Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Helped by Transcendental Meditation®

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Helped by Transcendental Meditation®

The TM® technique effective for reducing stress and anxiety

 One in 88 American children currently suffer from Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the face of this epidemic, a growing number of children with ASD are finding relief through the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique—a simple, effortless meditation practiced 15 to 20 minutes twice daily.  The TM technique is an effective tool for managing high stress levels and improving overall health, as shown by than 340 peer-reviewed studies conducted at research centers includingHarvard, UCLA, and Stanford.

That's why physicians like Norman Rosenthal , M.D., are prescribing TM practice for children with ASD. Rosenthal is the author of the NY Times bestselling book Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation. In the book, he discusses the role that TM practice can play for those with ASD:

"On a theoretical level, how might TM be helping these people with ASD? They clearly have trouble understanding the emotions and expectations of others, which makes interaction stressful and withdrawal understandable. They fear novelty, unexpected situations, and having to adapt to situations in which they don't have control. As with so many other people, TM appears to reduce their stress and anxiety, making it easier for them to venture out, try new things, and learn new skills.

"In addition, it is well known that in people with ASD, there is impaired prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. As we know, the PFC is crucial for making good decisions and judgments. In many situations TM seems to boost PFC functioning, perhaps by reducing stress. This might also explain why people with ASD become more willing to explore new environments and behaviors after they start to meditate."

The TM technique is a simple, natural, effortless procedure practiced 20 minutes twice each day while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. Extensive peer-reviewed research studies have found that TM reduces stress and anxiety, improves learning ability, and promotes wellness for mind and body.

The TM technique is available in the USA through Maharishi Foundation USA, a federally recognized non-profit educational organization. Through partnerships with other non-profit organizations and foundations, full TM scholarships have been given to more than 250,000 at-risk children, veterans suffering from PTSD, homeless people, and others.  

To learn more, please click on the above title.

To access the CDR Library catalog, please click on this link.

South Carolina Roadmap to Developmental Screening

The South Carolina Act Early team is pleased to provide the South Carolina Roadmap to Developmental Screening to people interested in developmental screening and services related to Autism Spectrum Disorders. The roadmap was developed by a team focused on collaboration among leaders representing professionals, state agencies, universities, health care systems, private organizations and families to improve quality of life for children and others with Autism Spectrum Disorders and their families.
The resource is intended as a guide that explains where to receive assistance for a child that may be at risk for an Autism Spectrum Disorder. It also provides an explanation of services, state agencies, assessments, and interventions relevant to this issue. Contact information for the key agencies and organizations is also provided.
You can see a PDF version of the roadmap by clicking on the title above. You can also download a copy from the following websites:

SC Department of Disabilities & Special Needs
http://www.ddsn.sc.gov

BabyNet
http://www.scfirststeps.org/BabyNet.html

USC Center for Disability Resources
http://uscm.med.sc.edu/cdrhome/index.asp

South Carolina Autism Society
http://www.scautism.org/roadmap.php

Greenville Hospital
http://www.ghschildrens.org/autism-­‐wonders-­‐home.php

Winston’s Wish Foundation
www.winstonswishfoundation.com

Team for Early Childhood Solutions
http://uscm.med.sc.edu/tecs/

SC Department of Education
http://ed.sc.gov

Family Connection of South Carolina
http://www.familyconnectionsc.org/

NOTE: To access the Center for Disability Resources Library, click on this link.

Autism Moms Have Stress Similar To Combat Soldiers

Disability Scoop (Nov. 10, 2009)- Mothers of adolescents and adults with autism experience chronic stress comparable to combat soldiers and struggle with frequent fatigue and work interruptions, new research finds. These moms also spend significantly more time caregiving than moms of those without disabilities.

Researchers followed a group of moms of adolescents and adults with autism for eight days in a row. Moms were interviewed at the end of each day about their experiences and on four of the days researchers measured the moms’ hormone levels to assess their stress.

