A weekly mindfulness session for children with autism and a separate program for their parents showed promising results. After nine weekly sessions of mindfulness training, 21 adolescents with autism reported better quality of life and less time spent wandering in thought about topics like sadness, pain, and why they react to things the way they…
By Sarah Hansen A 2014 study found that peer support for three boys with autism significantly reduced their off-task behaviors in inclusive elementary school classrooms. After training one-to-one peer supporters, the low-cost peer support protocol places minimal demands on teachers and improves the classroom environment for all learners. The study also found that all children…
By Sarah Hansen Neurotypical adults primarily use visual cues to control posture. A new study in Neuroscience finds that adults on the autism spectrum instead tend to prioritize other sensory feedback, such as pressure and motion, to control their body position. These results suggest that popular vision-based techniques for teaching skills to individuals with autism,…
By Sarah Hansen New research indicates that children on the autism spectrum can identify emotions in body language just as accurately as their typically-developing peers, contradicting the commonly-held belief that individuals with autism are blind to others’ feelings. Children with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) do have more difficulty identifying emotions solely from faces or eyes,…
by Sarah Hansen Minimally-verbal school-age children with autism made significant gains in the frequency and variety of their speech by participating in a naturalistic intervention only two or three hours per week for 24 weeks. Children that used a Speech-Generating Device (SGD) as part of the intervention saw greater gains in speech than those that…
by Sarah Hansen At the Hussman Institute for Autism, we “make communication the centerpiece” of all our activities. Helping an individual with autism develop the ability to communicate his needs and engage in social communication is one of the most powerful ways to improve his quality of life. It gives an individual greater control over…
by Sarah Hansen On September 22, 2015, the Hussman Institute for Autism hosted a full-day workshop for about 50 attendees that taught about the Be Safe: The Movie curriculum. The curriculum is designed to help parents, teachers, and community organizations teach individuals on the autism spectrum (or with various disabilities) how to interact safely with…
Hussman Institute intern Arsema Ghirmai and associate clinical researcher Fernanda Orsati read with program participant Neil.
At the Hussman Institute for Autism, staff teach minimally-verbal program participants to use iPads and hand gestures to communicate requests like, “I want a drink,” or “I need a break.” It’s certainly important for individuals with autism to learn to communicate their basic needs, but full participation in one’s community requires social communication—where the reward is not as tangible as a snack or a break from an activity. That’s why HIA support staff also work on developing more conversational use of the iPads to make comments like, “Daniel’s book is funny.”
A team at the University of Arkansas produced data that provide evidence that iPads can indeed facilitate social communication in children with autism. They also provided a suggested training routine for teaching iPad use. “I think the iPad piece is a great addition to the research base,” said Ashlyn Smith, associate clinical researcher at the Hussman Institute for Autism, “That’s why I got interested in looking at the iPads—they are increasingly being used as tools for communication and we need research to demonstrate their efficacy.”
