The National Institute of Health has given a $7 million grant – which will help researchers at the University of Michigan Autism and Communication Disorders Center to help recognize autism in children at a much younger age. It is hard sometimes to determine whether or not your baby is autistic. One way that you can tell is to see if they will look at others to determine a certain situation.
Mel Rutherford the associate professor of psychologyin the Faculty of Science is leading an Early Autism Study and has been utilizing the eye tracker technology to measure the eye direction of an infant. They study how well a baby can follow bouncing balls on a computer screen with their face and eyes.
A connection between autism and the preservative e thimerosal vaccine is on trial again. The second hearing at the United States Court of Federal Claims began this week. At the end of three hearings they will decide what is best to compensate almost 4,800 parents who believe that their children were damaged by the preservative because it is mercury-based.
Scientists believe that parents who have any type of psychiatric problem could increase a child’s risk of being autistic. During the research doctors discovered that the amount of autistic children was higher when their parents have suffered from depression, schizophrenia, or other psychiatric disorders.
“Our research shows that mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism,” said Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked on the study. “We also saw higher rates of depression and personality disorders among mothers, but not fathers,” she said in a statement.
Supporters of autism have been working to fund research to support the children and families who have been affected by this disease. Now they are seeking help from the State Capitol in order to secure better insurance coverage.
Parents and supporters of children with autism rallied at the Capitol last week. They want the Legislature to pass bills that would require insurers to cover some autism therapies, screenings and diagnosis.
Wales will be the first country to create a creative plan that will help to improve the services for people who have been diagnosed with autism. The strategy will be backed by £1.8m and the strategy has already been drawn up and launched.
New research may show that autism and schizophrenia are more closely related than we thought. The research shows that patients who have schizophrenia have certain rare variations in their genes that can control the brain development.
This week ‘Autism: The Musical’ began. It is a powerful documentary that has played at some of the larger festivals – which include Newport and Tribeca. It is also being streamlined on HBO for no charge all of next week.
Autism has been receiving lots of press of late, most of it contentious, and the debates as to its causes are divisive and painful to listen to. I’m glad I sat down to watch it, though, as this movie proved to be none of those things.
Lisa Danyluk is always hoping that week to week they will have the money they need in order to keep diagnosing and treating autistic children. Danyluk – Chairwoman of the Regina Region Early Childhood Intervention Program – went on to say that, “We’re economically very healthy as a province right now and I’m hoping that will translate into a sharing of the wealth with the families and the kids that need it the most.”
UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and Center for Children’s Environmental Health has conducted research on what can cause autism in infants and young children. They have discovered that antibodies found in the blood of mothers who have had autistic children will bind to the fetal brain cells. This can interrupt the normal and healthy brain developments of the fetus.