13
Support for parents with Autistic children – Autism Parents Club
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Articles
The Autism News | English
Haley Moss
By Robin Benedick | Miami Herald
Haley Moss is a typical teenager in many ways. At 15, she has a learner’s permit and loves practicing driving with her dad on weekends. Going to the mall with her mom is one of her favorite pastimes. She also spends a lot of time on the computer and on video games at her spacious Parkland home.
But Haley’s passion and talent for art and writing are anything but typical, considering she recently became a published author and acclaimed artist while struggling every day with autism.
Diagnosed at age 3 with a developmental disorder that affects her ability to communicate and interact with others, Haley is on a mission to help other kids with special needs — and even those without.
Her book, Middle School: The Stuff Nobody Tells You About, offers advice and anecdotes from her experiences as well as those from teachers and other kids with autism. She wants to help sixth- to eighth-graders deal with everything from changing classes to making friends.
“Middle school was the hardest time of my life,” said Haley, who attended three middle schools and is now a sophomore and straight-A student at Pine Crest private school in Fort Lauderdale.
“I’m bad with social stuff and in middle school, I wasn’t into talking about boys and makeup and parties like the other girls my age were,” she said. “Most people thought I was weird or shy or something.”
Over the past two years, Haley has become like a poster child for people with autism, choosing to go public with what had been a private family concern.
School administrators knew about Haley’s autism, but she didn’t openly talk about it until her artwork received attention at galleries throughout South Florida.
Before her first art show, a teacher suggested she talk to students in the auditorium about her art and autism.
“It felt really empowering,” Haley said of her meeting with students. “I’ve learned that autism is not who I am but it’s part of who I am.”
That experience at school and on a panel discussion for the Autism Society of America made Haley realize that she could help people better understand and deal with the disorder. After she spoke on that panel, a publisher approached her about writing a book. She now hopes to write a similar handbook for kids in high school and publish a picture book for autistic kids who don’t talk.
“Haley is such an inspiration to other kids with autism because she gives them hope,” said her mom, Sherry Moss, who added that the decision to go public has been a relief. “They have to know that if one thing doesn’t work, try something else.”
She remembers that when Haley was diagnosed with autism, some parents wouldn’t let their kids play with her because they thought she was contagious. Moss said she didn’t mention Haley’s autism again.
Today, it’s not uncommon to know someone with autism as the occurence has risen to one in every 110 births in the United States, and almost one in 70 boys, according to a December 2009 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The Autism Society in Bethesda, Md., says 1.5 million Americans are living with autism. Several events are planned around the country this month to commemorate April as Autism Awareness Month.
PRIVATE SPEECH THERAPY
Doctors prepared Haley’s parents for the worst, saying she would be lucky to talk. But her parents didn’t give up. They said they were lucky to have the resources to get Haley private speech therapy and hippotherapy, which uses a horse and speech therapist to increase verbal communication through sensory input from the horse. Haley’s mom said she worked tirelessly with Haley, trying different things until she found strategies that worked.
Haley started talking at age 4, and she is considered to be on the high-functioning side of autism. She doesn’t have to study hard to earn good grades. She seems more mature intellectually than her age, but socially, she struggles. She tends to feel more comfortable talking to adults than kids her age.
“Haley doesn’t really think of the autism as any kind of a drawback, rather that everybody has something to deal with and this is hers and she looks at it as a learning experience,” said Estes Carns, the guidance counselor at Pine Crest. “She is so talented and so unique and at the same time she is always thinking about other people.”
Haley has always attended regular schools. She channels her positive energy into colorful computerized sketch art, which combines Japanese comic art and cartoons into whimsical designs.
BRITTO COMPARISON
Her digital illustrations, which have been compared to renowned artist Romero Britto, are on display at ARTcetera in Boca Raton, Hertz Jewelers in Parkland and Boynton Beach and GrovePopArt in Coconut Grove. One of her paintings sold for $1,200 at an auction to benefit the University of Miami/Nova Southeastern University’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities or CARD.
Haley was discovered as an artist almost by accident when she was 13. Her parents bought art at a gallery and showed a collection book of other pieces in their home. Haley’s drawings were in the back of the book.
“We didn’t realize how good she was then,” Moss said. “It was always just for fun.”
