The staggering increase in cases of ASD should raise more suspicion in the medical community about its misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis than it does. Promoting early screening for autism is imperative. But, is it possible that the younger in age a child is when professionals screen for ASD—especially its milder cases—the greater the risk that a slow-to-mature child will be misperceived as autistic, thus driving the numbers up?
Showing posts with label diagnosis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diagnosis. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Webinar - Autism Awareness: Diagnostic Criteria
Chances are you or someone you know has been touched by autism in a very personal way. As part of our continuing effort to promote global awareness for autism, we are making our Training Video "An Introduction to Autism" available for family members, friends, educators and anyone who is interested in learning more about autism and the things they can do to screen young children for autism.
In the first of this 3 part installment, we look at the Diagnostic Criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorders.
New Screening Method Could Detect Autism In 9 Month Old Infants
The identification of two new biomarkers could help medical researchers identify autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children as young as nine months old – one year earlier than the average screening age.
According to lead author Carole A. Samango-Sprouse, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at George Washington University, head circumference and head tilting reflex are reliable ways to determine whether or not children between the ages of 9 and 12 months could be autistic.
Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113122246/autism-biomarkers-for-infants-041614/#rreltW2Zxduj6Wp1.99
Home videos could be powerful tool for diagnosing autism
Short home videos, such as those posted on YouTube, may become a powerful tool for diagnosing autism, according to a study whose senior author is a scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
With only brief training, research assistants were able to accurately score autistic-type behaviors in home videos of children in natural settings, the study found. "Our new paper supports the hypothesis that we can detect autism quickly in very short home videos with high accuracy," said Dennis Wall, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics in systems medicine and the senior author of the paper, published April 16 in PLOS ONE. The finding has the potential to improve the speed and availability of autism diagnosis.
Simple questionnaire may improve early detection of autism
To detect signs of autism in toddlers, pediatricians routinely rely on parent-completed questionnaires about the child’s behavior. But parents’ answers may be influenced as much by their own bias about their child’s possible diagnosis as by their child’s actions.
A set of six questions about child development can identify parents who tend to overreport or underreport their child’s symptoms.
The researchers then shortened their general development questionnaire to include these six questions and 14 others. They gave it along with the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), a standard screen for the disorder, to 145 parents with a child who had been referred for psychological evaluation at an autism center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
In the study, the M-CHAT alone accurately classified 107 of the 145 children, and missed 12 children with the disorder. The general development questions flagged six of those 12 children’s parents as underreporters. In addition, the M-CHAT wrongly classified 26 children as having autism, and the questions identified nine of their parents as overreporters.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Friday, August 1, 2014
Children with Autism may Display Varying Repetitive Behaviors as Early as One
For the study, researchers recruited 184 children who were considered at a
high-risk for developing the disorder and 59 children who carried an average
risk for the health issue. High-risk children had an older sibling dealing with
an ASD.
At 12 and 24-months-old, children's parents filled out a questionnaire based on repetitive behaviors, including rocking back and forth, flapping of the limbs and obsessiveness over a toy. These behaviors formed in infancy are typically normal, if done in small amounts.
However, the researchers discovered a 42 percent increased risk for children who showed more signs of repetitive behaviors, particularly at the age of one. Researchers looked for four to eight varying signs in those who were diagnosed with ASDs at one. For those without the condition but repetitive behaviors, one to two signs were common.
"But in typically developing children...[the repetitive behavior] usually peaks around the age of 6 months," said lead researcher Jason Wolff, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, via WebMD. "In children who go on to develop autism, repetitive behavior is still highly prevalent, or even increasing, at the age of 12 months."
Source.
At 12 and 24-months-old, children's parents filled out a questionnaire based on repetitive behaviors, including rocking back and forth, flapping of the limbs and obsessiveness over a toy. These behaviors formed in infancy are typically normal, if done in small amounts.
However, the researchers discovered a 42 percent increased risk for children who showed more signs of repetitive behaviors, particularly at the age of one. Researchers looked for four to eight varying signs in those who were diagnosed with ASDs at one. For those without the condition but repetitive behaviors, one to two signs were common.
"But in typically developing children...[the repetitive behavior] usually peaks around the age of 6 months," said lead researcher Jason Wolff, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, via WebMD. "In children who go on to develop autism, repetitive behavior is still highly prevalent, or even increasing, at the age of 12 months."
Source.
Children of parents in technical jobs at higher risk for autism
Fathers who worked in engineering were two times as likely to have a child
with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Those who worked in finance were four
times more likely and those who worked in health care occupations were six times
more likely to have a child on the autism spectrum.
There was no association with a mother’s occupation. However, children who had both parents in technical fields were at a higher risk of having a more severe form of autism.
“Parental occupation could be indicative of autistic-like behaviors and preferences and serve as another factor in a clinician’s diagnosis of a child with suspected autism. Medical students can be taught that this is one of the things to consider,” Dickerson said.
Read more here.
There was no association with a mother’s occupation. However, children who had both parents in technical fields were at a higher risk of having a more severe form of autism.
“Parental occupation could be indicative of autistic-like behaviors and preferences and serve as another factor in a clinician’s diagnosis of a child with suspected autism. Medical students can be taught that this is one of the things to consider,” Dickerson said.
Read more here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)