Breakthroughs in Diagnosing, One Day Preventing Autism
Education Week:
New research says it’s possible to help diagnose autism in babies as young as a year old, and an early diagnosis could allow for earlier intervention or potentially stop a child from developing autism.
Autism typically isn’t diagnosed until a child starts to show delays in talking and other milestones that occur after age 2. A study published in this month’s Current Directions in Psychological Science says the medical community has new clues about what to look for in even younger children.
For example, children who will later develop autism are less likely to show “joint attention behaviors”—paying attention to both a toy and another person. They are also less likely to imitate, said Brooke Ingersoll of Michigan State University, who wrote the journal article.
Read the whole story: Education Week
Comments
After hearing about a possible connection between autisum and gluten/dairy intolerance, I got my three and a half year son on the GFCF diet and, subsequently, witnessed his energy level triple and the mucus, which was restricting his articulation, dissipate….
He is presently attending kindergarden and receiving speech not only through school but twice a week at a private therapist office; we’ve noted a big improvement in him over the last year and a half.
Within a month after starting him on the GFCF diet, the “gooey mucus” in his mouth went away as did his lethargy…with the added therapies he receives away from school, I am confident of his success in life, in general, with him being able to keep up with his peers in school!
Here’s hoping….
I think we have to be very careful here – my son did both of those things (focused on two things at once and also imitated) and he has autism. I think it would be a mistake to diagnose too soon – and can autism actually stop children from developing autism? Or are we saying we can help them better develope, at an earlier age, coping mechanisms? I also think we must be careful of everybody jumping on the bandwagon of diagnosing early and then “perscribing” somthing. That happened with ADD – everybody jumped quickly to diagnose early and fill the kids full of drugs – that thir systems and brains can’t really handle at the age of 5 or 10. This “diagnosing early” thing has gotten out of hand in the past – geeze people – let’s be careful!!
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