Autistic Daily

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No, it’s not a sci-fi look into the future.

It’s a project created by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researcher Nilanjan Sarkar, Ph.D. and colleagues.

They’ve built a robot that, through physiological measurements such as heart rate, skin response, temperature and muscle movement, can monitor the emotional states of autistic children.

The robot is said to predict emotional states like happiness and anxiety with an accuracy of 80%.

Can we get these for normal couples as well in efforts to decrease the divorce rate due to lack of understanding from the opposite partner?

Read more about the robot and watch a video at news8austin.com.

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Sue Pederson, a psychologist, and her colleagues at the Fraser Child and Family Centre in Minneapolis have recently found that ipod use can help those with Asperger’s learn to fit in socially.

They’ve come up with the idea to program an ipod to act as an “inner voice” or prompt, telling those with Asperger’s how to interact in various social situations.

Basically, short videos and slides would appear on the electronic devicea, and similar to a “Social Stories” type of teaching, these videos and slides would guide Asperger’s individuals in daily interactions.

“I think it’s going to spread like wildfire,” said Pederson.

Source

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Some parents swear by hyperbaric treatment, which involves delivering more oxygen to the body’s cells, as a tool for improving their child’s autistic symptoms.

But not all medical professionals agree. Dr. Patricia Evans, a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Medical Center says there’s no scientific evidence for hyperbaric treatment helping autism and suggests any results indicating so are the result of researchers having financial stake in the technological equipment involved with the procedure.

“There is no research that supports it, and in fact, the research that is out there is so badly done and is so ethically compromised, that I can’t even begin to suggest that anyone consider it,” Dr. Evans said.

Dr. Evans said the data can’t prove improvements in symptoms are the result of hyperbaric treatment or other therapies like physical or speech therapy.

“The method in which they approached it was so poor, I don’t think it would have passed a high school science fair,” she said.

Hyperbaric treatment costs can reach up to $6,000 and are not covered by insurance. More data is definitely needed if so much is to be invested in a treatment a high school student could not get away with presenting.

via cbs11tv.com

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Those on the autistic spectrum often find communication via non verbal methods easier, whether as a result of ability or comfort.

Expensive technologies like machine to text machines, which can cost as much as $10,000, were once the only way to ease the communication gap between individuals with the disorder and “neurotypicals”, but now the iphone and its applications are letting autistics talk at a cheaper dime.

The ipod Touch is just one way for an autistic child to communicate basic commands such as letting you know he’s hungry or even emotions such as anger or sadness.

But be careful what you ask for. Once your child learns how to “use the system,” he or she may be quite demanding, as was the case with Leslie Clark, who after finding out her son’s favorite restaurant through his “icommunicating,” gets to spend “every other day at the Chinese buffet.”

Available on itunes, there are dozens of applications that assist individuals with a variety of disabilities, including Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Source: Usatoday.com

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Most parents of autistic children are already keeping logs of their child’s behavior and any changes in diet or environment that might affect it.

Now, a new software product called ChARM aims to help them do this better.

ChARM was developed by two parents of autistic children. The fathers of both children were CEOs at a software company and decided to put their tech knowledge to enable both themselves and other families to collect extensive data on their children’s health.

ChARM allows parents or caregivers to store medical records, record notes, treatments, diet, supplements and much more on a computer based program. The data collected can then be graphed and analyzed statically to look at trends between factors that may have entered or been removed from the child’s environment.

Currently, two versions of ChARM exist. One is free for families and the other is a version that medical professionals pay a fee for.

Related Article

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