Fostering social connectedness among adolescents and adults with autism: A qualitative analysis

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts approximately 1 in 44 children in the United States. Common characteristics of ASD are marked deficits in communication and social connectedness. As autistic children approach adolescence, there is a lack of interventions available to them. Mentoring can provide adolescents with a relationship that facilitates social connectedness with another person who has a shared life experience, filling a gap in services. The Autism Mentorship Program (AMP) was designed to provide autistic adolescents a meaningful relationship with an autistic young adult. Via participation in focus groups, mentees (n = 5), mentors (n = 6), and parents of mentees (n = 6) shared their experience of participating in an afterschool, youth mentoring intervention. Themes were developed from an open coding procedure. Results showed that AMP was associated with helping mentees find social connection within their mentoring relationship and among the group of mentees. Mentors also reported mutual benefits in social connectedness. Perceived benefits of the program, including improved academic performance, and suggestions for future programming are reported. AMP appears to be a promising program that provides social benefits for adolescents with ASD who may have few options for this type of support.     

A paradigm for evaluating assessment interviewing techniques

For the school psychologist, interviewing is a commonly used but little understood assessment technique, often appreciated for its apparent simplicity and flexibility but criticized for its frequent lack of psychometric rigor. With few standardized and/or validated assessment interview schedules and little systematic training in diagnostic interviewing, the school psychologist is left to develop his or her own personalized assessment interview style. Three dimensions (namely, predetermination of questions, interviewer response options, and breadth of content explored) which appear to determine assessment interview structure and format are described and operationally defined and then combined into a conceptual model indicating 27 different assessment interview formats. This paradigm affords practitioners a model for classifying their own assessment interview techniques. Further research into the psychometric qualities of different types of assessment interviews so classified is suggested.     

Carbohydrates for training and competition

An athlete's carbohydrate intake can be judged by whether total daily intake and the timing of consumption in relation to exercise maintain adequate carbohydrate substrate for the muscle and central nervous system ("high carbohydrate availability") or whether carbohydrate fuel sources are limiting for the daily exercise programme ("low carbohydrate availability"). Carbohydrate availability is increased by consuming carbohydrate in the hours or days prior to the session, intake during exercise, and refuelling during recovery between sessions. This is important for the competition setting or for high-intensity training where optimal performance is desired. Carbohydrate intake during exercise should be scaled according to the characteristics of the event. During sustained high-intensity sports lasting ~1 h, small amounts of carbohydrate, including even mouth-rinsing, enhance performance via central nervous system effects. While 30-60 g · h(-1) is an appropriate target for sports of longer duration, events >2.5 h may benefit from higher intakes of up to 90 g · h(-1). Products containing special blends of different carbohydrates may maximize absorption of carbohydrate at such high rates. In real life, athletes undertake training sessions with varying carbohydrate availability. Whether implementing additional "train-low" strategies to increase the training adaptation leads to enhanced performance in well-trained individuals is unclear.     

The impact of adverse childhood experiences on an urban pediatric population

Objective

The goal of this study was to investigate the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in youth in a low-income, urban community.

Study design

Data from a retrospective chart review of 701 subjects from the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco are presented. Medical chart documentation of ACEs as defined in previous studies were coded and each ACE criterion endorsed by a traumatic event received a score of 1 (range = 0-9). This study reports on the prevalence of various ACE categories in this population, as well as the association between ACE score and two pediatric problems: learning/behavior problems and body mass index (BMI) ≥ 85% (i.e., overweight or obese).

Results

The majority of subjects (67.2%, N = 471) had experienced 1 or more categories of adverse childhood experiences (ACE ≥ 1) and 12.0% (N = 84) had experienced 4 or more ACEs (ACE ≥ 4). Increased ACE scores correlated with increased risk of learning/behavior problems and obesity.

Conclusions

There was a significant prevalence of endorsed ACE categories in this urban population. Exposure to 4 or greater ACE categories was associated with increased risk for learning/behavior problems, as well as obesity.

Practice implications

Results from this study demonstrate the need both for screening of ACEs among youth in urban areas and for developing effective primary prevention and intervention models.     

Masculinity,subjectivity and neoliberalism in men’s accounts of migration and higher educational participation

In this article, I explore men’s educational experiences and aspirations in the context of UK policy discourses of widening participation and migration. Critiquing discourses that oversimplify gendered access to higher education, I develop an analysis of the impact of masculine subjectivities on processes of subjective construction in relation to be(com)ing a university student. Neoliberalism and self‐regulation emerge as significant themes by which the men make sense of their educational experiences and aspirations. Widening participation policy discursively constructs the subject as ‘disadvantaged’, ‘with potential’ and responsible for self‐improvement through participation in (alternative forms of) higher education (HE). The concept of diaspora illuminates the complex ways the men reconstruct their traumatic experiences in terms of hope and possibility, across different cultural spaces and expectations. A key question is how do the men construct and make sense of their masculine subjectivities in relation to diasporic experiences and aspirations to become HE students?     

Building Bridges Between Criminal Justice and the Forensic Sciences to Create Forensic Studies Programs 1

The ever‐increasing role of the forensic sciences in the criminal justice system requires criminal justice educators to integrate the study of forensic science into a traditional social science curriculum. Yet, most professors in criminal justice lack forensic science expertise sufficient to meet the educational demands of the field, as it is intertwined with natural science disciplines, especially biology and chemistry. Accordingly, this paper advocates the formation of an interdisciplinary forensic studies program, including a discussion of need, curricular components, and overcoming potential obstacles.     

The Role of the Community College in Providing Language,Speech, and Hearing Services

Abstract

A survey of community college personnel in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey was conducted to determine (1) the extent and type of services in speech, hearing, or language screening, remediation, and improvement, (2) the extent and type of instruction in speech and language improvement, and (3) the extent and type of bilingual services in speech, hearing or language presently offered to students and community members within the community college setting. In addition, the existence of plans to offer these services in the future was ascertained. Responses indicated the existence of some services but a general unavailability of comprehensive screening, evaluation, and rehabilitation programs despite the widespread needs of the growing community college constituency. The results of the survey can assist community college personnel in needs assessment and planning within their own institutions by offering a context for consideration of the priority for providing language, speech, and hearing services within the community college setting.