They found that a hormone associated with stress was extremely low, consistent with people experiencing chronic stress such as soldiers in combat, the researchers report in one of two studies published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

“This is the physiological residue of daily stress,” says Marsha Mailick Seltzer, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who authored the studies. “The mothers of children with high levels of behavior problems have the most pronounced physiological profile of chronic stress, but the long-term effect on their physical health is not yet known.”

Such hormone levels have been associated with chronic health problems and can affect glucose regulation, immune functioning and mental activity, researchers say.

In a companion study, the researchers followed up with the same group of mothers daily to interview them about how they used their time, their level of fatigue, what leisure activities they participated in and whether or not stressful events occurred. This information was then compared with data from a national sample of mothers whose children do not have disabilities.

Mothers of those with autism reported spending at least two hours more each day caregiving than mothers of children without disabilities. On any given day these moms were also twice as likely to be tired and three times as likely to have experienced a stressful event.

What’s more, these moms were interrupted at work on one out of every four days compared to less than one in 10 days for other moms.

Despite all of this, mothers of an individual with autism were just as likely to have positive experiences each day, volunteer or support their peers as those whose children have no developmental disability, researchers found.

To read more about Autism Moms, please click the above title.

Evidence Found for the Genetic Basis of Autism: Models of Autism Show That Gene Copy Number Controls Brain Structure and Behavior

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2011) — Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered that one of the most common genetic alterations in autism -- deletion of a 27-gene cluster on chromosome 16 -- causes autism-like features. By generating mouse models of autism using a technique known as chromosome engineering, CSHL Professor Alea Mills and colleagues provide the first functional evidence that inheriting fewer copies of these genes leads to features resembling those used to diagnose children with autism.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the early online edition during the week of October 3.

"Children normally inherit one copy of a gene from each parent. We had the tools to see whether copy number changes found in kids with autism were causing the syndrome," explains Mills. In 2007, Professor Michael Wigler, also at CSHL, revealed that some children with autism have a small deletion on chromosome 16, affecting 27 genes in a region of our genomes referred to as 16p11.2. The deletion -- which causes children to inherit only a single copy of the 27-gene cluster -- is one of the most common copy number variations (CNVs) associated with autism.

"The idea that this deletion might be causing autism was exciting," says Mills. "So we asked whether clipping out the same set of genes in mice would have any effect."

After engineering mice that had a chromosome defect corresponding to the human 16p11.2 deletion found in autism, Mills and her team analyzed these models for a variety of behaviors, as the clinical features of autism often vary widely from patient to patient, even within the same family.

"Mice with the deletion acted completely different from normal mice," explains Guy Horev, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mills laboratory and first author of the study. These mice had a number of behaviors characteristic of autism: hyperactivity, difficulty adapting to a new environment, sleeping deficits, and restricted, repetitive behaviors.

To read the entire article on autism, please click on the above title.

Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence: What About Asperger Syndrome?

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2011) — "Autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger syndrome, have generally been associated with uneven intellectual profiles and impairment, but according to a new study of Asperger individuals published in the online journal PLoS ONE, this may not be the case -- as long as intelligence is evaluated by the right test.Both autistic and Asperger individuals display uneven profiles of performance in commonly used intelligence test batteries such as Wechsler scales, and their strongest performances are often considered evidence for deficits.
However, this study reports that Asperger individuals' scores are much higher when they are evaluated by a test called Raven's Progressive Matrices, which encompasses reasoning, novel problem-solving abilities, and high-level abstraction. By comparison, scores for non-Asperger individuals are much more consistent across different tests. Interestingly, Asperger participants' performance on Raven's Matrices was associated with their strongest peaks of performance on Wechsler.
A previous study by the same group found very similar results for autistic individuals as well, whose peaks of ability are perceptual, rather than verbal as in Asperger individuals. This suggests a common information processing mechanism applied to different aspects of information (verbal vs. perceptual).
According to co-author Michelle Dawson, "while we know autistics process information atypically, very little thought has gone into how to fairly assess their abilities. In fact there is so little understanding of what autistics do well that their strong abilities are often regarded as dysfunctional. Here we have again found that measurable strengths in autistic spectrum individuals are not "isolated islets of abilities" as previously thought, but are in fact representative of autistics' intellectual abilities. This in turn raises questions about how we can provide autistics with the kinds of information they can process well, as we do with non-autistic individuals. We consider the effort to understand and encourage autistic strengths to be of paramount importance. "
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Quality Of Life For Individuals With Autism Worsened By Attention Deficit And Hyperactivity Symptoms

