 
Article Date: 13 Jul 2010 – 3:00 PDT
Over 500 educational and child psychology professionals will meet to discuss the latest research and issues at the International School Psychology Association’s* 32nd annual conference (ISPA) from 20th to 24th July at Trinity College, Dublin.
The conference is jointly hosted by Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) and the Northern Ireland Branch of the British Psychological Society (NIBPS).
Read More …Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/194504.php
 
Article Date: 13 Jul 2010 – 2:00 PDT
A new study of children and adolescents with Tourette Syndrome finds that self-hypnosis taught with the aid of videotape training reduced their symptoms and improved their quality of life.
Seventy-nine percent of the 33 research participants achieved enough improvement in tic control to report personal satisfaction with the technique, according to the study published online in the July issue of the Journal of Development and Behavioral Pediatrics. This is the largest case series of patients with Tourette Syndrome treated with self-hypnosis. The authors, Jeffrey Lazarus, M.D., and Susan K. Klein, M.D., Ph.D., were with University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine at the time of the study.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/194494.php
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Article Date: 13 Jul 2010 – 2:00 PDT
A new study of children and adolescents with Tourette Syndrome finds that self-hypnosis taught with the aid of videotape training reduced their symptoms and improved their quality of life.
Seventy-nine percent of the 33 research participants achieved enough improvement in tic control to report personal satisfaction with the technique, according to the study published online in the July issue of the Journal of Development and Behavioral Pediatrics. This is the largest case series of patients with Tourette Syndrome treated with self-hypnosis. The authors, Jeffrey Lazarus, M.D., and Susan K. Klein, M.D., Ph.D., were with University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine at the time of the study.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/194494.php
 
July 13, 9:13 PM
LA Books ExaminerLaura Frazin Steele
This month the autism community mourns the passing of Clara Claiborne Park (1923-2010), a groundbreaking author and parent of a daughter with autism. Clara Claiborne Park’s autistic daughter, Jessica Park, has provided us with a beautiful book filled with her own paintings, entitled Exploring Nirvana: The Art of Jessica Park.
Jessica Park was born in 1958 and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3. At that time, very little was known about the disorder. Today, autism is widely recognized as a neurological disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to communicate. People with autism have difficulty with complex social interactions and often have rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior.
Jessica Park’s mother, the late Clara Claiborne Park, assumed the role of psychologist and tutor to help her daughter overcome some of her neurological difficulties to become the nationally recognized artist that she is today.
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July 13, 9:13 PMLA Books ExaminerLaura Frazin Steele
This month the autism community mourns the passing of Clara Claiborne Park (1923-2010), a groundbreaking author and parent of a daughter with autism. Clara Claiborne Park’s autistic daughter, Jessica Park, has provided us with a beautiful book filled with her own paintings, entitled Exploring Nirvana: The Art of Jessica Park.
Jessica Park was born in 1958 and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3. At that time, very little was known about the disorder. Today, autism is widely recognized as a neurological disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to communicate. People with autism have difficulty with complex social interactions and often have rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior.
Jessica Park’s mother, the late Clara Claiborne Park, assumed the role of psychologist and tutor to help her daughter overcome some of her neurological difficulties to become the nationally recognized artist that she is today.
 
