Specialisterne: leveraging the unique skills of Autistics at competitive market terms

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Specialisterne (Danish for ‘Specialists’) seeks to harness strengths that many people with Autism Spectrum Disorders possess - good attention to fine details, precision, and high tolerance for repetitive tasks. Their consultants bring the joy of work into areas where it is often missing. The social enterprise creates ‘virtual Specialisterne environments’ in the offices of its clients.
(source: Better, faster… and no office politics: the company with the autistic specialists - Features, Health & Families - The Independent)

The above is an example of ‘niche construction’ - this is the term Dr. Thomas Armstrong uses for modifying an environment (creating a ‘niche’) to suit an individual’s unique needs. Armstrong makes the point that niche construction is what animals have done for eons - for example the bird building a nest, the beaver building a dam.

And the environmental modifications do not have to relate to work necessarily. For example, the sleep environment could be modified for an Autistic person - which might well produce better and/or more consistent performance in the workplace.

Given the love for computers and technology that many people on the Autistic Spectrum have, it is well worth mentioning the negative effect of blue light on sleep. Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain. It helps regulate sleep and wake cycles:

…Dr. Brainard and other researchers have found that light composed of blue wavelengths slows the release of melatonin with particular effectiveness. Until recently, though, few studies had directly examined how blue-emitting electronics might affect the brain.
So scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland tried a simple experiment: They asked 13 men to sit before a computer each evening for two weeks before going to bed.
During one week, for five hours every night, the volunteers sat before an old-style fluorescent monitor emitting light composed of several colors from the visible spectrum, though very little blue. Another week, the men sat at screens backlighted by light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. This screen was twice as blue.
“To our surprise, we saw huge differences,” said Christian Cajochen, who heads the Center for Chronobiology at the University of Basel. Melatonin levels in volunteers watching the LED screens took longer to rise at night, compared with when the participants were watching the fluorescent screens, and the deficit persisted throughout the evening.
The subjects also scored higher on tests of memory and cognition after exposure to blue light, Dr. Cajochen and his team reported in the May issue of The Journal of Applied Physiology. While men were able to recall pairs of words flashed across the fluorescent screen about half the time, some scores rose to almost 70 percent when they stared at the LED monitors.
The finding adds to a series of others suggesting, though certainly not proving, that exposure to blue light may keep us more awake and alert, partly by suppressing production of melatonin. An LED screen bright enough and big enough “could be giving you an alert stimulus at a time that will frustrate your body’s ability to go to sleep later,” said Dr. Brainard. “When you turn it off, it doesn’t mean that instantly the alerting effects go away. There’s an underlying biology that’s stimulated.”…

Indeed Melatonin administration in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders has been associated with improved sleep parameters and better daytime behavior, with minimal side effects (see, for example, Rossignol DA, Frye RE. Melatonin in autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2011 Sep;53(9): 783-92)

However some people object to regularly taking hormonal supplements (like Melatonin) and, indeed, regular compliance might be an issue. A more ‘natural’ way to prevent suppression of Melatonin would be to use in the evenings, the blue light blocking glasses and/or lamps sold at LowBlueLights.com.

Even a special LowBlue Zzz Filter for the iPad™, an especially popular device for kids on the Autistic Spectrum, is sold on LowBlueLights.com. It was developed by a team of researchers at John Carroll University who have created the other innovative blue-blocking lighting products on that site:

Easily removable filter for the iPad™.

People complain that the use of an iPad™ before going to bed causes sleep problems. This filter will block the blue rays of light coming from the iPad™. It is the blue rays that cause suppression of the sleep hormone melatonin. This filter will solve that problem when using the iPad™ prior to bedtime . All of the touch screen controls will continue to function normally. The filter is held in place using an non-adhesive frame made of cling vinyl which is easily applied and removed. When the filter and frame are not in use, lowbluelights.com recommends storing them attached together in the protective folder in which it was shipped.

(sources: In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light - The New York Times; Bluelight Blocking Products - LowBlueLights; Bluelight Blocking Products - LowBlueLights)