Help With Autism

As we discussed in an earlier post regarding yoga, physical activity can help an autistic child learn focus; it can also help improve their behavior.  This form of autism therapy can require a lot of research, but there are some basic factors to consider: the severity of the child’s behavior and the how simple or complicated the activity is.

Ideally, you’ll want to choose an activity that is rhythmic: running, hopping, or jump-roping.  In addition to yoga, aerobics can also be a great activity.  Many parents have suggested taking aerobic techniques and renaming them to kid-friendlier names and making a game of them. 

A Las Vegas man built a web browser for his autistic grandson after he realized that the models provided by other companies only frustrated the boy.

John LeSieur took particular interest when computers seemed mostly useless to his 6-year-old grandson, Zackary.

LeSieur tried to find online tools that could guide autistic children around the Web, but he couldn’t find anything satisfactory. So he had one built, named it the Zac Browser For Autistic Children in honor of his grandson, and is making it available to anyone for free for anyone who wants to enhance autism education with a computer.

The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like a virtual aquarium.

Children using the Zac Browser select activities by clicking on bigger-than-normal icons, like a soccer ball for games and a stack of books for “stories.” The Zac Browser also configures the view so no flashing distractions appear.

MARYLAND – Ginny Russo and her son Tony, 3, will be marching in the nation’s capital today to bring awareness and attention to autism.

Autism spectrum disorders affect about one in 150 children in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s a growing epidemic,” Russo said.

Russo, 33, of Mount Airy became informed about autism even before her son Tony was diagnosed when he was 2½ years old.

The rally Russo will be marching in today is to push Congress to promote cleaning up and re-evaluating the schedule of vaccinations given to children. The event, titled “Green our Vaccines,” claims that children are receiving too many vaccinations too soon.

The cause of autism is unknown, but organizations such as Talk About Curing Autism and Moms Against Mercury, which are sponsoring the rally, support the theory that there is a link between vaccinations and autism.

Russo said she doesn’t know what caused Tony’s disorder, but she has taken her son to receive alternative medical treatment and has placed him on a gluten-free diet. Russo said she has seen results in Tony, and that’s good enough for her.

Russo said autism is the common term for autism spectrum disorders that include Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome and other specific diagnoses.

ASDs are defined by the CDC as developmental disabilities that cause substantial impairments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests.

People use eye contact in a variety of ways every minute of every day but how often do you find yourself staring into space with concentrating on an issue or problem? Psychologists now know that people who are carrying out a complex task tend to look away from anyone else who is nearby. They refer to it as ‘gaze aversion’.

Now they are finding out how to use changes in a child’s gaze aversion to understand their educational progress. A group led by Dr. Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon at the University of Stirling has looked at gaze aversion in both children and adults.

They found that children aged 4-6 are more likely to avert their gaze when they are carrying out a task that they find difficult, or new to them. They also avert their gaze less if they are being tested by someone they know.

When observing 5-8 year-olds, the researchers found that gaze aversion is related to the complexity of the task being undertaken, rather than to other stimuli. The results were consistent for a variety of settings and for a range of tasks, such as balancing a beam with asymmetrical loads.

Researchers say that, from the point of view of the teacher, gaze aversion is a positive sign. A child who is doing it is likely to be developing their understanding and is what Dr Doherty-Sneddon terms an “improver”. By contrast, children who are not improving their performance, or who are regressing, use gaze aversion less often.

Gaze aversion is an important key in autism awareness and detection in children.

As I’ve discussed on this blog before, treatment for autism could include a change in diet, removing traces of dairy and wheat.  A good resource for recipes, aside from the internet, are vegan cookbooks.  Vegan cookbooks often offer a plethora of great recipes of gluten free foods, most of which are easy to make, and, making these foods are often cheaper than purchasing their dairy and wheat-filled counterparts.

 Autism research from the US suggests that compared to other developmental disabilities, low birthweight and premature birth was linked to a higher risk of autism, especially for girls.

The study had two goals. The first was to find out how frequently autism prevailed compared to that of other developmental disabilities in low birthweight and preterm babies, and the second was to establish the specific risks involved.

For the first goal, the researchers counted all children born in Atlanta between 1981 and 1993 who survived until the age of three. These were located from vital records.

From this group they then identified those that were still living in Atlanta at age between 3 and 10, and who had developmental disabilities: autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, or vision impairment. They used another set of records for this, the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program.

For the second goal, the researchers looked at records from the first goal and created a “nested case-control sample”, with those children identified as having autism being the “cases”, and those who were not identified as having a developmental disability (or in receipt of special education) as the “controls”. (It is a nested sample because these groups are subgroups of the overall cohort). Over 550 case-control pairs were created.

The results showed that:
• Compared to other developmental disabilities, the prevalence of autism in preterm or low birthweight children was significantly lower.
• Birthweight below 5.5 lbs and birth at less than 33 weeks gestation was linked to a twofold increase in autism risk.
• This increased risk of autism was higher in girls and when autism was accompanied by other developmental disabilities.
• For example, there was a significant fourfold risk of autism in low birthweight girls who also had mental retardation, whereas there was no significant increased risk in low birthweight boys for autism alone.

The authors concluded that:

“Gender and autism subgroup differences in birth weight and gestational age, resulting in lower gender ratios with declining birth weight or gestational age across all autism subgroups, might be markers for etiologic heterogeneity in autism.”

“There may be sex differences in genetic factors leading to autism.”

Low birthweight and pre-term birth are already known to be among the biggest risk factors for developmental disabilities.

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey to hold largest ever rally on vaccine-autism link

Washington, DC – The National Autism Association (NAA) will join nearly forty other advocacy organizations in the June 4 “Green Our Vaccines” rally planned by Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey to draw attention to the vaccine-autism link.  Organized by Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), Generation Rescue, HEAL and Moms Against Mercury, the rally is generating enthusiasm among parents and caregivers who have long believed that their children’s autism symptoms were triggered by exposure to toxic vaccine components.

“It’s time for our nation’s health agencies to put our children first and get toxins out of vaccines,” said NAA vice-president Ann Brasher, grandparent of a vaccine-injured child diagnosed with autism. “Known poisons such as mercury and aluminum should never be injected into humans, especially infants and young children.  The needlessly aggressive vaccine schedule plus toxic vaccine ingredients have wreaked havoc on the health of an entire generation.”

The rise in autism and related diagnoses over the past 20 years is alarming, with one in 150 children now diagnosed with autism.  Additionally, one in six children has a learning or behavior disorder.  A growing number of parents and medical professionals believe increased exposure to toxic vaccines and the rise in children’s health issues are not coincidental.

Following the rally, thousands of parents will visit with their legislators to relay their personal stories of vaccine-injury and ask that legislation be supported on behalf of their vaccine-injured children.  NAA encourages its members and chapter leaders to ask for support for several specific pieces of legislation including:

• The Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007, HR 2832
• The Mercury-Free Vaccines Act of 2007, HR 881
• The Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act of 2007, HR 1973

“This is a unique opportunity for parents to impact the direction of legislation that will make a difference in the lives of so many children that were injured simply because they followed the vaccine schedule,” commented Ms. Brasher.  “We are their voice, and we’re not going away until their injuries are recognized and appropriately addressed by our government and the medical community.”

Chelation therapy is the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body.

Based on the speculation that heavy metal poisoning may trigger the symptoms of autism, some parents have turned to alternative medicine practitioners who provide chelation therapy. As there are several cases that link the mercury in the vaccine preservative thiomersal causes autism or its symptoms, chelation therapy is a viable treatment for autism.