Teenagers with Autism: Watching their success helps master important life skills

Watching a video of themselves on an iPad successfully solving a problem can help students with autism master critical life skills.

Like all special education instructors, Cami Burton aims to help her students with autism and developmental disabilities master real-life skills that will allow them to become more independent.

But traditional teaching methods often fail to give these students the practice and reinforcement they need to embed the important skills that can enhance their long-term life outcomes.

Now, a promising study Burton conducted at Brigham Young University using iPads combined with a proven video instruction technique has helped children with autism develop and retain important math skills.

The research was conducted by Burton, a graduate student in the David O. McKay School of Education, and faculty members Darlene Anderson, Mary Anne Prater and Tina Dyches.

Darlene Anderson

While many studies have shown the benefits of video self-modeling (VSM) —filming students as they successfully solve a problem or complete an assignment—in regular educational settings, few studies have investigated the use of VSM in teaching core skills such as math and science to students with autism and intellectual disabilities.

Mary Anne Prater

In the BYU study, several junior high school-age students with autism used an iPad that showed a video of themselves accurately and independently solving a practical math problem: Estimating the amount of money they needed to pay for an item as well as how much they should get back in change.

 Tina Dyches

They were then asked to solve similar problems using the VSM as a guide. Gradually, over time, the students were asked to figure out the math problem without the VSM.

The results: The students were able to independently solve the math problems with an accuracy of between 80 and 100 percent.

And, best of all, they enjoyed it. All student participants indicated that they liked having a video made of them in class and stated that they enjoyed using the iPad and watching a video of themselves.

As one student stated, "It was cool and fun."

Cami Burton

Children with autism have difficulty generalising, Burton explained.

"We want them to be able to generalise what they've learned and apply it to new skills. Anything visual will help heighten their awareness of the task," she said.

"We're not always able to capture their potential," said Anderson. "These new technologies can make that possible."

The BYU researchers also observed that, without exception, all of the students seemed enthusiastic and excited to participate in the study each day.

"We noticed an immediate and abrupt change in student performance each time the video model was introduced," Burton said.

"Students with serious unwanted behaviour issues—such as aggression and fidgeting—seemed to remain on task to a greater extent than when the iPads weren't used."

Said Anderson, "The students were clearly focused and engaged."

The research paper, published in the journal Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, documented the positive functional relationship between viewing the VSM and student performance.

Burton, who completed her master's thesis while working as a full-time teacher, was motivated by her desire to use her research to help the students she works with every day.

"Our research indicated that video self-modeling via an iPad may be an effective way to deliver academic content to adolescent students with autism and intellectual disability," said Burton, who continues to successfully use the iPad/VSM method in her classes.

Future research should be easy to implement, since, thanks to ever-improving iPad applications, the video models are simple to create and are easily demonstrated and measured, Anderson said.

"I believe this model could transfer to anything you're willing to apply it to," said Burton. "And it's very socially appropriate and easy for these students to carry an iPad around with them."

More information:
'Video Self-Modeling on an iPad to Teach Functional Math Skills to Adolescents With Autism and Intellectual Disability'

Parenting Teenagers: Using harsh verbal discipline with teens is detrimental

Many American parents yell or shout at their teenagers. A new longitudinal study has found that using such harsh verbal discipline in early adolescence can be harmful to teens later.

Instead of minimizing teens' problematic or unwanted behaviour, harsh verbal discipline may actually aggravate it.

Ming-Te Wang

The study, from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan, appears in the journal Child Development.

Harsh verbal discipline happens when parents use psychological force to cause a child to experience emotional pain or discomfort in an effort to correct or control behaviour.

It can vary in severity from yelling and shouting at a child to insulting and using words to humiliate.

Many parents shift from physical to verbal discipline as their children enter adolescence, and harsh verbal discipline is not uncommon.

A nationally representative survey found that about 90 percent of American parents reported one or more instances of using harsh verbal discipline with children of all ages; the rate of the more severe forms of harsh verbal discipline (swearing and cursing, calling names) directed at teens was 50 percent.

Few studies have looked at harsh verbal discipline in adolescence. This study found that when parents use it in early adolescence, teens suffer detrimental outcomes later.

