Ann Jackson
Garland Special Education Examiner
Although ASD people will be trained at nonPareil to find positions in a market that is in high demand, many ASD people will not be able to learn the life skills required to work and live on their own. To address this socioeconomic issue, nonPareil.Institute co-founders Dan Selec and Gary Moore have extended their vision to include a Phase 4.
www.npitx.org
Many ASD people spend a lifetime trying to adapt to environments that are not comfortable for them. Phase 4 is a plan to establish a community within a community, a safe haven, to accommodate both high and low functioning people on the autistic spectrum. Phase 4 will be an on-campus living facility for those who choose to live, train, work, play, and socialize within the community. The co-founders envision restaurants, theater, medical facilities, exercising facilities, all easily accessible to the ASD community. This community will be a home, a community that promotes their mental and physical health, a community that understands and meets their needs. Not all who train and work at nonPareil will choose to live in the community, but it will be an option, and an incredible opportunity for many who might not otherwise be able to attain a level of independent living.
Autistic people often have command over exceptional analytical thinking, logic, attention to detail, high endurance and are honest. The Zurich-based IT company Asperger Informatik AG makes use of these ideal qualities and offers people with Asperger’s opportunies in the labor market.
Asperger Informatik AG offers various IT services. As the name suggests, this is not an ordinary company, because it employs primarily people with Asperger’s syndrome. From this group they see a huge potential: The company creates jobs that meet the needs of autistic people’s, so they can use their talents and skills productively and ultimately also achieve economic independence. The IT company demonstrates the potential that autistic people have, and shows that it can also be profitable for the economy, to utilise and promote this potential.
Unique conditions in the information age
Asperger-autistic people possess extraordinary talents. In the information age, the special abilities of Asperger’s are often ideal for computer science and IT related professions. Not only are people with Asperger’s often especially gifted, they usually also have extraordinary analytical skill, readiness of mind, very attentive to fine details, extreme concentration and ability to focus as well as tenacity and stamina.
Read in Full: http://www.myhandicap.com/asperger-informatik-int.html
Professionelles Webdesign und Software Testing in Zurich
http://www.asperger-informatik.ch/
First Published Friday February 25, 2011
Huh. Here’s an interesting one. A Chicago-based non-profit startup called Aspiritech (that’s A”Spirit”ech as far as the logo is concerned) has announced that it will be exclusively hiring software testers with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Here’s a quote from the company,
The proof of concept came from Danish company and recent research from Harvard Business School and others showed that the strengths of people with Aspergers and high-functioning autism actually make them superior at software testing. They’re ability to focus, good memory, their high intelligence, their strong technical skills, their ability to detect details and also to stay focused over lengthy periods, really makes them ideal for software testing work. People with Aspergers can become ideal software testers.
Read in Full:
http://www.gearlog.com/2011/02/startup_announces_plans_to_exc.php
Someone recently asked if there is a connection between emotions and physical health? The individual was having some health problems and wanted to know if her depression could impact these physical issues.
A study published this month in the journal, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity states, yes, emotions can and do impact on physical health.
Dr. Judith Carroll conducted the study at the University of Pittsburgh. Reported that, “People who reported high levels of anger and anxiety after performing a laboratory-based stress task showed greater increases in a marker of inflammation called known as interleukin-6 as compared to those who remained relatively calm.” Interleukin-6 is a substance produced by the body in response to emotional reactions to stress, such as anxiety and anger.
Among other things and under the right conditions, interleukin-6 can promote inflammation. The greater the emotional reaction the more interleukin produced and the greater the inflammation that occurs. This leads to chronic health problems, such as hight blood pressure and heart disease.
Read in Full:
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=42104&cn=117
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 18, 2011
International research has significantly boosted scientists’ understanding of brain structure differences in those with bipolar disorder as well as how lithium — introduced in the late 1940s and still considered one of the most effective treatments — affects brain anatomy.
Eleven international research groups collaborated in an immense research effort — published in Biological Psychiatry — to gather brain images of adults with bipolar disorder. This mega-analysis allowed them to compare the brain structure differences between individuals with bipolar disorder and healthy subjects.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/02/20/lithium-increases-certain-brain-regions-in-bipolar-disorder/23603.html
MRI, Bipolar
In his book, How to Break Your Addiction to a Person, Howard Halpern first explains what an addictive relationship is, then gives guidelines for recognizing if you’re involved in one. Then, he offers several techniques on how to end an unhealthy relationship (or an emotional affair).
I’ve compiled and adapted all of his suggestions into the following dozen techniques, excerpting what I found to be the most important passages for each.
1. Keep a Relationship Log
Keep track of the events and happenings of the relationship, but above all, and in as honest detail as you can, set down your feelings about the contacts with your partner. The reasons this can be extraordinarily helpful are (a) It compels you to notice what is going on and how you feel about it, (b) It can help you to look back through it and see the shape of the relationship, what it has really been like and felt like, what have been its patterns over time, and (c) It can curb your tendencies to distort the relationship by either twisting events, repainting your feeling and forgetting either the unpleasant or the pleasant.
2. Find the Patterns
It can be eye-opening to see if there is a pattern in the people you have tended to get involved with and the types of relationships you have formed, so unless your current partner is the only love relationship you have had, I suggest you do a Relationship Review.
