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Autism and ‘optimal outcomes’… to rethink what we mean by “optimal outcomes” For years, we’ve been using this term to describe a relatively small group of people with autism who, with therapy and support, experience such a marked decrease in autism symptoms that they no longer meet the criteria we use to diagnose the … re-defining “optimal outcome” as the best possible outcome based on each child’s personal characteristics and available supports . We find this as a much more suitable concept for developing autism services and setting goals for each child, …

Teacher seeks advice: Student with autism intimidates others … to get the materials he needs – demonstrating polite behavior toward the other students in the process. Use words or visual supports (picture cards) to remind the student of rules (waiting turns, no pushing, no grabbing, etc.) before starting an … firmly ask him to put the item down and give him a brief time out (set a timer for, say, a minute) before he can rejoin the group and try again at appropriate behavior.  If his behavior is more challenging or longer lasting, work with his … he needs to wait for his turn. Keep it simple. We suggest offering two alternate activities that you know he enjoys. Visual supports can be particularly helpful for this strategy. For instance, you can offer him two cards with pictures of the …

Real world autism interventions… appropriate, with a qualified healthcare professional and/or behavioral therapist. For the last decade, Autism Speaks has supported the highly successful research of psychologist Connie Kasari, of the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. … Autism Speaks’ public health team to develop and deliver the World Health Organization Parent Skills Training program to support the development of children with autism in underserved communities worldwide, including the United States. In this … physically touching the device’s buttons to communicate. We have published several studies from our work with this first group of children. The successful results led to an Autism Center of Excellence grant that enabled us to enroll an …

Improving autism therapies by exploring the roots of social avoidance… brain activity while anticipating the social cue (smiling face) that they’d guessed correctly. And within the autism group, the children with severe symptoms showed greater brain activity when anticipating the non-social cue (upward arrow) than they did the smiling face cue. Support for the social-motivation hypothesis We see these findings as confirming and extending the social motivation …