A newly released book by Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, See Sam Run details the experience of raising a child with autism. Her son is now 20 years old and was originally going to focus on him but she found, as writers often do, that sometimes the story that needs to be told is a different one. In this case it was a story from the mother’s perspective and the joys and challenges of raising a child with autism.
Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe’s book, See Sam Run: A Mother’s Story of Autism (Mayborn Literary Nonfiction)
, is available in bookstores near you (And Amazon.com of course).
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Brian Muller at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a “novel “deep-pressure” vest which can also be used for adults with mental illness, delivers a “portable hug” called deep pressure touch stimulation (DPTS).
“People with developmental disorders and mental illness are often overwhelmed in everyday environments such as school and the workplace, and solutions available to families and mental health professionals are limited,” says Mullen, a doctoral student of mechanical engineering. “This is an alternative therapy that can safely and discreetly provide the treatment they need to function in mainstream society.”
It has been observed by occupational therapists that children can benefit from DPTS especially those suffering from autism, sensory processing disorders and ADHD. It can help the children increase attention to tasks, reduce anxiety and harmful behaviors.
Source: Science Daily
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NIne year old Brandon was diagnosed with autism and his parents, Kelvin Mark and Cheryl Lie were very concerned he would never be able to live a normal life. Brandon had a hypersensitivity to sunlight, dirt and loud voices, making typical childhood activities all but unthinkable.
Brandon entered an essay contest where he won $5000 for his basball team’s River Park baseball diamond. He wrote about how baseball helped him overcome his challenges.
“I have something called autism,” Brandon wrote. “I don’t really know what it is.
“When I first started playing, I couldn’t touch wet or muddy things or step in puddles or listen to loud noises or I would freak out,” he wrote. “I didn’t like being in the hot sun and I only liked wearing long sleeve shirts. I was kind of shy and I was afraid of the ball. “These things don’t bother me now,” he wrote.
“I learned how to hit, run and score. I learned how to catch a ball and tag the runner out. I like leading our team cheer. I like sliding and LOVE touching home plate.”
This was a regional contest sponsored by small engine maker Briggs and Stratton, which asked the children how baseball helped children build confidence on and off the field.
“Brandon’s $5,000 will go toward a new irrigation system and maintenance at Ciavarella Field, said Tom Griffin, president of River Park Youth Baseball. With 125 games on the field since opening day this spring, “it takes a beating,” he said.”
Source: Sacremento Bee
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Researchers in Canada and around the world are attempting to develop a test for autism for infants because early treatment is critical for those with ASD. Research presented by Mel Rutherford, associate professor of psychology in the faculty of science at McMaster at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research in London, indicates that an early diagnostic test for autism could soon be available.
Typically autism isn’t diagnosed until the age of two but Rutherford’s small study is able to use eye tracking technology to pinpoint autism in about 10 minutes.
“What’s important about this study is now we can distinguish between a group of siblings with autism from a group with no autism — at nine months and at 12 months,” said Rutherford, in a release. “I can do this in 10 minutes, and it is objective, meaning that the only measure is eye direction; it’s not influenced by a clinician’s report or intuition. Nobody’s been able to distinguish between these groups at so early an age.”
The researchers tested siblings of those with autism who are at higher risk of developing ASD. These findings are then compared against a control group. Follow-up testing at two years old is done to compare with the earlier findings.
More research and development will be done to further this development.
Source: cbc.ca
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According to research published in the May 15, 2008 issue of Biological Psychiatry, “individuals with autism who exhibit repetitive behavior show reduced activity in brain regions normally responsible for attention and executive function, the processes that help organize our actions and behaviors, researchers at Hofstra, Duke, and the University of North Carolina report in the current issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.”
“During a test of cognitive flexibility in which participants were asked to alter behavioral responses and shift cognitive sets, individuals with autism showed impaired performance and decreased activation in several areas of the brain compared with typically-developing individuals,” said first author Keith Shafritz, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Hofstra University. “This pattern of reduced brain activity appeared in all participants in our autism group.”
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to determine the brain regions that were active during a taks that required perception and reasoning. The study had 18 individuals with autism and 15 without an autism diagnosis.
Source: Media Newswire
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Oxytocin has been tested on adults with autism and it has been found to “improve their ability to recognise emotion in people’s voices and the effects of just one injection last for a fortnight.” This chemical is produced during sex and childbirth could help treat autism, depression and other personality disorders. Oxytocin is thought to build trust by linking social interaction with feelings of pleasure.
