Information and forms
1. Professional training for communication clinicians on "Apraxia of speech"Held at Hadassah Jerusalem. As part of this training, I will give a lecture on "Apraxia on the Autistic Continuum". More information can be found at the following link:
Apraxia on the autistic continuum, Lenor Bresloff communication therapist
and in addition www.hadassah.ac.il
2. Who does not want to develop and promote their children's language and communication skills?
Can a response to the baby's murmur encourage verbal and communicative development in babies?
Does the way we talk and communicate with the baby affect the quality and speed of communication and speech development?
Is there a way to promote the development of communication and language already at the age of three months?
According to Goldstein and his partners, at least some of the answers to these questions are positive and can be found in the results of his latest research.
The main conclusions:
This study points to the importance of verbal responses to the baby's babbling immediately, reciprocally and verbally. The immediate reaction of the parent to muttering apparently conveys to the baby that language has meaning and thus stimulates the baby to speak in general and to imitate the parent's language patterns in particular.
Bottom line, don't stop talking to and to the little ones!!!
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/19/5/515.short
It is recommended to consult a speech therapist.
3. Children, tablets and communication skills
Thinking of a tablet for kids? think again…
Want to develop and promote your child's cognitive and social abilities?
Books gentlemen books!
Don't give up books and social gatherings. Reduce the amount of time spent playing computer/tablet games and reduce the use of social networks.
Prof. Susan Greenfield from the University of Oxford who wrote the book 'The Search for Identity in the 21st Century'
Claims that computer games do not require the use of important cognitive abilities such as: linking previous information to new information, making assumptions, drawing conclusions. The computer games are good for the ability to process a lot of information in a specific task but not for the use of previous and acquired information.
In addition, social networks reduce social and emotional abilities and may lead to a lack of empathy. The direct social interaction reveals the voice (intonation, tone, intensity), facial expressions, body movements, the degree of physical proximity, all of which are not taken into account when using the social network.
4. The relationship between smartphones and language and developmental delay:
"Studies show that the use of smartphones causes language and developmental delay. While a toddler or baby should be communicating with his environment, hearing sentences and responding to a parent, he is busy hearing strange sounds, elevator music and distorted human voices talking to him. Dear parents, your child needs to hear you and not Angry Birds' screams exploding."
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4443439,00.html
As a mother and as a communication therapist, I recommend not taking the matter lightly...
4. Is there a cure for autism?
Scientific American magazine recently presented a series of articles on the treatment of autism.
The main conclusion, which is not sensational news, is that intensive early intervention significantly helps to promote and improve the communication skills of children who belong to the autistic spectrum.
In addition, a new study is presented in the magazine which tests the effect of a substance called "oxytocin" on encouraging communication in general and in particular its contribution to the treatment of autism.
It is too early to say where this research will lead and it is understood that the road to finding a "cure for autism" is still long, but there is no doubt that research of this kind is fascinating and encouraging.
5. New study: Does special education hinder development?
A study that examined the medical files of hundreds of autistics revealed: those who grew up with siblings without special needs became more independent
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/493/265.html#.UjW8yyv3nYw.facebook
6. The method that will make your babies smarter
Studies have proven that the more words children hear in their first years - the higher their level of intelligence will be. What should be said to them, when should you speak and in how many languages and how will you know that they really understand?
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4274245,00.html
For any question, it is recommended to consult a speech therapist
7. Is he misbehaving? Brain network activity of children with autism during social judgment
People with autism sometimes break social rules, and do not always know how to recognize or explain appropriate social behavior. 12 children on the autistic spectrum and 13 children with normal development participated in this study, with the aim of examining the basis of the neurological function of social judgment, by means of an fMRI test that is used to measure the activity of brain regions when performing various tasks.
Each participant was shown pairs of pictures. In one task, the participants were asked to choose from two pictures the picture showing a child misbehaving, that is, to indicate a social situation. In the second task, they were asked to choose which of the two pictures takes place outside, that is, to indicate a physical situation.
Both groups succeeded in the task, but each group used different parts of the brain to perform the task. In the group of children with normal development, the participants used the elements of mentalization and the language systems. The children on the autism spectrum used other parts, indicating reduced use of the social and linguistic systems of the brain during the social judgment task.
In addition, both groups presented similar performance in measuring their eye movements while completing the task, which suggests that the difference in action between the groups reflects the use of different strategies and not gaps in the ability to perform the task. Although there was no need to use language when selecting the picture, the normally developing children recruited the language areas of their brains for the social task, meaning they automatically encode information into language. But this was not the case among the children on the autistic spectrum.
These findings support behavioral studies, which teach that children with autism may recognize socially inappropriate behavior, but have difficulty using spoken language to explain why the behavior is inappropriate. The MRI results indicate that children on the autism spectrum cannot automatically use language to encode their social understanding, which makes the expression and generalization of this knowledge more difficult for them.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0047241
8. Interview on autism with Keren Margalit:
9. Link to the documentary "This is my child" that was broadcast on Channel 2 following the TV series Yellow Peppers:
10. An article on International Autism Awareness Day:
Forms
1. Questionnaire for parents of kindergarten children
2. Questionnaire for parents of school children
Linor Bresloff Sternshus, speech therapist