Lisa Jo Rudy on How Families of Children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome Can Get the Most out of Community Activities

“Autism can be an incredibly isolating disorder. Not only do parents wind up spending a huge amount of their time, energy, money and love on therapies and care – they also feel like outsiders in their own communities and families. It can be even worse for siblings who, through no fault of their own, are often excluded from ordinary activities. By getting out and getting involved in the community as it’s possible, families are able to reconnect with clubs, churches and synagogues, sports leagues… and often with their own families. Another huge plus for getting out into the world with a child on the autism spectrum is that families discover their child’s real strengths and abilities in ways that would never be possible in the school or therapeutic settings.”

June 1, 2010Autism

Dr. Darold Treffert on Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant

“…new cases of the acquired savant — neurotypical persons in whom savant skills emerged, sometimes at a prodigious level, following brain injury or disease when no such skills were evident pre-incident — have convinced me that we have vastly underestimated brain plasticity and the brain’s ability to repair itself when damaged through rewiring, recruitment and release. This new neurologic optimism — the brain’s ability to renew and repair itself — has vast implications not only for better understanding and intervening in autism and related conditions, but provides much more hope and enthusiasm for intervention post-stroke, for example, or for treatment of a variety of other CNS conditions formerly viewed much more pessimistically.”

May 27, 2010Counselling

Hilary Abrahams looks at long-term outcomes of survivors of domestic violence

Hilary Abrahams is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Violence Against Women Research Group at the University of Bristol. She has worked extensively on the support…

May 5, 2010Social work

Michael Mandelstam’s hopes and fears for the future of social care

“[My hope is] That the new policy of personalisation and self-directed support should not be not implemented crudely and with cost cutting in mind, and that it is not used as a cover for abandoning people, particularly older people, and leaving them to sink or swim…”

April 27, 2010Autism

Phoebe Caldwell on her new DVD, Autism and Intensive Interaction

“Although the approach know as Intensive Interaction has been available since the 1980’s, it has relied on direct person-to-person teaching and until recently there has been remarkably little training material generally available. It really is important to see it done.”

March 30, 2010May 8, 2017Arts therapies

Chris Nicholson on Creative Therapeutic Approaches with traumatised young people

“Through sensitively handled, creative interaction and by the use of ‘creative’ approaches with traumatised young people their characteristic rigidity begins to loosen. New possibilities emerge, the mutative nature of create endeavours. In time, they may be able to see painfully familiar situations in different and helpful ways that can lead to their forming a new response.”

March 15, 2010Autism

An interview with Ilona Roth: Getting to grips with the Autism Spectrum in the 21st Century

“…there seem to be two contrasting stereotypes about people with autism – either they are thought to be all severely disabled or all eccentric geniuses. While autism can reflect each of these extremes (or both together) it can also be many things in between. One challenge, therefore, is to ensure that the full spectrum of variation is understood. This is essential if people on the autism spectrum are to be seen as individuals with different needs.”

February 26, 2010Counselling

Deborah Plummer on Imagework and Helping Children to Cope with Change, Stress and Anxiety

“When a child comes up with an image that represents how he feels about a situation, he is tapping into something that goes way beyond logical thought processes. And when he realises that he can ‘play’ with these images and be creative in forming new images, then he can begin to take more control. Imagework often triggers insights and shifts in perspective which may not come through logical thinking alone.”

February 15, 2010Adoption and Fostering

Linda Woodcock on Managing Meltdowns

“The low arousal approach is based on three assumptions, firstly that most individuals who are distressed are extremely aroused at the time, therefore we should avoid doing anything to make it worse…”