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AMC is Expanding Sensory Friendly Films – See Pan Twice!

Last updated on October 14th, 2015 at 05:26 pm

AMC Entertainment (AMC) is expanding their Sensory Friendly Films program, in partnership with the Autism Society!  Now families affected by autism or other special needs can have TWO opportunities each month to enjoy a family-friendly movie in a safe and accepting environment – and sensory friendly screenings of movies for older audiences are also being added to meet the needs of others on the autism spectrum. The traditional family-oriented movies will still be screened on Saturday mornings, while films for older viewers will be shown two Tuesdays each month at 7pm.

Sensory-Friendly-Films-logoAs always, the movie auditoriums will have their lights turned up and the sound turned down. Families will be able to bring in snacks to match their child’s dietary needs (i.e. gluten-free, casein-free, etc.), there are no advertisements or previews before the movie and it’s totally acceptable to get up and dance, walk, shout, talk to each other…and even sing – in other words, AMC’s “Silence is Golden®” policy will not be enforced during movie screenings unless the safety of the audience is questioned.

Pan-PosterDoes it make a difference? Absolutely! Imagine …no need to shhhhh your child. No angry stares from other movie goers. Many parents think twice before bringing a child to a movie theater. Add to that your child’s special needs and it can easily become cause for parental panic. But on this one day a month, for this one screening, everyone is there to relax and have a good time, everyone expects to be surrounded by kids – with and without special needs – and the movie theater policy becomes “Tolerance is Golden“.

AMC and the Autism Society will be showing Pan this Saturday, October 10th at 10am – and on Tuesday, October 13th, at 7pm (all local times). Tickets are $4 to $6 depending on the location. To find a theatre near you, here is a list of AMC theatres nationwide participating in this fabulous program (note: to access full list, please scroll to the bottom of the page).

Coming later in October: Goosebumps (Sat, 10/24) and Jem and the Holograms (Tues, 10/27)

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Editor’s note: Although Pan has been chosen by the Autism Society as this month’s Sensory Friendly screening, we do want parents to know that it is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for fantasy action violence, language and some thematic material. As always, please check the IMDB Parents Guide for a more detailed description of this film to determine if it is right for you and your child.

October 9, 2015 | Filed Under Awareness | 2 Comments 

Meet the Asperger Experts: AS Kids, Now Helping Others Thrive

Last updated on October 12th, 2015 at 03:16 pm

AE logo 2Asperger Experts was the creation of Danny Raede & Hayden Mears. Both diagnosed with Asperger’s as kids, they created Asperger Experts to  help others find a way out of the immense pain and loneliness that often comes with an AS diagnosis.

  • danny picDanny was diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was 12, after his parents noticed him having some difficulties focusing at school. He spent most of his free time from middle school up until the first year of college playing video games – specifically, an online video game called “Neverwinter Nights,” where he learned most of his social skills.  In 2009, he decided that he wanted a better life, and committed himself to the study of his own thoughts and behaviors, and well as the strategy, systems, and mechanisms behind success.
  • hayden picHayden was diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was 5, but not told until he was 12. His school years, up until 11th grade, were spent without many friends, and he was constantly bullied. In the middle of his junior year of high school, Hayden decided that he needed to change his life. With the help of his mother, a trained speech therapist, he was able to overcome most of his setbacks.  Six months later, he found himself thriving with a large group of friends, much higher confidence levels, and a better grasp of who he was.

Danny & Hayden designed Asperger Experts to teach others exactly what they did to get to where they are in life.  Their goal: to help people affected by Aspergers learn how to change their behavior and thinking, and ultimately live the life they want to, not the life that they are limited to.

The Asperger Experts site consists of DVDs, audio courses, webinars, coaching sessions & videos,  designed to show caregivers and companions exactly what goes on inside the mind of someone with Aspergers, how to communicate with them, what to do to greatly reduce daily frustrations, and most importantly, how to get people with ASD to fully experience all that life offers.