The Coffeehouse Center of Bucks County at Oxford Valley Mall is more than just a place for young adults with mild autism disorders.
At the Coffeehouse Center of Bucks County, members can’t get a drink, but they can learn how to balance a checkbook.
If they don’t feel like playing a board game or surfing the Internet, that’s fine. They can hit the food court next door at the mall, or sit in on a workshop on conflict resolution, building friendships or dating advice, the things young adults need to learn to live on their own.
What was once a casual, drop-in center where young adults with mild autism disorders could practice social skills, the coffeehouse has undergone a major expansion into a formal and comprehensive program designed to promote self sufficiency.
Bucks County ranks third in Pennsylvania – behind Montgomery County and Philadelphia – in the number of school-age children receiving special education services for autism disorders, a developmental disability that interferes with cognitive function, communication and social behavior.
There were 104 Bucks County students between the ages of 17 to 21 with autism disorders receiving special education services as of the 2008-09 school year, which represents roughly 10 percent of the more than 1,100 school-age children with an autism diagnosis. It represents a 2 percent increase over the previous school year.
People with Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder experience milder symptoms than those with classic autism and often have above average intelligence. So it’s more difficult for them to fit in because outsiders might not realize they have a disorder.
Someone with Asperger’s, for instance, might fixate on a particular subject; they’ll interrupt or dominate conversations. They avoid eye contact. A lack of coping skills, social graces and judgment ability makes it harder for them to fit into the community and develop relationships. They can lose their temper easily, overreact to minor problems and lack personal boundaries so they can be easily manipulated.
Most autism support services typically target early childhood interventions, but young adults also face major challenges adapting to daily routines once they are no longer in a structured daily school environment.
Read in Full:Â http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/262/2010/july/14/a-place-to-discover-their-independence.html
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The Coffeehouse Center of Bucks County at Oxford Valley Mall is more than just a place for young adults with mild autism disorders.
At the Coffeehouse Center of Bucks County, members can’t get a drink, but they can learn how to balance a checkbook.
If they don’t feel like playing a board game or surfing the Internet, that’s fine. They can hit the food court next door at the mall, or sit in on a workshop on conflict resolution, building friendships or dating advice, the things young adults need to learn to live on their own.
What was once a casual, drop-in center where young adults with mild autism disorders could practice social skills, the coffeehouse has undergone a major expansion into a formal and comprehensive program designed to promote self sufficiency.
Bucks County ranks third in Pennsylvania – behind Montgomery County and Philadelphia – in the number of school-age children receiving special education services for autism disorders, a developmental disability that interferes with cognitive function, communication and social behavior.
There were 104 Bucks County students between the ages of 17 to 21 with autism disorders receiving special education services as of the 2008-09 school year, which represents roughly 10 percent of the more than 1,100 school-age children with an autism diagnosis. It represents a 2 percent increase over the previous school year.
People with Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder experience milder symptoms than those with classic autism and often have above average intelligence. So it’s more difficult for them to fit in because outsiders might not realize they have a disorder.
Someone with Asperger’s, for instance, might fixate on a particular subject; they’ll interrupt or dominate conversations. They avoid eye contact. A lack of coping skills, social graces and judgment ability makes it harder for them to fit into the community and develop relationships. They can lose their temper easily, overreact to minor problems and lack personal boundaries so they can be easily manipulated.
Most autism support services typically target early childhood interventions, but young adults also face major challenges adapting to daily routines once they are no longer in a structured daily school environment.
Read in Full:Â http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/262/2010/july/14/a-place-to-discover-their-independence.html
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2010
PLANO – Carla Graham’s Lego Lovers are creating more than castles and spaceships. They’re building social skills.
Graham started Plano Lego Lovers as a way to bring together kids who have a passion for Legos but difficulty with social situations. The idea came to Graham as she searched for a play group for her 10-year-old son, Ian, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.
“Legos were all my son was interested in,” Graham said. “He needed to have something where he was forced to communicate with other kids. With Legos, they have to talk to each other and work together.”
In a year and a half, the group has grown to more than 100 members, not all of whom are autistic. The club meets once or twice a month at schools and area restaurants. Recently, about eight children convened at a Yumilicious frozen yogurt shop in Plano.
Children on the autism spectrum, or with other learning differences, struggle with developing social skills. Graham said the gatherings provide opportunities for the kids to practice those skills by discussing their shared interest in the colored building blocks.
“They learn how to share, which is incredibly difficult for them,” Graham said. “They learn how to look beyond themselves at what somebody else is interested in and explore those possibilities.”
At a recent meeting, some kids toted elaborate Lego sets with detailed instructions, while others came with just a handful of bricks and their imaginations. Although they started working on individual projects, within minutes they were asking one another about their creations and explaining their own.
Read in Full:Â http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/DN-legolovers14met.ART.State.Edition1.29883e9.html
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2010
PLANO – Carla Graham’s Lego Lovers are creating more than castles and spaceships. They’re building social skills.
Graham started Plano Lego Lovers as a way to bring together kids who have a passion for Legos but difficulty with social situations. The idea came to Graham as she searched for a play group for her 10-year-old son, Ian, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.
“Legos were all my son was interested in,” Graham said. “He needed to have something where he was forced to communicate with other kids. With Legos, they have to talk to each other and work together.”
In a year and a half, the group has grown to more than 100 members, not all of whom are autistic. The club meets once or twice a month at schools and area restaurants. Recently, about eight children convened at a Yumilicious frozen yogurt shop in Plano.
Children on the autism spectrum, or with other learning differences, struggle with developing social skills. Graham said the gatherings provide opportunities for the kids to practice those skills by discussing their shared interest in the colored building blocks.
“They learn how to share, which is incredibly difficult for them,” Graham said. “They learn how to look beyond themselves at what somebody else is interested in and explore those possibilities.”
At a recent meeting, some kids toted elaborate Lego sets with detailed instructions, while others came with just a handful of bricks and their imaginations. Although they started working on individual projects, within minutes they were asking one another about their creations and explaining their own.
Read in Full:Â http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/DN-legolovers14met.ART.State.Edition1.29883e9.html
 
Jul 14 2010
COLUMBUS
Her resume attracted plenty of attention.
Hospitals, technology companies and a major research organization indicated that Chelsea Ridenour — computer and math whiz, summa cum laude graduate of Capital University — looked good on paper. Some called for interviews.
And then, suddenly, it didn’t seem to matter that she is intelligent and dependable and tenacious. Ridenour can communicate with a computer in six languages, but she can’t chat her way through a face-to-face meeting with a stranger.
”People try to be nice. They’re not deliberately not nice,” the Hilliard resident said. ”They just don’t understand.”
Ridenour is among a rising population of young adults whose coming-of-age stories are at best complicated and oftentimes heartbreaking. They are grown-ups with Asperger’s syndrome and other autism disorders, conditions that society seems to handle best when boys and girls are young and in school.
But Ridenour is 23. What she needs is a job.
”My pitch always has been, ‘There’s a buyer for every house. Why don’t we find the buyers for these kids who want to work?”’ said Tom Fish of the Ohio State University Nisonger Center, a support and research institute for people with developmental disabilities.
”The challenge with people on the (autism) spectrum, of course, is social interaction,” he said. ”People look at these kids and say, ‘Be more social.’ Well, they can’t.”
Many young people with Asperger’s syndrome, or ”high-functioning” forms of autism, emerge from years of struggle, bullying and isolation in high school only to find that the adult world can be even more difficult. According to the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence, national studies have found that only 6 percent to 14 percent of adults with autism are competitively employed.
Yet many possess normal — and in a lot of cases, superior — intellectual abilities.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sanduskyregister.com/jobs/2010/jul/14/autistic-adults-ohio-have-hard-time-finding-work