Medical News Today (Sept. 20, 2011)- Research supported by the Autism Speaks Autism Treatment Network (ATN), demonstrating that symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity worsen quality of life for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), was presented at the Society for Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Researchers Parul Vora, M.D., developmental-behavioral pediatric fellowat Nationwide Children's and Darryn Sikora, Ph.D., Director of the Autism Program at Oregon Health Sciences University, used data exclusively from the ATN Registry to examine whether the presence of symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might have additional impact on the adaptive functioning and quality of life of children and adolescents with ASD. After reviewing measures of attention and hyperactivity, and measures of quality of life, for over 2,000 children and adolescents with ASD, they found that over half of this group had symptoms of either attention or hyperactivity problems. More than a third had significant symptoms of both.

Children with ASD frequently have other symptoms that may compound difficulties with communication, socialization and restricted interests. More than one in three children evaluated had symptoms suggesting that they might have ADHD. Approximately one in ten of the children studied were receiving stimulant medications typically used to treat ADHD. This suggests that most of these children and adolescents with ASD and ADHD symptoms are not being treated with medications for these inattentive and hyperactive symptoms.

Children with ASD frequently have other symptoms that may compound difficulties with communication, socialization and restricted interests. More than one in three children evaluated had symptoms suggesting that they might have ADHD. Approximately one in ten of the children studied were receiving stimulant medications typically used to treat ADHD. This suggests that most of these children and adolescents with ASD and ADHD symptoms are not being treated with medications for these inattentive and hyperactive symptoms.

Children with ASD have lower adaptive functioning - the ability to get along in daily situations - than typically developing children. Not only does the presence of ADHD symptoms compromise their adaptive abilities, quality of life is further reduced.

"Identification of ADHD symptoms in children with ASD is important so that health care providers can work to treat these issues. Further research is needed to determine whether stimulant medication improves ADHD symptoms in children with ASD," explained ATN Medical Director Daniel Coury, M.D.

Dr. Coury explained why this research is important to the ATN. "Because it's very common for children with ASD to present other medical symptoms and diagnoses, a primary goal of the ATN is to create a model of comprehensive medical care for children and adolescents with autism, and best practices to be shared with medical practitioners throughout North America and around the world."

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AN INSIDER'S PERSPECTIVE ON AUTISM AND ASPERGER'S SYNDROME TALK

Bridging the Gap Between Understanding & Intervention
Presented by: DEBORAH LIPSKY, M.Ed

September 20, 2011
RALEIGH/DURHAM, NC
HILTON RALEIGH-DURHAM AIRPORT AT RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK
4810 Page Creek Lane
Durham NC, 27703
Phone: 919-941-6030

September 21, 2011
CHARLOTTE/PINEVILLE, NC
HILTON GARDEN INN CHARLOTTE PINEVILLE
425 Towne Centre Boulevard
Pineville NC, 28134
Phone: 704-889-3279

Presenter(s):
DEBORAH LIPSKY, M.Ed, is an accomplished presenter traveling the United States and Canada delivering seminars, presentations, and keynote addresses on understanding autism from an insider's viewpoint. Diagnosed in 2005 with high functioning autism, she is a former board member of the Autism Society of Maine, and currently writes a regular humorous column for their newsletter. In 2005, she was awarded the Autism Society of Maine's outstanding volunteer award, and in 2006, she became the recipient of a Temple Grandin award for "outstanding success in her life thereby being an inspiration to others". Her message of inspiration, delivered with a delightful sense of humor, makes her a highly sought after motivational and educational speaker. Before the day is out, Deborah will have you understanding what it is like to be autistic.
She is an international author, having co-authored a book with her colleague Dr. Will Richards, on managing meltdowns for autistic individuals using their revolutionary new training model called S.C.A.R.E.D. published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This is a must have for anyone working with individuals on the autism spectrum. In addition to being a consultant for various agencies, Ms. Lipsky is a captain with the USAF-AUX for search and rescue and homeland security, a registered Maine Guide, a civil war re-enactor, avid WW2 and Viet Nam military collector and historian, and former licensed wildlife rehabilitator specializing in raccoons. She is affectionately known as the "raccoon lady", having spent 24 years studying them in the wild learning social skills she then adapted to use around humans.

