ScienceGeek

Happy Birthday JP, hope you have a good day

I got a PM back from Warren, he seems to be doing ok and just things are a bit crazy at work.

Problems processing visual information may stop those with autism interpreting body language, harming their ability to gauge others' emotions, a study says. Researchers say people with autism have problems recognising physical displays of emotion, but also general difficulty perceiving certain sorts of motion. They suggest in Neuropsychologia this may contribute to problems with social interaction, characteristic of autism. The National Autistic Society said the UK study was an interesting one. A team from the University of Durham studied 13 adults with autism and found the patients had difficulty identifying emotions such as anger or happiness when shown short animated video clips. Silent movies The characters had no faces, nor did they speak, so the participants were asked to judge the emotion based on the body language of the figure alone. Along with 16 adults with no autism diagnosis, they were also shown a number of dots on a computer screen and asked which way they were moving. A proportion of dots moved noticeably to the left or right, while the others moved randomly. The way people move their bodies tells us a lot about their feelings or intentions, and we use this information on a daily basis to communicate with each other Anthony Atkinson Lead author The performance of the autism group was significantly below that of the others in both tests, leading researchers to speculate that there may be serious differences between the ability to process visual information. They point to an area of the brain needed for the perception of motion called the superior temporal sulcus, and cite previous research which has found that this area responds differently in people with autism. "The way people move their bodies tells us a lot about their feelings or intentions, and we use this information on a daily basis to communicate with each other. "We use others' body movements and postures, as well as people's faces and voices, to gauge their feelings," said Anthony Atkinson, who led the research. "People with autism are less able to use these cues to make accurate judgements about how others are feeling. "We now need to look further to see how exactly this happens and how this may combine with potential difficulties in attention." It is thought as many as half a million people in the UK have a form of autism, a lifelong developmental disability which can severely affect how a person makes sense of the world around them. Gina Gomez De La Cuesta, of the National Autistic Society, said the study was an interesting one. "It certainly takes us on. We know of these problems with emotion recognition but to start to unpick the reasons why is helpful. There appear to be difficulties at the very basic processing level. "But we really need to see this repeated in more people and then we can start thinking about how we act on it." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8183447.stm

My old GP has it, but the practice I go to now is really small so doesn't have it. Then again my old GP sent out reminders when my next injection is due (every 12 weeks so real easy to forget) this one doesn't (the last 2 injections I've been 6 weeks late, which obviously isn't good)

My old GP was under that system and it is ridiculous. It makes it near on impossible to get an appointment unless you have the number on speed dial and happen to be attached to the phone for that time of the morning. It doesn't make it easy for people who have to plan appointments into a hectic schedule (like my wife has to). I'm lucky that my current GP isn't like that, just book an appointment and certain amount kept free for emergencies

I have no idea what my accent is doing anymore. It seems to be a mix between east london, west country with a few americanisms slipping in too. I pick up accents real easy, when we had an american friend stay I noticed I picked up some of her accent (rhode island )

The government is planning on axing AA and giving the money directly to the authorities (social services etc) in the form of a personalised budget. What about those who aren't involved with social services and the DLA money is something that props them up so they can provide care themselves without the worry of the lost income from not working full time. Benefits and work are doing a campaign - I've signed the petition - http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/disabilit...la)/dla-aa-cuts

Sage Journals has a free access period for their psychology, psychiatry and counselling journals at the moment (1st August - 30th September). They have plenty of journals about ASDs on there, so thought would let you all know about it. The link to sign up is here - https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register?reg...=PSYCH09UKHOUSE

I really enjoyed them, have read them about 10 times each so far.

Re-reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin want to have them all re-read before the fifth book comes out in October

I didn't think of that! Will do in a second.

Hi there mate, glad you found your way here Make yourself at home, quite a few friendly people around. Starting to build up a nice group of adults on here too.

Anyone heard from Warren? Seems like he hasn't been around for a while, hope he is ok?

What I find interesting is the DANDA neruo-diversity diagram showing how much the different ND conditions overlap

I often do that with music, just yesterday I had the song Boston by Augustana on nearly all day! Sometimes I end up doing it with dvds, if I leave the dvd player on it will just go round and round, watched the same film 4 times in 1 day the other day

Hi Adam, I'm not sure who your local specialist is, it is pretty sparse this part of the country for adult diagnostic services. Have you tried contacting the NAS? I'll ask around and see if I can find out anything for you. SG

Well I'm being referred for a sensory profile and also stuff to do with my walking. I saw a physio recently but was fobbed off and they blamed it on the way I walk, as if I did it on purpose. I already knew that!

It's because of where the pot of money is coming from. I had to have a social services assessment first and now just waiting for the referral to be done, but they still don't know if they have anyone qualified.. Who knew trying to get to see an OT would be so much freaking hassle?

What I forgot to say was that I'm going to have a floating support worker for either 2 or 3 hrs a week (depends on the funding etc) Disappointed they don't actually float!

I'm still awaiting an OT appointment so I'm not sure how this is going to work really.

My googlefu is failing me at finding any credible sources for it right now. The page that jaded linked has been taken down thats why it isn't working. I think it is interesting if there is a link I've been diagnosed with AS, dyspraxia and dyslexia, my mum was recently diagnosed as dyslexic and I know plenty in my family on mums side that are either on the spectrum or have a SpLD.

I was wondering if it was quite common practice for schools to withold information from parents? Me and my mum were talking about school recently when she was visiting and it is amazing just how much she didn't know about what went on in school. Like she didn't know until a few years after I left that I was in counselling for nearly the whole time I was in secondary school, had anger management, social skills training and the list goes on. It seems to me she actually knew relatively little about what went on, reports gave no indiction on how much I was struggling just that I needed to concentrate more and stop daydreaming but that was about it. I'm just curious thats all.

I don't normally eat until at least 11am.

sometimes the cycle path is on the pavement, I know they are around here at least.

So who is going this year? I actually managed to get the money this year