself. He’s become very withdrawn and he’s refused to go out of his flat on a number of occasions.
“The system has let Daniel down. I feel that he should move back home because he will be properly cared for but that wouldn’t be good for him. At the end of the day he needs to be independent.”
Read in Full:Â http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/8362206.Harpenden_mother___Social_services_have_let_my_son_down_/
Jan
22
 
The Parent Paper
Â
Increased understanding
Â
Suzanne Schwartz, the mother of an 11-year-old autistic son in Tenafly as well as a neurotypical 9-year-old boy, says that she always knew something wasn’t right with her son, although others refused to see it. “My brother was autistic, so I knew that something was wrong,” she says. “But everyone, except my father, tried to deny it.” She describes being incredibly isolated because she says, “you go to play groups and you try to make friends but you can’t have the same conversations and you start to withdraw from them. It doesn’t matter what else you have in common.”
Is there a plus side to dealing with these rude reactions? Schwartz says the hurtful comments have made her a more sensitive, helpful person. “You learn what do to help people and make them feel better about themselves.”
Â
Sometimes, having a special needs child influences a parent’s professional, as well as personal, life. Toby Glick, a special needs consultant and founder of Parentconfidante (www.parentconfidante.com), says that she has worked with parents who have entered new professional fields, such as becoming a special needs teacher or educational consultant, because of a child’s diagnosis. “I have clients who have become incredibly educated in whatever issues their child has,” says Glick. “In fact sometimes they have left high-powered careers to focus on something related to what is going on with their child.”
Parenting insights
Â
While parents sometimes initially react with guilt to a difficult diagnosis, Glick says it is something they move past when they realize that they have the same kinds of concerns that other parents have. “All parents are fearful for their children’s future and wonder if they are they going to be successful. It’s just that a special needs child’s version of success will be different,” she says. “We all do our best to give our kids the best schooling and upbringing and these parents are concerned about how their children are going to be able to manage.”
Â
Pat M., from Nyack N.Y., who asked that her surname be withheld to protect her 12-year-old son’s privacy, has been helping him manage for several years with severe anxiety, developmental delay, neurological issues and ADD. She says that her son’s issues have made her more understanding of others. “You have to play to the strengths you have, instead of the strengths you wish you had,” she says. “We all have weaknesses that need accommodating and we should not beat ourselves up or feel guilty for not being perfect or asking for help.”
Â
Family Changes
Â
Kathryn Lynard Sopher wrote, The Year My Son and I Were Born (GPP Life, 2010), which details life with her seventh child, who has Down Syndrome. She said that while it was initially difficult for the family to come to grips with a child with a disability that they weren’t expecting, the experience has also taught her children to be more sensitive and understanding. This is particularly important because several family members also deal with depression. “Before my children might hear someone call someone else a ‘retard’ and think nothing of it, now they would correct the person,” she says.
Â
Schwartz says that both of her children needed to learn to roll with the punches, which is particularly tough for a child with autism. “I had to actively teach my older son to be more flexible,” says Schwartz. “Once I accomplished that, I found my life became a little easier.”
Â
Patience is also a skill that family members learn when confronted with a special needs person in the household, says Pat M. “I’m sure that my relatives are more patient with all of the kids than they might have been if my son were different.”
Â
Although parents routinely refer to their struggles with their special needs child as the most difficult challenge they have ever faced, there are also many moments of joy, such as when the child masters a new skill or overcomes an obstacle. These parents also frequently share connections through organizations that support parents of special needs children, which can provide a potent new social network. It’s not uncommon to hear these parents say that they focus on what they have, rather than what sets them apart from the “average” family.
Â
“This experience has helped me look at the world and appreciate things and stop complaining about what I can’t do anything about,” says Schwartz. “Even with all of the drama, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m so much better as a person.”
Â
Jan Wilson of Hoboken is a writer and mom.
Â
Discovering your child has special needs can come as a shock and trigger a period of deep reflection and even depression as you attempt to adjust your expectations to meet the new reality. Just like anything else in childrearing, the road ahead is often unclear and may seem solitary. Yet, many parents have found that raising a special needs child can also have unexpected benefits and force constructive changes in their lives.
Increased understanding
Â
Suzanne Schwartz, the mother of an 11-year-old autistic son in Tenafly as well as a neurotypical 9-year-old boy, says that she always knew something wasn’t right with her son, although others refused to see it. “My brother was autistic, so I knew that something was wrong,” she says. “But everyone, except my father, tried to deny it.” She describes being incredibly isolated because she says, “you go to play groups and you try to make friends but you can’t have the same conversations and you start to withdraw from them. It doesn’t matter what else you have in common.”
Â
Dealing with her son made Schwartz learn to be a lot more aggressive in a positive way, she says, advocating for her child “because other people can be very judgmental about autistic children’s behavior. It’s a little easier when the child is very young, but as they get older people are frightened. They think: it’s not the child who needs the help, it’s the parents who need help. They say, ‘you should watch your child better’ or ‘you should take a parenting course.’”
Â
Is there a plus side to dealing with these rude reactions? Schwartz says the hurtful comments have made her a more sensitive, helpful person. “You learn what do to help people and make them feel better about themselves.”
Â
Sometimes, having a special needs child influences a parent’s professional, as well as personal, life. Toby Glick, a special needs consultant and founder of Parentconfidante (www.parentconfidante.com), says that she has worked with parents who have entered new professional fields, such as becoming a special needs teacher or educational consultant, because of a child’s diagnosis. “I have clients who have become incredibly educated in whatever issues their child has,” says Glick. “In fact sometimes they have left high-powered careers to focus on something related to what is going on with their child.”
Parenting insights
While parents sometimes initially react with guilt to a difficult diagnosis, Glick says it is something they move past when they realize that they have the same kinds of concerns that other parents have. “All parents are fearful for their children’s future and wonder if they are they going to be successful. It’s just that a special needs child’s version of success will be different,” she says. “We all do our best to give our kids the best schooling and upbringing and these parents are concerned about how their children are going to be able to manage.”
Â
Pat M., from Nyack N.Y., who asked that her surname be withheld to protect her 12-year-old son’s privacy, has been helping him manage for several years with severe anxiety, developmental delay, neurological issues and ADD. She says that her son’s issues have made her more understanding of others. “You have to play to the strengths you have, instead of the strengths you wish you had,” she says. “We all have weaknesses that need accommodating and we should not beat ourselves up or feel guilty for not being perfect or asking for help.”
Family Changes

Â
Kathryn Lynard Sopher wrote, The Year My Son and I Were Born (GPP Life, 2010), which details life with her seventh child, who has Down Syndrome. She said that while it was initially difficult for the family to come to grips with a child with a disability that they weren’t expecting, the experience has also taught her children to be more sensitive and understanding. This is particularly important because several family members also deal with depression. “Before my children might hear someone call someone else a ‘retard’ and think nothing of it, now they would correct the person,” she says.
Â
Schwartz says that both of her children needed to learn to roll with the punches, which is particularly tough for a child with autism. “I had to actively teach my older son to be more flexible,” says Schwartz. “Once I accomplished that, I found my life became a little easier.”
Â
Patience is also a skill that family members learn when confronted with a special needs person in the household, says Pat M. “I’m sure that my relatives are more patient with all of the kids than they might have been if my son were different.”
Â
Although parents routinely refer to their struggles with their special needs child as the most difficult challenge they have ever faced, there are also many moments of joy, such as when the child masters a new skill or overcomes an obstacle. These parents also frequently share connections through organizations that support parents of special needs children, which can provide a potent new social network. It’s not uncommon to hear these parents say that they focus on what they have, rather than what sets them apart from the “average” family.
Â
“This experience has helped me look at the world and appreciate things and stop complaining about what I can’t do anything about,” says Schwartz. “Even with all of the drama, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m so much better as a person.”
Â
Jan Wilson of Hoboken is a writer and mom.
Â
Source: Â
http://www.northjersey.com/community/101949803_Special_Education.html#
 
Article Date: 28 Aug 2010 – 0:00 PDT
Fear can make you run, it can make you fight, and it can glue you to the spot. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy and GlaxoSmithKline in Verona, Italy, have identified not only the part of the brain but the specific type of neurons that determine how mice react to a frightening stimulus. In a study published in Neuron, they combined pharmaceutical and genetic approaches with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in mice. Their findings show that deciding whether or not to freeze to fear is a more complex task for our brains than we realised.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/199051.php
 