It’s not uncommon for high-functioning people with autism to have special interests and talents, especially in visual arts, said Diane Adreon, CARD’s associate director. Haley has gone to the center since being diagnosed. The center provides free consultation to about 5,000 families affected by autism in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
NORMAL CHILDHOOD
Adreon attributed Haley’s success to her mom and dad, Rick Moss, owner of a home healthcare company, for working so hard to give Haley self-esteem and a pretty normal childhood. Haley didn’t find out until she was 9 years old why she was different from other kids. Her mom compared her to Harry Potter, with whom she shares a birthday: July 31. She told Haley that Harry Potter is different from other wizards and moguls just as Haley is different from other kids — in a good way.
For now, Haley plans to enjoy drawing, writing, playing with her standard poodles, Thomas and Zaki, and appreciate being featured on TV, the Internet and in newspapers and magazines. Asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Haley said she might be a psychologist or an artist or a picture-book author and illustrator. Or all of the above. Haley gives a similar all-inclusive answer when asked to name her favorite color.
“I’m a color person. I like them all,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t want any one color to feel bad.”
Haley Moss Art on NBC6 Miami in October 2009
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/23/1593972/autistic-teen-aims-to-aid-others.html
Haley Moss Art on NBC6 Miami (7/24/2009)
Middle School – The Stuff Nobody Tells You About: A Teenage Girl with ASD Shares Her Experiences (Paperback)
~ Haley Moss (Author)
o Paperback: 160 pages
o Publisher: Autism Asperger Publishing Co,US; First edition (March 2, 2010)
o Language: English
o ISBN-10: 1934575623
o ISBN-13: 978-1934575628
o Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English, English
17
The Many Faces of Autism: From Behavior to Biology
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Articles
The Autism News | English
By University of California Television
Dr. Robin Hansen, Director of Clinical Program at the UC Davis MIND Institute explores the current research on the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorders in terms of both behavior and biology, and advances in knowledge of etiology and application for treatments. Series: M.I.N.D. Institute Lecture Series on Neurodevelopmental Disorders [4/2010] [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 17653]
Source: YouTube
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English, English
The Autism News | English
Study finds chromosomal microarray analysis detects more abnormalities
By Jenifer Goodwin | HealthDay Reporter
A newer type of genetic test is better at detecting abnormalities that predispose a child to autism than standard genetic tests, new research has determined.
Researchers offered about 933 people aged 13 months to 22 years who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder three genetic tests: G-banded karyotype testing, fragile X testing or chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), which has been available only for the past few years.
Karyotype tests identified chromosomal aberrations associated with autism in about 2 percent of patients, while the fragile X genetic mutation was found in about 0.5 percent of patients.
CMA detected chromosomal abnormalities in slightly more than 7 percent of patients, making it the best available genetic test for autism spectrum disorders, the study authors said.
“The CMA test alone has triple the detection rate of karyotyping or fragile X,” said co-senior author Bai-Lin Wu, director of the Genetics Diagnostic Laboratory at Children’s Hospital Boston. “CMA should be added to first-tier genetic testing for autism spectrum disorders.”
The study appeared online March 15 and will be published in the April print issue of Pediatrics.
“When parents have a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, one of the first questions they often ask is ‘how did this happen?’ ” said Dr. Robert Marion, a pediatric geneticist at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
“In the vast majority of cases, we believe there is at least a genetic predisposition to autism, but the ability to identify a specific genetic cause has been very elusive,” Marion said. “Part of that is because of the technology that’s been available. A larger part is at this point, we just don’t fully understand what the genetic mechanism that leads to autism is.”
Standard practice is to offer children with autism two tests as a first-line genetic work-up: karyotype and fragile X testing, the researchers said.
In karyotyping, forms of which have been around since the 1960s, geneticists use a microscope to look for chromosomal abnormalities that are associated with autism, explained Dr. David Miller, a clinical geneticist and assistant director of the Genetics Diagnostic Laboratory at Children’s Hospital Boston, which conducted the new research along with Boston’s Autism Consortium.
Like karyotyping, CMA also looks for chromosomal abnormalities, but does so at 100 times the resolution of the earlier test, Miller said. CMA, a genome-wide test, can identify sub-microscopic deletions of duplications of DNA sequences, called copy-number variants, known to be associated with autism, he said.