Their Blog covers topics such as:

  • What is Defense Mode?
  • 4 ways to predict if your child will fail in the new school year
  • A father’s perspective: What I did wrong (and what I did right)
  • Don’t teach social skills
  • Getting someone with Asperger’s to do something
  • Whose Fault is it
  • etc.

The perspective provided is unique and refreshing.  Checkout the following clip on: “How to make video games a healthy part of a child with Asperger’s life…”

According to the Asperger Experts site: “People with Asperger’s are amazing individuals, but without very specific, directed guidance, they can fall through the cracks and not get the help they need. Drawing on their own personal experience, as well as the best research into success, human potential, and the autistic spectrum, Danny & Hayden are changing the way the world not only looks at people with Autism, but how they treat these individuals as well.

October 5, 2015 | Filed Under Community | 4 Comments 

Hotel Transylvania 2 is Sensory Friendly at AMC Tomorrow

Last updated on September 30th, 2015 at 06:09 pm

Sensory-Friendly-Films-logoAMC Entertainment (AMC) and the Autism Society have teamed up to bring families affected by autism and with other special needs “Sensory Friendly Movie Screenings” every month – a wonderful opportunity to enjoy fun new films in a safe and accepting environment.

The movie auditoriums will have their lights turned up and the sound turned down. Families will be able to bring in snacks to match their child’s dietary needs (i.e. gluten-free, casein-free, etc.), there are no advertisements or previews before the movie and it’s totally acceptable to get up and dance, walk, shout, talk to each other…and even sing – in other words, AMC’s “Silence is Golden®” policy will not be enforced during movie screenings unless the safety of the audience is questioned.

Hotel Transylvania2-PosterDoes it make a difference? Absolutely! Imagine …no need to shhhhh your child. No angry stares from other movie goers. Many parents think twice before bringing a child to a movie theater. Add to that your child’s special needs and it can easily become cause for parental panic. But on this one day a month, for this one screening, everyone is there to relax and have a good time, everyone expects to be surrounded by kids – with and without special needs – and the movie theater policy becomes “Tolerance is Golden“.

This Saturday September 26th, at 10am local time, the Autism Society’s “Sensory Friendly Movie Screenings” program will be showing the Hotel Transylvania 2. Tickets are $4 to $6 depending on the location. To find a theatre near you, here is a list of AMC theatres nationwide participating in this fabulous program (note: to access full list, please scroll to the bottom of the page).

Coming in October: Pan

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Editor’s note: Although Hotel Transylvania 2 has been chosen by the Autism Society as this month’s Sensory Friendly screening, we do want parents to know that it is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for some scary images, action and rude humor. As always, please check the IMDB Parents Guide for a more detailed description of this film to determine if it is right for you and your child.

September 25, 2015 | Filed Under Awareness | Leave a Comment 

Video: Young Man and Speech Therapist Talk about Stuttering

Last updated on September 29th, 2015 at 10:04 pm

Learn about the causes and challenges of stuttering (also known as stammering) from a speech therapist and a young man who’s living with stuttering. Jamal eventually got help for the problem and has since embraced his stutter as just another aspect of who he is – not a defining element.

Editor’s Note: Video Highlights

  • Stuttering or stammering is a difficulty with fluency in speech
  • Physically it can manifest or be experienced as a person repeating sounds or words, or becoming completely blocked in speaking
  • But there are also a lot of internal, often negative, feelings about stuttering – particularly as a child ages
  • Ways that people use to cope with stuttering is avoidance or substitution of words – and even avoidance of social situations – trying to deal with the stuttering is always top of mind
  • Stuttering background conceptThe issue can affect everyday situations and, as a person grows, can become a barrier to employment, through avoiding interviews
  • There is a lot of help now for people who stutter – best to get specialist help, such as speech therapy
  • It’s never too late to get help, whether a child or an adult – a cure may not be possible, but real improvement is possible

For more information on the characteristics, causes and treatment of stammering, check out this link from NHS Choices or The Stuttering Foundation

September 9, 2015 | Filed Under Community | Leave a Comment 

Study Indicates IVF Poses Minimal Risk of Autism and Low IQ

Last updated on September 14th, 2015 at 11:19 am

IVF-and-autism-lowIQ“Children born after certain infertility treatments at higher risk of autism,” reads the headline in The Independent. The news is based on a large long-term Swedish study.

