 
Monday, Oct 11, 2010 20:20 ETÂ
After he was diagnosed with Asperger’s, I read all I could. But I learned the most just from listening to him
“My brain has big doors,” he began, “and it has almost the same doors as everyone else. The other people have black doors. I have purple doors instead of black doors. That’s why they’re different.”
I thought I understood my Little Dude. That assumption changed recently, when he suddenly began explaining to me how his brain works. I do not know what prompted him to share this display of cognitive awareness, except that since he started preschool — in the Preschool Program for Children With Disabilities at our local elementary school — he seems more aware of the fact that he’s a little different.
Until recently, he’s been shielded from that. Protected within the nest of family and close friends, Little Dude has always been considered charming, if shy; intensely bright, if overly focused. Our fourth child and our only son, my husband and I chalked up much of his quirky behavior to “boyishness.” His interests, though surprising in their intensity, seemed typical in subject: “Thomas the Tank Engine,” “Go Diego Go.” The fact that he knew, at age 4, the name of every character in all six “Star Wars” movies evidenced to us an excellent attention span, a tremendous capacity for detail, and a budding interest in science. We did not think it signaled a disorder.
Read in Full:Â http://www.salon.com/life/real_families/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2010/10/11/mother_asperbergers_son
 
Article Date: 11 Oct 2010 – 3:00 PDT
Mental health week 2010 will focus on the detrimental impact of untreated mental health disorders on patients suffering from chronic illnesses.
ANF federal secretary Lee Thomas said it is alarming that patients with chronic illnesses suffer much greater rates of depression and anxiety than the general population.
Ms Thomas said that we must focus more on early treatment of depression in people with chronic illness, so they have a chance of overcoming the symptoms and enjoying a better quality of life.
“Optimum mental health leads to greatly improved physical health and faster recovery rates, which is good for the Australian community, and which will reduce the cost of long term treatments and health support she said.
Nurses and midwives play a crucial role in intervention, assistance and referral of patients across all health sectors, but we must invest more into urgent education at universities and in the workplace to better equip nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.
“Better training and education will ensure that nurses have the skills to recognise the symptoms and assist with treatment and referral,” Ms Thomas said.Â
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/204175.php
 
Young children are little scientists. They instinctively stretch, prod, observe and categorise the world’s offerings. This natural inquisitiveness can be cultivated even before school and several studies have shown the benefits, in terms of general learning ability and specific maths and science skills. But just how early can this ‘sciencing’, as it’s known, start? A new study by Tessa van Schijndel and colleagues claims that a six-week sciencing programme for two to three-year-olds boosted their exploratory ‘science-like’ play.
Thirty-five two- to three-year-olds at an Amsterdam day-care centre were assigned to the six-week sciencing programme. This involved a specialist science teacher encouraging the children to play two kinds of games in their sandpit: ‘sorting and sets’, which had a cake-baking theme, and ‘slope and speed’ which had an ‘on top of the mountain theme’. The children were free to join in or leave the sand-pit games as often as they wanted, but were encouraged to take part at least once a week. The games involved toys of different colours and materials, as well as plastic tubes and balls. The key elements of the guided play were manipulating the objects, repeatedly sorting them into various combinations, and observing the effects of these manipulations. The regular teachers complemented this play by reading from books that matched the cake and mountain themes.
Twelve age-matched kids at another day-care centre run by the same organisation acted as controls. They were provided with the exact same sand-pit toys but they weren’t guided in how to interact with them.
 
Article Date: 12 Oct 2010 – 0:00 PDT
When people are rejected by peers, they often lash out. In children, that aggression occasionally takes horrifying directions, leading to school shootings or other deadly acts. Researchers in the Netherlands found that some children are more likely than others to lash out in response to acute peer rejection: children who already feel like outcasts.
“It was inspired by the fact that we had these school shootings and wondered what the most important feature of these kids could be,” says Albert Reijntjes of Utrecht University, who cowrote the study with five other psychological scientists. “In discussing it with colleagues, the alienation concept came up; maybe there is something to alienation that increases aggression.”Â
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/204148.php
 
 We trawl the world’s journals so you don’t have to:
Deep brain stimulation (Neurosurgical Focus).
Decision neuroscience (Journal of Economic Psychology).
Identity, place, and environmental behaviour (Journal of Environmental Psychology).
The natural and the normal in the history of sexuality (Psychology and Sexuality).
Integrating traditional healing practices into counselling and psychotherapy (Counselling Psychology Quarterly).
 
