TOTAL FAKE!!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/12/nelson-mandela-sign-language-interpreter-error-south-africa-government

This is an insane thing to have happened at such a large event held by the government. I cannot believe that this happened at Nelson Mandela’s funeral of all places. I feel very bad for the deaf people that attended and had no idea what was being said because of him. His services were requested specifically for the deaf community in South Africa to be able to understand the funeral of this important figure. He was also hired by the government, which means they have some explaining to do. A lot of people in the deaf community have complained about him signing before at other important events he has been hired for and signed nonsense at.

He claims he has schizophrenia, which I don’t believe because I have dealt with many people with it and they are not anywhere near that calm when having an episode. In the newspaper he said “Anyone who doesn't understand this illness will think that I'm just making this up" This is completely untrue both people who do know the illness and who don’t will know it is a lie.

If he really does have schizophrenia my question is why would he be allowed to perform at such an important service with such important people there? That disease is not controlled very well in most people and in high pressure situations, like interoperating your country’s most important figure’s funeral, they could get violent quickly. If they are violent and are so close to all of those important figures they could harm them before security could stop them. They also have very little warning before they get violent. This could create a very bad situation for people. So the way I look at it if he has schizophrenia or not he still should not have been up there and the government still has to come up with a good reason why he was hired.

Does a Bacteria Cause Autism?

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/12/08/probiotic.therapy.alleviates.autism.behaviors.mice

 

If they can give Autism to someone then, in theory, they should be able to cure it. If you know what causes something you should be able to prevent it or find a way to prevent it. If they found out that this bacteria caused Autism then they would be able to find a prevention for it or a cure for it. This could mean a big step towards finding a cure for it. It also brings researchers closer to finding out why and how it happens.

I do not personally think that the bacteria is what causes autism because there are so many different forms of it. I think that they can use the bacteria to come up with different ways to help cope with the disorder. It might cause some forms of it, but Autism is a broad term for something that we do not fully understand, so there is a possibility that there are other things that could cause it.

This is still a huge discovery to me because it can help us develop drugs to help with the symptoms and side effects from the disorder.

Helpful Holiday Tips

Having all of your family together can be a very stressful time for anyone, especially if you have autism or any other disabilities. Some family members are very open to it and welcoming, while others might not be. There are a lot of extra stimuli around during this time and extra people, making it very hard to find a place to calm down.

During the holidays everything in a person’s environment changes both inside the home and outside it. There are added lights, decorations, sometimes smells, if there are candles, and the weather is changing around this time. Someone with autism would be very on edge with all of these changes.

There are some things you can do to help prevent a bad situation. You could help by making it more routine. Make Christmas day seem like a normal day by creating a loose schedule of events so the child does not get upset. Try to stick to as much of a normal routine as you can.

Putting the decorations little by little would also help, so that everything in their environment does not change all at once.

Autism Speaks has some great tips on how to minimize issues during the holiday. They had some I would not have ever thought of. Some I agree with and actually used, while others I would not suggest. One of the main ones I could see causing problems is having them open presents early or practicing opening presents as they put it. I could see a child wondering why they could not open all of their presents then or expecting more on days it was not a holiday.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/holiday-tips

Celebrate the Holidays

Silent Santa is a great way to help kids with autism be more like kids without the disability. It offers a quiet place with less stimulating things, so they will not be as likely to get upset. The kids can go see Santa like any other child would and have just as good of an experience. They try to limit the noise, waiting time, and other things that could cause overstimulation. It can create great memories for the whole family.

They are starting to do things similar to Silent Santa in multiple towns, in different states, all around the United Sates. Some different malls hold different special events especially for this, while others are held in churches, schools, or activity centers.

Activities like this are relatively easy to plan. If someone wanted to they could organize a Silent Santa in their town. All they would have to do is rent out a place, have someone dress up as Santa, get a backdrop, and a photographer. They could charge however much the mall does per picture to get the money back and do whatever they want with the rest they earn.

There are other ways to keep a child feeling normal during the holidays. A parent or relative or friend can plan activities to do with them. There are many different holiday activities that you can do with a person with disabilities. It also depends on how severely their disability affects them. There are light shows for adults or teenagers with disabilities.

 http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/quiet-santa-events-coup-kids-autism/story?id=21075139

Diagnosing Autism Earlier In Life

This could be a significant help to people with autism! If they can diagnose someone with autism before age 1 year they will have so much time in their early developmental stage to help them. People with autism not making eye contact with other people is one of the biggest things associated with autism so I can see where that would be a helpful tool in diagnosing it. In the first trial almost half of the test patients that did not make much eye contact developed autism. That is a very large number for the very first trial, it must mean something.