The children of mothers and fathers who used harsh verbal discipline when they were 13 suffered more depressive symptoms between ages 13 and 14 than their peers who weren't disciplined in this way; they were also more likely to have conduct problems such as misbehaving at school, lying to parents, stealing, or fighting.

Moreover, the study found that not only does harsh verbal discipline appear to be ineffective at addressing behaviour problems in youths, it actually appears to increase unwanted behaviours.

Parents' hostility increases the risk of delinquency by lowering inhibition and fostering anger, irritability, and belligerence in adolescents, the researchers found.

The effect went the other way, too. Children who had conduct problems at 13 elicited more harsh verbal discipline from their parents between ages 13 and 14.

The study looked at 967 two-parent families and their children. About half were European American; 40 percent were African American and the rest were of other ethnic backgrounds.

Most of the families were middle class. Students and parents completed surveys over a two-year period on topics related to their mental health, child-rearing practices, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and general demographics.

Adolescents' conduct problems were assessed at ages 13 and 14 by survey questions like;

"In the past year, how often have you:

1. been disobedient in school, 
2. lied to your parents,
3. stolen from a store, 
4. been involved in a gang fight, and 
5. damaged public or private property for fun?" 

The response format ranged from 1 (never) to 5 (10 or more times).

Parents' behaviours indicating harsh verbal discipline were measured by questions like;

"In the past year, after your child has disobeyed you or done something wrong, how often have you:

• shouted, yelled, or screamed at the child, 
• swore or cursed at the child, and 
• called the child dumb or lazy or some other name like that?" 

Items were rated on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always).

"This is one of the first studies to indicate that parents' harsh verbal discipline is damaging to the developing adolescent," says Ming-Te Wang, assistant professor of psychology in education at the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study.

"The notion that harsh discipline is without consequence, once there is a strong parent-child bond—that the adolescent will understand that 'they're doing this because they love me'—is misguided because parents' warmth didn't lessen the effects of harsh verbal discipline.

"Indeed, harsh verbal discipline appears to be detrimental in all circumstances," Wang concludes.

Wang suggests that parents who want to modify their teenage children's unwanted behaviour would do better by discussing with them their concerns about the consequences of the behaviour.

The study's findings can inform parenting programs so that parents can learn alternatives to shouting and insulting their teens.

Teens' self-consciousness linked with specific brain, physiological responses

Teenagers are famously self-conscious, acutely aware and concerned about what their peers think of them. A new study reveals that this self-consciousness is linked with specific physiological and brain responses that seem to emerge and peak in adolescence.

"Our study identifies adolescence as a unique period of the lifespan in which self-conscious emotion, physiological reactivity, and activity in specific brain areas converge and peak in response to being evaluated by others," says psychological scientist and lead researcher Leah Somerville of Harvard University.

The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that teens' sensitivity to social evaluation might be explained by shifts in physiological and brain function during adolescence, in addition to the numerous sociocultural changes that take place during the teen years.

Somerville and colleagues wanted to investigate whether just being looked at—a minimal social-evaluation situation—might register with greater importance, arousal, and intensity for adolescents than for either children or adults.

The researchers hypothesized that late-developing regions of the brain, such as the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), could play a unique role in the way teens monitor these types of social evaluative contexts.

The researchers had 69 participants, ranging in age from 8 to almost 23 years old, come to the lab and complete measures that gauged emotional, physiological, and neural responses to social evaluation.

They told the participants that they would be testing a new video camera embedded in the head coil of a functional MRI scanner.

The participants watched a screen indicating whether the camera was "off," "warming up," or "on", and were told that a same-sex peer of about the same age would be watching the video feed and would be able to see them when the camera was on. In reality, there was no camera in the MRI machine.

The consistency and strength of the resulting data took the researchers by surprise: "We were concerned about whether simply being looked at was a strong enough 'social evaluation' to evoke emotional, physiological and neural responses," says Somerville.

"Our findings suggest that being watched, and to some extent anticipating being watched, were sufficient to elicit self-conscious emotional responses at each level of measurement."

Specifically, participants' self-reported embarrassment, physiological arousal, and MPFC activation showed reactivity to social evaluation that seemed to converge and peak during adolescence.

Adolescent participants also showed increased functional connectivity between the MPFC and striatum, an area of the brain that mediates motivated behaviors and actions.

Somerville and colleagues speculate that the MPFC-striatum pathway may be a route by which social evaluative contexts influence behavior.

