Autism Parents Club

The Autism News | English

People with Asperger’s syndrome are willing, ready and able to work but fall at the first hurdle – the job interview

By SE Smith | Guardian.co.uk

Asperger’s syndrome has been in the news frequently of late. Growing attention is being paid to the employment challenges faced by people with this autism-spectrum disorder and the recent announcement that the label of Asperger’s syndrome itself is slated to vanish with the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) – the so-called “bible of psychiatry”, scheduled for publication in 2013 – sparking intense debate.

The decision to eliminate the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome has been greeted with hostility by some people with the condition, in part because this diagnosis carries less stigma than a diagnosis of autism. For some, it feels like an erasure of personal identity as well. Others view the change with less alarm since Asperger’s syndrome is already classified as an autism-spectrum disorder and thus the change does not mean they are moving to an entirely new section of the DSM, or that they cannot receive a diagnosis and all-important treatment code, used to determine eligibility for insurance and benefits.

For jobseekers with Asperger’s syndrome, first identified in 1944 by Doctor Hans Asperger, there are significant barriers to employment. According to speech pathologist Barbara Bloomfield, unemployment rates for people on the autism spectrum can range from 75% to 97%, even when the economy is healthy.

Asperger’s syndrome is characterised by difficulties with communication. Aspies, as people with Asperger’s syndrome are sometimes known, have trouble reading body language and many social cues. Some have language-processing disorders, which make spoken communication challenging; Aspies can also have trouble with eye contact, modulating their voices, shaking hands and expressing themselves verbally.

For people on the autism spectrum, developing skills that can lead to gainful employment is challenging. It may be difficult to attend university to get a degree, for example, and it is hard to find work to build experience and a r?sum?. Communication is key to social success and people with communication disorders, such as Asperger’s syndrome, may not be able to establish the basic connections with other people that are critical when seeking employment. It is commonly believed that Aspies are unemployable, when this simply isn’t true.

Doing well in a job interview is challenging for anyone. For people possessing valuable job skills with this communication disorder, performing well in a job interview can be extremely difficult. The prospective employer reads the unwillingness to shake hands, difficulty making eye contact and hesitation in speech as coldness or incompetence, and the applicant is rejected.

Skilled Aspies may turn to other areas of employment when they cannot find work in their chosen profession. However, they still face the fundamental hurdle of the job interview. “Don’t write me off” is the slogan of a campaign to improve access to employment and benefits for people on the autism spectrum from the National Autistic Society and it is quite fitting, as people with autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger’s syndrome, are routinely written off by prospective employers – even though autistic traits can sometimes be an asset.

People with autism spectrum disorders have traits like a high attention to detail, very intense focus and a willingness and sometimes need to repeat tasks until they are perfect. These traits are ideal for people such as computer programmers, who need to be able to focus on sometimes highly repetitive tasks with a very small margin for error. The strict need for order found among some people on the autism spectrum can also turn into an employment asset in some work environments. A sharp-eyed Aspie can often spot imperfections and problems, which might go unnoticed by someone else.

In Britain, the Autism Act 2009 was passed to address some of the social disparities, employment among them, experienced by people with autism-spectrum disorders. It is estimated that 30,000 adults in England have an autism-spectrum disorder. Those who are willing, ready and able to work cannot find employment because they are unable to pass that most basic test, the social performance that is the job interview. Thanks to the work of disability advocates, disability employment advisors are going to be receiving autism training. This training is designed to improve the support system for jobseekers with autism-spectrum disorders so that they can navigate the job market more effectively.

Even with this support, it seems likely that people with Asperger’s syndrome will continue to experience employment discrimination. Educating employers and making them more familiar with the needs of people with autism-spectrum disorders may improve chances in job interviews, but it is still difficult to overcome communication barriers, even when one is aware they exist. When two equally qualified people compete for a position and one is deemed more charismatic than the other, employers are more likely to choose the charismatic applicant.

Addressing this issue requires getting more people with autism-spectrum disorders into the workplace, including positions in human resources so that communication styles are less likely to remain a barrier to employment. However, there’s a vicious cycle: in order to reach those positions, people with autism-spectrum disorders still need to pass the interviews.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/16/aspergers-syndrome-employment-problems

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The Autism News | English

By Med India

A US psychologist says she has identified five predictors of autism in infants.

The five predictors identified were – lack of response to others’ attempts to engage the babies in play, infrequent attempts to initiate joint activities, few types of consonants produced when trying to communicate vocally, problems in responding to vocal requests and a keen interest in repetitive acts, such as staring at a toy while twirling it. In Ms Landa’s investigation, the presence of all five behaviors at 14 months predicted an eventual diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in 15 of 16 children.

Landa’s study consists of 250 children who were first assessed at either age 6 months or 14 months. Comprehensive measures of social, communication and motor abilities were obtained at each child’s home and repeated at 18, 24, 30 and 36 months of age. The sample included 110 children considered to be at high risk for developing autism because they had older siblings already diagnosed with the same condition.

Preliminary evidence suggests that high-risk 14-month-olds who later develop autism display signs of delayed motor development as early as 6 to 7 months of age, Landa noted. In particular, these youngsters had difficulty keeping their heads stable when slowly raised from a prone position, writes Bruce Bower in Science News.

But psychologists cautioned that much remains unknown about the early identification and treatment of autism. Infant siblings of older children with autism represent a special group that’s especially likely to show early signs of the same disorder, they said.

“I’m not sure the majority of children with autism spectrum disorder have predictive symptoms by 12 or 14 months,” said Sally Rogers of the University of California.