First, list the names of each person with whom you had a romantic attachment, going as far back as you can. Then set down the Physical Attributes of each–his or her height, build, hair color, movement, voice, general attractiveness, etc. Then write down the Personality Characteristics of each person on your list. What do you feel is the most striking feature of his personality? What adjectives best describe him: Introverted or extroverted? Passive or active? Warm or cold? Intimate or distant? Self-confident or self-effacing? Successful or ineffectual? Hearty or frail?
Even more important than similarities in the physical and personality characteristics of people with whom you have had close relationships are the Relationship Characteristics, the repeated patterns of interaction in which you have been involved. To get some idea if your relationships have had repeated patterns, it can be useful, under the name of each person with whom you have had a relationship, to write the answers to questions such as these:
- *Exactly how did the relationship start? Who was the initiator? The pursuer?
- *Was one of you more dominant? Who seemed to control when and where you would get together, and how you would spend your time?
- *What was the emotional tone of the relationship for you? Loving? Angry? Contented? Depressed? Anxious? Boring? Insecure? Romantic? Desperate? Or what?
- *Emotionally, did you get your needs satisfied?
- *How did your relationship end? Who ended it? Why? What were the feelings of each of you about its ending?
Read in Full:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/20/12-steps-to-break-your-addiction-to-a-person/
Many people struggle with the question of whether or not to tell their bosses about their mood disorders at work. Washington Post columnist Amy Joyce wrote an excellent article on this a few years ago. I have included the first few paragraphs below, but urge you to read the rest of her article, as it gives no straight answers but explores that terrain with great depth.
If you have depression or some other mental illness, what do you do about work? Hope no one notices? Disclose your illness early on and trust that your boss will understand?
Should You Tell is a complicated question.
There is no right answer, and there are some risks to consider.
Read in Full:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/19/should-you-tell-your-boss-about-a-mental-illness/
Article Date: 21 Feb 2011 – 1:00 PST
Once likened to a confusing tower of Babel, speaking more than one language can actually bolster brain function by serving as a mental gymnasium, according to researchers.
Recent research indicates that bilingual speakers can outperform monolinguals – people who speak only one language – in certain mental abilities, such as editing out irrelevant information and focusing on important information, said Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Penn State. These skills make bilinguals better at prioritizing tasks and working on multiple projects at one time.
“We would probably refer to most of these cognitive advantages as multi-tasking,” said Kroll, director of the Center for Language Science. “Bilinguals seem to be better at this type of perspective taking.”
Kroll said that these findings counter previous conclusions that bilingualism hindered cognitive development.
“The received wisdom was that bilingualism created confusion, especially in children,” Kroll told attendees at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington D.C. “The belief was that people who could speak two or more languages had difficulty using either. The bottom line is that bilingualism is good for you.”
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/216983.php
Article Date: 22 Feb 2011 – 3:00 PST
A Canadian study of nonsuicidal self-harm videos posted on YouTube suggests they could be reinforcing self-injury behavior and urges professionals working with young people to make themselves aware of their scope and content.
A report of the study, by researchers from the University of Guelph in Ontario and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, appeared online on 21 February in the journal Pediatrics.
Lead researcher, Dr Stephen Lewis, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Guelph, told the media there was an alarming trend in teenagers posting videos on YouTube showing self-cutting and other forms of self-harm.
He and his colleagues suggested vulnerable teenagers might see this behavior as acceptable and difficult to overcome, leading them to harm themselves.
The study is thought to be the first to examine the effect, especially on young people, of the most popular depictions of self-harm shown on YouTube videos.
YouTube is a sharing Internet website where anyone can upload a video for others to view. You don’t have to be a registered user to view videos, but you have to register with the site to upload videos.
YouTube, now a subsidiary of Google, started in late 2005 and while no-one appears to know the exact number, today it is thought to contain tens of millions of videos, mostly uploaded by individuals.
The Internet can be a good and bad thing for vulnerable young people, as Lewis explained:
“Many youth who self-injure may go online to find support, but at the same time they may see videos that could be harmful if self-injury is depicted as typical behaviour or if viewing these videos triggers the behaviour.”
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217136.php
Article Date: 22 Feb 2011 – 0:00 PST
SLaM’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Service for children and adolescents is currently running two innovative trials to help improve the treatment of young people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
The national and specialist service is the only service of its kind in the UK offering assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with OCD and related conditions, including body dysmorphic disorder, tic disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, anxiety and habit disorders, including trichotillomania.
The OCD service assesses and treats young people with complicated or unusual OCD from all over the United Kingdom. Many of these children receive their treatment through taking part in ongoing treatment studies.
SLaM’s OCD team is keen to receive telephone or referrals enquiries in relation to two treatment trials, both of which offer cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the current best practice treatment for OCD in children, adolescents and adults.
Dr Isobel Heyman, head of SLaM’s OCD Service said the trials will help improve treatment for young people with OCD.
“Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the first choice treatment for children and adolescents with OCD. However, studies in adults have shown that people with OCD can benefit from appropriate medication, in conjunction with therapy,” Dr Heyman explained.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217060.php