A group of researchers affiliated with the University of California Davis and the University of California Los Angeles examined whether very young children respond when their names are called. They found that infants at risk for autism (their older siblings have autism), when compared with infants who were not at high risk of developing the autism, required more calls of their names before responding.
Continue reading ‘Early identification of autism’
Monthly Archive for April, 2007
At the University of California, Davis, the health sciences college sponsors a program called the M.I.N.D. Institute with M.I.N.D. standing for “Medicatl Investigations of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.” The institute is a multi-disciplinary organization focused on understanding the causes and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Continue reading ‘M.I.N.D. Institute’
Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute have invited biological or adoptive parents of children with autism or related disorders to participate in an large study of autism. Kennedy Krieger is an internationally known facility located in Baltimore (MD, US); it has many programs focused on children and adolescents with pediatric developmental disabilities and many pre-eminant researchers in developmental psychology, behavior analysis, special education, and other disciplines. The new project, led by Drs. Paul and Kiely Law, seeks to link families of children with autism with researchers in a comprehensive network.
Continue reading ‘Families research’
NPR reporter Jon Hamilton covered the challenges facing caregivers for individuals with autism as the individuals age. Here’s his lead:
Autism begins in childhood, and it doesn’t go away. Children with autism generally become adults with autism. Many will never live on their own. For their parents, that can mean responsibilities that last a lifetime — and beyond. In Maryland, one family is struggling to create a future for their son, Joey.
Mr. Hamilton’s story is available here.
Sphere: Related ContentFor those shopping for support for their efforts to help an individual child with autism, there appears to be a small industry for subscription service companies developing rapidly on the Internet. I mentioned one, Autism Pro, in early March. More recently I’ve explored TeachTown, which bills itself thusly:
TeachTown is dedicated to using scientifically validated practices that incorporate the latest academic research in the development of our products. Our programs are based on existing interventions such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that have been proven effective in the treatment of autism and our intervention tools and training programs are being validated through ongoing rigorous research studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
I’m not well-informed enough to evaluate these programs fully. They are, of course, proprietary so they don’t give away access for an appreciable time (I used Austism Pro’s trial period, to be sure), making it difficult to assess them. However, I am glad to note that TeachTown includes several people who are active researchers, giving them a leg up simply because they have to know the basic skepticism that undergirds making evidence-based decisions.
Still, I can’t endorse these services without more information.
As Maureen Conroy noted in a presentation yesterday at this meeting I’m attending, it’s difficult to apply the gold-standards of evidence (random assignment of participants to experimental and control conditions with outcomes measured on multiple trustworthy measures of important behavior) in autism. Still, it’s important to get as far along that path as we can. I want to return to this topic for a later post….
Anyway, check on TeachTown. Link back to the earlier EBDBlog post on Autism Pro. I’d welcome comments from folks who have experiences with either of these or with other similar services.
Sphere: Related ContentIf I was the developer of a med-school-affiliated Web site, I would think about 40-11 times before posting a list of possible treatments for autism with no critical examination of them. I wouldn’t consider this warning to be sufficient as a means of detering people from pursuing, say, facilitated communication or Irlen lenses.
It is recommended that caregivers carefully review the research available and make informed choices about which interventions to implement. Due to the fact that intervention information in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) changes rapidly, please understand that the information presented was compiled according to knowledge obtained at its publication. It is the responsibility of the reader to insure that the information is current. It is widely acknowledged that ASD are developmental disabilities with multiple areas of impairment. There is no evidence that any one treatment will address all areas of need for the individual.
Well, here’s a link to a list disseminated by Center for Development & Disability at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center, School of Medicine.
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