In her own long-term studies, some children without autistic siblings show a gradual slowing of social and language development over several years that leads to autism, while others show no autism symptoms at all until being diagnosed with the disorder at age 4 or 5.

Source: http://www.medindia.net/news/Five-Predictors-Of-Autism-In-Infants-Identified-66427-1.htm

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The Autism News | English

BIOTECH: VC-Funded Company Launched With MIT-Spawned Technology

By HEATHER CHAMBERS | San Diego Business Journal

Afraxis, a fledgling San Diego drug developer with technology spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has quietly been raising money the last couple of years for testing a new treatment for Fragile X syndrome.

The genetic disorder, named after a gene mutation on the X chromosome, has been identified as a leading cause of autism and mental retardation. Approximately one-third of all children diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome also have some degree of autism, according to The National Fragile X Foundation, a research advocate based in Walnut Creek. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also identifies the disorder as the most common cause of inherited mental retardation.

In recent weeks, the four-person biotech has emerged from stealth mode and announced some major hires, namely that of its chief scientific officer and vice president of business development, both former employees with the local biotech Phenomix Corp. And it’s quickly pushing its program into the clinic.

The young company, led by venture capitalist Jay Lichter, began in 2007 by leveraging discoveries made in the MIT lab of Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa. His findings — that Fragile X could be reversed in mice by targeting a certain enzyme known as PAK — led Afraxis on a path toward developing a pill that might reduce or even reverse brain abnormalities in humans.

No Approved Drugs to Treat Fragile X

Lichter, who also serves as managing director of Avalon Ventures of La Jolla, said the company started from scratch “with no compounds and no assays and no predetermined clinical path.”

It quickly paired up with Ambit Biosciences Inc., an expert in screening small molecule compounds against an array of enzymes, and identified some drug candidates to support its patent filing.

“That is really what gave birth to the company,” Lichter said.

Today, he said, Avalon has invested $6 million altogether to advance the company to the point of human trials. The young company could have its first drug candidate in human trials as early as next year, according to Chief Scientist David Campbell.

“Our goal is to identify a drug candidate by the middle of this year,” he said.

A drug to treat the disorder, one that affects approximately one in 4,000 males and fewer females, could potentially emerge as a big seller since the FDA has not approved any drugs to treat it, and there’s no known cure.

“It’s a very expensive burden on society,” said Lichter, who further explained that many people living with the disorder can’t hold jobs, have trouble paying attention and often require supervised care.

Source: http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=145683

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The Autism News | English

Dr. Dido Green uses magic to help a young patient regain movement in her left arm. Credit: Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital Charity

It’s often hard to motivate youngsters with physical disabilities. But a new approach from a Tel Aviv University researcher bridges the worlds of behavior and science to help kids with paralysis and motor dysfunction improve their physical skills and inner confidence — using a trick up her sleeve called “magic.”

By Tel Aviv University | Physorg.com

Dr. Dido Green of Tel Aviv University’s School of Health Professionals developed an innovative yet remarkably simple series of therapeutic exercises for children and young adults based on sleight-of-hand tricks used by professional magicians. Dr. Green and her magicians used sponge balls, elastics and paper clips to teach the children how to perform the challenging, fun and engaging exercises.

She started her foundational research at the Evelina Children’s Hospital funded by the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital Charity, Performing Arts Programme in London.

Making physical therapy fun

“Children with motor disorders like hemiplegia — or paralysis on one side of the body — perform routine exercises with their hands and wrists to be able to carry out basic functions such as opening a door, doing up their zipper, or closing buttons,” explains Dr. Green, an occupational therapist with a masters degree in clinical neuroscience and a Ph.D. in psychomotor development of children. “Not only did the kids get a kick out of the magic tricks, they loved doing the exercises every day.”

Dr. Green hopes to create summer “magic camps” for disabled children in both the U.K. and Israel, and will further investigate the benefits of magic for improving motor development of children with disabilities.

Her initial research, now in the process of publication in a peer-reviewed journal, looked at a sample of nine children. “We had a hunch that learning magic tricks could do wonders for kids’ movement problems, but we wanted to see if the kids would actually practice them,” says Dr. Green.

The children practiced ten minutes a day over four to six weeks, resulting in a significant and measurable change in motor skills. “It was a big enough effect to make us want to marry the concept of magic with more specific treatment regimes important for motor learning,” says Dr. Green.

In the next part of the study, Dr. Green will bridge the worlds of behavioral therapy with science. She plans not only to give a large group of U.K. and Israeli kids intensive magic training to help improve their motor skills, but also to look into their brains to see if there is a neurological effect.

Magic meets magnetic resonance imaging

“We’ll be using functional MRIs to see how extensive practice — using the magic tricks as motivators — affects centers in the brain. Having information from the MRI can help us see what works, and for how long a treatment regime will need to be carried out to have sustained changes,” says Dr. Green. One of the things she will measuring is the “plasticity” of the brain to see if activity of different brain areas changes over time as a result of the exercises.

Movement problems can occur in children with autism, spinal cord injuries, diseases affecting the central nervous system, or cerebral palsy. Some of these conditions can lead to hemiplegia. When Dr. Green retired from the stage following a career as a ballerina for the National Ballet of Canada and the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet in London, she determined to inspire less fortunate children to gain or regain levels of basic functioning.

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187875146.html

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The Autism News | English

By WJBK FOX 2 Detroit, MI

The numbers are soaring: Children lost in their own thoughts, with a disorder that rocks their world. It’s a disorder most marriages won’t survive, either. FOX 2′s Lila Lazarus takes you inside the world of a child with autism, in this video report.

Source: http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/849029/child_learns_to_function_with_autism?cpt=8&wpid=1277

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