Source: CNN
Autism
People with autism are not a distinct group, but instead experience extreme versions of traits that all of us have to a greater or lesser degree, many researchers now believe. A major new study gives new evidence supporting this by showing that children with mild autistic traits, not severe enough for a diagnosis on the autistic spectrum, are more likely to experience the sorts of behavioural, emotional and social difficulties we see in autism.
The study also outlines a significant difference between boys and girls of high intelligence, and how this correlates with autistic disorders.
Image Credit: iStockphoto
The Transporters series has been evaluated by the Autism Research Centre for its effectiveness for children aged 4 to 8 with ASC (autistic spectrum condition).
An autism researcher plans this week to release the video in the United States. The DVD tells autistic children how to recognize emotions like happiness, anger and sadness through fictional adventures on a train, ferry and cable car. The project is the brainchild of Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge.
The results suggest that The Transporters DVD is an effective way to teach emotion recognition to children with ASC and that the learning generalises to new faces and new situations.
Source:Autism Research Centre Cambridge
First month of pregnancy forms the basis for disrupted development
Schizophrenia and autism probably share a common origin, hypothesises Dutch researcher Annemie Ploeger following an extensive literature study. The developmental psychologist demonstrated that both mental diseases have similar physical abnormalities which are formed during the first month of pregnancy.
Image: Schizophrenia PET scan, Wikemedia Commons