The link may provide an initial clue as to why teens often engage in riskier behaviors when they're with their peers.

Fathers and Teenagers: Fathers' Previous Desire for Children Affects Relationship

The relationships of fathers to their teenage children are apparently influenced by the nature of their previous desire for children.

The more acute that this feeling is, the more closely fathers engage with their children at an everyday level.

This is the conclusion of a study conducted by the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Basel.

This is the first time that a study has examined the perspectives of both fathers and teenagers regarding their relationship.

Diana Baumgarten

For her investigation, the sociologist and gender researcher Dr. Diana Baumgarten conducted a detailed evaluation of long interviews with eight fathers between the ages of 46 and 58, as well as with eight children between 16 and 21 years of age.

The respondents live in a common household in German-speaking Switzerland.

The questions to the men concentrated on approaches to fatherhood, everyday arrangements, and relationships with teenagers.

The teenagers had to report on the details of their daily lives and their relationships with their fathers.

"Equivalent," "Supplementary," and "Satellite" Fathers
One result of the study is that the fathers' earlier desire for children played a significant role in their relationships with their children.

The more aware the father was of his desire for children, the clearer perception the father has today of his relationship to the child.

Such "equivalent" fathers assume more restrictions and burdens upon themselves, such as a career trajectory that develops more slowly.

They are also more likely to see the teenager as an individual counterpart than those that the author describes as "supplementary" and "satellite" fathers.

Activities and Exchange of Views
In the relationship between fathers and their teenage children, the author encountered the "activity norm."

Especially fathers who are less present for their children on an everyday level have the entitlement to do as much as possible with their children.

While mothers tend to live their relationships with their children on an everyday level, fathers operate under the norm that they must always develop their relationship through special and extraordinary activities.

Another notable result is the great value accorded to communication and exchanges of views. Prior studies have made this point for mother-child relationships, and have disregarded the communicative value of fathers.

The author also found through interviews with fathers and teenagers that motherhood is depicted as the model of parental care and is often measured against fatherhood.

However, distinct concepts of fatherhood are also expressed in the study and thus, also concepts of masculinity.

Journal Reference:

1. Diana Baumgarten, Väter von Teenagern. Sichtweisen von Vätern und ihren jugendlichen Kindern auf ihre Beziehung. Budrich Unipress, 2013

Scottish Teenagers with Learning Difficulties make Computer game in four hours

A Dundee computer game maker has worked with young people with learning disabilities to create a new game in just four hours.

It was designed as part of efforts by designers Guerilla Tea to dispel myths about working in the sector.

Working with Enable Scotland, the programmers tried to encourage the youths to consider careers in gaming.

The collaboration resulted in the game "On the Freerun", which has now been released for download.

The game features a "freerunner" called Norman who sprints across roof tops trying to avoid hostile elderly people.

Guerilla Tea, who are firm of game designers made up of graduates from Scotland's Abertay University, said the project was developed after working with Enable Scotland's East Renfrewshire Local Area Coordination Team.

The Dundee-based company said it was the first of its kind for the games industry.

Charlie Czerkawski

Career for all
Charlie Czerkawski, from the firm, said: "We wanted to show the kids and the adults, the concepts of making a game, the software, some of the processes of game development and at the end have a game with their names on the credits."

"We were really promoting that game making is a viable career option, for anybody. It is certainly not cut off or elitist."

The project was run through two workshops; the first saw the group of young people develop the concept, while the actual game was created in the second.

Those youths interested in the programming side of game making were given support from one of the company's coders, while the more artistically inclined helped develop the graphics.

Czerkawski said: "There were a lot of good ideas, we collated them all into one and by the end of the day we had the concept.

"We put this idea together and built a basic frame work and were able to bring it together with the youths' ideas and artwork.

"It was remarkable; the game was actually put together in four hours, which is a record time."

Dougie Purves, Service Leader with Enable, said: "We identified that many of the young people we engage with have an interest in the games industry and were really keen to give them the chance to find out more about this field and the training and employment opportunities that exist in Scotland.

"This was a unique experience for everyone who took part. The feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive. We are so grateful to Guerilla Tea for making this possible."

Mr Czerkawski said he felt the experience may have sparked an interest in game making among several of the teenagers.