A Personal Message from Your Presenter Deborah Lipsky:
"My name is Deborah Lipsky and I have high functioning autism. My program offers you insight into the world of an individual with autism from someone who lives it on a daily basis. I have encountered many similar problems that children with autism face as they grow up and have a true understanding of their difficulties so I am able to offer ideas for effective strategies and interventions. My specialty is meltdowns and in this program we will understand and explore their causes, interventions, and the differences between a meltdown and a behavioral tantrum. With my Master's Degree in Counseling, I have worked with both verbal and non-verbal individuals with autism and have developed the unique ability to "read" their non-verbal communication and which enables me to identify problem areas more quickly.
I also offer the unique perspective of telling my audience what it is like and how it feels to be autistic-how, as an individual with autism, my world differs from a "non-autistic" view. I am able to combine personal experiences with professional knowledge to bring to you a seminar unlike any other you have attended. I celebrate the gifts of autism and try to encourage people not to look at autism as a "dysfunction" or "disease" but just a neurological difference in the perception of the world. With some of my interactive exercises where you are "autistic" for a moment you will gain a greater appreciation of the challenges we autistic individuals face. I look forward to sharing my world view with all of you."
Deb NOTE: For more information on the agenda, and to register online, click on the title above.

Broadway For Autistic Kids: 'The Lion King' Will Slightly Alter Show

Huffington Post (Aug. 17, 2011)- Families of autistic children have a new place to engage their sons and daughters – Broadway.

The Theatre Development Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on providing access to live theater, announced Wednesday it will present an autism friendly performance of "The Lion King."

The Oct. 2 matinee of the long-running musical at the Minskoff Theatre will be slightly altered to make those with autism more comfortable, including cutting jarring sounds and strobe lights.

"We are so excited about this and, at the same time, I'm apprehensive because no one has ever done this before," said Lisa Carling, the director of the fund's accessibility program. "No one knows what the effect will be when you put 500 to 600 children and adults on the autism spectrum in an over 1,600-seat theater."

Three quiet areas with beanbag chairs and coloring books, staffed by autism experts, will be created inside the theater for those who might feel overwhelmed. Ticket prices have also been reduced, with the top seats going for $79, down from the top range of $133.

The fund bought every seat in the theater to gauge interest and word-of-mouth has already left few seats available. Organizers, who say this is the first time such an experiment has been attempted on Broadway, want to see if it should be replicated at other productions.

"We'll be looking at the dynamics of the audience, seeing if everyone is having a good time," said Carling. "We want it to be a very welcoming, nonjudgmental environment."

Autism disorders strike one in 100 children, according to U.S. government estimates. Children with the diagnosis are often sensitive to loud noises and harsh lights, and find it hard to sit still or remain quiet. Autism spectrum disorders include both severe and relatively mild symptoms.

For many families who have a child with autism just going out to a restaurant – much less a live theatrical event – is a daunting proposition.

Alicia Hart, an advocate for children and adults with autism and author of "Brains, Trains & Video Games: Living The Autism Life," welcomed the experiment, calling it "great leap into the future."

"Theater, in and of itself, is a phenomenal vehicle for children with autism," she said from her home on Merritt Island, Fla. Autistic children, she explained, must learn in public to modulate their voices, their bodies and their facial expressions – just like performers.

"In essence, they're really acting – they're acting their way through life. This is the greatest performance that they'll ever give and it doesn't stop," said Hart. "The theater is not used enough as a teaching tool and this is going to open a lot of doors."

