Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide have uncovered a new diagnostic tool that helps to detect autism in younger children. The tool was designed to spot behavioral and developmental issues that are associated with autism in children that are younger then 12 months old.
Ongoing study in autism treatments may have revealed some important information that could change the face of everything we know and possibly help more children who are affected by this ever growing problem. Scientists discovered a link between unrelated DNA changes that can be connected to autism. They believe that it is a common cause that shows a failure in the brain to be able to “wire up” the right way during the early learning stages in a child’s life.
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.
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.”
An new intervention program for autistic children has been set up at Cape Fear Children’s Center and Cumberland County Autism Society is looking for children to try it out. For now they are looking for 10 children that are between the ages of 16 and 48 months old. These children either have to be diagnosed with autism or be at risk for any autism disorder.
Ineffective or even dangerous fad treatments for autism are always a problem and seem to be growing more pervasive, according to researchers who studied the problem.
“Developmental disabilities like autism are a magnet for all kinds of unsupported or disproved therapies, and it has gotten worse as more children have been diagnosed with autism,” said James Mulick, professor of pediatrics and psychology at Ohio State University .”
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is one of the federal government’s leading supporters of biomedical research on brain and nervous system disorders. The NINDS conducts research in its laboratories at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. As part of the Children’s Health Act of 2000, the NINDS and three sister institutes have formed the NIH Autism Coordinating Committee to expand, intensify, and coordinate NIH’s autism research.
There is a subgroup of children with autism that appear to develop typically for a period of time, and then loses social or language skills, or even regresses. A recent study by Vargas and co-workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital has demonstrated that this regressive type of autism is associated with chronic brain inflammation as shown by an abnormal production of inflammatory cytokines among other abnormalities.
One of the most common ways of treating children with autism is by using medication. Like many other chronic medical conditions, autism has given rise to a parade of so-called miracle cures. Up to this date no cure has been found for the underlying biological cause or causes of autism. Many medications have appeared to have dramatic effects in small numbers of children, only to be proven ineffective in larger, more objective trials.