He added: "Some of them really took to it very quickly; with just a bit of practice and maybe a Christmas present in the form of software, some of them could really go ahead and at the very least make a good hobby out of it, if not more."

'Mean Girls' at college - Paying for the Party

You're not done with high school when you go to college, according to a new study of student culture.

An in-depth look at the lives of young women who started college on the same floor of a large dorm at a middle-tier public university shows that the high school peer culture that divides students into homecoming queens, wannabes and nerds thrives in college, to the disadvantage of many.

"Parents and college administrators are naively optimistic about the atmosphere for freshman women in large party dorms," said Elizabeth Armstrong, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who conducted the study with colleague Laura Hamilton of the University of California at Merced.

Laura Hamilton

"The pressures these young women encounter make it very difficult for them to focus on academics.

For many, the experience is not a good one, and we found that it can affect the trajectories of their lives for many years to come."

Armstrong and Hamilton immersed themselves in the lives of 53 women as they moved into their dorm, following them for five years to see how their lives developed.

Although only about a third of the women started their college years as socialites or wannabes, all of their lives were shaped by the dominance of the party pathway at this school.

The party pathway was a set of social and academic arrangements—including a powerful Greek party scene and an array of easy majors—facilitating a primarily social experience.

Even those who entered determined to succeed academically were judged by their success at attracting the attention of high-status men and making it into sororities.

This culture is often referred to as "the college experience," Armstrong says, but in fact it's an experience that many students would do well to avoid—or to participate in only a bit.

In a new book based on the study, "Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality," Armstrong and Hamilton detail the experiences of the women, who had a great deal in common when they entered college but whose situations were dramatically different down the road.

Teenage Cancer Trust: The role of a Youth Support Co-ordinator - YouTube

Carrie is a Teenage Cancer Trust Youth Support Co-ordinator. She talks about how her role helps young people with cancer remain active and occupied during long stays in hospital and encourages them to share their experiences with each other.

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Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: Tougher to Treat in Kids and Teens

Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked with obesity, progresses much faster and is harder to treat in children than in adults, according to the disappointing results of a new study that sought to determine the best treatment for the disease in obese teens.

The study, the largest to examine Type 2 diabetes treatment in youth, looked at the effectiveness of several methods to manage blood sugar in newly diagnosed teens aged 10 to 17. The researchers found that nearly half of all participants failed to maintain stable blood sugar over the four-year study, and 1 in 5 suffered serious complications as a result.

The findings are troubling for teens’ health since obesity and diabetes rates are increasing nationwide. Uncontrolled diabetes can increase the risk for serious health problems, including heart disease, vision loss, nerve problems, amputations and kidney failure.

Type 2 diabetes — once referred to as adult-onset diabetes — was rarely seen among children before the 1990s. But as American children and teens started getting fatter, related cases of diabetes began to rise. Today, Type 2 diabetes is still uncommon in children (Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes affects more youths), but the disease continues to increase at an alarming rate: between 2002 and 2005, there were about 3,600 new cases of Type 2 diabetes in children and teens a year.

For the new study, released Sunday by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers followed 699 overweight and obese teens who had been recently diagnosed with diabetes. Most of the participants were from low-income families; 40% were Hispanic, 33% black, 20% white, 6% American Indian and fewer than 2% were Asian.

All of the participants were started off on metformin, the standard oral medication for Type 2 diabetes, to normalize their blood sugar levels. They were then divided into three treatment groups to maintain blood sugar control. One group continued to use metformin alone; another used metformin along with an intensive diet, exercise and weight-loss program; the third used metformin plus another drug, rosiglitazone (Avandia).

Failure rates were high for all three treatment groups. About half of the teens in the metformin group failed to keep their blood sugar down, 39% failed in the group using metformin plus Avandia, and 47% failed in the diet and exercise group.

“It’s frightening how severe this metabolic disease is in children,” study author Dr. David M. Nathan, director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital, told the New York Times. “I fear that these children are going to become sick earlier in their lives than we’ve ever seen before

The authors could only speculate why diabetes is so hard to treat in children and teens, but it could be due to rapid growth and hormonal changes during puberty.

To read the whole article click here

Teenage Depression: SPARX Game as effective as Traditional Treatment

An innovative computer-based intervention for depressed young people, developed by researchers from The University of Auckland, has been shown to be at least as effective as standard treatments mainly comprising face-to-face therapy.

