Help us publicize our SC Assistive Technology Expo via social media!

Help us publicize our SC Assistive Technology Expo via social media!

Here’s our Expo Facebook Event page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/120253298158011/

Please consider inviting your friends to this event via Facebook. Just click on the “Invite Friends” tab and choose those you think would be interested.

There are other ways to help us promote attendance and raise awareness about assistive technology in general:

You can enter the above link in your own Facebook status.

You can “share” the event (click the “share” link down on the left side of the page).

You can also enter one or all of the following links in your Facebook status (or tweet them).

Expo link:    http://www.sc.edu/scatp/expo/expo13.html

Expo sessions link:   http://www.sc.edu/scatp/expo/expo13sessions.html

Expo exhibitors list: http://www.sc.edu/scatp/expo/expo13exhibits.html

If you could put each of these links into your Facebook status (or tweet them) at different times/days, it would help us keep the advertising going.

Also, there are some targeted newsletter/news releases on the Expo page (http://www.sc.edu/scatp/expo/expo13.html). If you have contacts to newsletters and announcements where this information would be appropriate, please send the information on, for us.

It everyone pitches in to help with this, it can make a tremendous difference in our outreach!

We’ll also be asking your help in promoting the AT/Equipment Donation Drive before and at the Expo.

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Access to Computers and Software Training

ACCESS TO COMPUTERS AND SOFTWARE TRAINING WITH

GUEST TRAINER, STEVE TRENT!!

Individuals with disabilities are invited to participate in a free training on the accessibility features of Microsoft Word and Google Search.

When: Thursday, March 14, 2013

Time: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Where: Able South Carolina, 136 Stonemark Lane; Suite 100, Columbia, SC 29210

Registration: Contact Able South Carolina at (803)779-5121, TTY: (803)779-0949, Toll Free: (800) 681-6805 or by e-mail atdtempio@able-sc.org .

To learn more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Ultrasound at birth can predict autism risk

Ultrasound at birth can predict autism risk

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Low-birth-weight babies with a particular brain abnormality are at greater risk for autism, according to new research that could offer doctors an early way to detect the condition.  Published in the Journal of Pediatrics, the study shows that newborns were seven times more likely to be diagnosed with autism later in life if an ultrasound taken just after birth showed they had enlarged ventricles, cavities in the brain that store spinal fluid.

“For many years there’s been a lot of controversy about whether vaccinations or environmental factors influence the development of autism, and there’s always the question of at what age a child begins to develop the disorder,” says lead author Tammy Movsas, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Michigan State University and medical director of the Midland County Department of Public Health. "What this study shows us is that an ultrasound scan within the first few days of life may already be able to detect brain abnormalities that indicate a higher risk of developing autism.”

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Earn $50 to complete an AT survey

Earn $50 to complete an AT survey

Catherine Graham is project manager for a USC study about adolescents and young adults and their use of assistive technology and other accommodations at school or work. 

To participate you must:

Have Spina Bifida, Muscular Dystrophy or Fragile X Syndrome AND

Live in South Carolina AND

Be 15-24 years old

You will be paid $50 to complete the online survey.

For more information or to participate, please call Jevettra Devlin at 803-434-2365 or email at jevettra.devlin@uscmed.sc.edu.

To access the SC Assistive Technology Network, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Easy Steps to Promote Developmental Disabilities Month

The National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) has released a document that suggests activities to promote National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

To read a pdf of the document, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Toxic Metals Linked to Autism

Toxic Metals Linked to 

Autism

Children with autism have markedly higher levels of toxic metals in their bodies than typical kids, a new study has found.  Arizona State University researchers who conducted the study, published in the journal Biological Trace Element Research, said the findings indicate reducing early exposure to toxic metals may help lessen symptoms of autism. But they cautioned that the potential connection needs to be studied in greater detail.

"We hypothesize that reducing early exposure to toxic metals may help ameliorate symptoms of autism,” the researchers concluded, “and treatment to remove toxic metals may reduce symptoms of autism; these hypotheses need further exploration, as there is a growing body of research to support it."

Lead researcher James Adams, director of the ASU Autism/Asperger's Research Program, has previously found that the use of DMSA, a federally-approved medication for removing toxic metals, was generally safe and effective at removing some toxic metals. It also found that DMSA therapy improved some symptoms of autism, particularly among children with the highest levels of toxic metals in their urine.

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

'Network' analysis of the brain may explain features of autism

'Network' analysis of the brain may explain features of autism

EEGs show structural differences in brain connections

A look at how the brain processes information finds a distinct pattern in children with autism spectrum disorders. Using EEGs to track the brain's electrical cross-talk, researchers from Boston Children's Hospital have found a structural difference in brain connections. Compared with neurotypical children, those with autism have multiple redundant connections between neighboring brain areas at the expense of long-distance links.
     The study, using a "network analysis" like that used to study airlines or electrical grids, may help in understanding some classic behaviors in autism. It was published February 27 in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine, accompanied by a commentary.
      "We examined brain networks as a whole in terms of their capacity to transfer and process information," says Jurriaan Peters, MD, of the Department of Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, who is co-first author of the paper with Maxime Taquet, a PhD student in Boston Children's Computational Radiology Laboratory. "What we found may well change the way we look at the brains of autistic children."
     Peters, Taquet and senior authors Simon Warfield, PhD, of the Computational Radiology Laboratory and Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD, of Neurology, analyzed EEG recordings from two groups of autistic children: 16 children with classic autism, and 14 children whose autism is part of a genetic syndrome known as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). They compared these readings with EEGs from two control groups—46 healthy neurotypical children and 29 children with TSC but not autism.
In both groups with autism, there were more short-range connections within different brain region, but fewer connections linking far-flung areas.
     A brain network that favors short-range over long-range connections seems to be consistent with autism's classic cognitive profile—a child who excels at specific, focused tasks like memorizing streets, but who cannot integrate information across different brain areas into higher-order concepts.

