Social Brain in Autism, Dr.Klin.

While filling out this weeks data forms, here is some of the information I gleaned while listening to the 5^th  one of the Yale Autism Seminar:

Social Brain in Autism, Dr. Klin.

This lecture discusses research that demonstrates the difference of social focus of persons with autism compared to ‘typical’ adults. Dr. Klin shares research and talks about how watching people’s eye’s and making eye-contact means that one is thinking about that person. The importance of eye-contact, joint attention and focusing on eyes is presented. It explains that persons with autism often struggle with social awareness because they tend to focus on objects and other’s mouths when they are talking as opposed to looking and watching people’s eyes.

What I pulled out of this lecture is the importance of naturally increasing eye-contact, awareness of others and joint attention with the students we teach. We have both ABA activities and RDI (relationship development intervention) that we use to do this.

Some of these activities include: Peek-A-Boo (with hands, plain masks, cloth), Anticipation games (tickling, swinging (w/ eye-contact for ‘go’), certain toys (e.g. jack in the box), bubbles etc…) and gross motor games (dad’s are great at ‘rough housing’ but mom’s can do it too!) Follow the child’s lead and pause to see if they will look at you for more.

November/December Newsletter

Stay Home Sick Policy

Keep you student home if they have any of the following symptoms:

·       Cold, sore throat or persistent cough with a fever or a fever in the last 24 hours

·       Diarrhea in the last 24 hours

·       Fever and a Rash

·       Step Throat and on medications less then 24 hours

·       Vomiting in the last 24 hours

·       Any type of Fever in the last 24 hours

·       Pink eye and not on medication for more then 24 hours

·       Drowsiness or fatigue so that your child is ‘unable to actively participate in routine school activities.’

If your child is sent home from school for any of the above reasons, please keep them home for 24 hours.

Thank you for your willingness to keep us all as healthy as possible!

For more information:

Information on Autism via Seminars from Yale

Description

The Yale Seminar on Autism and Related Disorders is the United States' first undergraduate course of its kind. The goal of this series is to make all of the lecture content and supporting materials available online for free for anyone who desires to learn about Autsim Spectrum Disorders. For Yale undergraduates, the class consists of a weekly seminar on diagnosis and assessment, etiology and treatment of children, adolescents and adults with autism and related disorders of socialization. This collection contains the full video of the course.

Click on the following links to access more information and the lectures:

http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/yale-autism-seminar-video/id392283098