A research team led by Associate Professor Sally Merry developed and trialled the intervention called SPARX with the aim of giving young people easier, lower cost access to treatment.

In a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) they assessed the effectiveness of SPARX in 24 sites around New Zealand, including youth clinics, schools and general practices.

Half of the young people participating used the new game and half received standard treatment through their doctor, school counsellor or other provider. SPARX was shown to be at least as good as the standard treatments.

SPARX uses CD-Rom based computer gaming to teach self-help for depression. It includes an interactive 3D fantasy game to teach young people the skills they need to cope with challenges and manage their mood.

In contrast to many other e-therapies, SPARX has been designed to help young people learn through action in a virtual world. It is based on cognitive behavioural therapy, a proven therapeutic approach.

“Using computer technology that young people are comfortable with is one way of making therapy more accessible, practical, and hopefully more fun,” says Dr Merry.

It has been designed to be easily accessed by young people directly or to be delivered easily in primary care settings. In 2011, SPARX won a UN World Summit Award recognising creativity and innovation in e-health interventions.

 

Depression is common among young people internationally and accessing help can be difficult. One in five New Zealanders will have experienced clinical depression by their eighteenth birthday.

Three quarters of young people with depression never receive treatment. “We want to intervene earlier and more effectively,” says Dr Merry.

SPARX was initiated by researchers, clinicians, and learning technologists at the University’s Werry Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the Department of Psychological Medicine.

It was developed with input from Māori, Pacific people, and other cultural groups in New Zealand. The programme was created with the assistance of a local game development company, Metia Interactive.

A number of actors, musicians and artists have generously donated their time and skills to the project.

The work was funded by the NZ Ministry of Health as part of the Primary Health Care Strategy to build and strengthen the capacity of the primary care sector to respond to mental health needs, and in this case adolescent depression.

More information on SPARX is available on www.sparx.org.nz.

Drugs: Speed and Ecstasy Use Linked to Teen Depression

The use of speed and ecstasy by secondary school pupils appears to increase the risk of depression by up to 70 percent, a study claims.

Scientists at the University of Montreal carried out research on almost 4,000 secondary school pupils to explore concerns that the two drugs, which have spread from the clubbing scene into schools, could cause long-term damage.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that those students who used either drug were between 60 and 70 percent more likely to exhibit heightened symptoms of depression.

The authors tracked the mental health of a sample of 3,880 teenagers from deprived areas in Quebec between 2003 and 2008, quizzing them on their drug use and later testing their mental health on a validated scale.

The use of speed (meth/amphetamine) was found to be more common, with 11.6 percent (451) admitting taking it, while 8 percent (310) admitted taking ecstasy (MDMA).

The use of both drugs was admitted by 6.7 percent of the sample. Teenagers in this group were found to be twice as likely to have depressive symptoms as those who used neither drug.

The authors claimed this pointed toward "additive or synergistic adverse effects of concurrent use".

"Our results provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first compelling evidence that recreational [ecstasy] and [speed] use places developing secondary school students at greater risk of experiencing depressive symptoms," the researchers concluded.

While they admit that the causative contribution of drug use itself to depression is "relatively modest", they caution that even a modest contribution can have "significant clinical implications from a population health perspective".

They propose that further research should be undertaken to look into whether depressive symptoms are an effect of neurological damage, which adolescent brains could be more susceptible to, and are keen to examine the differences between adults and adolescents in this area.

Speed, or amphetamine, is a widely used drug in the clubbing and rave scene. The drug make people more awake, overactive and chatty. it is generally followed by a long comedown and can put a strain on the user's heart. It can also lead to anxiety, aggression and paranoia.

Ecstasy is popular because it makes users feel energetic and happy, allowing them to stay up partying into the early hours. Its use has been linked to liver, kidney and heart problems, while its comedown often leads users to feel lethargic or depressed.

Blood Test Diagnoses Depression In Teens

Diagnosing depression may soon include a simple blood test, according to research published Tuesday. new study. Researchers developed a blood test to identify markers for depression in teenagers that maylead to better treatments and lessen the stigma surrounding the condition.

Doctors currently rely on patients coming forward with symptoms to diagnose depression. However, differentiating between types of depression can be difficult without an objective diagnosis, researchers said. Instead, using a diagnostic blood test could allow for more personalized treatment.