“Think of chromosomes as a library full of books and each book as a gene,” Miller said. “What we look for are shelves of books that have gone missing, which represent a missing fragment of a chromosome, or extra fragments of chromosome, that could contain genes related to autism.”
While both Children’s Hospital Boston and Montefiore have offered CMA testing for several years, not all hospitals do, nor does all insurance pay for it, the researchers noted.
The main purpose of genetic testing of children with autism is to help parents determine if they’re at a higher risk of having another child with autism, Marion said.
If tests pinpoint an autism-related chromosomal abnormality in the child, the parents are then offered testing. If a parent is also found to have the abnormality, geneticists conclude that the couple is at higher risk of having a child with autism. (The precise risk depends on what the variant is.)
But if the parents don’t have the abnormality, geneticists conclude that the deletion or duplication happened by chance, and the parents are probably not at any greater risk of having another child with autism than the general population, Marion said.
Still, there is much geneticists can’t tell parents. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of autism cases can be traced to a known genetic cause, the researchers noted. Of that, CMA alone can detect 7 percent of those.
There are a few other genetic tests that can explain another few percentage points of autism cases.
But that leaves 85 percent or more families with little explanation for the disorder, Marion said.
“CMA is better, but it’s not great,” Marion said. “The vast majority of children who have autism have no identifiable genetic markers that will help in genetic counseling for future pregnancies. That is very frustrating.”
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636945.html
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English, English
17
Teacher faces sack for writing ‘loser’ on poor exam paper
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Articles
The Autism News | English
By Associated Press | Fox 8
The mother of a sixth grade student in Buncombe County, North Carolina says her daughter’s teacher wrote ‘loser’ on the girl’s class assignments and she’s speaking out about the discouraging comments.
Source: http://www.fox8.com/videobeta/bb6ff0c4-bdbb-47f6-aa8f-ea9557855996/News/Teacher-writes-Loser-on-child-s-assignments
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English, English
The Autism News | English
Eric Fritz yells with joy as he plays in shaving cream at Wyoming Valley Children’s Association. (Photo by FRED ADAMS/FOR THE TIMeS LEADER)
By Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
He squirms. He twists. He bounces up and down.
Anyone can see it’s not easy for 4-year-old Eric Fritz to sit quietly at the little table in his preschool.
“C’mon, Eric. Stop,” a therapeutic support staff worker says, gently massaging the little boy’s shoulders and trying to hold his torso still.
It’s snack time at the Wyoming Valley Children’s Association in Forty Fort – and it’s time for Eric to pay attention to speech pathologist Terry Tokach, who has put Goldfish crackers, pumpernickel pretzels and pieces of shortbread cookie on the table.
“What do you want, Eric?” Tokach repeats again and again, holding out her hand. “Which one do you want?”
She doesn’t expect Eric to say “cracker” or “pretzel” – the little boy, who was diagnosed with autism when he was going on 2 years old – doesn’t communicate verbally.
But, Tokach hopes he will communicate another way, by picking up a picture of a “cracker” or “pretzel” and handing it to her.
Again and again, he simply grabs at the pretzels and crackers (not the cookies, which he doesn’t seem to like.) Again and again, Tokach steers his hand toward the appropriate picture.
When he finally hands her one, she rewards him with food and praise.
“Good job, Eric,” she tells the child, “I like it when you ‘talk’ to me. I like it when you look at me, too.”
A reluctance to engage in eye contact is one symptom of autism, a developmental disorder that, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affects 1 in 110 children to some extent.
Delayed verbal skills and tendencies toward hyperactivity and repetitive motions are other symptoms.
But, it was a lack of eye contact that first prompted Eric’s father, also named Eric, to suspect something was amiss.
“My husband noticed he wasn’t getting enough eye interaction,” Lori Fritz explained during an interview in the family’s Nanticoke home.
Young Eric also “had a few words, but they went away,” his mother said. “His speech isn’t there, so we do signing.”
Eric knows how to ask his parents for things he wants through sign language. The gesture for “milk” looks like you’re moving your hands to milk a cow. The gesture for “book” looks as if you’re opening the covers of a book.
