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I am posting my comments on the co-morbidity of anxiety disorders for my students (needed a temporary place to post this podcast). Please feel free to listen even if you are not one of my students!
I am currently working on the following podcasts for Asperger's Conversations: 1. Legal Issues and the Schools and 2. Technology for Transition planning. Click on the MP3 file below to hear today's podcast:
Download CoMorbidityAnxiety.mp3 (2mins, 38 secs; 929 KB)
In today's podcast I interview James Lawrence Thomas, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist with a practice in New York City, and a faculty member at NYU Medical Center. We met in his office directly across the street from the Empire State Building (now the tallest building in New York) where he was excited to talk about a neglected area of discussion: medical costs for individuals with Asperger's, Autism, and related problems, and how to reduce those costs by providing more extensive psychological support to the people who take care of those individuals. He frequently referenced his friend and colleague, Nicholas Cummings, a pioneer in the area of containment of medical costs and medical utilization. If you are interested in this area, I urge you to check out "The Collected Papers" of Nicholas A. Cummings" (volumes 1 & 2) edited, in part, by Dr. Thomas .
Click on the MP3 link below to hear today's podcast:
Download LarryThomasMP3.mp3 (2.04MB; 5mins,57secs)
Jon Udell comments that simply using digital recording methods repeatedly, such as Audacity, has improved his own speech style. I would add that having my own daughter observe my editing of her's and her friends' speech has been similarly beneficial. She watches as I shorten pauses, delete "umms" and "Uhhs" and gets visual feedback about how to create optimal or effective talking. While I have talked about using errorles modeling or speechmatch for individuals with autism and Asperger's, there may be something here for many of us. I wonder if college speech and communication profs are considering employing these methods in their classes?
BTW, I do plan to post my podcast interview with neuropsychologist J. Lawrence Thomas in the next day or two! Larry has been focusing on the importance of tending to "caregivers" as well as our "target" group of persons with autism spectrum problems.
