Search

The Hatching Hope Foundation brings advocacy and support to Dallas-Fort Worth families… triplets, was diagnosed with autism in 2012 at age 2.5, she struggled to find much-needed information, services and social supports in her area. This struggle motivated Sabrina to commit her life to helping underserved families in Ft. Worth, Texas … she founded the Hatching Hope Foundation, an organization that provides parent training about autism, individual and family support services, and special education advocacy. In 2019, Keshawn tragically passed away from Osteosarcoma, a rare form of … someone who really understands what it’s like to be a parent living with a child with severe autism. Our Facebook support group, Autism Mocha Moms , has been another great way to connect with parents in the community. The group was created to …
Can brain scans help personalize autism therapies and supports? … Institute at George Washington University. An Autism Speaks Meixner Postdoctoral Fellowship in Translational Research supported the research Dr. Yang describes here. Autism brain scans I’m glad to tell you about the promising findings of the … he or she would benefit from a given behavioral therapy or social training program. We did this with two very different groups of people affected by autism: young children and young adults. And each group completed a very different intervention … – at least at the current time. In theory, this might suggest that the person would do better with a treatment that supports and enhances key brain responses to social information. Already, various research teams are exploring ways to do …
Clinician Guide: Program Development and Best Practices for Treating Severe Behaviors in Autism … of life for autistic people and their families.  To improve systems of care for this population, Autism Speaks convened a group of multi-disciplinary experts to develop the Clinician Guide: Program Development and Best Practices for Treating … The goal of this guide is to help providers:  Expand their understanding of intense challenging behaviors in autism  Support individuals experiencing significant behavior challenges who may harm themselves or those around them  Develop …
Social skills classes produce lasting benefits for adults with autism… or other caregivers received training on how to coach the participants outside of class. Conversation, humor and more The group classes focused on conversational skills, appropriate use of humor and electronic communication, identifying sources … in the study, the researchers propose. “Our study offers encouraging findings that, through an evidence-based, caregiver-supported intervention, adults with autism can improve in ways that may help them be more successful in these aspects of … exist for young adults on the spectrum. “It’s exciting to see a community-based treatment model using caregiver support to help improve social skills,” comments Kara Reagon, Autism Speaks associate director of dissemination science. …
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, …
Autism Speaks Names 2017 Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellows… career scientists pursuing autism research. Lady Weatherstone and daughter Cheryl Weatherstone-Vance continue to actively support this fellowship program on a personal level.  The 2017 class brings the number of Autism Speaks Weatherstone … and daily living among adolescents affected by autism. Her goal is to guide the development of more-effective programs for supporting a successful transition to adulthood. Read more about Maya Reiter's research project here . Evan Geller Under the … understanding and treatment of anxiety, depression and other mental health problems that commonly occur in this vulnerable group. Read more about Jessica Greenlee's research project here . Elyza Kelly Under the mentorship of Peter Tsai at …
Small study finds B12 injections ease autism symptoms in some children… in some children who have the disorder. The researchers found that the behavior improvement occurred primarily in a subgroup of children who showed particular blood chemistry changes after the methyl B12 injections . In these children, the … time. Some earlier research has suggested that the process is impaired in some people with autism . The new study, supported by a grant from Autism Speaks , appears online in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology . It is … metabolic abnormality – impaired methylation capacity – holds the potential to improve [autism] symptoms.” They call for support of a larger controlled trial to check and clarify their results. For related news and blog posts, also see: Grandma …
Youth with autism gain, keep jobs after employer-based skills program… and $10.66 an hour. A year after graduation, 87 percent of the participants still had their jobs. Meanwhile, a control group of young people with autism who did not take part in the job skills program saw only 6 percent employed three months … school (greater than 75 percent), receive a combination of nine months of immersion in a business setting internship, plus supports such as applied behavior analysis, that their chances for becoming competitively employed are much better than … encouraging. The study, “ Effects of an employer-based intervention on employment outcomes for youth with significant support needs due to autism ,” was published in the April 1 edition of the journal  Autism . Wehman, a professor in the  …
TEACCH… and therapeutic goals.  The Structured TEACCHing approach focuses on:   External organizational supports to address challenges with attention and executive function   Visual and/or written information to supplement verbal communication   Structured support for social communication  This method supports meaningful engagement in activities. It also works to … by insurance?   TEACCH® clinical services are provided as part of the UNC Health Care system’s UNC Faculty Physicians group. UNC TEACCH accepts the same insurance providers as UNC Health Care. For a complete list please follow the link …
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 …