John Merges on Social Enjoyment Groups for young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“Social enjoyment, as both an important life and employment skill, needs to be taught and practiced as early as possible. We need to provide our young people with safe, predictable situations to practice enjoying a social interaction. The successes I’ve seen in my own work demonstrate that social enjoyment is indeed a skill – and thus, can be learned.”

Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom – An Interview with former Teaching Assistant and JKP author, Gill D. Ansell

“As a Teaching Assistant I felt able to work closely with the students with AS; to get to know them as a person; to get to see the world the way they see it and from there develop strategies to help individuals. Sometimes, I tried new strategies which in reality were just ideas I had which I thought could work with a particular individual – that’s why it is important to know the student as an individual.”

ADHD’s Genetic Link: 5 Implications for Organizing ADD/ADHD Children – by Cheryl Carter

“The Lancet medical journal recently revealed that ADHD children have a gene that predisposes them to ADHD. Their “findings provide genetic evidence of an increased rate of large CNVs in individuals with ADHD and suggest that ADHD is not purely a social construct.” In a nutshell, the presence of CNV proves that ADHD is not the result of poor parenting, unstructured environment, too much sugar or a myriad of other reasons. This research proves what many have known all along — that ADHD may run in families. This has far reaching implications for families with ADHD. Given the genetic link, chances are either one or both parents may have ADHD. This has at least five interesting implications for most families, particularly in regard to organization and time management:”