"Right now depression is treated with a blunt instrument," Dr. Eva Redei, study author and professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University, said in a statement. "It's like treating type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes exactly the same way. We need to do better."

Previous studies identified 26 potential genetic markers for depression in rats. Redei and her team found 11 similar markers in depressed teens that they did not find in the control group.

"These 11 genes are probably the tip of the iceberg because depression is a complex illness," Redei said in a statement. "But it's an entree into a much bigger phenomenon that has to be explored. It clearly indicates we can diagnose from blood and create a blood diagnosis test for depression."

Some doctors remain skeptical of the findings since the study examined only 28 volunteers. Skeptics said research needs to show whether the markers can test a wider population and whether the markers are present in adults as well before the test can be considered viable.

"I think people are looking for a magic bullet, a single answer," Dr. Carol Bernstein, an associate professor of psychiatry at New York University, told ABC News. "But these disorders are much too complicated."

One in 20 Americans over the age of 12 reported feeling symptoms of depression between 2005 and 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include hopelessness, feeling like a failure, poor appetite and lack of interest in activities.

Depression affects approximately 1 percent of children under the age of 12, researchers said. But as children enter their teenage years, depression affects almost 25 percent. Depression that sets in during the teenage years has a poorer prognosis than depression that sets in in adulthood, increasing the risk of substance abuse, suicide and physical illness, researchers said.

Being able to diagnose depression with a blood test could mean more people getting treatment. None of the teens who were diagnosed with depression over the course of the study opted for treatment, most likely due to the stigma that comes with it, Redei said.

Depression is treated through a combination of medication and therapy, but many people see the disease as a defect and think it will make people view them as "broken", Dr. Jonathan Rottenberg, an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Florida, said in a Psychology Today blog post.

 The journal Translational Psychiatry published the study on Tuesday.

Transitions: Preparing for Adulthood

Click on the image to visit the Preparing for Adulthood website

The Preparing for Adulthood Programme
A programme of work is now underway to explore these proposals, working with SEND green paper pathfinders. The Preparing for Adulthood programme will also provide knowledge and support to all local authorities and their partners, including families and young people, so they can ensure young people with SEN and disabilities achieve paid work, independent living, good health and community inclusion as they move into adulthood. We will be working with the Department for Education and its partners to:

• Build on the learning from past initiatives
• Support peer to peer learning at a local level to improve outcomes
• Share knowledge of what works, the challenges and solutions with Government, local agencies, families and young people.

The Preparing for Adulthood Programme has three strands of work:

• Best practice and information sharing
• Wider support for all local areas
• Pathfinder support.

Epilepsy Scotland: Lighthouse Youth Project

The Lighthouse Youth Project is based in Edinburgh. Being diagnosed with epilepsy can be difficult at any age, but it can be particularly difficult if you are a teenager, already dealing with a lot of changes in your life. It can sometimes feel overwhelming.

You may have a lot of questions or have worries that you wish to talk about. You may not know where to go to get appropriate advice, information or support.

Young people involved in the Lighthouse Youth Project meet regularly to undertake social activities and go on various trips together.The project is split into two groups:

• Youth Group: This group is for young people with epilepsy aged from 11 to 15. The group meets every 2 weeks for an activity. These activities include archery, bowling, laser quest, electronic gaming, drumming or a day gorge walking.
• Transition Group: This group is for young people with epilepsy aged 15 to 19. The Transition group meet every 2 weeks for an activity. These activities are similar to the Youth Group, but we also try to incorporate age-appropriate events like job seeking and careers and workshops on communication, alcohol, drugs, and memory problems

As a group member, you would be actively involved in making decisions about group activities and the things you would like to do. You would meet regularly and discuss ideas for the upcoming activity programmes.

Have a look at previous years' programmes for some ideas what the groups are up to:

• Transition Group Summer leaflet 2010 
• Youth Group Autumn and Winter Schedule 2009 
• Youth Group Summer Leaflet 2010

If you want details of the new programmes, please contact our youth worker, Zoe Reid, on 0131 226 5458 or email zreid@epilepsyscotland.org.uk

The Lighthouse project also provides one to one support. We give you the chance to have a confidential chat with our youth worker, Zoe Reid.

She will give you the space to talk about issues you may be dealing with, or just to have a chat. We provide information and support on many issues regarding epilepsy.

