AutismCodes

From Rainman to Rainmaker: Rich's Senior Thesis at Claremont McKenna College - The Foundation of AutismCodes

Thu, 26 May 2016 10:15:00 -0700

The autism treatment status quo was reviewed and accompanied by a narrative contextualizing past and present progress with my younger brother Jim’s journey with the condition, sharing proposed next steps for bettering the current state of affairs in the space. The impetus for this piece was to share in the lessons of Jim’s life thus far and the revelations of those who have supported him, as well as to determine ways to create more impactful, lasting change in the limited window of early intervention therapy whilst empowering individuals on the spectrum to optimize for their skills and talents rather than just simply mitigating the downsides of autism spectrum disorder. Feedback as to how to improve the prevailing course of treatment: (education and therapy) was solicited by leading experts in the fields of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Electroencephalography (EEG), and autism more generally in the context of politics, insurability, and savant syndrome and splinter skills. The advice of the various vertical experts were synthesized and distilled into a new proposed course of treatment which were submitted to all respective experts for further feedback and review prior to publication. It was discovered that there is significant feedback to suggest that the prevailing wisdom that splinter skills and savant syndrome are found in a small minority of individuals with autism spectrum disorder may not be true and that further research is warranted that would implement the new proposed course of treatment and attempt to unlock the talents and gifts of these individuals consistent with the success we encountered raising Jim. While our methods were resource-intensive and conducted manually with many hours of intensive in-home therapy, there is significant feedback to suggest that a technology-driven approach to reforming autism treatment would achieve same or greater results with far fewer...Read More

Autism is finally hitting the big screens

Sun, 22 Nov 2015 11:07:36 -0800

The most recent character added to the 'Sesame Street' neighborhood was named Julia. From the outside Julia may look like any other character from the show with red hair, green eyes and a bright smile, but what is different about Julia is that she also has autism.

Children with autism are five times more likely to be bullied than any other child due to their differences. The Sesame Workshop launched Julia as part of their educational and awareness initiative; with a goal for children to see what they have in common versus seeing their differences as a negative. By adding a relatable character that children can understand whether they know someone with autism or are still completely unaware can make a significant impact on their interactions and view of autism in the future.

Sesame Street is one of the only TV shows that is currently recognizing autism, but we have hope that they will not be the last and many others TV shows, movies and forms of media will soon follow in their footsteps. Education and awareness is the first step to improving the lives of children and adults with autism.

Does a future technological innovation have the capability to prevent future wandering related injuries and death?

Wed, 21 Oct 2015 22:00:00 -0700

According to the National Autism Association 48% of children on the autistic spectrum attempt to elope or wander from a safe environment, a rate nearly four times higher than children not on the spectrum. The result of the wandering incidents is even more severe as many of these occurrences result in serious injuries and even death. In recent years accidental drowning accounted for 91% total U.S. deaths reported in children with an ASD ages 14 and younger due to wandering. AutismCodes' goal is to create an autism spectrum specific technology device with GPS and emergency alert capabilities in order to decrease the frequency of these occurrences and put caretakers fears at ease.

We encourage caretakers to share their stories and fears of safety issues when responsible for an autistic individual and how AutismCodes could future tracking device could help prevent these occurrences.