“Eric’s come so far,” Lori Fritz, 37, said with a smile as Eric, her firstborn, climbed over his father’s lap and onto his shoulders, and leaned over to do a jigsaw puzzle on the floor.
“He’s good at puzzles,” said the elder Eric, who is 38.
The couple’s younger son, David, 2, favors dinosaurs, and played with several colorful ones on a recent evening.
“David likes to do everything Eric does, and Eric is usually pretty tolerant of David,” said the boys’ father, who gave up a job in sales and service to become “Mr. Mom.”
Eric’s job required out-of-state travel to cover a large territory, which caused him to miss out on a considerable amount of family time. With young Eric’s special needs, it made sense for Dad to give up his career.
“We definitely play it as a team,” said Lori, who kept her job in pharmaceutical sales. “What I’m good at doing, I do. What he’s good at doing, he does. For example, you would not want me to cook.”
Laughing, Eric the cook lets on that he likes to make homemade chili and spaghetti sauce.
A typical day for young Eric involves getting up around 7 a.m., getting dressed, perhaps watching a cartoon, and seeing a TSS worker from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.
From noon to 2:30 most days, he attends a preschool program at the children’s association, where he is in a class of seven students, each of whom receives lots of one-on-one attention.
On Mondays and Wednesdays a TSS worker spends time with him at home in the late afternoon, and every day there are familiar routines of supper, bath, story time and songs. Bedtime is about 9:30 p.m.
“He’s less resistant to going to bed than he used to be,” his father said.
Rejoicing in small triumphs
Children with autism tend to become overwhelmed by certain stimuli – it could be too many bright colors, too many people, or a whiff of a stranger’s perfume, Lori Fritz explained.
“Eric isn’t a fan of crowds,” she said.
To cope, children with autism sometimes “self-stimulate,” using repetitive motions or sounds to distract themselves from the overwhelming stimuli.
In addition to sights, sounds and aromas, textures can be a challenge.
Eric, for example, doesn’t like the way rice feels, his mother said.
Yet he doesn’t have a problem with shaving cream.
That became apparent on a recent afternoon when the staff at Eric’s preschool had an exercise designed to help the class become accustomed to the smoothness of the cream.
Teacher’s aide Cathy Wolfe spread some foam on a table and Eric plunged his hands into it with gusto.
Later that day, after his session with the speech pathologist, he met with occupational therapist Shari Aude, who soon had him coloring a picture of a bear with crayons, then finger-painting various shapes and lines.
“This is to get him used to the idea of holding a pencil,” Aude said.
One part of his therapy Eric really seemed to enjoy was swinging on his stomach in a contraption called a “prone swing” or “vestibular swing.”
Lying in a canvas swing that was suspended from the ceiling and hanging just a few inches above a thick rubber mat on the floor, Eric reached down to the mat with his hands and propelled himself around.
“This is to help him understand his place in space, to deal with gravitational insecurity,” Aude said. “It’s exercising his arms and hands too, and that will be helpful for holding a pencil. That’s something he needs for kindergarten readiness.”
What kind of school Eric eventually attends is a matter as yet undecided, his dad said, and it’s hard to predict what his life will be like as an adult. Web sites devoted to autism suggest careers as diverse as caring for animals or searching for abnormal cells on a microscope slide can be ideal for some with autism.
For now, Eric’s parents rejoice in the small triumphs, as when their son communicates through sign language or obeys a simple request, perhaps to put away a toy.
He does seem to be in perpetual motion, and the reason for all that jumping and running around sometimes mystifies his parents.
“We don’t know if he’s being willful,” Lori Fritz said. “Or is it because he can’t help it?”
The Fritz family of Nanticoke relaxes in the family room of their Nanticoke home. Lori, left, watches her husband, Eric, and son Eric, 4, play. (photo by Pete G. Wilcox/The Times Leader)
Source: http://www.timesleader.com/features/Eric_rsquo_s_world_03-14-2010.html
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English
The Autism News | English
By Danica Lawrence | KIKD CBS 3
IDAHO FALLS – Each of the Perfili’s children struggle with, fighting, academics, and most of all, a short attention span. They suffer from different autism disorders.
Over the last 6 weeks they have been seeing Dr. Brady Wirick. He has found a way to help with just exercise.
