A New Test to Diagnose Autism

Scientists have developed a simple test which can diagnoses autism in children as young as two years, a breakthrough they say could lead to earlier detection and better treatment of the brain disorder.


The technique, invented by a team at Boston Children’s Hospital, uses EEG scalp scanning equipment used for decades to diagnose epilepsy to spot weaknesses in the brain’s wiring.

The researchers who carried out trials on more than 1,000 children aged between two and 12 years found that it was up to 90 per cent accurate in detecting the disease.

The test, they believe, is also suitable for use in poor countries that lack the specialist staff normally needed to make a definitive diagnosis, the Daily Mail reported.

Diagnosis of autism can be a lengthy and complicated process involving psychological tests and the average child is not diagnosed until the age of five and a half.

But Dr Frank Duffy, who led the research, believed there must be a simpler way, and decided to see whether some of the common symptoms of the condition can be traced back to changes in brain activity.

He chose the simpler and cheaper EEG, in which electrodes attached to the scalp tune into brain activity.

This revealed striking differences in brain wiring between autistic children and youngsters without the condition.

Connections between brain regions were in general poorer in children with autism. The differences were particularly apparent in the regions that control language.

“It seemed nearly impossible to even hope that such a consistent pattern could be obtained by a technique that has been around since the 1930s,” Dr Duffy said.

The researchers, who detailed their work in the journal BMC Medicine, now want to see if EEGs can be used to pick up Asperger syndrome, which although related to autism, leaves children with different needs. It is diagnosed, on average, at the age of 11.

Other possibilities include predicting same cases of autism ahead of the first symptoms, they said.

Commenting on the research, Caroline Hattersley of The National Autistic Society said: “we welcome any research that may help us to understand autism better and improve diagnosis times for those with the condition.”

Early detection

“While further testing of EEG scans is still required, any tools that help identify autism at a younger age could potentially improve a person’s quality of life by allowing the right support to be put in place earlier,” said Hattersley.

Autism affects every two in 1000 children worldwide. Its symptoms vary from child to child but usually revolve around difficulty with social interaction, difficulty with communication and a need for routine and repetitive behaviour. Patients are usually treated by a combination of speech, behavioural and other therapies. Although drugs can be given to control symptoms, there is no cure.

Courtesy : PTI

For further details of the study, please click over the link below:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7015-10-64.pdf

Free tools for autistic kids

Most of the resources, developed by those who work directly with the affected children, deal with maths, words and poetry

It’s never easy dealing with developmental or language delays, especially when they concern children afflicted with autism. But today, many free resources developed by those who work directly with the affected children are freely available online.

Most just require a simple registration process to get started. http://hiyah.net/ was developed by a mother of two sons, who were interested in computers but weren’t comfortable using the mouse.

Sara Polito’s programs can be worked through just the spacebar. Mostly educational in content, they deal with maths, words and poetry that children enjoy. The site loads easily and has no distracting graphics. Sara’s software also has a series that breaks down the daily tasks into simple steps — visits to the dentist and the hairdresser that children can easily assimilate. Designed for children aged 18 months to 6 years, the site is free to access.

Closer home, we have the TooonDoo tool on the Jambav portal made for children of all educational abilities. A simple ‘drag and drop’ tool, it helps children create cartoon strips that help them express themselves more effectively.

For those who have issues coordinating the mouse, the MouseTrial Autism Software (http://tinyurl.com/7zfr8x3) might be of help. The instructions here are audio-based, requiring no reading skills. The site also has the ‘Round the House Module,’ which helps young children understand parts of the home and objects within. It also has a section that explains parts of the body and clothes, navigating these concepts through simple games.

To help children understand the range of colours and learn how to paint when coordination can be an issue are the Sesame Street games. Essentially these are colour sheets put online. All it takes are simple clicks to fill vibrant colours onto the pictures provided. The sheets can be printed out for being worked on by hand or on the computer. Featuring the beloved Sesame Street character Elmo, the pictures have no complex details, designed as they are to encourage children start painting.

Reading is another area where the online resources can help. starfall.com opened in September 2002 as a free service to teach children reading with phonics. Designed by Stephen Schutz, who struggled with reading as a child only to become a successful physicist, the site is an educational website designed to help with reading using characters such as Zac the Rat and others to ensure that the child is never intimidated. It starts with the basics and gradually works its way up to higher grades.

Courtesy: Paromita Pain, The Hindu (18/06/2012)

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Autistics' strengths can be useful in research

Michelle Dawson, an autistic in Canada, has co-authored 13 papers

Can some people with autism do well in science, and add value to research done by non-autistic adults? Chances are that any person who either knows or is a parent of an autistic child/adult will dismiss this proposition.

But believe it or not, many autistic adults have certain exceptional and unique capabilities that even very intelligent non-autistic adults may lack. And such capabilities, when properly harnessed, would be of tremendous value to science.

“Many autistics, I believe, are suited for academy science,” writes Laurent Mottron in a Comment piece (“The power of autism”) published in Nature today (November 3). “From a young age, they may be interested in information and structures, such as numbers, letters, mechanisms and geometrical patterns — the basis of scientific thinking.” But it is important to note that not all can do well in research, and research is one of the many areas where some autistics can do well.

Dr. Mottron is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, and holds the Marcel & Rolande Gosselin Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism at the same university.

The paper by Prof. Mottron is an eye-opener. It is a very compelling and riveting piece that changes our very perception of the inherent capabilities of some autistics. Considering its importance, the journal has provided people “free access” to the content of November 3 Nature autism special issue “until the end of the year.”

Personal experience

But what makes him extol their capabilities so emphatically? Apart from researching for years on various aspects of autism, he has personal experience working with eight autistic people in his lab — four research assistants, three students and one researcher.

