Autism News

Home

Autism organization helps piano prodigy meet Taylor Swift

August 26, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

autism pianist

This is 7 year old Jacob Velazquez playing his Taylor Swift Piano Medley from her new album 1989. Jacob loves Taylor’s music & dreams of jammin with her one day! Jacob was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4, but that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his gift of music.

Taylor Swift sent a sweet message to a 7-year-old fan on Wednesday after watching a video of him playing a piano medley of her songs.

Jacob Velazquez, who lives in Florida, was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 years old. A gifted pianist, he listens to Swifts albums daily and watches her videos constantly, his mother, Lisa Velazquez, wrote in a guest post on the Autism Speaks website.

“He dreams (literally has dreams) of meeting her every night,” Lisa wrote. “I have explained to him that she has millions of fans who would all love to meet her.”

Souce: FoxNews

Autism News

What you hear is what you get!

August 18, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

Autistic youngster turns every sound into a note

Imagine hearing a tune and precisely name them — every single one of them! This Autistic youngster can turn every sound into a note!

According to a statement released by the metropolitan municipality, Hartavi shares a gift that has previously been associated with musical geniuses; “absolute pitch.” Pointed out as a pianist of the future, Hartavi has shocked his teachers with his talent as he can interpret any sound he hears, whether from a musical instrument or nature, into musical notes. Hartavi, whose talent was discovered by music teacher Emre Köstence of the Haşim İşcan Family Training Center, works continuously to win the conservatory exams of Antalya Chamber of Commerce Fine Arts High School. His biggest dream is to become a pianist. He sits down in front of a piano whenever he sees one and enchants his audience.

Autism News

New rapid screening test to detect #autism in young children

August 15, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Dr. Roula N. Choueiri came up with The Rapid Intervention Screening Test for Autism in Toddlers (RITA-T)— a test designed to be used in assessing at-risk toddlers aged 12-36 months in early intervention and pediatric settings using interactive play-type activities.

According to Dr. Choueiri:
“We believe that the use of this tool will greatly expand effective autism spectrum disorder screening, which would lead to better and earlier identification of autism and, thus, earlier access to important treatment.”

Autism News

Scientists pinpoint how a single genetic mutation causes autism

August 14, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

Quinn, an autistic boy, and the line of toys he made before falling asleep. Repeatedly stacking or lining up objects is a behavior commonly associated with autism. Credit: Wikipedia.

Scientists pinpoint how a single genetic mutation causes #autism – – #livingautismdaybyday

“Genetic studies are showing that there will be about 1,000 genes linked to autism. This means you could mutate any one of them and get the disorder. We found how one of these mutations works,” said Zylka, senior author of the Cell paper and member of the UNC Neuroscience Center.

The work was done in human cell lines, as well as mouse models.

Because this one autism-linked UBE3A mutation was part of the Simons Simplex Collection – and Zylka previously had been funded through a Simons Foundation grant – he had access to the cells that were used to find this one mutation. When Jason Yi, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Zylka’s lab, sequenced the genes from the cell samples – including cells from the child’s parents – he found that the parents had no hyperactive UBE3A but the child did.

The child’s regulatory switch was broken, causing UBE3A to be perpetually switched on.

Autism News

Cardiff psychologists develop autism self-assessment test

August 13, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

People with autism have less activity in the amygdala (shown in red), which helps process emotions

A self-assessment test for autism has been developed by psychologists at Cardiff University.

The research, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, focuses on how much people indulge in common habits and routines such as lining up objects, arranging them into patterns and fiddling obsessively with things to help clinicians diagnose them.

It found consistently higher scores for people with autism after it was trialled on 311 people.

Autism is found in more than one in 100 people.

Autism News

Are we ready for a test that could ‘pre-diagnose’ ‪#‎autism‬ in babies?

August 11, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

sAre we ready for a test that could ‘pre-diagnose’ ‪#‎autism‬ in babies

Are we ready for a test that could ‘pre-diagnose’ ‪#‎autism‬ in babies?

Imagine your baby is assessed for pre-diagnostic autism with an eye-tracking device, and you learn that he or she is is likely to be later diagnosed with autism.

What does that mean? How should we talk to parents about this? And bear in mind that autism is highly variable and has a very wide range of both symptom profile and age of onset, which complicates how accurate such an assessment can be.

Autism News

Kids With Autism Can Read Emotions Through Body Language

August 11, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

Kids With Autism Can Read Emotions Through Body Language

A new study challenges the misconception that kids with the disorder lack empathy.

In the study, Peterson and her colleagues showed children between the ages of 5 and 12 full-body photos of trained actors portraying happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted or surprised emotions. The actors’ faces were blurred. The children with autism did just as well as the children without the disorder in identifying the posed emotions. In a similar test that just showed people’s eyes, the children with autism did not score as well as those without.

Autism News

Brain-wave patterns distinguish dup15q syndrome from ‪#‎autismnow

August 11, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

Moving target: Brain waves known as beta oscillations reflect brain activity that controls body movements and may signal telltale changes in DNA. Photo by: AJPhoto / Science Source

The researchers found that children with dup15q syndrome have stronger beta oscillations than do children with autism or controls. “This is striking,” says Jeste. “There’s really no overlap with autism or controls.”

The findings suggest that beta oscillations could serve as a biomarker for 15q11-13 duplications. “One of the biggest challenges is that there are few objective and quantifiable biomarkers that can help us stratify children with a diagnosis,” says Jeste, assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology.

Autism News

‪#‎AUTISM‬ Good News: Motorcyclists raise $15,000 at ‪#‎Ride4Autism‬ – ‪#‎livingautismdaybyday‬

August 10, 2015 Living Autism Leave a comment

Motorcyclists raise $15,000 at Ride for Autism

#‎Ride4Autism‬ – ‪#‎livingautismdaybyday‬

The Ride for Autism is an annual motorcycle ride that began in 2005 when two coworkers from UAW Local 245 were on break wondering what they could do to help another coworker’s family whose son was autistic. The first year ride in 2005 had a total of 56 motorcycle bikers raising over $8,000. In the past 10 years the RFA has raised over $100,000 with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting Macomb/St. Clair County ASA and Autism Connections of the Judson Center.

Autism News

Archives

Autism organization helps piano prodigy meet Taylor Swift

What you hear is what you get!

New rapid screening test to detect #autism in young children

Scientists pinpoint how a single genetic mutation causes autism

Cardiff psychologists develop autism self-assessment test

A self-assessment test for autism has been developed by psychologists at Cardiff University.

Are we ready for a test that could ‘pre-diagnose’ ‪#‎autism‬ in babies?

Kids With Autism Can Read Emotions Through Body Language

Brain-wave patterns distinguish dup15q syndrome from ‪#‎autismnow

‪#‎AUTISM‬ Good News: Motorcyclists raise $15,000 at ‪#‎Ride4Autism‬ – ‪#‎livingautismdaybyday‬

For Business Owners

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

A self-assessment test for autism has been developed by psychologists at Cardiff University.

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you:

Recommended for you: