Theories Of Causes Lead To Interventions
Over the years there have been many theories about the causes of autism. In the 1950s and 60s, it was believed that autism was caused by cold parenting. This led to the promotion of Holding Therapy, an approach where the mother holds their child for a prolonged time and forces eye-contact in order to remediate a presumed attachment disorder. Whilst children on the receiving end have reported terrible suffering as a result, the professionals involved overlooked the fact that the parents also had children who did not have autism.
Although this theory and intervention have long been debunked, Research Autism currently lists 123 different interventions for autism and nearly all of them are the result of a theory about a possible cause.
Over the years many theories have come and gone. One notable exception is EIBI . This approach applies ABA techniques to help children with autism. This treatment has the highest evidence base and is one of the few that was not developed from a theory of a cause. Find out more about ABA and autism.
What Is Autism Spectrum Disorder Previously Called Autism And Pervasive Developmental Disorders
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by the following:
- Difficulties in social communication differences, including verbal and nonverbal communication.
- Deficits in social interactions.
- Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities and sensory problems
Many of those with ASD can have delayed or absence of language development, intellectual disabilities, poor motor coordination and attention weaknesses.
Communicate With Your Team
Communicating with the doctor, therapist, teachers, and other healthcare providers can help make your daily tasks a lot easier.
For parents, this can mean asking for suggestions to continue practicing the skills your child is learning in therapy, which makes it easier for them to be more successful.
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The Search For A Cure Rests In Hope And Fear
When people are desperate for answers, someone will always come along to tell them what they want to hear. Unfortunately, those answers usually arent the right ones. A cursory search of the internet today will turn up any number of fraudulent cures for autism that make wild, unscientific, and frequently dangerous claims things like adopting a gluten-free diet killing off toxic gut bacteria increasing zinc intake going to entirely organic foods applying magnets to particular places on the head prayer and even spanking.
There is hope, however, but it comes from aspects of the disorder that remain mysterious and fundamentally outside our control.
Recently, research has been piling up that some autistic children effectively grow out of the disorder as they age. A 2015 study of 569 children living in the Bronx, New York, found that approximately 7 percent whose symptoms were resolved to a point where an ASD diagnosis was no longer appropriate.
Of course, some of the explanation for this apparent phenomena is simply the difficulty of diagnosing autism in very young children in the first place. Some percentage of those diagnoses will be false positives, indicating that otherwise neurotypical kids are autistic simply because their behavior is a little unusual.
Speech And Communication Problems
At Therapeutic Pathways, we use the most recent and research-based findings in speech and language pathology in each childs treatment plan. Our speech, language and communication goals are integrated into our comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis treatment plan to help children develop the skills they need to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and needs.
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Theres Nothing Mild About Mild Autism
When you or your family are first faced with an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis, it is often difficult to believe/understand all the things that come with such a diagnosis. Many people will begin to do research on the disorder and want to educate themselves so they can best help themselves or others. Often times it is difficult to face reality and many people are drawn into the world of autism cures particularly if they have been diagnosed with mild autism.
What is Mild Autism?
There is no real diagnosis named mild autism. Autism disorder is a spectrum, hence the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. There are some people who fall on the more severe side of the spectrum and have trouble with verbal communication or have aggressive behavioral tendencies. There are also those who fall on the less severe side of the spectrum. They may be able to verbally communicate, but still have problems with reading cues, vocal intonation, or body language. Those people who fall on the less severe side of the autism spectrum are sometimes mistakenly said to be mildly autistic.
These individuals who have mild autism still have autism. They still have significant developmental and sensory challenges that are severe enough to inhibit normal activities and relationships. With an understanding of the definition of mild autism we are able to further explain the myths and problems with the treatment of mild autism as something that can be cured.
Cures for Mild Autism
Treatment Choices For Toddlers & Educational Institution Kids
- Highly trained therapists and teachers deliver the intervention.
- Well-trained professionals assist with the intervention under the management of older skilled like an expert in autism medical aid.
- The child is given therapeutic activities for a minimum of 25 hours per week.
- The program provides the kid with opportunities to interact with developing fellows.
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How Young Is It Possible To Treat Autism
Autism spectrum disorder, experts know, is sometimes treatable. In one good-size study, about 9 percent of kids with a diagnosis at age 3 had shed it entirely at age 19, and they were more likely to have done so if they had received behavioral interventions geared at helping teach them certain skills and behaviors that come naturally to kids without an ASD diagnosis. And even when the disorder remains, treatment can make the difference between young adults with severe ASD being able to live relatively independent lives and having to be institutionalized. What remains something of a mystery, as The New York Times Magazine highlighted recently, is why treatment sometimes work and sometimes doesnt.
How Common Is Autism Spectrum Disorder
Based on most recent CDC report, ASD is estimated to affect about 1 in 54 children, with boys being more likely to have ASD than girls. There were more than 5 million adults in the US, or 2.21% of the population, with ASD as of 2017. Government statistics suggest that the prevalence of ASD has risen 10% to 17% in recent years.
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Breakdown Of The Proven Biological Treatments
If youve ever wondered how biological treatments are approved, the answer is biological treatment methods are tested through clinical trials. The most common and best type of clinical trial is thought to be double-blind placebo-controlled trials in this form of trial two key factors are important and adhered to: firstly, the participants are either administered a placebo or the test drug. The participants are divided into two groups and half is administered the placebo and half the other the drug. Secondly, neither the researcher nor the participants know what is being administered.
Each person in the groups is given a code that the computer registers and that code is assigned a trial treatment randomly. After a period, the participants return for a follow up and the computer registers the results according to each participants code. Fun fact: the placebo group is known as the control group and the group receiving the actual drug is known as the treatment group. In addition, participants have to be within the same population group i.e. age group, some trials specify same gender, or ethnicity etc.
Clinical trials can take years, if not decades to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration agency . With that said, lets look at some of the new biological treatments that have proven benefits for the treatment of ASD symptoms.
Psychopharmacologic agents
How Is Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosed
There are no laboratory tests to determine ASD. However, certain healthcare providers receive specific training and can do screenings and evaluations if needed and who might ask parents or teachers to record observations. These providers might include specialized physicians, psychologists and speech-language pathologists.
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So What Is To Be Done
When approaching a topic as controversial and emotional as a cure for autism can be, it is best to acknowledge that no matter what I do, there is going to be a certain degree of prejudice in what I say. It is for that reason that I encourage each of you reading this to reach out to those with autism in your life and learn what their thoughts are on the topic of curing autism. I expect you will be quite surprised by just how many of us are appalled at the idea of losing possibly our most valuable asset. Our autism.
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The Result Of Looking For A Cure
When an aspie hears of the search for a cure to autism it communicates one message above all: there is something wrong enough with the autistic person that it needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Now, I should be very clear: I do not think it is wise to avoid finding a cure if the only reason is to make autistics feel better , but rather I wish to avoid pursuing a cure because succeeding in finding one would be a detriment to the world. Chiefly, a cure for autism would risk grinding scientific and artistic progress to a crawl as the minds built to master those categories of skills would be neurotypical instead of autistic. There is absolutely no proper justification for that sort of hit to our progress as a people.
Do Not Wait For Diagnosis
As the parent of a child with ASD, the best thing you can do is to start your treatment right away. Dont wait for an official diagnosis of autism. Seek help as soon as you suspect any difficulty. The earlier the child with ASD get help, the greater their chance of treatment of success.
Early medication is the most effective way to speed up your kids development and reduce the symptoms of autism over the lifespan.
Thats all in this article. If your childs behavioral crises continue to be a problem, I urge you to consult a therapist who can customize a plan to improve your kids behavior. Or if you didnt find any, you may also consult our experts by giving us a call on our toll-free +91-9899437202.
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Future Options For Cure And Prevention
By applying biological means, is a real cure for a broad population of individuals with ASD on the horizon? Currently, several large international consortia such as the European Autism Interventions A Multicentre Study for Developing New Medications target the development and assessment of novel treatments for ASD. While, until more recently, most experts were pessimistic that biological treatments leading to recovery from autism would be in reach, advances in research techniques such as the development of more adequate and informative animal models give reason for conservative optimism. Translational studies from the last decade indicate that phenotypic reversals of ASD might be possible at least for some aetiologies of the disorder. A variety of drugs that are currently being tested in clinical trials to treat syndromes that have phenotypic overlaps with ASD may have promise even for ASD. Examples include mGluR5, a candidate for the treatment of fragile X syndrome, and rapamycin, a candidate for the treatment of tuberous sclerosis. Both agents have shown effects on the core pathology of their respective syndromes, as well as ease from autistic symptoms in mouse models.
Intervention Programs To Cure Autism
In early intervention programs, therapists come at home in order to deliver services related to behavior during autism disorder. An early intensive inspection of behavior includes a childs entire family, working closely with an expert team.
It can also involve parental leading therapy sessions under the complete supervision of the therapist.
Due to these programs, the child started developing good social and learning skills. Adolescents with autism enjoy transition services that promote a roaring maturation into independence and employment opportunities of adulthood.
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Going Forward Achieving Better Outcomes For All
The World Health Organization declares that the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right for all human beings. Leaving aside entirely the idea of a cure for autism, people with autism deserve much better health care and health research than they currently enjoy.
By adequately identifying and addressing medical issues associated with autism, a wide range of individuals challenges and difficulties can potentially be reduced, including anxiety, impulsivity, headaches, poor sleep, depression, aggression, self-injury, obsessive and compulsive behaviours, gastrointestinal problems to name a few.
No one should be expected to suffer a lower standard of health simply because of an autism diagnosis, yet diagnostic overshadowingattributing medical symptoms and conditions to the diagnosis of autism and therefore not offering appropriate investigation or treatmentis widespread.
If an individuals experience of autism does not involve health problems that result in suffering, and if the symptoms of autism are not perceived to be an impediment to happiness, independence, success, an enjoyable social and personal life, and to being in control of their lives, then there would no reason to seek intervention. However, for the majority of those diagnosed with autism, there is sufficient suffering and serious disability to rightfully deserve thorough investigation and appropriate intervention.
There Are Likely To Be Many Types Of Autism Or Autisms
There is growing scientific evidence that autism is a highly complex and highly heterogeneous disorder, and that we should be speaking of autisms rather than one single autism. This means that the causes, the underlying biology that results in the surface symptoms of autism, will differ from individual to individual.
Just as there will never be ONE cure for all types of cancer, there will almost certainly never be ONE cure, or treatment, for all types of autism.
A good example of this is that there are now several known congenital disorders with extremely high prevalence of autism children with Congenital Heart Disease , Tuberous Sclerosis Complex , Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy , Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome all suffer much higher rates of autism than healthy children.
The underlying biological pathways that lead to the emergence of autism in those disorders are likely very different, and so one would not expect ONE single treatment to lead to a reduction in autism symptoms across all those disorders.
For example, while everolimus treatment has been observed to ameliorate core autism symptoms in children with TSC , it would not be expected to have the same effect on autism symptoms in children with the other congenital disorders.
When it comes to idiopathic autism, meaning all individual cases of autism for whom there has been no investigation of underlying causes, it is to be expected that once those causes are uncovered they will likely be very different and varied.
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What Should We Do
The Autism community must press to provide training to schools. The Autism community must press for articles in general magazines about the enormous differences within the spectrum. How about an article sharing the day in the life of a mainstreamed child, with viewpoints from other parents and their peers?
Dont get me wrong, Im happy about any Autism press. However, providing stories only about the stereotype increases awareness about Autism but doesnt provide any new information about the profile of our children today and how that impacts our childrens school experience.
We need education. Nobody is facilitating relationships between typical and ASD parents. Although Autism and Aspergers are trendy these days in the media, the subject is taboo in real life. We are not utilizing the information that is so accessible for all to see, as a parent, a neighbor, a teacher, a school administrator. Early intervention funding will get a real fighting chance at passing on all levels federal, state, and local if we raise awareness.
Will There Be A Cure For Autism In The Future
We know that therapy helps but will there be a cure for Autism in the future? And does it even need a cure?
Contents
The first step towards curing Autism is to educate oneself about this condition. If you are a parent, relative, sibling, friend, or someone who has this condition, then the chances are that you must have tried all the treatments, medication, and therapies that claim to have success with it. However, there isnt a magic pill cure available for Autism in modern science.
But the hope remains.
This hope is the driving force for researchers to jump head-first to find a cure for this neurodevelopmental condition. However, there hasnt been a treatment that has successfully cured Autism till today, and recent thinking has moved away from finding a cure.
Instead, modern science is focusing on improving the lives of those who have this condition, and how they can cope with their symptoms to lead a normal life. But will there be a cure for Autism in the future? Lets look at all that is happening in this field.
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