To read more about 'The Lion King", please click on the above title.

Biomarker for Autism Discovered

ScienceDaily (July 12, 2011) — Siblings of people with autism show a similar pattern of brain activity to that seen in people with autism when looking at emotional facial expressions. Researchers at the University of Cambridge identified the reduced activity in a part of the brain associated with empathy and argue it may be a 'biomarker' for a familial risk of autism.

Dr Michael Spencer, who led the study from the University's Autism Research Centre, said: "The findings provide a springboard to investigate what specific genes are associated with this biomarker. The brain's response to facial emotion could be a fundamental building block in causing autism and its associated difficulties."

The Medical Research Council funded study is published on the 12th of July, in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Previous research has found that people with autism often struggle to read people's emotions and that their brains process emotional facial expressions differently to people without autism. However, this is the first time scientists have found siblings of individuals with autism have a similar reduction in brain activity when viewing others' emotions.

In one of the largest functional MRI (fMRI) studies of autism ever conducted, the researchers studied 40 families who had both a teenager with autism and a sibling without autism. Additionally, they recruited 40 teenagers with no family history of autism. The 120 participants were given fMRI scans while viewing a series of photographs of faces which were either neutral or expressing an emotion such as happiness. By comparing the brain's activity when viewing a happy verses a neutral face, the scientists were able to observe the areas within the brain that respond to this emotion.

To read more about autism, please click on the above title.

Genetic Component of Autism Spectrum Disorders May Be Moderate Compared to Environment, Twin Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2011) — After evaluating twin pairs in which at least one child has autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), researchers suggest that the shared environment may play a more substantial role in development of the condition than shared genes do, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.Current estimates suggest that 40 of every 10,000 children have autism, and prevalence rates for ASDs are about 1 percent, according to background information in the article. Studies of siblings have found a concordance rate (the likelihood that if one child has the disorder, others will as well) of up to 14 percent. The authors note that in previous studies of twins, concordance rates for autism were relatively high for identical (monozygotic) twins, but nonexistent for fraternal (dizygotic) twins. Further, studies that depended on differing methods of diagnosis have resulted in a broad range of estimates of autism's heritability. "However," the authors state, "none of these more recent studies included structured clinical assessments by both parental interview and direct child observation, which is the contemporary standard for establishing the diagnosis of autism or ASD."

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Autism Researchers Present New Findings: Studies Include Complementary Medicine Use, Medication Use, Risk for Lead Toxicity and Nutrition

ScienceDaily (May 13, 2011) — Much about autism is unknown, but researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) are working to learn more about the neurodevelopmental disorder and its most effective treatments. A team of researchers from URMC joins researchers from across the world in San Diego this week for the 10th annual International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR).

Rochester researchers are presenting six abstracts on topics ranging from complementary medicine-use rates to nutritional insufficiencies in children with autism spectrum disorders. They even looked at how artificial food dye might affect children with autism.

"It's incredibly important that we find the most effective interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders," said Susan Hyman, M.D., chief of Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at URMC's Golisano Children's Hospital and an active autism researcher and clinician. "We also need to examine whether traditional and non-traditional treatments may be helping or causing harm, and what roles environmental factors may be playing in autism."

Hyman said that participation in the Autism Treatment Network (ATN) funded by Autism Speaks and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and partnering with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has allowed the growth of clinical research related to autism at URMC. The abstracts presented this week reflect Rochester data and analyses of the ATN database of more than 3,000 children and youth across 15 ATN sites in the U.S. and Canada.

Autism and nutrition

Patricia Stewart, Ph.D., R.D., director of Bionutrition for the CTSI at URMC, examined the nutritional intake of children with autism, including supplement use. It is important to understand how the significant food related behaviors and aversions that children with autism impact their current and future health. Her abstract shows that two-thirds of children with autism are taking supplements, twice the rate in the general pediatric population (32 percent). She reports that the nutrients most likely to be deficient in the children, were not included in adequate amounts in the supplements used. For example, most of those supplements contain vitamin D (97 percent), few contain choline (37 percent), vitamin K (11 percent) and potassium (8 percent). None contained any fiber, which is important for bowel health and is eaten in limited amounts by picky eaters.