“We have seen the most improvements with Ashton, he’s the one we started with,” says mother Linda Perfili. “His behavior was very unpredictable, and he was very aggressive and so he would hurt his friends not even trying to, and this week alone he’s played with his friends every single day so we are seeing huge improvements with him.”
Dr.Wirick explains how these exercises are stimulating the right side of the children’s brain. It’s the right side that is underdeveloped.
“So their left brain is firing at a rate up here and the right brain is firing at a rate down here, so what the treatment you saw is doing is those are all right brain specific exercises and so what that is going to do is level out and balances their brain to the point where they can function at a quote on quote normal activity level,” says Dr. Wirick.
The Perfili’s have tried medication before but haven’t seen the results Dr.Wirick has given them.
“It seems like we’ve tried everything,” says Linda Perfili.
“So if you have a kid whose right brain’s here and left brain is here, and you medicate them, you’ll bring them down, but it’s going to bring both of them down,” says chiropractic neurologist Dr. Brady Wirick.
And bringing both sides down won’t solve the problem. You have to strengthen the right side. Every morning Ashton, Mackenzie, and Nephi practice each exercise for couple minutes. They tap their hands on their sides, march in place, and move their arms in a circle and clap.
“When they are clapping in big circles, it’s forcing them to keep a beat, which is a right brain activity as well as moving big joints,” says Dr. Wirick.
Each child is improving but Ashton is taking strides.
“I think what it does is it makes a connection, and puts him more in balance because he can’t balance himself,” says father, Justin Perfili.
Dr. Wirick believes it will be another six to nine months before the Perfili’s kids’ right brains are stronger.
Source: http://www.kidk.com/news/local/87628697.html
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English, English, English
The Autism News | English
People with Asperger’s syndrome are willing, ready and able to work but fall at the first hurdle – the job interview
By SE Smith | Guardian.co.uk
Asperger’s syndrome has been in the news frequently of late. Growing attention is being paid to the employment challenges faced by people with this autism-spectrum disorder and the recent announcement that the label of Asperger’s syndrome itself is slated to vanish with the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) – the so-called “bible of psychiatry”, scheduled for publication in 2013 – sparking intense debate.
The decision to eliminate the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome has been greeted with hostility by some people with the condition, in part because this diagnosis carries less stigma than a diagnosis of autism. For some, it feels like an erasure of personal identity as well. Others view the change with less alarm since Asperger’s syndrome is already classified as an autism-spectrum disorder and thus the change does not mean they are moving to an entirely new section of the DSM, or that they cannot receive a diagnosis and all-important treatment code, used to determine eligibility for insurance and benefits.
For jobseekers with Asperger’s syndrome, first identified in 1944 by Doctor Hans Asperger, there are significant barriers to employment. According to speech pathologist Barbara Bloomfield, unemployment rates for people on the autism spectrum can range from 75% to 97%, even when the economy is healthy.
Asperger’s syndrome is characterised by difficulties with communication. Aspies, as people with Asperger’s syndrome are sometimes known, have trouble reading body language and many social cues. Some have language-processing disorders, which make spoken communication challenging; Aspies can also have trouble with eye contact, modulating their voices, shaking hands and expressing themselves verbally.
For people on the autism spectrum, developing skills that can lead to gainful employment is challenging. It may be difficult to attend university to get a degree, for example, and it is hard to find work to build experience and a r?sum?. Communication is key to social success and people with communication disorders, such as Asperger’s syndrome, may not be able to establish the basic connections with other people that are critical when seeking employment. It is commonly believed that Aspies are unemployable, when this simply isn’t true.
Doing well in a job interview is challenging for anyone. For people possessing valuable job skills with this communication disorder, performing well in a job interview can be extremely difficult. The prospective employer reads the unwillingness to shake hands, difficulty making eye contact and hesitation in speech as coldness or incompetence, and the applicant is rejected.
Skilled Aspies may turn to other areas of employment when they cannot find work in their chosen profession. However, they still face the fundamental hurdle of the job interview. “Don’t write me off” is the slogan of a campaign to improve access to employment and benefits for people on the autism spectrum from the National Autistic Society and it is quite fitting, as people with autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger’s syndrome, are routinely written off by prospective employers – even though autistic traits can sometimes be an asset.
