1/3 of children that have once been diagnosed with autism are no longer considered to be on the spectrum by the time they pass adolescence.
New Autism Treatment – Early Start Denver Model Behavioral Therapy
Intensive early behavioral therapy may normalize the brain activity in children with autism when they look at faces and improve their social skills according to a recent study. This is on top of what was previously known that it could help develop language and thinking skills. Researchers looked at 48 autistic children between 18 and 30 months. Half of the children were treated with a new type of therapy called Early Start Denver Model for 20 hours per week for 2 years. After 2 years, researchers used electroencephalograms to measure the brain activity of the children with autism as well as of children without autism while they watched faces and toys. The majority of autistic children treated with the Early Start Denver Model showed greater brain activation when looking at faces rather than objects (a response common to children without autism). The opposite was found among the kids with autism who received other interventions.
The autistic children with increased brain activity at the sight of faces also had better social and behavioral skills. The study is the first to find underlying changes in brain function along with behavioral changes after early therapy. The full study can be found in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, November 2012.
Vaccinations and Autism
By now you have probably heard the rumor that childhood vaccines can cause autism. Lets take a closer look at how this idea came about. In 1998 a British gastroenterologist published a paper in a medical journal theorizing a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism. His research was based on interviews with parents based on TWELVE children!! The press ran away with the story that vaccines cause autism.
Since this global panic, a mercury-based preservative thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines. This was to just to be safe just in case the observed autism was in fact mercury poisoning. Throughout the past decade there have been dozens of studies that have collectively drawn on data from millions of children. These studies have consistently found no connection between vaccines and autism. In 2010 the original British medical journal retracted their original 1998 paper and the UK’s General Medical Council revoked the British gastroenterologist’s medical license.
Although we recommend all children get vaccines as scheduled there are still a few parents that swear that it was in fact vaccines that caused their child’s autism. What do you think? Please share your experiences and thoughts with us.
Why Teenagers Are Fearless
Often we are asked why teenagers tend to do things that we would consider dangerous to themselves without any fear. At the same time, most rational adults realize the consequences and would not do these same acts themselves. In fact many teenagers tend to not realize how unsafe their acts are such as dangerous skateboard and bicycle jumps, speeding in a car, riding in the back of a pickup truck, and etc. The reason is that the brains of adolescents are different than the brains of adults. As adolescents get older, maturation happens from the back to the front of the brain with the frontal lobe being the last part of the brain to mature. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that controls judgment and insight. This means that adolescents are wired to be quick learners with limitations on their common sense and sense of danger. Unfortunately it is a lot easier to take risky chances when you are wired to be impulsive and confident.
Brain Trick
A good way to help kids with developmental delays and executive function issues is by strengthening the brain. Puzzles and visual tasks work great.