In the first few years of life a person learn the most. It is shown they take up the largest amount of information in their first five years of life. Most children now are diagnosed anywhere from age two to five, taking up almost all of their curtail developmental time in their life. This can be a very good reason children are not developing as well as they could. If they were diagnosed earlier then they could have the proper treatment, or learning catered towards their needs so they can develop to be all that they can be.

People with autism generally do not like to make eye contact. I have found out by reading books from people who have autism that it is over stimulating. Carly said something like her brain takes a lot of “pictures” of people’s faces, especially when they make eye contact. This could definitely be a sign that someone having autism. I see this as more of a first hint to go get them checked for a test and keep an eye out for further signs, rather than a test in itself.

In the trial they did the researchers noticed that about half of the babies and children that avoid eye contact got diagnosed with autism later in life. That is a pretty significant number for such a small sample and first test. I think they are on to something. The study also showed that it probably is not a good idea to base it off genetics. Only one of the siblings developed autism where half of the subjects developed it that were not making eye contact.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/11/06/autism-sign-may-appear-in-first-months-of-life

Theater For People With Social Disabilities

I think this theater for people with social disabilities like autism is a great new opportunity for both people with disabilities, their families, and researchers. This is a completely new idea and I am glad people wanted to try this. If it helps with their social interactions, then I am all for that. This could be a fun new opportunity for them to learn how to interact that does not seem like learning. Unfortunately this was for research, not just to help them as a fun idea, but at least there is some proof that the theater is helping.

I like that the theater is helping people with disabilities, their families, and their communities. This theater not only helps the people with the disability learn to communicate better, but also helps their families be able to communicate with them better. This also helps the community because they can communicate better so they will be able to interact in the community more and be a better member of the community. It will also help them with making friends in the community. This mainly benefits them though because it is geared towards helping them with their social skills which is one of the most important to have in this world.

It is also a fun way for them to learn the social skills. Most of the students that would be in the theater are school age, so they are learning this in school as well. This is a more fun opportunity for them to gain more skills. This is also a part of their school so it will help them in school as well.  This does not seem like it would be learning to them or anyone so it sort of tricks them into learning new skills because it is fun at the same time.

I do not like that this is a research project and it is not just a fun thing to help the students. It has its pros and cons. I wish that it was someone doing something nice for them not just to learn new information. It would be much better that way, I feel any way.

On a positive note there is research to back up that the theater is helping them improve so maybe more will be able to pop up and help more people. This could be a great thing to have in a community. It also means that there is more money for it so there are better teachers and people working with them. It is probably a better program with it being a research project, but it just sounds a tad wrong.

Deaf News

This is a really cool website for deaf people to watch about current events so they do not have to worry about closed captioning or reading English called Deaf Newspaper. It also has a place where people can see all the deaf events. If you know ASL you can help the website by signing for it. There are Pictures on the little drop down menu of the deaf events that he has gone to and reported about. There is also a cooking show on here.

What a lot of people do not know is that American Sign Language is not English in any way shape or form. It has its own grammar rules and writing style, called glossing. English is another language deaf people have to learn to “fit in,” because everything is written in English around them. Reading news in English is probably not the best or most sought after way to read the news. If I were deaf I would love to have a station with someone actually signing. This is sort of one, although it is online and not completely about the news.

I like how it has the deaf events listed on the sides so people can see what events are current and what they can go to all over the country to connect with other deaf people around the country. Deaf culture is a very unique culture and it is not spread very easily because they are a minority and are spread out over a lot of places around the world. It is developing differently in different parts of the country so that is why it is important for them to visit with and see people from all over. They can share signs and different aspects of their culture at these deaf events.  There are a lot of different deaf events within deaf communities as well and they are not all listed on this website. There are only events the person who runs the website is going to

There is also a cooking show on the website. There is a small little clip that introduces the cook and there are choices of different recopies to look at. I like it I think it is a cute little show it is not very important to see the signs for how to cook because they still have to be written down to follow them anyway. I like how they show this still.