Researchers looked at how children were conceived and how this might affect their risk of developing autism, a type of autistic spectrum disorder, or “mental retardation”, a term used by researchers to describe a person with an IQ under 70 (average IQ is 100).

The Independent’s headline is misleading, as the study in fact found there was no statistically significant increase in the risk of autism in children conceived through any form of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). However, there was a statistically significant increase in the risk of mental retardation, but this increase was slight. The occurrence of mental retardation was 39.8 per 100,000 births in those conceived spontaneously, compared with 46.3 per 100,000 births in those conceived through IVF. This represents a difference of just 6.5 cases per 100,000 births.

This news should not cause alarm among those thinking about undergoing IVF treatment, but does highlight a potential association between IVF and mental development that warrants further study.

Where did the story come from?

The study was led by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and was funded by Autism Speaks, a non-profit organisation that provides funding for autism spectrum disorder research, and the Swedish Research Council.

It was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Asssociation (JAMA).

Most of the UK media’s reporting was balanced, including The Independent’s coverage, which outlined important information on how “scientists stressed that the chances of an IVF baby being affected was tiny in real terms”.

But many of the headline writers failed to make a similar distinction, with the exception of The Guardian and ITV News, which wrote that “IVF findings ‘should not stop parents using fertility treatments’.”

What kind of research was this?

This was a prospective cohort study designed to test whether the use of any IVF procedure (as well as specific types of IVF procedures) may be associated with an increased risk of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and mental retardation in children conceived this way.

IVF allows a woman’s egg to be fertilised by sperm outside the body under controlled laboratory conditions. Different types of IVF have been developed over the years, and the researchers pointed towards previous research that suggests intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) might damage the egg when the sperm is inserted.

ICSI is usually used to treat male infertility (when the man has a low sperm count, or there are problems with the movement of sperm impeding natural conception, for instance) and involves injecting sperm directly into the egg.

The research group highlight that there is little research on how IVF, and different types of IVF, influence the brain development of children conceived using these techniques. Their study aimed to fill in this gap in our knowledge.

What did the research involve?

The researchers reviewed the records of more than 2.5 million infants born in Sweden between 1982 and 2007. They recorded how they were conceived and whether they were diagnosed with ASD or had “mental retardation” at the age of four.

Conception was categorised as being spontaneous (without IVF) or using IVF. The specific type of IVF used was also recorded, as was the source of the sperm (ejaculated or surgically extracted).

ASD is described as a deficit in social interaction and communication that also involves restricted, stereotypical or repetitive behaviour. Read more about the signs and symptoms of ASD. “Mental retardation” is defined as an IQ lower than 70, plus limitations in adaptive behaviour.

In Sweden, where the research took place, all infants and preschool children are regularly seen at “well-child” care clinics, and undergo routine medical and developmental screening. At the age of four, all children undergo a mandatory developmental assessment of their motor skills, language, and cognitive and social development. Children with a suspected developmental disorder are referred for further assessment by a specialised team.

The researchers used information from these assessments and the years that followed to categorise the children as having either infantile and childhood autism or mental retardation. They used diagnostic criteria from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) ninth edition. These definitions did not include other forms of ASD such as Asperger syndrome, a higher-functioning form of ASD where intelligence is usually unaffected.

The researchers’ main analysis compared the incidence of ASD and mental retardation, and whether the conditions differed depending on the method of conception.

The analysis was adjusted to take into account some confounders known to influence the risk of impaired child brain development, including:

  • Parental psychiatric history
  • Birth year
  • Multiple births
  • Preterm birth (less than 37 weeks)

What were the basic results?