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

March Is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

March Is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

Advances and Setbacks

By Robert B. Fleming, CELA

In 1987 President Ronald Reagan proclaimed March “Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.” The deinstitutionalization movement of the seventies and early eighties had laid the foundation for significant social change, and the presidential proclamation called upon Americans to provide the "encouragement and opportunities" necessary for people with developmental disabilities to reach their potential.

As those citizens began living within the general community in larger numbers, programs to provide career planning, job coaching and supported employment began to emerge. The idea that individuals with developmental disabilities could become productive members of the workforce was new to many people, and entrenched preconceptions had to be overcome. Advocates recognized a moral imperative to engage individuals with developmental – and other – disabilities. With passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, workplace discrimination against people with disabilities became sanctionable.

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Uplifting Video: Disabled Man’s Restaurant Specializes in Breakfast, Lunch, and Hugs

Uplifting Video: Disabled Man’s Restaurant Specializes in Breakfast, Lunch, and Hugs

Tim Harris, owner of the three-year-old restaurant Tim's Place in Albuquerque, has Down syndrome, but says he is undeterred by his disability. He even dances to work. When the Huffington Post caught up with the 26-year-old last year, he told them he had given away more than 19,000 hugs. He knows, it turns out, because he has a hug counter hanging in the dining room. (That number is now at 39,000 and counting.) "The hugs are way more important than the food," Harris tells AOL, in the video that's straight ahead. "The food is food."

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Feet on the Autism Spectrum

Psychotherapist Cary Terra works with adults with autism spectrum disorder -- the soon-to-be-official all-encompassing diagnostic term for that we currently distinguish as autism, Asperger's, and childhood disintegrative disorder. During her many years of practice, she's noticed what she calls an "unmistakable trend": that her patients have a tendency to sit with their feet stacked. "Not all of them, mind you, just many more than I had ever seen when working with varied populations." Lately when she notices a patient sitting this way, she'll ask if she can take a photo. She has almost 50, three of which she kindly let us publish above.

Terra is clear to note that this should be taken for what it is, one clinician's observations, not to be used as a diagnostic tool. But it's an interesting reminder that our awareness and understanding of the subtler behavioral associations and manifestations of autism spectrum disorder are continually growing. Cut everybody as much slack as you possibly can.

To read more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

South Carolina Assistive Technology Expo 2013

South Carolina Assistive Technology Expo 2013

20th Anniversary Celebration

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

9 am – 4 pm

Brookland Banquet and Conference Center 

1066 Sunset Boulevard

West Columbia, S.C. 29169

(803) 796-7525

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - NO PRE-REGISTRATION NECESSARY

     Mark your calendars! The South Carolina Assistive Technology Program Expo is returning for another exciting year! Come see what's new in assistive technology and listen to free presentations by great speakers. Keep checking this page for more details!

For more details about the Expo, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Light it up Blue! World Autism Awareness Day

Light It up Blue!

World Autism Awareness Day

April 2

     Each April 2, Autism Speaks celebrates Light It Up Blue along with the international autism community, in commemoration of the United Nations-sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day. Light It Up Blue is a unique global initiative that kicks-off Autism Awareness Month and helps raise awareness about autism. In honor of this historic day, many iconic landmarks, hotels, sporting venues, concert halls, museums, bridges and retail stores are among the hundreds of thousands of homes and communities that take part to Light It Up Blue.

     It's easy and fun to Light It Up Blue! Register your Light It Up Blue events today. Whether you're joining as an individual, or the manager of a building, store, school, cultural institution, restaurant, or media entity, you can pledge to Light It Up Blue and share your events.

For more information about the Light it Up Blue Campaign, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

Can therapy dogs help kids with autism?

Can therapy dogs help kids with autism?

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter
 

TUESDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) -- For children with autism, trained dogs may offer not only a furry friend, but some therapeutic benefits, too, a new research review finds.

There is a "substantial body of evidence" that dogs act as "social catalysts," even encouraging adults to be a little friendlier to each other, said senior researcher Francesca Cirulli, of the National Institute of Health in Rome, Italy. And the few studies that have focused on kids with autism suggest the same is true for them.

In some cases, "therapy" or "service" dogs are called into action to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) -- a group of developmental brain disorders that hinder a child's ability to communicate and interact socially. ASDs range from the severe cases of "classic" autism to the relatively mild form called Asperger's syndrome

In the United States, it's estimated that about one in 88 children has some form of autism.

Yet there has been little research into whether trained dogs actually benefit those kids. The good news is, the existing evidence is promising, according to the new review, published in the February issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine......
 

 

To read the rest of the article, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.