Beautiful Toronto is a lovely setting for the explosion of information at IMFAR 2012. One way we are trying to bring the conference to those of you who could not attend is by using Twitter to "live tweet" sessions and events. Later, using
Storify, we can piece back together those 140-character bites of information. The following is the Tweet story of an oral presentation entitled
Friendship in ASD through the Life Span: Nature, Trajectories, Importance and Treatment . Any errors (including hastily-typed misspellings!) or omissions are mine. Please follow @thinkingautism, @jennyalice, @shannonrosa, @ejwillingham, and @aspieadvocate for more IMFAR 2012 conversation.The conference is using #IMFAR2012 to make finding and sharing information easier.-JBM
<script <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">src</span>="http://<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">storify</span>.com/<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">jennyalice</span>/friendships-in-adolescence.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">js</span>"></script><<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">noscript</span>>[<a <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">href</span>="http://<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">storify</span>.com/<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">jennyalice</span>/friendships-in-adolescence" target="_blank">View the story "Friendships in Adolescence" on <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">Storify</span></a>]<h1>Friendships in Adolescence</h1><h2>Developmental Challenges in those with <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span></h2><p><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">Storified</span> by &<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">middot</span>; Thu, May 17 2012 15:46:09</p><div>Marjorie Solomon from <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">UC</span> Davis Mind Institute speaking at <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">IMFAR</span> 2012 in Toronto, Canada</div><div>Marjorie Solomon Adolescent Friendships and <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> #IMFAR2012</div><div>Marjorie Solomon of MIND friendships critical to teens to becoming whole functioning adult. Me: need more focus in <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">IEP</span> #imfar2012 #autism</div><div>Solomon: In adolescence friendship helps foster development. 1/3 of their time spent with friends #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Intimate self-disclosure important in friendship development #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">Neuro</span>-development leads to changes in the nature/demands of friendship. Changes in grey matter, white matter increases #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Executive functions which use lateral <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">prefrontal</span> cortex begin to mature at 11-15 in NT development #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: In adolescence, increased reasoning/problem solving determining future makes for better ability to develop friendships #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Video interviewing autistic young adults about importance of friendship. (They all want friends!) #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> teens have social emotions and experience loneliness and jealousy, and they want friends. #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: When <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> are teens less than 15% have reciprocal friendships. <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> kids develop closer bods w/ parents at this time #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Girls with <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> develop better friendships #IMFAR2012</div><div>60% of <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> 13-16 <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">yos</span> doing screen-based activities for fun. Somehow, that's not a "good" thing. #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Autistic teens experience greater satisfaction being w/parents than do NT teens #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Vocabulary level associated w/positive affect, friendship intimacy in autistic teen friendships #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Study of friendship <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">dyads</span> HF-<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> play was more parallel, but this improved w/age. Play more egalitarian in <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span>/NT dyad #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Better maternal attachment was correlated with better friendship in both mixed/<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">nonmixed</span> <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">dyads</span> #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: "better mother-child attachment contr’d to better friendship quality for all friendships, but even more so for <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> kids" #IMFAR2012</div><div>in #IMFAR2012, "attachment security" w/mother emerging as important factor. More on that here: http://t.co/nlPp50c4</div><div>Solomon: School-based approach for teaching social skills are successful because it's a more natural environment #IMFAR2012</div><div>Solomon: Friends of children w/autism rate friendship w/<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">ASD</span> friend higher if that child has better abstract reasoning skills #IMFAR2012</div></<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">noscript</span>>