A Message to Parents

Dear Parents, I am finally back after a long silence for almost two years. It is very hard to disengage myself from thinking and writing about...

Posts Tagged ‘communication’

Autism Prevalence Shot to One in 50 in The U.S.

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Researchers believe that the increase of awareness might be behind the climb of this number. The ratio of boys to girls affected with autism is still the 4:1. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services believe  that the increase might be due to the diagnosis

Impairment in Social Interaction Is Linked to Deficit in Face Recognition

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Neuroscientists in Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) discovered a brain odditiy in individuals with autism that explains the deficit in identifying faces . This deficit in turn explains the behavioral disorder in social interactions, which is one of the most common traits of autism. They suggest that the level of behavioral deficit may be linked to

Magnetic Stimulation of The Brain to Feel People’s Emotions

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) of the area of the brain containing mirror neurons may open a window on other people’s feelings. John Elder Robison admits that TMS had changed his life. Even when its effect wears off, the knowlege and awareness of the existence of how one’s feels other poeple’s emotions doesn’t go away. Watch

Kids with Autism Can Learn to Detect Lies and Respond to Bullies

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

A new research study found that children with autism can be trained to aquire the social cognitive skills that would help them detect when people are lying to them. Spectrum children can also be trained to respond to bullies and protect their posessions. Parents’ concerns formed an important input for researcher to complete this study.

Echolalia Signals A Delay Not A disorder

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Speech and language Pathologists (SLP) found that half of the children have echolalia as part of their language development progress. The difference between NT (Neuro Typical) kids with and without echolalia (NOT including ASD kids) is that their self-generated language develops later, but eventually they still can catch up. Spectrum kids, on the other hand,

Tips to Help Teens with Sensory Issues

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

It is much easier to deal with sensory issues in younger children with ASD wether at home or in classrooms. Wearing headphones and typical weighted vest is much less tolerated in junior high or high school. How can you help your teenager with ASD? Tips 1- To relieve stress, replace the figity objects with stress

Teaching Perspective-Taking and Executive Function Skills

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

The Autism Research Group (ARG) in San Diego, California, is hosting an intense one-day workshop about “Effective Autism Behavior Intervention Techniques”. The workshop will be held in San Diego on April 29, 2013 at the Catamaran Resort and Spa from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The Center focuses on ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) which is

The Laughter Therapy

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Laughter is one of the most common and pleasant opportunities to socialize and connect with people. Laughing is interactive; it takes two or more people to share such a great social moment. Relationships can develop easily and naturally in such a relaxed context. We have agreed before that individuals with autism are just like anybody

Developing Internal Speech Might Help The Thinking Process

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

“If individuals with ASD find communicating with others a challenge, it makes sense that they may also find it more difficult to communiate with themselves.” Durham University, Bristol University, and City University in the U.K. A research was done to solve a puzzle. When neurotypical individuals were interrupted by repeating a word, 90% worked much

A New Definition of Autism

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

In my opinion, this is the best definition of autism I have ever heard. A young autistic woman from the U.K. described having autism like having a “different operating system“. Can we run a Mac on windows operating system? When are people going to admit that having ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is “a way of