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Renowned Autism Expert Catherine Lord, PhD, Answers Questions for Parents
Why should parents bring their child with autism to the NYU Child Study Center? The NYU Child Study Center is one of the nation’s premier centers for treatment of child and adolescent psychiatric and learning disorders including autism. The Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Service at the NYU Child...
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A Parent’s Perspective on Autism Spectrum Disorders
How do I help my child? I remember the first time I sat in the psychiatrist’s office to discuss my son, Andrew, then 7 years old and in the second grade. We had been referred to Dr. J as a specialist in Attention Deficit Disorder, the popular diagnosis of the time. Dr. J diagnosed Andrew with...
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View From the Spectrum: Autism From Around the World
Four students with Asperger Syndrome from a school in in Christchurch, New Zealand have gone on to successful courses of study at colleges or universities. Another school in Beijing, PR China has developed a remarkable program emphasizing the administration of sensory integration therapy. Yet...
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Use Science and the Scientific Method When Considering Treatments for Individuals on the Autism Spectrum
Autism is a spectrum disorder that varies in degree from mild to severe with a wide range of needs. AHA Association’s mission is to attain appropriate educational programs, effective social skills training, increased social and recreational opportunities, meaningful employment, and sufficient and...
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Understanding and Treating Self-Injurious Behavior
Few things are more puzzling and disturbing to parents and caregivers than self-injurious behaviors (SIB) exhibited by individuals with autism. SIB is a deliberate harm to one’s own body that may result in tissue damage, such as open cuts and bruises, and that may lead to inflammation and...
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Understanding and Treating Autism Spectrum Disorders
Not until the middle of the twentieth century was there a name for a disorder that now appears to affect an estimated one of every five hundred children, a disorder that causes disruption in families and unfulfilled lives for many children. At the same time a German scientist, Dr. Hans Asperger,...
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Suicidal Ideation and Peer Victimization – An Important Assessment Criteria
Earlier studies (Ghaziuddin, Weidmer-Mikhal & Ghaziuddin, 1998; Gillberg & Billstedt, 2000; Tantam, 2000) have explored the comorbid clinical disorders in children and adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), but only a recent study has explored suicidal ideation among adolescents with...
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Social Skills Therapy Groups – Evaluating the Behavioral and Neural Impact for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Social dysfunction is the central, unifying feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and perhaps also the most debilitating. Impairments in socialization persist in individuals with ASD regardless of age or language level and are likely to impact quality of life variables, such as employment and...
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Research in Parenting a Child with Asperger Syndrome Identifies Challenges and Coping Strategies
The numbers of children affected by Asperger Syndrome (AS) in the United States is almost twice that of the number of children who exhibit classic autism. Despite these numbers, there is little empirically guided information about how best to serve families of a child with AS. Most federally funded...
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Autism and Culture: An International Perspective – An Interview with Dr. Roy Richard Grinker
Recently, Autism Spectrum News spoke with anthropologist and author Roy Richard Grinker, PhD about his fascinating research on autism in other cultures and his thoughts about the view that there is an epidemic of autism. Dr. Grinker is Professor of Anthropology and the Human Sciences at the George...
