Life-Changing Autism Intervention

BACKGROUND: There are many conflicting statistics when it comes to how prevalent autism is among kids in the United States. The latest statistics show the disorder affects about one in every 200 children. The number of kids with autism is rising, although it's unclear why. There is one popular theory. Dr. Catherine Lord, an internationally recognized expert in the field from the University of Michigan, said: "What has happened is that the conceptualization of the disorder has gotten quite a bit broader to encompass kids who have specific social deficits. We do not know if having a broader definition accounts completely for this rise in number or whether there actually are more kids with autism or autism spectrum disorders. Part of the confusion is, who exactly is in that spectrum? Where do you draw the line?" She says autism is currently defined completely by behavior that, according to Lord leads to one of the big scientific questions in the field -- how do you know if a child is a truly autistic? Lord asks, "What are the signs that really mean something in those really little kids and what do not?"

EARLY DIAGNOSIS: Researchers used to believe that you have to wait until a child is 4 or 5 years old before accurately diagnosing him or her with autism. Lord's research shows that's not the case. In her studies, she shows a reliable diagnosis can be given as young as 2 years old. The key is knowing what to look for. Here are some early warning signs:

1) A child who seems to understand language, but does not respond to his or her name.

2) When they are young, kids with autism do not respond to the idea of "shared attention." Lord says, "If I started looking off to the corner, you would probably start looking there too wondering why I'm looking there and that is something that is much harder for kids with autism to do."

3) Many kids with autism do not point to draw people's attention to things.

4) Kids with autism may very well be happy and smile a lot, but they do not participate in social interaction the same way.

LEADS TO EARLY INTERVENTION: The benefit of diagnosing a child as young as 2 with autism is that therapists and parents can develop behavioral treatments that can change a child's life. It used to be thought that 50 percent of children with autism would never speak. With early intervention, Lord's research shows only about 14 percent won't. Lord said, "We also found that about 40 percent could really carry on fluent conversations." Intervention is specifically targeted to each individual child, as each will have different behaviors that will need to be addressed. Social interaction and carrying a task through to completion are two important areas to target. Some children may need to learn to relax when in the company of strangers or other children. Other children may need to work on how to handle situations when what they expect to happen, doesn't happen. Also, getting parents involved in the interventions is key. Lord said: "The parents are really the critical element in any intervention even if we are having the child go to school all day. The reality is, they are going to come home to their families and so doing things that helps families probably makes more different than anything else."

Lord is excited about what she's seeing in children with autism. She said: "It has been truly wonderful to see how many things people with autism can do and things that we would not have probably dreamed about 20 or 30 years ago. Sometimes it feels like the interventions that we do are just little steps one at a time ... It's not just what you have done in a day, but that you know it leads into something that is really going to change children's lives."

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Catherine Lord, Ph.D.
University of Michigan
Autism and Communications Disorder Center
(734) 936-8600
umacc@umich.edu
www.umaccweb.com

For other medical research, visit Ivanhoe Broadcast News on the Internet at http://www.ivanhoe.com