Â
It probably comes as little surprise to anyone, but a small exploratory study done on 100 college students from a single university suggests that students who score higher on a test of narcissism also spent more time checking and updating their Facebook profile.
Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. More than 50% of Facebook’s active users log on to Facebook in any given day, while the average user has 130 social connections (what Facebook calls “friendsâ€).
The researcher (Mehdizadeh, 2010) also examined the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem, as well as gender differences in how people use Facebook for self-promotion. “Self-promotion,†according to how it was used in this study, was defined as “any descriptive or visual information that appeared to attempt to persuade others about one’s own positive qualities. â€
Mehdizadeh looked at only five profile features in Facebook: (a) the About Me section, (b) the Main Photo, (c) the first 20 pictures on the View Photos of Me section, (d) the Notes section, and (e) the Status Updates section. The researcher, rating these items on her own, examined to the extent they were considered self-promoting according to the above definition.
What did the research find?
A statistically significant correlation between narcissistic students, and the number of times Facebook was checked per day as well as the time spent on Facebook per session.
However, the researcher did not find a significant correlation between scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-16) and the “About Me†section, the most obvious place a person might be expected to express themselves in a narcissistic manner. A significant correlation was found for self-promotion in the following areas: Main Photo, View Photos, Status Updates, and Notes.
Significant gender differences between men and women were also found (regardless of their NPI-16 score). “Males displayed more self-promotional information in the About Me and Notes sections than women,†noted the researcher. “Conversely, women displayed more self-promotional Main Photos.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/08/30/narcissistic-college-students-spend-more-time-on-facebook/
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 30, 2010 In anticipation of the 23rd European conference on psychosis and pharmacology, scientists discussed new models examining the combined role of genes and the environment.
According to the experts, the incidence of psychotic disorders varies greatly across places and demographic groups, as do symptoms, course, and treatment response across individuals.
Scientists note that high rates of schizophrenia in large cities, and among immigrants, cannabis users, and traumatized individuals reflect the influence of environmental exposures.
This, in combination with progress in the area of molecular genetics, has generated interest in more complicated models of schizophrenia that point to the role of gene-environment interactions.
Undoubtedly, schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders have a complex origin.
Research has attempted to determine the role of specific biological variables, such as genetic and biochemical factors and subtle changes in brain morphology.
Genetic vulnerability in schizophrenia is shared in part with bipolar disorder and recent molecular genetic findings also indicate an overlap with developmental disorders such as autism (Van Os & Kapur, 2009).
According to twin and family studies more than half of the vulnerability for schizophrenia is of genetic origin.
However, attempts to discover genes that relate directly to psychotic disorder have been frustrating and often disappointing, and despite enormous investments, the identification of actual molecular genetic variants underlying schizophrenia liability has proven extremely difficult.
This difficulty is mainly due to the phenomenon of gene-environment interaction, which is defined as genetic control of sensitivity to the environment.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/30/researchers-explore-gene-environment-trigger-for-psychosis/17419.html

Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 31, 2010
Yale scientists have figured out the inner workings of the novel antidepressant, ketamine, and how exactly it is able to bring relief in hours rather than the weeks or months typically needed by similar drugs on the market. The findings, published in the August 20 issue of the journal Science, may quicken the development of a safe and convenient form of ketamine that can be prescribed for alleviating depression.
Yale researchers found that, in rats, ketamine rapidly decreases depression-like behaviors and also re-establishes connections between brain cells damaged by constant stress. Â The effects of the drug have proven incredibly effective on severely depressed human patients as well.
“It’s like a magic drug—one dose can work rapidly and last for seven to 10 days,†said Ronald Duman, senior author of the study and professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale.
Traditionally, ketamine has been used as a general anesthetic for children, but about a decade ago, it was found by researchers at the Connecticut Mental Health Center to bring relief to depressed patients when given in small doses, said Duman.
These first clinical studies, later replicated by the National Institute of Mental Health, showed that almost 70 percent of patients previously resistant to all other forms of antidepressants improved within hours of receiving ketamine. Its clinical use, however, has been limited up until now because it must be delivered intravenously under medical supervision. It is also capable of triggering short-term psychotic symptoms. Ketamine has been used as a recreational drug, sometimes called “Special K†or simply “K.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/31/the-mechanism-behind-fast-acting-antidepressant-ketamine/17442.html
Â
Related News Articles