Out of the approximately 2.5 million infants born, 30,959 (1.2%) were conceived by IVF. These were followed-up for an average of 10 years. Overall, 103 of 6,959 children (1.5%) with ASD and 180 of 15,830 (1.1%) with mental retardation were conceived by IVF.

The key results showed:

  • There was no statistically significant difference between the risk of the child developing ASD in those conceived spontaneously and those using IVF (all types grouped together).
  • There was a small and borderline significant increased risk of the child developing mental retardation if they were conceived using IVF (all types grouped together) compared with spontaneous conception. The occurrence of mental retardation was 39.8 per 100,000 births in those conceived spontaneously, compared with 46.3 per 100,000 births conceived through IVF.
  • When the analysis was restricted to single births, the increased risk of mental retardation disappeared, so it only seemed relevant to multiple births from the same mother.

There were statistically significant differences in the risk of developing autism and mental retardation depending on the specific IVF techniques used to conceive. Compared with IVF without ICSI, there were statistically significant increases in the risk of ASD and mental retardation following ICSI. The relative risk increases when comparing IVF with and without ICSI were much larger than the overall relative risks reported when comparing IVF with spontaneous conception.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers concluded that, “compared with spontaneous conception, IVF treatment overall was not associated with autistic disorder but was associated with a small but statistically significant increased risk of mental retardation“.

For specific procedures, IVF with ICSI for paternal infertility was associated with a “small increase in the RR for autistic disorder and mental retardation compared with IVF without ICSI”.

But the researchers do point out that “the prevalence of these disorders was low, and the increase in absolute risk associated with IVF was small”.

Conclusion

This large cohort study showed that compared with spontaneous conception, IVF treatment (all techniques combined) was not associated with autistic disorder but was associated with a small, borderline significant increase in the risk of mental retardation.

For specific IVF procedures, IVF with ICSI was associated with a small increase in the risk of ASD and mental retardation compared with IVF that did not involve ICSI.

This study benefits from a large sample size and robust data collection methods, and did well to address an issue few other studies have looked at. But it’s worth noting that there may be other unrecorded factors – beyond the conception method – that influence the likelihood of a child developing autism or mental retardation.

While the researchers adjusted for some of these factors, there may be other factors that are also influencing the findings, such as parental socioeconomic status. As the researchers point out, the Swedish health authorities fund three cycles of IVF, so this may bias the results towards richer couples who have the means to pay for additional cycles that lead to more conceptions.

While the headlines may seem scary at first glance, it is important to highlight that the real risk increases are very small, a statement reiterated by the study authors themselves and, refreshingly, in some of the news coverage.

However, the influence of the specific type of IVF on the risk profiles for both developmental conditions is interesting and a worthy area of further research. It is hoped that further innovations can refine these techniques and lead to a reduction in the very low risk of complications.

Analysis by Bazian. Edited by NHS Choices. Follow Behind the Headlines on Twitter.

Summary

“Children born after certain infertility treatments at higher risk of autism,” reads the headline in The Independent. The news is based on a large long-term Swedish study researchers looked at.

Links to Headlines

Links to Science

September 2, 2015 | Filed Under Awareness | 5 Comments 

Video – Measles in a Young Girl and a Mother’s Regret

Last updated on May 17th, 2018 at 04:20 pm

Hear from a mother who decided not to vaccinate her child, and came to regret that choice when her daughter, Lola, contracted measles at a birthday party. It was difficult to watch her daughter suffer with this harsh illness and Lola was left with a perforated eardrum and permanent hearing damage.

 Deadly Measles on the RiseEditor’s Note: Video Highlights

  • Relying on other kids being vaccinated is risky
  • Measles can be a very harsh illness and difficult to diagnose as the rash doesn’t appear right away
    • You may have trouble finding a doctor who is familiar with measles
  • Lola, The little girl in this video, has permanent hearing damage due to her bout of measles
  • The mother expresses her regret and feelings of guilt for not getting Lola vaccinated

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August 26, 2015 | Filed Under Community | Leave a Comment 

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