We also help with many other non-epilepsy related issues, worries or concerns that you may be having. Meeting with the youth worker can happen as frequently as you like or, it can just be a one off chat.

It's up to you and we will fit around your needs and wishes. If you are feeling particularly isolated then Zoe can meet with you more often and try to help resolve any issues you bring up.

Zoe can keep in touch with and work alongside schools, family planning clinics, job centres, GPs, Epilepsy Specialist Nurses and social workers. This is up to you.

There is a lot going on with the Lighthouse Youth Project. If you are interested in becoming a member or just wish to find out more about it, please call Zoe 0131 226 5458 or email: ZReid@epilepsyscotland.org.uk

You may also be interested in our teenage guide Guide to getting on with your life.

Epilepsy Scotland's Guide to Teenagers

To read this guide simply click on the picture or follow this link.

For more information on Epilepsy Scotland follow this link.

Extended Parental support in Teenage years

A new study from the Journal of Marriage and Family shows that contrary to popular anxieties about slacker young adults who refuse to grow up, or indulgent parents who stifle their adult children’s development by continuing to support them, there is evidence that parental assistance in early adulthood promotes progress toward autonomy and self-reliance.

Study author Teresa Swartz, “The fact that young people depend so heavily upon their parents well beyond the age when most people from earlier generations had already started families and had dependable jobs has triggered a great deal of public anxiety over whether these trends signal young adult immaturity and stunted development.

The larger social trends in delaying family formation may be one reason for the extended dependence upon parents. Today, the road to adulthood is much longer and more arduous than it was thirty years ago.”

The researchers collected longitudinal data to examine the conditions under which young adults are more likely to receive financial support for living expenses, or to live in the parental home.

Although almost half of the respondents received either money for living expenses or lived with their parents (or both) in their mid-twenties, only 10-15% received financial or housing help when in their early 30s.

The likelihood of receiving financial help decreased 15% each year, and the likelihood of living with parents decreased by 18% each year. Swartz, “These results indicate that young people do eventually become independent of parents as they grow older.”

Beyond the effects of age, young people were more likely to receive help from their parents if they were students or had encountered recent difficulties such as a job loss, a serious illness, or a divorce. Swartz, “Parental aid serves as ‘scaffolding’ to help young people who are working towards financial self-sufficiency and as ‘safety nets’ for those who have experienced serious difficulties.

In an economy that requires advanced education for good jobs, parents are more likely to aid their children when they are students. As the labor market offers fewer opportunities for stable, full-time, well-paid work for the young, parents often fill in when needed.”

The authors find that parental support tapers as young adult children take on adult roles such as earning higher incomes or forming families, regardless of their age. Lead author Teresa Swartz, “Forming intimate partnerships, in the forms of marriage and cohabitation, appears to signal to parents that their children have moved into adulthood and should now be on their own.

Although family formation is largely understood as a ‘choice’ today and not viewed as essential for achieving adult status, it does appear that parents and/or adult children themselves interpret family formation as an indicator that adult self-sufficiency is appropriate.”

The findings provide evidence that families are adaptive and responsive to family members needs and troubles, and that parents are more likely to support adult children, even those who are older, to help them get through hard times and to help them attain self-sufficiency.

The instability and rapid pace of change during early adulthood may make young adulthood a particularly vulnerable period necessitating a safety net more frequently than other stages in life.

Full paper available here

Happy children become happy adults

Being a ‘happy’ teenager is linked to increased well-being in adulthood, new research finds.

Much is known about the associations between a troubled childhood and mental health problems, but little research has examined the affect of a positive childhood. For the first time, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing have analysed the link between a positive adolescence and well-being in midlife.

Using information from 2776 individuals who participated in the 1946 British birth cohort study, the scientists tested associations between having a positive childhood and well-being in adulthood.

A ‘positive’ childhood was based on teacher evaluations of students’ levels of happiness, friendship and energy at the ages of 13 and 15. A student was given a positive point for each of the following four items – whether the child was ‘very popular with other children’, ‘unusually happy and contented’, ‘makes friends extremely easily’ and ‘extremely energetic, never tired’. Teachers also rated conduct problems (restlessness, daydreaming, disobedience, lying, etc) and emotional problems (anxiety, fearfulness, diffidence, avoidance of attention, etc).

