Kingwood Lecture Series - previous lecturesTuesday 17 April 2012Understanding the When, Where and What of Fragile X Syndrome – implications for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Delivered by Peter C Kind, PhD, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience, Edinburgh University. Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common genetically inherited form of mental retardation affecting approximately 1:4000 males and 1:8000 females. It is caused by genetic silencing of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. Fragile X syndrome (FXS) individuals have many behavioural symptoms in common with individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASDs) and most fragile X males will meet autism diagnostic criteria at some point in their lives. This talk focused on how synapses develop in models of FXS syndrome, focusing on the nature of these alterations and when alterations first appear. It also explored the rationale behind developing pharmaceutical interventions for treating FXS. Finally it will examine the relationship between FXS and certain forms of ASD at the level of the synapse. Peter Kind is Co-Director of the Patrick Wild Centre (for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome and Intellectual Disabilities), University of Edinburgh and took up a lectureship at Edinburgh University in January 2000. Peter graduated from Dalhousie University with a BSc in Neurosciences in 1988. Wednesday 21 March 2012Living in the community – housing design for adults with autism. Delivered by Andrew Brand, Designer and Engineer. The presentation covered a two-year project that brought together the Kingwood Trust and the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, in a research partnership that explored how design could improve living environments for adults with autism, support their specific needs and improve quality of life. Research methods, key findings and concepts from the study were presented. Andrew is a Designer and Engineer. From October 2009 to September 2011, Andrew worked in partnership with the Kingwood Trust and the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, to develop guidance and evidence-based concepts for the design of supported-living environments for adults with autism. Andrew is now working on the commercialisation and roll-out of his award-winning product, the Squease inflatable Deep Pressure vest. Squease is a therapeutic garment for people with sensory differences such as people with autism, ADHD or Dementia. He has founded a limited company, also called Squease, with a vision of creating other products that may benefit people with different abilities. Andrew is also a co-founder of BREAD, a collective entity that brings together multidisciplinary individuals to engage in research led design practice, and a visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art under the Royal Academy of Engineering's Visiting Teaching Fellows scheme. Wednesday 15 February 2012Kingwood Lecture Series - "Supporting Families". Delivered by Andrew Powell, National Autistic Society Andrew’s presentation focused on a pathway for parental post diagnostic support and then looked in more detail at how parents benefit from the Teenage Life programme. Andrew works for the National Autistic Society (NAS) based in Bristol. He co-developed the Home Office funded NAS help! Programme. Over 20000 parents have attended this post diagnostic support programme, which covered the UK. Currently Andrew is running a new programme called Teenage Life for parents of 8-18 year olds with autism. This has been positively evaluated by Bristol University. Andrew also works as a freelance autism consultant for a NHS autism service in Bristol and runs a social group for adults with Asperger syndrome. Andrew is the author of the Department of Health funded Taking Responsibility and co-author of Social Care – Assessment of need for adults with an autism spectrum disorder. His most recent book is Autism : Understanding and Managing Anger. 17 January 2012Kingwood Lecture Series - "Social Skills Training, Social Groups and Counselling". Delivered by Anja Rutten, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire University People with autism spectrum disorders often experience social isolation. This may in part be due to some of the difficulties in communication and interaction associated with being on the spectrum, but the other side of this is that mainstream society often does not meet the needs of people with ASD. It is commonly accepted that many people with ASD have high levels of emotional distress, in particular anxiety and depression. Research with neurotypical populations shows that good social networks provide some protection against mental ill health and that counselling interventions are effective for alleviating emotional distress. In practice however, many people with ASD are excluded from social opportunities and psychological interventions. In this lecture we will focus on some of the ways in which opportunities can be created to facilitate people with ASD. Anja is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Counselling at Staffordshire University where she specialises in training counsellors in addition to being responsible for undergraduate modules on psychological interventions and autism. Anja also is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist with significant experience in working with people on the autism spectrum and their families. Until November 2007 Anja was Head of Social Programmes and Befriending at the National Autistic Society. Anja’s current research focuses on therapy experiences of clients with Asperger syndrome and the evaluation of person-centred/emotion-focused therapy for this group of clients. 