Article Date: 12 Oct 2010 – 3:00 PDT
The New York Times reports that “nearly 20 months after the Army began strengthening its suicide prevention program and working to remove the stigma attached to seeking psychological counseling, the suicide rate among active service members remains high and shows little sign of improvement. …
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/204268.php
 
Members of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area Chapter of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network will be demonstrating against Autism Speaks’ Walk for Autism on Saturday November 6th on the National Mall from 8:00am – 1:00pm. Autistic Activists and their allies across the disability community will carry signs and distribute fliers to walk participants between 14th & 15th Streets and Jefferson & Madison Drives. The National Mall demonstration is part of a series of demonstrations being held across the United States this autumn.
This demonstration is intended to draw walk participants’ attention to Autism Speaks’ lack of representation for those it claims to serve; its exploitative advertising and fundraising practices which compare having a child with Autism to being in a fatal situation, and the failure of Autism Speaks to spend money in ways that help Autistic people across the life-span.
Please join local Autistic Activists demonstrating against the upcoming Autism Speaks’ Walk for Autism Charity Fundraiser on November 6th. All prospective demonstration attendees are encouraged to bring their families and friends, the more people that support us the better! We will start to gather at 8am between 14th & 15th Streets and Jefferson & Madison Drives. All who plan to attend are encouraged to bring a demonstration sign with them, please make a large sign with a slogan such as: Nothing About Us Without Us!, I am A Person Not A Puzzle Piece!, or Autism Speaks Does Not Speak For Us!
All those who plan to attend the demonstration, please email asanwashingtondcmetro@yahoo.com so that we know who to expect!
  Zach Schmitt
Published: Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 / Updated: Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 03:36 PM
FORT MILL TOWNSHIP –Â
Sometimes Zach Schmitt walks alone.
“I am autistic,†Schmitt, 14, an eighth grader at Springfield Middle School, said. “In the years, I’ve been made fun of. Kids don’t pick me to be on their teams in gym.â€
He’s been insulted and falsely befriended, and he has the battle marks to prove it.
“It made me upset, not happy,†said Schmitt, a member of Boy Scout Troop 250. “I feel left out.â€
Last week, Schmitt held an autism awareness presentation that combined hands-on simulations and a pre-recorded message at Springfield, Gold Hill and Fort Mill middle schools as a way to earn Eagle Scout ranking. For Schmitt, the autism awareness message, expected to reach about 2,400 students, was more than meeting an Eagle ranking requirement: He wanted fellow students to take a walk in his life.
“I wanted to get kids to understand autistic kids, not make fun of them,†Schmitt said. “Treat them like they want to be treated.â€
During the pre-recorded presentation held Oct. 4, Schmitt taught his peers about autism.
“He said, ‘Did you know that people like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Mozart had autism?’, Elkhyn Rivas, 13, recalled of Schmitt’s recorded message. “It made me think differently about people with autism.â€
Those who learn to cope with autism sometimes suffer because of others.
Read in Full:Â http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2010/10/11/1288385/bulling-schools-autism.html
 
ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2010) — A low Apgar score at birth is strongly associated with cerebral palsy in childhood, concludes a study from researchers in Norway published on the British Medical Journal website.
The Apgar score is a quick and simple way to assess a baby’s condition at birth. The baby is assessed on five simple criteria (complexion, pulse rate, reaction when stimulated, muscle tone, and breathing) on a scale from zero to two. The five values are then summed up to obtain a score from zero to 10.
Scores of 3 and below are generally regarded as critically low, 4 to 6 fairly low, and 7 to 10 generally normal.
Cerebral palsy is a rare disease, affecting two to three infants in every 1000 live born children in Western countries. Recent studies have found a strong link between low Apgar score and cerebral palsy in children born to term or with normal birth weight, whereas studies in children with a low birth weight or born preterm have shown conflicting results.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101007210544.htm
A 1997 letter to the British Medical Journal describes an innovative surgical anesthetic used by Arabs in the middle ages that involved placing a sponge soaked in opium, hashish and scopolamine over the patient’s face.
From the ingredients, the patient was probably aware of little, let alone any pain, and it appropriately features in the dreamy Middle Eastern classic, Arabian Nights.
Editor—Anthony John Carter’s review of sedative plants skipped several centuries and did not mention the “Arabic anaesthetic sponge.†Opium infusion was known to Arab clinicians throughout the middle ages and was used commonly to relieve pain associated with inflammation or procedures such as tooth extraction and reduction of fractures. Poppy seeds were used in oral perioperative analgesic syrups or paste; their boiled solution was often used for inhalation.
Read in Full:Â http://mindhacks.com/2010/10/08/the-arabic-anaesthetic-sponge/