Autism News and Research

Latest Autism News and Research

Research compares basis for social dysfunction between ASD, schizophrenia

A UT Dallas professor is studying the differences between the social impairments found in autism and schizophrenia to help develop better treatments for people with both disorders.

29 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Disabled 'disdain' a poisonous meme? Two sides on physician payments issue, letting Mich.'s community colleges train nurses

Disability advocates across the political spectrum strongly supported the 2010 health care reform. They had obvious reasons to do so. The new law provides protections for people with preexisting conditions, regulations to make sure insurers properly cover care for chronic illnesses and expanded coverage for young adults and low-income families. But more is at stake here than factual inaccuracies.

28 Feb 2012

Largest study to date to observe dynamic social scenes in children with ASD

In a study published in the March 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Katherine Rice and colleagues, from the Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine, used eye-tracking technology to measure the relationship between cognitive and social disability in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and the ability of children with ASD to pay attention to social interactions.

28 Feb 2012

Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Autism Speaks create new sleep guide

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center has created a resource with Autism Speaks to help improve sleep for children and teens affected by autism spectrum disorders. This new toolkit, titled "Sleep Strategies for Children with Autism: A Parent's Guide," offers strategies to help families whose children with autism have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep through the night.

28 Feb 2012

Medication plus parent training effective in treating children with ASD

Children with autism spectrum disorders who also have serious behavioral problems responded better to medication combined with training for their parents than to treatment with medication alone, Yale researchers and their colleagues report in the February issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

27 Feb 2012

Children of immigrant parents more likely to develop autism with intellectual disability

A major register study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that children born to certain groups of immigrants in Sweden had an increased risk of developing autism with intellectual disability. The study includes all children in Stockholm County from 2001 to 2007, and brings the question of the heredity of autism to the fore.

23 Feb 2012

New kind of on-off switch for cortisol release in the brain discovered

After we sense a threat, our brain center responsible for responding goes into gear, setting off a chain of biochemical reactions leading to the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands.

23 Feb 2012

Patterns of brain development are distinct in infants with ASD

Patterns of brain development in the first two years of life are distinct in children who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), according to researchers in a network funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study results show differences in brain structure at 6 months of age, the earliest such structural changes have been recorded in ASDs.

23 Feb 2012

First prospective study of ethnic differences in symptoms of autism in toddlers

The first prospective study of ethnic differences in the symptoms of autism in toddlers shows that children from a minority background have more delayed language, communication and gross motor skills than Caucasian children with the disorder. Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute concluded that subtle developmental delays may be going unaddressed in minority toddlers until more severe symptoms develop.

22 Feb 2012

Autism Speaks releases two new ATN tool kits

Autism Speaks, North America's leading autism science and advocacy organization, today released the Sleep Strategies for Children with Autism: A Parent's Guide and Treating Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Tool Kit for Dental Professionals, both available for free download on Autism Speaks Tools You Can Use webpage.

22 Feb 2012

Autism may be evident in an infant’s brain much earlier than thought: Study

Researchers have found that autism shows tell tale signs in babies as young as 6 months old — half a year or more before parents typically begin to notice symptoms of the condition. The results shed light on the fundamental differences in the brains of autistic children and could help lead to earlier detection and treatment, says co-author Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer at Autism Speaks, which helped fund the study in today's American Journal of Psychiatry.

20 Feb 2012

Symposium discusses links between genetic, epigenetic and environmental influences on autism

Two UC Davis MIND Institute researchers will lead a symposium on relationships between genetic, epigenetic and environmental influences on the development of autism in children during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Feb. 16 -18 in Vancouver, Canada.

20 Feb 2012

In young children autism does not appear suddenly, but develops over time

A new study led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found significant differences in brain development starting at age 6 months in high-risk infants who later develop autism, compared to high-risk infants who did not develop autism.

18 Feb 2012

Researchers discover significant differences in brain development in infants who later develop autism

Researchers have found significant differences in brain development in infants as young as six months old who later develop autism, compared with babies who don't develop the disorder.

18 Feb 2012

Digital games become an important tool for self-management of illness and chronic conditions

Millions of dollars and immeasurable hours of research and development are being invested to develop and employ increasingly sophisticated hardware and software technologies to deliver innovative new personalized health care interventions.

17 Feb 2012

Augmented toys may help children with autism

Making play sets more interactive and giving children with autism greater opportunities to control and add content of their own to the game could improve cooperative play with other children as well as giving them greater confidence in understanding how objects interact.

17 Feb 2012

Exposure to common flame retardant may affect fertility and long-term memory

Mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to autism-like behaviors that were exposed to a common flame retardant were less fertile and their offspring were smaller, less sociable and demonstrated marked deficits in learning and long-term memory when compared with the offspring of normal unexposed mice, a study by researchers at UC Davis has found.

16 Feb 2012

Controversy over psychiatric diagnosis reaches a fever pitch

As the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is revised for the first time since 1994, controversy about psychiatric diagnosis is reaching a fever pitch.

16 Feb 2012

First study to evaluate motor impairments in children with ASD

Children with autism often have problems developing motor skills, such as running, throwing a ball or even learning how to write. But scientists have not known whether those difficulties run in families or are linked to autism. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis points to autism as the culprit.

16 Feb 2012

African-American children tend to be diagnosed later for autism

The rate of diagnosis for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the same among all racial groups — one in 110, according to current estimates. However, a study by a Florida State University researcher has found that African-American children tend to be diagnosed later than white children, which results in a longer and more intensive intervention.

16 Feb 2012