Wednesday 22 August 2012

Put your questions directly to Carol Gray - inventor of the celebrated Social Stories - on Awares, September 17, 2012

www.awares.org/conferences

Don't miss this invaluable opportunity to put your questions directly to Carol Gray  - inventor of the celebrated Social Stories - on the Awares conference site on September 17, 2012.  Her brilliant paper,  'Social Stories - An Introduction and Implications for the Future,'  is available to read right now at www.awares.org/conferences as soon as you register.

This is the latest in our monthly series of one-day online conferences on www.awares.org/conferences  in 2012 run by Autism Cymru - Wales's National Charity for Autism - and featuring an outstanding line-up of many of the world's leading autism authorities.

Carol is the President of The Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding in Grand Rapids, a non-profit organisation serving people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and those working on their behalf.  She is an internationally respected author and speaker with over 20 years' experience as a teacher and consultant working on behalf of children and adults with ASD.  In 1991, Carol developed Social Stories, a strategy used worldwide with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  She has published several articles, chapters and books on topics related to the education and welfare of people with ASD, addressing challenging issues ranging from how to teach social understanding and social skills, bullying, death and dying, and loss, learning and people with ASD. Carol and The Gray Center have also been working in collaboration with Mark Shelley and the Specialminds Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to develop Storymovies and co-ordinating materials.  Carol is the recipient of the Barbara Lipinski Award for her international contribution to the education and welfare of people with ASD.

To cover our costs, we are charging an entry fee of just £5 for members of Autism Cymru or £12 for non-members. (Membership of Autism Cymru is free.) Fees are paid when you initially register for this one-day online seminar.  Remember that this provides you with the opportunity to raise your questions with one of the world's leading autism authorities.

For further details about this and all other Awares online autism conferences, please contact myself, Adam Feinstein, at:   adam@autismcymru.org
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Adam Feinstein
http://adamfeinstein.wordpress.com/
http://pabloneruda.wordpress.com/

Friday 18 November 2011

Autism2011 - Awares international online conference - closes tonight (November 18, 2011)

Autism2011 - the seventh Awares international online autism conference - closes at 11.59pm (UK time) tonight, Friday, November 18, Don't miss this unique final opportunity to put your questions directly to more than sixty of the world's leading autism experts - including Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Rita Jordan, Professor Gary Mesibov and Dr Darold Treffert.

The conference - run by Autism Cymru (Wales's pioneering national charity for autism) - can be found at www.awares.org/conferences

There are some fascinating discussions currently taking place on a wide variety of autism-related issues. Please do join in the debates before the conference closes - and let friends and colleagues know about the event.

Many thanks to all those - presenters and delegates - who have already taken part and helped to make this as lively, stimulating and informative a conference as ever.

Just to let you know that, although the discussions close tonight, I will be leaving the presenters' papers on the conference site for several months to come.

Please do let me have your feedback on Autism2011, sending it to me at: adam.m.feinstein@gmail.com

Best wishes,

Adam Feinstein
Organiser, Autism2011
Editor, Awares


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AWARES Conference Centre
http://www.awares.org/conferences


Twitter: @AutismAnnounce
http://www.adamfeinstein.org/autism-mailing-lists.html

Monday 14 November 2011

Put your questions directly to top autism experts - Awares online conference extended until Friday evening (November 18, 2011)

Hi everyone

Don't miss this unique opportunity to put your questions directly to more than sixty of the world's leading autism experts - including Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Rita Jordan, Professor Gary Mesibov and Dr Darold Treffert.  Due to popular demand, I have decided to extend Autism2011 - the Awares international online autism conference - until 11.59pm UK time on Friday (November 18, 2011).

The conference - which is the seventh annual online conference to be run by Autism Cymru (Wales's pioneering national charity for autism) - can be found at www.awares.org/conferences

There are some fascinating discussions currently taking place on a wide variety of autism-related issues. Please do join in the debates before the conference closes - and let friends and colleagues know about the event.

