IAN Community E-Newsletter - February 17, 2009Date First Published: February 17, 2009 Contents Dear Members of the IAN Community, These are only a few of the features available on IAN Community, so please make sure to visit the website regularly. Read and enjoy! The IAN Team Social Skills TrainingA lack of intuitive social ability is a hallmark of autism. This may be part of what makes autism so hard to explain to those unfamiliar with it. Most people are not overtly aware of their own ability to process social cues instantly, read body language, or guess what another person thinks, feels, or intends. How, then, can they understand what it means to be on the autism spectrum and lack such abilities to one degree or another? In this article, we review both the social challenges of people on the autism spectrum and the many techniques and tools that have been developed to help them learn social skills and social understanding. We also explore the state of the research on these interventions. Read more in Social Skills Interventions: Getting to the Core of Autism. IAN Research Findings: Social Skills GroupsMany children on the autism spectrum attend a social skills group. Such groups give children a place to learn and practice social skills in a social setting, using many of the techniques described in our article on Social Skills Interventions. Have IAN families reporting on their experience found such groups worthwhile? Find out what IAN families are reporting in IAN Research Findings: Social Skills Groups. Vaccine QuestionnaireThe IAN Project has launched its Vaccine Questionnaire, an online survey. Families participating in IAN who have any children, affected or unaffected, between the ages of 4 and 17 are now able to report on their vaccine-related beliefs and practices. Based on what is learned from families' responses, researchers will be able to plan and conduct additional vaccine-focused studies. Read IAN Launches Vaccine Questionnaire. New Grant Will Assess Web-based Family Recruitment for Autism Genetic StudiesThe Interactive Autism Network (IAN) project, together with research teams at UCLA and Washington University, has been awarded an exciting grant from Autism Speaks. The grant will assess how rapidly it is possible to recruit families through the Internet to provide genetic samples for autism research. Currently, the number of genetic samples available to autism researchers is too small for the types of genetics studies that have yielded such gains in diabetes and breast cancer research. This pilot project will recruit families participating in the IAN Research project to provide genetic samples, along with the information they already provide through online surveys. The goal is to collect DNA from more children in one year than has so far been collected in 10 years. Read about all of the "high impact" grants recently awarded by Autism Speaks. |