To read the entire article, please click on the above title.

Autism Therapy Gets Results

The State (May 5, 2011)- Chase Batten took turns rolling the dice with his therapist. The 10-year-old read instructions and connected the intricate pieces of the board game Mouse Trap. He beeped like heavy equipment backing up when he had to turn the entire board around.

Anyone meeting Chase for the first time could notice the autistic traits – the tendency to look away from other people, the focus on doing something one way several times even if it’s not working, the jerky motor skills. What wasn’t evident was how far he has come.

“Just a few years ago, Chase was self-injurious,” said Sandi Batten, his mother. “We couldn’t take him anywhere. Now there’s nothing we can’t do with Chase.”

Much of the credit for improvement in Chase, and hundreds of other children in the state, goes to a state-funded program providing intense therapy for children with autism. The Pervasive Developmental Disorder Program, administered by the S.C. Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, is making a real difference.

Nearly 50 percent of families in the program see “remarkable” improvement, and an additional 37 percent see “moderate” improvement. More importantly, they see a brighter future for their children.

Those numbers come from the S.C. Autism Society’s nonscientific survey of parents of children in the program.

“It’s night and day,” said Margie Moore-Williamson of the difference in her 9-year-old son, Wesley, since he entered the program three years ago. “His grandparents live nine months a year in Florida. When they come home and see the difference, his grandfather tears up every year.”

The work has laid a foundation for Wesley, turning a typically asocial autistic into a young man who walks up to people and introduces himself, Moore-Williamson said.

To read more about Autism Therapy, click on the above title.

IAN Research Report: Elopement and Wandering

IAN Community (April 20, 2011)- People with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often “elope,” “wander,” or “bolt” from safe spaces. This behavior can be dangerous, and there have been many reports of fatalities, yet virtually no research has been focused on this subject.

Recognizing the urgent need for information and intervention, the Autism Research Institute, the Autism Science Foundation, Autism Speaks, and the Global Autism Collaboration partnered with the Interactive Autism Network (IAN) to create a national survey on elopement in ASD. So far, more than 800 families of children with ASDs from across the U.S. have completed the Elopement and Wandering Questionnaire launched on March 29, 2011. In this report, we share some initial findings, including the fact that nearly half of children with ASD between the ages of 4 and 10 engage in this behavior.

Preliminary results of this first ever investigation of elopement behavior in autism are shared to provide critical information for families, advocates, policy makers, and scientists. This is just a first look at such information, however, and we are continuing to collect elopement data from families of both children and dependent adults with ASD. You will notice that we are not yet reporting findings about dependent adults with ASD; this is because we have not yet collected enough data from families of adults, although we hope to do so in the future. Please encourage families of both children and adults on the autism spectrum to consider completing the Elopement and Wandering Questionnaire by participating in IAN Research.

Please Note: These Findings Are Preliminary

The analyses presented here by the Interactive Autism Network are preliminary. They are based on information submitted via the Internet by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) living in the United States who choose to participate. They may not generalize to the larger population of families affected by ASD. The data have not been peer-reviewed -- that is, undergone evaluation by researchers expert in a particular field -- or been submitted for publication. IAN views participating families as research partners, and shares such preliminary information to thank them and demonstrate the importance of their ongoing involvement.

To read more information about Elopement and Wandering please click on the above title.

College Bound and Living with Autism

New York Times (April 20, 2011)- Several readers of the Consults blog recently had questions about the long-term course of autism, including succeeding in college and beyond. Our experts Dr. Fred Volkmar of the Yale Child Study Center and Dr. Lisa Wiesner, co-authors of “A Practical Guide to Autism,” respond. For more on this and other topics, see their earlier responses in “Ask the Experts About Autism,” and The Times Health Guide: Autism. The authors also teach a free online course on autism at Yale University, which is also available at iTunesU and on YouTube.

Q.