“United States Researcher Dr. Eric Hollander believes that the effect on children could be stronger. Another hormone expert, Dr Narkus Heinrichs, added: ‘I’m absolutely convinced we should study administering oxytocin when there is an early diagnosis of autism.’
Research so far is showing that oxytocin helps those with autism to use the part of the brain that sees people’s faces rather than the part of the brain that sees inanimate objects which is what is usually used by those with autism. Oxytocin might help those with borderline personality disorder, which is strongly linked to childhood abuse, phobias and depression.
Source: Metro.co.uk
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Pregnant women who bathe their animals might need to read animal shampoo labels. Pet shampoos with pyrethrins have been correlated to an increased risk in ASD when women used these products on pets during the months of their pregnancy. According to Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto, from the University of California, “expectant mothers who used the treatment to kill their pet’s fleas were twice as likely to go on to have children with autism.” He will be reporting this to International Meeting for Autism Research.
Researchers asked mothers of children with autism to detail chemicals that they may have been exposed to during pregnancy including insecticides, pet shampoos, and weedkillers, in the three months before conception until their first birthday.
“They found that mothers of autistic children were twice as likely to report using pet shampoos which contained the pyrethrins as those who children did not have the condition. The strongest association was in the second three months of the pregnancy, when mothers with autistic children were 2.6 times more likely than others to have been exposed to the chemical.”
Professor Hertz-Picciotto, who presents her findings at the International Meeting for Autism Research which begins in London on Thursday, said the higher reported use of pet shampoos by mothers of children with autism “raises concern about the safety of these products”.
But Richard Mills, the director of research at Research Autism, called for more studies. “Autistic disorders are complex and it is not possible to isolate specific causes or risk factors on the basis of such evidence.”
So, although this is not a conclusive research it is a focus that scientists need to investigate further.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
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Researchers are beginning a new research study and will look at 200 infants with older autistic siblings to “seek patterns of early brain development that predict whether they will also develop the condition.”
The researchers are attempting to “identify criteria that can be used to assess very young children’s risk of autism long before its symptoms become obvious.” The benefit could be early screenings for infants and much earlier interventions so that the impact of autism can be reduced. Currently, autism is diagnosed around the age of three but many believe that “altered brain development that influences the condition begins much earlier.”
This new study by the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (Basis) and managed by the Babylab at Birkbeck, University of London, will investigate up to 200 families.
“That kind of information will be invaluable in developing therapies to arrest and perhaps even reverse the distressing patterns of atypical behaviour which can blight the lives of families with children with autism.”
The study can also benefit those children who seem to develop normally but then seemingly regress after 18 months to two years. “It may be that things were not right before, but the differences were very subtle and wouldn’t be picked up in everyday interaction with parents. We hope that studying higher risk children in the first years of life will provide answers about whether there are subtle cues that can be detected early.”
Source: Times Online
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Affiliative behaviors are touching and hugging that tend to strengthen social bonds that tends to be missing or decreased from people who have received an autism diagnosis. On May 15th, Biological Psychiatry is publishing an article that reports new findings on genetic bases of these behaviors.
Yale University researchers extensively investigated a large sample of autistic children and their families and examined the “genetic variants in six genes known to be involved in maternal and affiliative behaviors.” Dr. Elena Grigorenko, the senior author, discusses their study, “Animal studies have taught us that genetic factors can play a crucial role in the development of close affiliative ties.” The researchers have found that evidence that implicate the prolactin gene, the prolactin receptor gene and the oxytocin receptor gene in these affiliative behavior deficits.
“The paper by Carolyn Yrigollen and colleagues suggests that two neurohormones that have been linked to affiliative behavior in animals, prolactin and oxytocin, are linked to deficits in affiliative behaviors associated with autism.”
Source: Science Daily
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In an attempt to understand the genetic factors behind ASD, researchers from the Montreal Children’s Hospital is participating in a major international study and needs 200 families who have one child four years or older with an autism diagnosis. This study will also involve a dozen schools in the United States. Dr. Eric Fombonne, the head of the division of Child Psychiatry at McGill University and director of the department of psychiatry at the Montreal Children’s Hospital is leading the research in Montreal.
The goal is to investigate families who have one child with autism and attempting to find out about a genetic mutation that has been implicated in many cases of the disorder. DNA will be gathered from all family members and the researchers will assess the behavior of the child.
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