Study could prove whether human-animal interactions help with autism

Posted by Beth Finke on October 9th, 2009

A New York Times article this week reports that the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will study the health benefits animals can provide to children. The article opens with a description of a yellow Labrador retriever who has been paired-up with an 11-year-old boy who has autism.

“Within, I would say, a week, …Read More » »

Adults with autism thrive at new inclusive adult day center

Posted by Bob Glowacki on June 18th, 2009

When we think of autism, we tend to think of early childhood therapeutic interventions. I received a reality check when Easter Seals Southeast Wisconsin opened a new inclusive adult day center in Kenosha. The center is located inside the YMCA of Kenosha Callahan branch, and the first three participants who enrolled there have autism. Later on, more adults …Read More » »

iPhone app for people with autism

Posted by Beth Finke on June 11th, 2009

Our son Gus doesn’t talk. I can tell if he’s hungry or thirsty by the way he smacks his lips, and he can grunt a certain way to make some of his needs known. Otherwise he expresses desires by going to the thing he wants — heading to the door when he’d like to go outside, or pushing on the …Read More » »

Robots could help people with autism

Posted by Beth Finke on March 13th, 2009

A story in this week’s Washington Post describes a new generation of service robots that can provide therapy, coaching and monitoring for people with disabilities. Among the early successes of these “socially assistive machines” are robots that might help children with autism. The story says that researchers first need to determine what these socially assistive robots can do for …Read More » »

Teaching kids with autism the art of conversation

Posted by Beth Finke on January 17th, 2009

A National Public Radio story I heard the other day talked about a program at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute that teaches social skills to kids with autism.

For children like Alex with autism, social interactions are a struggle. But Freedman is part of a team of researchers at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute that has developed a course to …Read More » »

Do social skills define autism?

Posted by Beth Finke on August 21st, 2008

I just read a blog post questioning the emphasis put on “social skills” when defining autism.

Yes, autism affects how autistic people socialize. We don’t do it like neurotypicals. But that isn’t the root or sole effect of autism, nor is it even enough for a diagnosis. Having a hard time socially is something many, if not most, of us …Read More » »

Try a symbol-based web browser for free

Posted by Patricia Wright on June 26th, 2008

A comment to my blog about web accessibility for people with autism and other disabilities offered a 30-day trial of Webwide. I wanted to let you know about this offer, in case you missed the comment.

If any readers are interested, you can try Webwide for free for 30 days by …Read More » »

Autism and happiness :)

Posted by Beth Finke on June 25th, 2008

For those of you new to our blog, let me re-introduce myself. My name is Beth Finke, and I am the Interactive Community Coordinator at Easter Seals. Simply put, I moderate this blog.

I also happen to be blind.

A computer program called JAWS reads the text on my screen out loud to me. That’s how I’m able to read …Read More » »

Autism gets wired

Posted by Lisa Tate on February 29th, 2008

This month’s cover of Wired Magazine draws readers in by promising “The Truth About Autism.” The magazine describes the brains of people living with autism as neurologically different vs. neurologically disordered. While a bit scientific, the article does a great job of highlighting the unique abilities of individuals with autism.

It opens with a story …Read More » »

Intervention — what can it get you?

Posted by Patricia Wright on February 22nd, 2008

What can systematic intervention provide for an individual with autism? For Carly Fleischmann, it gave the opportunity to communicate.

Although the ABC News report about Carly was brief, it appeared that Carly was independently communicating via speech generating software on a laptop. What’s important to note here is that she appears …Read More » »