A new study from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) puts the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) at 0.9% (one in every 110) of 8-year-old children. Writing in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Catherine Rice of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities reported the results of her study 18 December.
In what is called a surveillance study, Ms. Rice examined educational and medical records of children age 8 in 2006, because that age appears to be a peak age for prevalence of ASD. Research teams from sites that participate in the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network monitor public health records. Ms. Rice’s report aggregated the data from 10 sites. Continue reading ‘New prevalence study of ASD’
Twelve key children’s services for community services boards
specialized children’s emergency services;
crisis stabilization;
evaluations for Comprehensive Services Act services;
psychiatric/medication;
office-based mental health therapy;
office-based substance abuse therapy;
mental health case management;
intellectual disabilities case management;
substance abuse case management;
home-based behavioral treatment and support for families;
school-based day treatment; and
local residential services.
Right here in my home commonwealth of Virginia last week, Mira Signe, Vicki Hardy-Murrell, John Morgan, and Margaret Nimmo Crowe explained why it is important that government and private organizations attend to and address issues in children’s mental health. By explaining that Virginia has inadequate services and that one in every five children or youths experience mental health problems at some time during their lives, they made the point that that there is a tremendous need for public focus on these issues. This was the kick-off event for the Campaign for Children’s Mental Health.
The Campaign for Children’s Mental Health is a 3-year sustained effort to make mental health services more available and accessible to Virginia children in need. It will strongly endorse Governor-elect McDonnell’s call for system improvements; urge the General Assembly and state and local government to work collaboratively with the administration to address system deficiencies; and conduct a high-profile three-year advocacy and education drive to build public and political support for improved mental health services for children.
Only about one in 20 of Virginia’s children have access to the key services listed in the accompanying box. So, four out of five children who need these services do not have access to them.
No, Virginia, this is not an acceptable way to treat our children. Let’s do better.
Down load the press release (source of the excerpt quoted here).
I’m going a little afield here, as this is not about children or youth. Still, I thought it might be interesting to a reader or two. Using images of the brains of adults with Autism and other adults without Autism, Michael Lombardo and colleagues examined activity in two parts of the individuals brains considered to be involved in thinking about oneself or about others. They found that the individuals with Autism showed differences from their not-Autistic matches in the area of the brain (cingulate cortex) that is active during social interactions and bonding.
All of the participants who had Autism diagnoses (N=29) were pretty high functioning. They were, on average, 26 years old, their average full-scale IQ was almost 116, and on the ADI-R social, communication, and repetitive scales their average (SD) ratings were 17.87 (4.73), 14.83 (3.58), and 5.78 (2.71) respectively. Continue reading ‘Self- and other-referents in Autism’
Jaylen Arnold is not happy about bullying, and he’s telling anyone who will listen to stop bullying now. According to the Web site for Jaylen’s Challenge, Jaylen Arnold, the third grader who is the central figure in the anti-bullying campaign that uses his name and has been featured frequently in the media recently, has Tourette’s disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Jaylen’s effort to end bullying is apparently abetted by his parents (Howard and Robin Holt Arnold) and someone named Paul, who helps with the Web management.
This site is the dream of a wonderful little boy named Jaylen. Jaylen suffers from Tourette Syndrome. He wants to educate people about bullying, bringing attention to the difficulties he faces in his day to day living . He hopes to make you laugh, make you cry, but most importantly make you aware that those with disabilities are not only normal – but incredibly special people. With your help and support he can spread the word and teach people to help…not bully.
The story of James Delorey is, sadly, an instructive one. For those who have children, the possibility of a daughter or son being lost is a frightful concern. For those whose children have disabilities and are even more vulnerable than other children, having a missing child must be even more frightful.