If anyone has any feedback on Autism2011, please send it to me at: adam.m.feinstein@gmail.com

Best wishes,

Adam Feinstein
Organiser, Autism2011
Editor, Awares
________________________________________

AWARES Conference Centre
http://www.awares.org/conferences

Twitter: @AutismAnnounce
http://www.adamfeinstein.org/autism-mailing-lists.html

Saturday 12 November 2011

New study shows surprising differences in brains of individuals with autism

Hello all,

An exciting new study has just come out from Eric Courchesne's laboratory in San Diego which found that autistic children had about 67 per cent more meurons (nerve cells) in a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex than children without autism.  The research was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The prefrontal cortex is involved in processing social skills, communication, cognitive functions and language  - all areas in which autistic children often show abnormal development.

Courchesne studied the brains of seven autistic boys between the ages of 2 and 16 after their death and compared his analysis to the brains of six unaffected boys who died at similar ages. The excess of neurons was a bit of a surprise, to say the least, since in most cases, deficits in social skills - like those typically observed in autistic children - are linked to less, not more, nerve tissue.

“When we think of the inability to handle complicated information, we usually think of too little in the way of connections or brain cells,” said Courchesne. “But this is just the opposite.”

For full story, see report dated November 9, 2011:   http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/09/study-autistic-children-have-too-many-brain-neurons/

This is a very significant study.  A top neuroscientist, Dr Christine Ecker - currently taking part in Autism2011 (the Awares international online autism conference I am running at the moment at www.awares.org/conferences) - told me:

I think Eric Courchesne's latest paper is groundbreaking. So far, we have known from many studies using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that the frontal lobe is enlarged in individuals with autism, and also shows a more accelerated growth during in the age of 2-4. However, nobody knew what is causing this increase in frontal lobe volume. For instance, an increase in volume could be caused by a larger number of neurons but also by other factors such as neuronal connections (e.g. an increase in spine density). Unfortunately, the spatial resolution of techniques such as MRI is quite low so we can't visualize individual neurons and only look at the brain in millimeter resolution.

This is one of the first studies to demonstrate - in the postmortem brain - that the increase in frontal lobe volume is actually due to an increase in the number of neurons. Having this insight narrows down the potential genetic and molecular mechanisms of autism and might, in the future, provide new targets for intervention.

The next steps will now be to discover how these prefrontal neurons are connected within the frontal lobe, and also with other regions of the brain, and what effect this will have on autistic symptoms and traits.


Please feel free to comment on this study, if you have any observations.

Best wishes,

Adam Feinstein
Twitter: @AutismAnnounce
http://www.adamfeinstein.org/autism-mailing-lists.html



Friday 11 November 2011

Autism2011 international online conference now open for discussions

Hello all,

Autism20011 - the Awares international online autism conference I run every year - is now open for discussions at www.awares.org/conferences

Don't miss this unique opportunity to put your questions to more than sixty of the world's leading experts - including Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Rita Jordan and Professor Gary Mesibov - and to read their papers.

Best wishes,

Adam Feinstein


Organiser, Autism2011 and Editor, Awares

Autism2011 - the seventh Awares international online autism conference - opens on November 7, 2011

Hi all,

Just to let you know I am running Autism2011 (the Awares international online autism conference) again this year, from November 7-14, 2011. This always proves a stimulating and informative event, featuring more than sixty of the world's top autism experts to whom you will have unique access. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen has called it 'the finest online conference on the planet.' The Awares conference site is one of the websites of Autism Cymru, Wales's pioneering National Charity for Autism.

This year's presenters include: Simon Baron-Cohen, Rita Jordan, Gary Mesibov, Stephen Shore, Darold Treffert, Merry Barua and Jesse Saperstein.

The conference will include the following topics:

Autism and the Brain
Genetics
Asperger's syndrome
Language issues in autism
Sensory issues
First-hand experiences - Voices from the Spectrum
Education
Biomedical approaches
Immunology
Services
Behavioural issues
Parents' perspectives
Concepts of autism
Psychology
Emotional issues
Screening and diagnosis
Employment
Communication methods
New technologies
Other theories of autism
Savant syndrome
Sexuality issues
Socialising difficulties in autism
Autism in adolescents
Adults with autism
Ageing and autism


For more details about Autism2011 and to register, see www.awares.org/conferences

Please let anyone know who might be interested in this exciting event.

Best wishes

Adam Feinstein