The researchers then linked these ratings to the individuals’ mental health, work experience, relationships and social activities several decades later. They found that teenagers rated positively by their teachers were significantly more likely than those who received no positive ratings to have higher levels of well-being later in life, including a higher work satisfaction, more frequent contact with family and friends, and more regular engagement in social and leisure activities.

Happy children were also much less likely than others to develop mental disorders throughout their lives — 60% less likely than young teens that had no positive ratings.

The study not only failed to find a link between being a happy child and an increased likelihood of becoming married, they found that the people who had been happy children were actually more likely to get divorced. One possible factor suggested by the researchers is that happier people have higher self-esteem or self-efficacy and are therefore more willing and able to leave an unhappy marriage.

“The benefits to individuals, families and to society of good mental health, positive relationships and satisfying work are likely to be substantial,” said Professor Felicia Huppert, one of the authors of the paper and Director of the Well-being Institute at the University of Cambridge. “The findings support the view that even at this time of great financial hardship, policymakers should prioritise the well-being of our children so they have the best possible start in life.”

Transitioning Teenagers into Further Reading - The Dutch View

I have just spent some time with Manu Hartsuyker, a freelance film producer and director in the Netherlands. She is not only a great documentary maker, but has also given herself over to helping others, both here in Europe and in Africa, South East Asia, etc.

Along with others, she has established a local initiative and supportive effort to transition young adults and teenagers into further reading and to promote reading as a pleasureable activity in young adults. Something I am very interested in and I know you will be too.

Clearly there is a lot of competition and distractions out there for teenagers, more than there has ever been. Things that capture the imagination of children and young adults are many-fold. The primary two are TV and video games, with puberty and match-making running a close third.

I would not like to say where reading and the exploration of the world and the human condition comes in, especially through the written word and story telling, but I suspect it is quite far down in the top 10 of teenager activities.

From Manu's perspective it is fortunate that in the Netherlands, the government and authorities are so enlightened. They encourage the establishment of charitable initiatives and the efforts of volunteers, giving freely of their own time, to help support others in whatever way they can.

The NL government does this by allowing the group to set themselves up under a charity status and is therefore outside the normal taxation burden of a small company or similar organisation. But the group is covered by this protection only for a limited time, 3 - 5 years.

Alas, Manu's group is coming to the end of this period and is now exploring ways of encouraging donations and sponsorship to allow them to continue thier work. Currently they are gathering ideas and suggestions that will help them continue and I believe they should be encouraged.

If you have any suggestions as to how the group can do this or things you have tried that have worked for your group, please send me a comment on my blog or go directly to Manu's website - www.leesmij.nl - where you will be able to find more information.

Please be aware that the website is still being worked on and is occasionally off-line. If this is a problem for you then please contact me here and I will pass your message on or arrange for Manu to contact you.

Thank you for your time and any suggestions you may have.

Estrogen, Puberty and Autism | Neurodiversity

Estrogen, Puberty and Autism | Neurodiversity

To what degree have high and low-fat diets influenced human evolution? If low fat delays puberty and results in more brain growth, might this be because more synapses are useful for finding more fat?

When there is more fat in diets and puberty rates drop, for a woman there is a greater number of children produced over a single lifetime. Less fat in diet, fewer children produced. This seems like an evolutionary process.

Do thin males with less fat have less estrogen, reach puberty later, have bigger brains and exhibit more neotenous features?

Should autistic males be on extremely low-fat diets so that they reach puberty later, thus allowing more time for their brains to mature?

Is the degree of brain synapse pruning that occurs in infancy related to the estrogen levels in the mother or the child? High mother testosterone levels encourage higher rates of autism, which may be directly related to less pervasive synapse pruning. Is it possible that a high mother estrogen level results in low male baby estrogen levels that prolong or diminish the testosterone prunings?

In other words, the Simon Baron-Cohen research regarding mother testosterone levels and autism may be related to mother estrogen levels. If low estrogen at puberty translates to delayed puberty, delayed testosterone surges and increased brain growth, then the same process may be engaged during the first testosterone surges that compel a diminution of the right cerebral hemisphere during infancy. Low estrogen levels as an embryo, infant and toddler may have a direct impact on cerebral lateralization and synapse production.

Another interesting article 'Introduction to Neotenty' Here ............