James Delorey, a boy with Autism, was lost for many hours in the woods near the neighborhood of his home. Harold Doherty, the father of a child from the same Canadian province, chronicled the story on Facing Autism in New Brunswick. Here are references to his posts:
In “Autism: A journey of recovery” on the “American Morning” section of the Web site of CNN, reporter Kiran Chetry relates the story of Jake Exkorn and his family. Jake’s remarkable story is one of great losses in competence as a toddler, followed by persistent, intensive therapy during his childhood and substantial progress.
Hill Walker and colleagues reported that the First Step to Success program benefitted young children at risk for developing emotional or behavioral disorders. In a longitudinal study of the three-year program conducted in Albuquerque (NM, US), the researchers found substantial reductions in disruptive behavior and improvements in social functioning.
In a press release, Professor Walker said, “Albuquerque was the first opportunity we had to mount a large-scale study of the program using a randomized control group, the gold standard for research. First Step has been implemented widely, but not [studied] in this way.” Continue reading ‘First Step takes off’
Trine Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan, the Chicago Tribune reporters who have provided exemplary examinations of unsupported therapies for Autism, continued their series of stories on the topic with a piece entitled “Autism: Kids Put At Risk” in the Los Angeles Times. In this briefer (though still well-researched) article they devote most of the coverage to examining the physicians who prescribe chelation, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, anti-testorsterone drugs, mega-doses of vitamins, and many other unproven regimens and other doctors who have serious doubts about the consequences, including the safety, of such therapies.
Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD; a division of the Council for Exceptional Children) will hold it’s 2010 International Forum 11-12 February in New Orleans (LA, US). The theme for the conference is “Research Into Practice: Achieving Academic and Social Competence with Challenging Students.” Registration is limited. Learn the full program and other details from the Web page describing the conference.
Writing for MSNBC, Brian Alexander provided a thorough examination of the history and devastating consequences of some facilitated communication (FC). After making quick reference to the case of Rom Houben that has been in the news recently, in “Dark shadows loom over ‘facilitated’ talk: Opening minds or telling tales? Michigan family torn apart by abuse claims,” describes the wrenching effects of facilitated accusations of sexual abuse on the family of Aislinn Wendrow.
On Nov. 27, 2007, just a few days after returning to school from Thanksgiving break, 14-year-old Aislinn Wendrow created a shock wave by saying her father had “banged” her. Aislinn didn’t say it, exactly; she typed it on the keyboard of a digital device with the help of Cynthia Scarsella, her facilitator and an employee of Michigan’s Walled Lake school district.
The Wendrows’ story is not news; the charges against the parents were dropped in September 2008. Mr. Alexander intertwines the story of the Wendrow family’s nightmare with FC with the story of how FC was developed, adopted, challenged and found wanting, and yet is still being promoted. It’s an example of good journalism.
In the November 2009 issue of Pediatrics, Tanya Froehlich and colleagues reported that maternal smoking during pregnancy and children’s exposure to lead were associated with diagnoses of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Each factor alone was linked to ADHD, and the two in combination had an even greater association ADHD.
OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine the independent and joint associations of prenatal tobacco and childhood lead exposures with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as defined by current diagnostic criteria, in a national sample of US children. Continue reading ‘ADHD and smoking and lead’
In a smallish-but-well-done study, Geraldine Dawson and colleagues reported in Pediatrics that the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM)—a variant of the behavioral methods that have often been found to be effective—produced salutary benefits for young children with Autism. The children who received the ESDM intervention had significantly greater gains in IQ than those in a community treatment control and their social behavior kept pace with the standards for their non-disabled peers while the social behavior of the community controls declined relative to the standards.
OBJECTIVE To conduct a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a comprehensive developmental behavioral intervention, for improving outcomes of toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Continue reading ‘ESDM benefits toddlers’
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EBD Blog provides news and commentary about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in children and youths. These problems have sometimes been called "emotional disturbance" or even "serious emotional disturbance." Whatever they are called, these problems are real, painful, and important. They often affect other people as well as having deleterious effects on school, social relations, and other aspects of the individuals' lives.
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