PLT Test Blog

  This time the “Professor” wears the Dunce’s cap I had a surprise last month, talking to my son’s 1:1 assistant, this time about maths (or math in US English). Normally I am trying to simplify school academics, and so if something really is not important, like argumentative writing, I am all for skipping over it.   The idea is that Monty, aged 17 with autism, should focus on useful learning that he has a chance of mastering. Monty’s international school follows an English curriculum and in that model you have a choice in some subjects of studying the core or the extended version. So a typical child who wants to become a doctor, or an engineer, will have to follow the extended version of all their subjects, but someone who is going to shift boxes in a warehouse might opt for the core/simplified versions. Most people lie somewhere in between. People with severe autism would not normally follow any of these academic curricula, because it is all way above their heads.   ...

  The Lateral Septum, in green, turns the volume  up or down in aggression Today’s post started by me checking for anything new in the research about the hormone Vasopressin and autism. I was surprised by just how much research continues to be published on the subject – no smoke without fire, perhaps. We also get another insight into how aggressive raging develops in the brain; we even have a photo. A novel therapy for Fragile-X is also thrown into the mix, due to a link to oxytocin. So, what is cooking in the research? The first thing to note is that you really do have to look at both Oxytocin and Vasopressin, because these two hormones are very closely related. We have previously looked at the autism gene NLGN3, this gene encodes the cute sounding neuroligin-3.   https://epiphanyasd.blogspot.com/search/label/neuroglin   The reason people with Fragile-X have autism is because they lack the protein FMRP ( Fragile X mental retardation protein). In healthy n...

  Today’s post is about an issue that seems to cause a problem in some countries far more than others. While some people with mild autism (Asperger’s) may feel anxiety when dealing with the police, the big problem occurs when the police are called in to restrain someone with severe autism and particularly someone who is also non-verbal with MR/ID.   Most people with untreated severe autism actually have MR/ID, even if it was never diagnosed. It would never occur to me to call the police to restrain my own son, but in North America this is a regular occurrence.   It sometimes does not end well, often it was the parents who called the police, when it is not the parents it is likely to be the school. The research shows that most often the police in the US do successfully resolve the incident. I did ask my son’s assistant what she knows about the police dealing with aggressive autistic people. She knows lots of people with autism and parents. She initially did not understan...