People with autism spectrum disorders have traits like a high attention to detail, very intense focus and a willingness and sometimes need to repeat tasks until they are perfect. These traits are ideal for people such as computer programmers, who need to be able to focus on sometimes highly repetitive tasks with a very small margin for error. The strict need for order found among some people on the autism spectrum can also turn into an employment asset in some work environments. A sharp-eyed Aspie can often spot imperfections and problems, which might go unnoticed by someone else.
In Britain, the Autism Act 2009 was passed to address some of the social disparities, employment among them, experienced by people with autism-spectrum disorders. It is estimated that 30,000 adults in England have an autism-spectrum disorder. Those who are willing, ready and able to work cannot find employment because they are unable to pass that most basic test, the social performance that is the job interview. Thanks to the work of disability advocates, disability employment advisors are going to be receiving autism training. This training is designed to improve the support system for jobseekers with autism-spectrum disorders so that they can navigate the job market more effectively.
Even with this support, it seems likely that people with Asperger’s syndrome will continue to experience employment discrimination. Educating employers and making them more familiar with the needs of people with autism-spectrum disorders may improve chances in job interviews, but it is still difficult to overcome communication barriers, even when one is aware they exist. When two equally qualified people compete for a position and one is deemed more charismatic than the other, employers are more likely to choose the charismatic applicant.
Addressing this issue requires getting more people with autism-spectrum disorders into the workplace, including positions in human resources so that communication styles are less likely to remain a barrier to employment. However, there’s a vicious cycle: in order to reach those positions, people with autism-spectrum disorders still need to pass the interviews.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/16/aspergers-syndrome-employment-problems
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English
The Autism News | English
By Med India
A US psychologist says she has identified five predictors of autism in infants.
The five predictors identified were – lack of response to others’ attempts to engage the babies in play, infrequent attempts to initiate joint activities, few types of consonants produced when trying to communicate vocally, problems in responding to vocal requests and a keen interest in repetitive acts, such as staring at a toy while twirling it. In Ms Landa’s investigation, the presence of all five behaviors at 14 months predicted an eventual diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in 15 of 16 children.
Landa’s study consists of 250 children who were first assessed at either age 6 months or 14 months. Comprehensive measures of social, communication and motor abilities were obtained at each child’s home and repeated at 18, 24, 30 and 36 months of age. The sample included 110 children considered to be at high risk for developing autism because they had older siblings already diagnosed with the same condition.
Preliminary evidence suggests that high-risk 14-month-olds who later develop autism display signs of delayed motor development as early as 6 to 7 months of age, Landa noted. In particular, these youngsters had difficulty keeping their heads stable when slowly raised from a prone position, writes Bruce Bower in Science News.
But psychologists cautioned that much remains unknown about the early identification and treatment of autism. Infant siblings of older children with autism represent a special group that’s especially likely to show early signs of the same disorder, they said.
“I’m not sure the majority of children with autism spectrum disorder have predictive symptoms by 12 or 14 months,” said Sally Rogers of the University of California.
In her own long-term studies, some children without autistic siblings show a gradual slowing of social and language development over several years that leads to autism, while others show no autism symptoms at all until being diagnosed with the disorder at age 4 or 5.
Source: http://www.medindia.net/news/Five-Predictors-Of-Autism-In-Infants-Identified-66427-1.htm
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English
17
Startup Targets Rare Genetic Disorder With New Drug
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Articles
The Autism News | English
BIOTECH: VC-Funded Company Launched With MIT-Spawned Technology
By HEATHER CHAMBERS | San Diego Business Journal
Afraxis, a fledgling San Diego drug developer with technology spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has quietly been raising money the last couple of years for testing a new treatment for Fragile X syndrome.
The genetic disorder, named after a gene mutation on the X chromosome, has been identified as a leading cause of autism and mental retardation. Approximately one-third of all children diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome also have some degree of autism, according to The National Fragile X Foundation, a research advocate based in Walnut Creek. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also identifies the disorder as the most common cause of inherited mental retardation.
In recent weeks, the four-person biotech has emerged from stealth mode and announced some major hires, namely that of its chief scientific officer and vice president of business development, both former employees with the local biotech Phenomix Corp. And it’s quickly pushing its program into the clinic.