16 November 2011Kingwood Lecture Series - "Keeping out of Trouble – people with autism and the Criminal Justice System" Delivered by Alan Bicknell, Deputy Chief Executive, Autism Anglia The lecture gave an overview of autism spectrum conditions and examples of people with ASC who have offended. In his presentation, Alan coverd some of the reasons why people with an ASC are likely to find themselves in “trouble” and strategies for trying to prevent this happening, including guidance for the police. Alan trained as a teacher before beginning a career in the third sector which has seen him developing and managing services for organisations such as Mencap, Mind, the National Autistic Society and at present Autism Anglia. Always working within the broader field of learning disability and mental health provision, Alan has now specialised in Autism Spectrum Conditions for almost 15 years. A principal trainer with the NAS, he is also an experienced conference speaker, the author of one book, -Independent Living for adults with autism and Asperger syndrome and led on the NAS’s strategy for supporting people with ASC in the Criminal Justice System. 19 October 2011Kingwood Lecture Series - "Dogs Are Good For Us" Delivered by Peter Gorbing BA (Hons) MBA Chief Executive, Dogs for the Disabled In this lecture, Peter Gorbing looked at the history of how dogs have worked alongside people with a wide range of disabilities and analyse what we have learnt through the practical application of, and research into human-dog interaction. Peter also looked forward to the future, believing that we have only started to scratch the surface of the potential benefits that can come from dogs and people working alongside each other. Peter Gorbing is the Chief Executive of Dogs for the Disabled, an Accredited Member of Assistance Dogs International (ADI). Dogs for the Disabled train assistance dogs to help disabled people live life more independently and was the first assistance dog programme in the UK to train dogs for children with physical disabilities and started training autism assistance dogs in 2007. The charity launched an innovative family project called PAWS (Parents Autism Workshops and Support) in 2010 and is carrying out major research, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, to evaluate this work in the field of autism. 13 April 2011Kingwood Lecture Series - "Two-way Pathways between Research and Clinical Practice & Health Policies" Delivered by Professor Sir Michael Rutter - Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London After looking at the lessons learned from autism research from the 1950s to the present day a brief discussion will follow of false research claims and how to identify good research, and attention will be drawn to the 10 main points on how research has changed clinical work. Professor Sir Michael Rutter is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London. He was Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry from 1973 to 1998. 15 February 2011Kingwood Lecture Series - "A Window on the Biology of Behaviour" Delivered by Tony Holland Tony Holland is a psychiatrist specialising in learning disabilities. Since 2002 he has held the health Foundation Chair in the Psychiatry of Learning Disabilities at the University of Cambridge. He leads the Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group in the Department of Psychiatry. 19 January 2011Kingwood Lecture Series - "Autism & Talent" Delivered by Professor Francesca Happe Francesca Happe is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry (King’s College London). She studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford and did her PhD on autism at UCL. Her research interests centre on autism and Asperger Syndrome 12 October 2010Kingwood Lecture Series - "Current Initiatives in Autism Research" Delivered by Dr Jenny Longmore Jenny Longmore has over 20 years' experience in neuroscience research and is a Consultant for Autistica. She trained as a pharmacologist and physiologist at the University of Sheffield before undertaking a PhD in clinical pharmacology and experimental psychiatric medicine at the University of Manchester. 15 September 2010Kingwood Lecture Series - "The Past and Future of Theories of Autism" Delivered by Lorna Wing MD FRCPsych 23 March 2010Kingwood Lecture Series – "The New UK Brain Bank for Autism and Related Developmental Research" Delivered by Brenda Nally 3 February 2010Kingwood Lecture Series – “Current issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome" Delivered by Dr Ekkehart Staufenberg 20 January 2010Kingwood Lecture Series – “Autism and Asperger Syndrome" Delivered by Dr Greg Pasco 17 December 2009Kingwood Lecture Series – “Getting Answers from Babies about Autism" Delivered by Dr Mayada Elsabbagh PhD 25 November 2009Kingwood Lecture Series Launched – “Autism Now” |