These people are not his subjects of study but who have worked alongside him in some capacity or other on various issues connected with autism. In the process, they have helped him understand their strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Michelle Dawson, a research assistant with autism, with no formal training in psychiatry or cognitive neuroscience, provided excellent feedback on papers written by Prof. Mottron.

Surprises

Ms. Dawson has co-authored 13 papers and several book chapters! In fact, she has played a pivotal role in challenging several assumptions about autism.

“Ms. Dawson does not have a scientific degree, but she has learned and produced enough in a few years of reading neuroscience papers to conduct certain types of research,” he writes. “At this point, she deserves a Ph.D.”

Several research studies have shown that their “strengths can be directly useful in research.” But it is important to remember that not all autistics will do well in research. “The strengths we find are actually found at the group level in most autistics. But research requires a combination of skills to be good at, in addition to autistic strengths,” he emphasises.

Their strengths

Autistics have other extraordinary strengths, and can outperform others when it comes to perception tasks. “Spotting a pattern in a distracting environment” is one such example. This is because they can process visual information far better than others. Same is the case with auditory skills.

If understanding and making sense of a very large dataset can stump a non-autistic adult, it is child's play for autistics. They are “good at spotting recurring patterns” in a large dataset and can correctly notice when such patterns are “broken.”

Since data is vital and so very crucial to science, and given their varied abilities to read and remember them, autistics can sometimes simply walk over others when it comes to interpreting data. And their interpretation comes solely from the data they have before them.

“Her models never over-reach and are infallibly correct,” he writes. Of course, like her, all autistics need a large dataset to arrive at conclusions.

Some people also exhibit good memory — able to recall what they have read ten days ago, even data.

Typically, non-autistics approach a problem from a totally different angle. Hence autistics and non-autistics approach a problem from two totally different directions. They can complement each other in amazing ways when working together as a team.

“Combining the two types of brains in the same research group is amazingly productive,” he writes.

(by R. Prasad ; Cortesy :The Hindu- 03/11/11)

Special issue on Autism from NATURE magazine (Please click over the link below)

http://www.nature.com/news/specials/autism/index.html

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Tackling Autism in India

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Autism is a complex developmental disability that appears during the first three years of life. It is the result of a neurological disorder that affects communication skills. Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than girls.Children and adults with autism have difficulties in verbal and non–verbal communication, social interaction, and leisure or play activities. The disorder makes it hard for them to communicate with others and relate to the outside world. In some cases, aggressive and/or self–injurious behavior could result.

Autism is a complex developmental disability that appears during the first three years of life. It is the result of a neurological disorder that affects communication skills. Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than girls.Children and adults with autism have difficulties in verbal and non–verbal communication, social interaction, and leisure or play activities. The disorder makes it hard for them to communicate with others and relate to the outside world. In some cases, aggressive and/or self–injurious behavior could result.

“The general public, psychologists and teachers need to be educated about autism. Children are rejected from special schools because of the complexity of the disorder. Most teacher training courses do not have autism as a component. Even some doctors are unaware of it, and hence unable to guide the child and parents in the right direction, she asserts”.

Bina Modak, parent of an autistic child, and a member of the Forum for Autistic Awareness, who also co–ordinates with local parent support groups in Mumbai, says, “There are very few schools in Mumbai which cater to autistic children’s needs”. Bina has a Master’s Degree in Social Work, and has been in the field as a professional educator for a number of years. “I was in the field, so I had the advantage of knowing where to get help from. But there is this growing need to build up a local directory which could enable parents to find themselves a school or a trainer who caters to the special needs of the autistic child in a locality of their choice”. They are working at building up this special directory. She remembers how difficult it was for her in the beginning, but “Overall, 11 years down the line, it has been a rewarding experience”.

Dr Vibha Krishnamurty, developmental pediatrician from Jaslok Hospital, cites two problems that affect the 18 lakh population of autistic children in India. She says, “Thirty per cent autistic children are not retarded. They are not allowed admission in regular schools and they don’t need to be in schools for the mentally retarded. If regular schools were a little more flexible, then it would make a difference”.Intervention between the ages of 2 and 3 plays a crucial role in the development of a child. Research reveals that there is a considerable amount of improvement if early intervention occurs.

Program Alternatives

Various program components share an emphasis on early, appropriate, and intensive educational interventions for young children. Other common factors may be some degree of inclusion – mostly behavior–based interventions – programs which build on the interests of the child, extensive use of visuals to accompany instructions, highly structured schedule of activities, parent and staff training, transition planning and follow–up.Various types of therapies are available, including (but not limited to) applied behavior analysis, auditory integration training, dietary interventions, discrete trial teaching, medications, music therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, sensory integration, speech/language therapy and vision therapy.

A well–designed intervention approach may include some elements of communication therapy, social skill development, sensory integration therapy and applied behavior analysis, delivered by trained professionals.A structured education and behavior program that contains a one–on–one teacher to student ratio or small group environment may best address the more severe challenges of some children.In addition to appropriate educational supports in the area of academics, students with autism should have training in functional living skills at the earliest possible age. Learning to cross a street safely, to make a simple purchase, or to ask for assistance when needed, are critical skills, and may be difficult even for those with average intelligence levels.

In Conclusion

To be effective, any approach should be flexible in nature, rely on positive reinforcement, be re–evaluated on a regular basis, and provide a smooth transition from home to school to community environments. As a result of the challenging behavior of their children, relationships with service providers, attempting to secure appropriate services, resulting in financial hardships, or very busy schedules, families often have difficulty participating in typical community activities. This results in isolation and difficulty in developing needed community support. With appropriate intervention, many associated forms of behavior could be changed positively. The majority of children and adults will, however, continue to exhibit some manifestations of autism to some degree throughout their entire lives.

Courtesy: aarogya.com