“Are you neurotypical?” How autistic people compensate to fit in

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Eloise Stark examines a recent qualitative study that looks into compensatory strategies in autism. An online questionnaire asked a wide range of participants to self-report their use and experiences of compensatory strategies. The findings are illuminating.

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Caries experience and dental care in children with and without learning disabilities

People with autism, learning disabilities or other neurodevelopment conditions may be finding the outbreak even more stressful as it can mean a great deal of change and disruption to daily routines.

This review of caries experience and dental care provision in children with and without learning disabilities included 25 cross sectional studies with findings suggesting no overall difference in caries levels between the two groups.

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Young people with autism suffer poorer sleep quality than their peers

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A group of UCL Masters students summarise a systematic review and meta-analysis of subjective and objective studies, which explores sleep problems in young people with autism spectrum disorders.

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Autism and psychiatrists: experience, knowledge and attitudes revealed in new survey

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Eloise Stark looks at a recent online survey which seeks to understand psychiatrists’ knowledge, attitudes and experiences in identifying and supporting their patients on the autism spectrum.

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How many ways do they need to say it? Young autistic people need support for their mental health.

Autistic people with mental health needs are clear that they need specialised services and these can only be effective if people are properly trained in both mental health and autism.

Vaso Totsika’s blog considers a study by Crane and colleagues, which seeks to further our understanding of how young autistic people experience the world of service provision in relation to their mental health needs, and in particular at the time of transition from child to adult services.

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CBT may help to improve emotion regulation in children with autism

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James Cusack from Autistica writes his debut elf blog on a new RCT of CBT to improve emotion regulation in children with autism, published recently in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

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Turn on, tune in, drop out! Music therapy no better than usual care for young people

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Lisa Burscheidt is rather disappointed by a randomised controlled trial of music therapy for children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems.

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Digital health for young people with mental health problems: silver bullet or red herring?

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Victoria Betton on a recent meta review of digital health interventions for children and young people with mental health problems. The question is, does the evidence square with her experience of what actually happens in practice?

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Parent training works for child and adolescent mental health

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Tony McGinn presents a high-level overview of the state of parent training evidence. His blog draws on over 30 systematic reviews with meta-analyses, to bring you a handy summary of what works.

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Substance misuse and addiction in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

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Andrew Jones summarises a recent Canadian cohort study, which explores the extent of substance misuse and addictive disorders among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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