Hi and welcome to the FitHab website, where Luis Torres posts new, exciting, and interesting information on fitness and more.

Last weekend I attended the 19th Annual Autism Update: Autism through the life span 3/21/26 at Li Ka Shing conference center, Stanford University.

I went to this meeting to learn more about autism and what new information is available to apply with my clients that are autistic.

The meeting was very hospitable, informative, scientific, cutting edge, and thought provoking.

It starts with a lecture on how autism is diagnosed. Autism is diagnosed by a clinician via behavioral expression. No special tools, just the clinician’s eyes.

Infant research is being used for early intervention during early development of the infant because of the brain plasticity in the first 3 years of life. This is the best time for intervention. Though many autistic individuals do not get diagnosed until later in childhood or life.

Infants express autism behavior by flapping (arms), sensory exploration, no eye contact, and fine motor skill impairment.

It was brought up in this part of the conference lecture that individuals with autism have a lower respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a measure of heart rate variability that can provide insights into the physiological responses of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies suggest that children with ASD may exhibit different RSA patterns compared to typically developing children, which can help in understanding their emotional and social functioning.

Lower RSA has shown that autistic individuals have a harder time to stay focused with sustained attention.

I asked Jessica Bradshaw Ph.D., Associate Professor, Research Director, Carolina Autism and Neurodiversity (CAN) Research Center, University of South Carolina about training/working on breath work to control focus/attention while training autistic clients. She thought that this was a great idea and that research should be done on it. I’ll do my mini research as I go, but I think from my experiences that breath work/control has profound effects on focus/attention, mindset, calmness, preparedness, and efficiency of movement and energy use.

The meeting also had information on how sleep was impacted on autistic individuals. They mentioned sleep efficiency was not good and stronger autism behavior increased sleep irregularity (they called it: social jet-lag). Quantity, quality, and other factors were addressed. Screen time duration, frequency, and time of use before bed has a large impact on the autistic population. Sleep hygiene and rituals/habits for sleep preparation are vital for improved sleep.

I believe that good quality, well rested, refreshing sleep is important to everyone for fitness and mental health. Especially in children and teens for development.

Artificial intelligence was also presented in the series of lectures. Stanford has a new program to use AI to help autistic individuals to learn via a computer application (an App) for visual and language engagement and to supporting social interactions. The app is called Noora. Coming soon.

Noora is a specialized chatbot developed at Stanford to help individuals with autism spectrum disorder practice their social skills. It provides personalized guidance in social communication scenarios, helping users learn how to respond empathetically and engage in social interactions more effectively.

SPARK presented and celebrates 10 years of conducting and supporting private research studies for Autism and talked about genetic and environmental factors that cause autism. What caught my attention was that air pollution and other factors are most potential for contributing to autism. Though, genetics is the biggest factor.

The series of lectures talked about EEG (electroencephalogram) as a very effective, (user friendly) noninvasive, cost effective/efficient, and readily available technology to use to study for creating biomarkers. What researchers are looking into is N170, a measured EEG that captures the brain electrical signal when people see a face. They believe that this along with artificial intelligence technologies will help develop a possible biomarker to diagnose autism early to better address and treat individuals early in life. N170 in autistic individuals tends to be delayed.

The series of lectures ends with how employment can be helpful or harmful to autistic individuals.

Is the job a good fit? Does it bring satisfaction? Work place climate. The work place climate influences job satisfaction. Does the work place have support?

My experience at this conference was wonderful! Lots of great information and cutting edge research presented. I look forward to next year and hear of any new information to help my clients.