(Press-News.org) University Park, Pa. -- Free time is not always a fun time for people with autism. Giving them the power to choose their own leisure activities during free time, however, can boost their enjoyment, as well as improve communication and social skills, according to an international team of researchers.
"For many of us, we look at recreation as a time to spend on activities that are fun and that are designed for our enjoyment," said John Dattilo, professor, recreation, park and tourism management, Penn State. "But for some people with disabilities, particularly those who have autism, these activities can be a source of frustration, simply because they didn't have a chance to make their own leisure choices."
Dattilo said that a group of 20 autistic adults who participated in a yearlong recreation program that offered them a chance to choose activities, scored higher on personality tests that measure social and communication skills than the control group of 20 autistic adults who were randomly assigned to the program's waiting list. Participants met for two hours each weekday and could choose among several activities that promoted engagement and interactivity, including games, exercises, crafts and events.
The researchers, who released their findings in the current issue of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, said that after completing the program, participants showed significant improvement at recognizing and labeling emotions. The participants scored about 24 percent higher than the control group in the ability to recognize emotions in a person in a picture. The score of the participants' ability to label those emotions correctly was 50 percent higher than the control group's score.
Since people with autism are less willing to interact socially, caregivers are particularly interested in programs that help improve social and communication skills, according to Dattilo, who worked with Domingo Garcia-Villamisar, professor, psychopathology, Complutense University of Madrid Spain.
"The big measure for us in this program was the improvements in social behavior and interaction," said Dattilo. "The defining quality of people with autism is that they have difficulty in social situations."
The participants also improved their ability to carry out executive functions, such as setting goals and maintaining attention.
Dattilo said recreation programs that encourage people with autism to make their own leisure choices create a cycle of increasing independence, rather than a pattern of reliance on caregivers to provide recreational activities.
"While people are learning, you can also give them choices," said Dattilo. "And as they make those choices, they are also learning and are empowered to make even more choices."
The works of University of Rochester psychologist Edward Deci and author and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi inspired the researchers to pursue the experiment, Dattilo said. Deci and Csikszentmihalyi emphasize self-determination as a critical component of human fulfillment.
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A new review published in WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology explores how nanotechnology may provide powerful new tools that could have a marked impact on the therapeutic and diagnostic measures available to surgeons.
Nanotechnology uses very small objects—billionths of a meter—to achieve tasks that would be difficult at larger scales. Nanodevices travel relatively freely throughout the body and can enter cells, making them useful for drug delivery, or mimic the features of the environment outside cells, making them useful for tissue engineering.
Their very properties ...
Researchers have over time been able to show that medicine designed at nanoscale offers unprecedented opportunities for targeted treatment of serious diseases such as cancer. However, now research also shows that the body's immune system plays a significant part in the drug delivery process.
"Researchers today are able encapsulate medicine in nanoparticles the size of viruses. The nanoparticles are effective for drug delivery – the delivery of the medicine to the body – because they can very precisely find diseased cells and carry the medicine to them. This means that ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Small businesses are seen as an important part of the American economy. These businesses often rely heavily on loans to stay afloat. The recent economic recession has created a reduction in available credit for many small businesses, making it difficult for many businesses to operate. Tansel Yilmazer, assistant professor in the personal financial planning department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, says that lack of available credit has forced many small business owners to use their household savings or other ...
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2011 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning podcast series, "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions," focuses on the discovery that household sewage has far more potential as an alternative energy source than previously thought.
Scientists say the discovery, which increases the estimated potential energy in wastewater by almost 20 percent, could spur efforts to extract methane, hydrogen and other fuels from this vast and, as yet, untapped resource. Their report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. ...
Despite substantial gains in knowledge and understanding of autism over the last three years, we are still no closer to either prevention or cure, according to Sir Michael Rutter, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. In a new study, Rutter reviews the latest scientific developments in the study of autism, published between 2007-2010. His paper is available online in Springer's Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Professor Rutter is the first consultant of child psychiatry in the United Kingdom. He has ...
Those who enjoy the caffeinated lift that comes from drinking traditional coffees and teas may tend to overlook the benefits of drinking herbal infusions. Now, as explained in this month's issue of Agricultural Research magazine, the idea that herbal teas may provide a variety of health benefits is no longer just folklore.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded scientists in Boston, Mass., have looked into the science-based evidence of health benefits from drinking three of the most popular herbals in America. Diane McKay and Jeffrey Blumberg are at the Jean Mayer ...
The more honesty and humility an employee may have, the higher their job performance, as rated by the employees' supervisor. That's the new finding from a Baylor University study that found the honesty-humility personality trait was a unique predictor of job performance.
"Researchers already know that integrity can predict job performance and what we are saying here is that humility and honesty are also major components in that," said Dr. Wade Rowatt, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, who helped lead the study. "This study shows that those ...
Fossilized bones discovered in Texas from a flying reptile that died 89 million years ago may be the earliest occurrence in the world of the prehistoric creature known as Pteranodon.
Previously, Pteranodon bones have been found in Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming in the Niobrara and Pierre geological formations. This likely Pteranodon specimen is the first of its kind found in Texas, according to paleontologist Timothy S. Myers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who identified the reptile.
The specimen was discovered north of Dallas by an amateur fossil hunter ...
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Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, explains that, over the past decade, drug-related poisonings have been on the rise in...
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Over the past decade, drug-related poisonings have been on the rise in the United States. In fact, in many states drug-related poisoning deaths have now surpassed motor vehicle crash fatalities to become the leading cause of injury death. While ...
DALLAS – March 1, 2011 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a signaling pathway in the brain that's sufficient to induce cellular leptin resistance, a problem that decreases the body's ability to "hear" that it is full and should stop eating.
"Leptin resistance is a significant factor, yet the mechanisms that underlie the problem remain unclear," said Dr. Joel Elmquist, professor of internal medicine and pharmacology at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study appearing in the March issue of Cell Metabolism. "The fact that this cellular ...
