The Autistry Studios Mission

Helping ASD youth become independent adults.

At Autistry Studios we help teens and adults with Autism, Asperger's and other learning differences become successfully independent by leveraging their interests and talents while creating a community.

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Build a dedicated streaming video PC

Posted By on June 9, 2009

A nice, quick project would be a dedicated streaming video PC designed to be a living room internet-connected DVR hooked up to your TV capable of playing DVD and Blu-Ray disks, other digital formats off of removable disks or hard drives, and streaming internet sources like Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube.

Maximum PC has a great how-to for this project:

Maximum PC: How to Build a Hulu Desktop + Boxee PC

A $14 video camera stabilizer

Posted By on June 9, 2009

This is from MAKE magazine and we need one of these for our film class.

Found at the MAKE blog: Weekend Project: $14 Video Camera Stabilizer

Parts list is here.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand writes about her plans for affordable autism treatment

Posted By on June 9, 2009

United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) writes in the Huffington Post about her plans to create programs supporting affordable treatment for children diagnosed with ASD.

Autism affects more American children than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. It’s a heartbreaking disease that approximately 29,400 children in every corner of New York suffer from.

Huffington Post: Peaceful Revolution: Affordable Autism Treatment for Children

Is ASD due to a “super male” brain?

Posted By on June 9, 2009

In the June 22 issue of Forbes is an article by Elisabeth Eaves about Simon Baron-Cohen (academic brother of comedian Sasha Baron-Cohen) which discusses his research and his idea that the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) brain is an extreme version of the male brain.

Baron-Cohen and his researchers feel the currrent incidence of ASD is 156 per 10,000 (or 1.56 %).

Today the strongest evidence [of a cause for ASD] supports a genetic theory, most likely with an additional environmental factor that interacts with the risk genes.

Forbes.com: The Extremely Male Brain

Researchers Discover Mothers of ASD Teens Stressed Out – doh!

Posted By on June 6, 2009

This is one of those articles that makes me wonder what the heck researchers think they’re going to find when they start their projects? Kind of like doing a study to discover the sky is blue, or that water is wet!

Breaking News: Mothers of ASD Teens are Stressed Out

Studies continuing on Vaccine-Autism link

Posted By on June 5, 2009

I don’t know whether vaccines are related to any increase in cases of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) seen in recent years. I agree there are very probably genetic factors but I feel there must also be some sort of environmental trigger at play as well.

Is there really an increase in ASD? There is definitely an increase in ASD diagnoses (see Epidemiology of autism at Wikipedia). What I have seen in my lifetime in the SF Bay Area is that when I was a kid you saw mainly Down Syndrome and children with birth defects in Special Education classrooms — no autistics.

Autism was rare.

Here in Marin today we easily fill classrooms with autistic kids and I do not mean edge cases but full blown autistic kids.

Many believe that the way vaccines are administered, and how that has changed over the years, could be one of the environmental factors affecting the rate.

David Kirby’s article at Huffington Post today Top US Panel: Some Vaccine-Autism Research is “Appropriate,” “Worthwhile” and “Warranted” is an excellent and relatively even tempered discussion of the current thinking and research directions into the possible Vaccine-Autism link.

Autistry Studios Newsletter – June 2, 2009

Posted By on June 4, 2009

We added lots more content to the website and there are now links to past projects at the bottom of each Workshop page. We will add more as we go along and soon the site will be seriously ‘content rich’!

We took some great photos of Dan’s Friday and Sunday Build Stuff Workshops but we were all so busy on Saturday that we forgot to pick up the camera during Nate’s Filmmaking Workshop! This week we will make up for that and take a bunch of photos.

Nate will be going on vacation starting June 13th so this is the last June Saturday that he will be here. We are going to continue the Filmmaking Workshop for an additional 3 weeks (June 13, 20, and 27) with Dan and Janet leading the group. Nate will rejoin us in July for the twice a week classes.

We are in the process of forming a non-profit organization. We will be applying for grants soon – in fact, the first application is due June 15th. This is for a grant from Marin Charitable Association – a small grant from a local foundation. If you would like to write letters of support those would be truly appreciated.

Photos from the Weekend:

Friday Build Stuff Workshop

Sunday Build Stuff Workshop

See you all on the weekend,
Janet, Dan, Nate, and Jen

The Adventures of Larry Lysosome

Posted By on May 31, 2009

This animated short was written, narrated and directed by Steven. It is a very Steven creation!

Ian’s Screaming Eggs

Posted By on May 31, 2009

This was Ian’s very first film. It was inspired by a short film he saw on YouTube. He had a lot of help from the other film class students!

Devon’s Portable Theater

Posted By on May 31, 2009

This ‘show box’ or portable theater is Devon’s original concept and design.

Picture 011

It features storage for backdrops and floor panels that can be inserted to create unique worlds.