Earlier Autism Screenings Recommended for Children

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Pediatricians are recommending two screenings of children for autism by the time they are 2-years-old.

Some of the earlier warning symptoms of autism include babies who don't babble at 9 months and 1-year-olds who don't point to toys.

The advice is meant to help both parents and doctors spot autism sooner. There is no cure for the disorder, but experts say that early therapy can lessen its severity.

Symptoms to watch for and the call for early screening come in two new reports. They are being released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday at its annual meeting in San Francisco and will appear in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics and on the group's Web site - http://www.aap.org/.

The reports list numerous warning signs, such as a 4-month-old not smiling at the sound of Mom or Dad's voice, or the loss of language or social skills at any age.

Experts say one in 150 U.S. children have the troubling developmental disorder.

"Parents come into your office now saying 'I'm worried about autism.' Ten years ago, they didn't know what it was," said Dr. Chris Johnson of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She co-authored the reports.

The academy's renewed effort reflects growing awareness since its first autism guidelines in 2001. A 2006 policy statement urged autism screening for all children at their regular doctor visits at age 18 months and 24 months.

The authors caution that not all children who display a few of these symptoms are autistic and they said parents shouldn't overreact to quirky behavior.

Just because a child likes to line up toy cars or has temper tantrums "doesn't mean you need to have concern, if they're also interacting socially and also pretending with toys and communicating well," said co-author Dr. Scott Myers, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician in Danville, Pa.

"With awareness comes concern when there doesn't always need to be," he said. "These resources will help educate the reader as to which things you really need to be concerned about."

Another educational tool, a Web site that debuted in mid-October, offers dozens of video clips of autistic kids contrasted with unaffected children's behavior. That Web site - http://www.autismspeaks.org/- is sponsored by two nonprofit advocacy groups: Autism Speaks and First Signs. They hope the site will promote early diagnosis and treatment to help children with autism lead more normal lives.

The two new reports say children with suspected autism should start treatment even before a formal diagnosis. They also warn parents about the special diets and alternative treatments endorsed by celebrities, saying there's no proof those work.

Recommended treatment should include at least 25 hours a week of intensive behavior-based therapy, including educational activities and speech therapy, according to the reports. They list several specific approaches that have been shown to help.

For very young children, therapy typically involves fun activities, such as bouncing balls back and forth or sharing toys to develop social skills; there is repeated praise for eye contact and other behavior autistic children often avoid.

Mary Grace Mauney, an 18-year-old high school senior from Lilburn, Ga., has a mild form of autism that wasn't diagnosed until she was 9.

As a young girl, she didn't smile, spoke in a very formal manner and began to repeat the last word or syllable of her sentences. She was prone to intense tantrums, but only outside school. There, she excelled and was in gifted classes.

"I took her to a therapist and they said she was just very sensitive and very intense and very creative," said her mother, Maureen, 54.

Pediatricians should send such children for "early intervention as soon as you even think there's a problem," Johnson said.

Dr. Ruby Roy, a pediatrician with Loyola University Medical Center, who treats at least 20 autistic children, applauded the reports.

"This is a disorder that is often missed, especially when it's mild, and the mild kids are the ones ... who can be helped the most," Roy said.

Dr. Dirk Steinert, who treats children and adults at Columbia St. Mary's clinic in suburban Milwaukee, said the push for early autism screening is important - but that it's tough to squeeze it into a child's regular wellness checkup.

Some pediatricians have tried scheduling a visit just to check for developmental problems, when children are 2 1/2. The problem is that insurance doesn't always cover these extra visits, Steinert said.

—Associated Press

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305842,00.html

"Recommended treatment should include at least 25 hours a week of intensive behavior-based therapy, including educational activities and speech therapy, according to the reports. They list several specific approaches that have been shown to help."

Gah, the article was almost ok had it not been for that suggestion. I hear the standard ABA treatment includes 40 hours / week of repetitive learning as well, naturally every child will want to spend his or her childhood doing that. They're also missing the absolutely most important thing of them all - that the parents learn about the condition instead of sending their children away for treatment for it.

Not all ABA treatment is that intensive -- my son had three hours a day, five days a week, for maybe a year. After that, we figured that school provided part of what ABA provided but in a more natural setting, so we discontinued it.

Also, ABA is not always just carrot and stick/Pavlov's dog mentality. If it were, we wouldn't have done it.

ABA is IN HOME therapy, often done by therapists, but could just as easily be done by a parent who has really researched it. Much of regular parenting is basically ABA therapy.

The way that ABA was practiced in our home, it was very common sense. NEVER was my son harmed, NEVER was he asked to do anything that wasn't specifically helpful for him at that time in his life. Did we think that using motivators (candy, for instance) was a little strange? Yes! But when the therapist realized that candy didn't seem to motivate my son, they quickly shifted to other forms of motivating him, such as hugs, praise, or playing his favorite games.

I'm guessing that not everyone has had a positive experience with ABA. But in our situation, it was useful and did improve our son's outlook. He's 11 now, and although we haven't talked about the "ABA period" much, he just recently referred to that period before ABA as "back when I didn't like people" or "back when I refused to do stuff". He is happy and friendly now, and I think some of that has to do with getting a little bit of ABA as soon as he was diagnosed.

Kris

Of course when I was DX with HFA in 1987 their was little avalible. I thank God that not only was my case very mild but also that my parents did not have all that stuff avalible to them because they certainly woulda ruined my childhood thinking that was for the best when in reality I think those with mild cases of autism (HFA/AS) would benifit more with only minimum intervention and plenty of NORMAL childhood experiences and interaction.

I can honestly say had their been ABA my parents woulda made me go thru the program, the result would be that I may actually function less then I do now and would be depressed all the time instead of happy knowing that I missed out on childhood, friends, building forts, learning social skills (thru experiene, not teaching) ect.

I know these serveces are not avalible to everybody, some may be getting to much if they are mild, and most are not getting enough from what I hear from parents on another forum.

Not sure if it's the same story, but they were actually showing those autism speaks videos on cnn:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health ... .study.cnn

The videos seemed bizarre to me--the commentators were all serious about how devastating autism was and then the video shows this kid who apparently doesn't like Big Bird and is more interested in playing with their plates than paying attention to the annoying adults around them. I think autism is a little more complicated than that, isn't it?

Needy parents freaking out because their baby doesn't want to cuddle. Embarassed parents freaking out because their baby isn't "normal".

25 hours a week of therapy for mild/HFA autism and Asperger's is like doing surgery on a twisted ankle.
Just let us be.

What's wrong with not liking people? It's just that NT people like to be liked.

I agree wholeheartedly that the best socializing is through experience, not teaching. If anyone should be doing therapy, it's other kids, not adults. Befriending adults instead of children was always considered an autistic "problem" anyway. So shouldn't you try to get little Billy to build a snow fort with your kid, instead of having Dr. Billy come over?