The young company, led by venture capitalist Jay Lichter, began in 2007 by leveraging discoveries made in the MIT lab of Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa. His findings — that Fragile X could be reversed in mice by targeting a certain enzyme known as PAK — led Afraxis on a path toward developing a pill that might reduce or even reverse brain abnormalities in humans.
No Approved Drugs to Treat Fragile X
Lichter, who also serves as managing director of Avalon Ventures of La Jolla, said the company started from scratch “with no compounds and no assays and no predetermined clinical path.”
It quickly paired up with Ambit Biosciences Inc., an expert in screening small molecule compounds against an array of enzymes, and identified some drug candidates to support its patent filing.
“That is really what gave birth to the company,” Lichter said.
Today, he said, Avalon has invested $6 million altogether to advance the company to the point of human trials. The young company could have its first drug candidate in human trials as early as next year, according to Chief Scientist David Campbell.
“Our goal is to identify a drug candidate by the middle of this year,” he said.
A drug to treat the disorder, one that affects approximately one in 4,000 males and fewer females, could potentially emerge as a big seller since the FDA has not approved any drugs to treat it, and there’s no known cure.
“It’s a very expensive burden on society,” said Lichter, who further explained that many people living with the disorder can’t hold jobs, have trouble paying attention and often require supervised care.
Source: http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=145683
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English, English
The Autism News | English
Dr. Dido Green uses magic to help a young patient regain movement in her left arm. Credit: Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital Charity
It’s often hard to motivate youngsters with physical disabilities. But a new approach from a Tel Aviv University researcher bridges the worlds of behavior and science to help kids with paralysis and motor dysfunction improve their physical skills and inner confidence — using a trick up her sleeve called “magic.”
By Tel Aviv University | Physorg.com
Dr. Dido Green of Tel Aviv University’s School of Health Professionals developed an innovative yet remarkably simple series of therapeutic exercises for children and young adults based on sleight-of-hand tricks used by professional magicians. Dr. Green and her magicians used sponge balls, elastics and paper clips to teach the children how to perform the challenging, fun and engaging exercises.
She started her foundational research at the Evelina Children’s Hospital funded by the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital Charity, Performing Arts Programme in London.
Making physical therapy fun
“Children with motor disorders like hemiplegia — or paralysis on one side of the body — perform routine exercises with their hands and wrists to be able to carry out basic functions such as opening a door, doing up their zipper, or closing buttons,” explains Dr. Green, an occupational therapist with a masters degree in clinical neuroscience and a Ph.D. in psychomotor development of children. “Not only did the kids get a kick out of the magic tricks, they loved doing the exercises every day.”
Dr. Green hopes to create summer “magic camps” for disabled children in both the U.K. and Israel, and will further investigate the benefits of magic for improving motor development of children with disabilities.
Her initial research, now in the process of publication in a peer-reviewed journal, looked at a sample of nine children. “We had a hunch that learning magic tricks could do wonders for kids’ movement problems, but we wanted to see if the kids would actually practice them,” says Dr. Green.
The children practiced ten minutes a day over four to six weeks, resulting in a significant and measurable change in motor skills. “It was a big enough effect to make us want to marry the concept of magic with more specific treatment regimes important for motor learning,” says Dr. Green.
In the next part of the study, Dr. Green will bridge the worlds of behavioral therapy with science. She plans not only to give a large group of U.K. and Israeli kids intensive magic training to help improve their motor skills, but also to look into their brains to see if there is a neurological effect.
Magic meets magnetic resonance imaging
“We’ll be using functional MRIs to see how extensive practice — using the magic tricks as motivators — affects centers in the brain. Having information from the MRI can help us see what works, and for how long a treatment regime will need to be carried out to have sustained changes,” says Dr. Green. One of the things she will measuring is the “plasticity” of the brain to see if activity of different brain areas changes over time as a result of the exercises.
Movement problems can occur in children with autism, spinal cord injuries, diseases affecting the central nervous system, or cerebral palsy. Some of these conditions can lead to hemiplegia. When Dr. Green retired from the stage following a career as a ballerina for the National Ballet of Canada and the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet in London, she determined to inspire less fortunate children to gain or regain levels of basic functioning.
Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187875146.html
Please share this news with friends, family and also with your contact list on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
English