Are you aware of any longitudinal studies of occupational outcomes and successful (independent) living for high-functioning autistic adults? Where would I find those? Are there particular strategies that should be pursued in high school or college to enhance the likelihood of success in these areas?

Kathy Patrick, Houston

Q.

Can you tell us what the distribution of children and adults on the spectrum looks like, i.e., what percentage of autistic children and adults are nonverbal, college-bound or college graduates, of below-average or above-average intelligence, etc. There are so many stereotypes, from dot-com entrepreneurs to self-injuring children, that it’s difficult to grasp what autism “looks like.”

Rob, Oakland, Calif.

A.

Dr. Wiesner and Dr. Volkmar respond:

Several readers had questions about the range of adult outcomes in autism and how treatments may affect outcomes in individual children. This is a very interesting and complicated — in a happy way – topic, because it seems like things are improving on balance, though not for every child.

More and more individuals with autism are now able to function independently as adults. This is a major change over past decades, probably reflecting earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments. There is a very good summary of this in a chapter by Patricia Howlin in the Handbook of Autism (2005, Wiley).

Unfortunately not every child gets better. Sometimes the outcome seems to relate to the severity of the autism in childhood. Individuals whose disability is more profound continue, as adults, to need considerable support and help. It is unfortunately the case that for this population, services are often minimal, research is sparse and resources are lacking. The federal government has identified this as a priority area in autism work, and rightly so.

But even when we are fairly optimistic about an individual child, he or she may not do well as an adult. This is one of the reasons those of us who have been in the field for a long time are very careful about predicting the future to parents. We can only talk, in general, about what on average are good or bad prognostic factors.

For individuals with autism who can go on to college, a number of resources are available on the Yale Child Study Center Web site, including books and links to programs. Options range from small and very supportive programs specific to individuals with autism and related disorders, to traditional colleges and universities. Our book, “A Practical Guide to Autism,” also has a chapter on the topic of adults and discusses college services.

Daily living and adaptive skills, along with organizational skills and abilities, become even more important during the college years. It is important that students and parents realize, though, that changes in the law (the Americans With Disabilities Act now applies to such children) mean that college is not a right, and that those with autism can and do get expelled. Issues relating to sexuality and apparently inappropriate behavior are frequent reasons cited.

To read the entire article about living with autism long-term click on the title.

Why Does Brain Development Diverge From Normal in Autism Spectrum Disorders?

Disabled World (April 13, 2011)- Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder on the autism spectrum, is marked by relatively normal development in infancy followed by a loss of cognitive, social and language skills starting at 12 to 18 months of age. It is increasingly seen as a disorder of synapses, the connections between neurons that together form brain circuits. What hasn't been clear is why children start out developing normally, only to become progressively abnormal. New research from Children's Hospital Boston, published in the April 14 issue of Neuron, helps unravel what's going on.

The researchers, led by Chinfei Chen, M.D., Ph.D., of Children's F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, studied synapse development in mice with a mutation in the Mecp2 gene, the same gene linked to human Rett syndrome. They found strong evidence that the loss of functioning Mecp2 prevents synapses and circuits from maturing and refining in response to cues from the environment – just at the time when babies' brains should be maximally receptive to these cues.

Chen believes her findings may have implications not just for Rett syndrome, but for other autism spectrum disorders. "Many ASDs manifest between 1 and 2 years of age, a period when kids are interacting more with the outside world," says Chen. "The brain of an autistic child looks normal, but there's a subtle difference in connections that has to do with how they process experiences. If you could diagnose early enough, there might be a way to alter the course of the disease by modifying experience, such as through intense one-to-one therapy."

Chen and colleagues focused on a synaptic circuit in the brain's visual system that is relatively easy to study, known as the retinogeniculate synapse. It connects the cells receiving input from the eye to the lateral geniculate nucleus, an important relay station in the brain's thalamus. Visual input from the outside world, during a specific "critical period," is crucial for its normal development.

The team tested the functioning of the circuit by stimulating the optic tract and measuring electrical responses in the thalamus to see how the neurons were connected, and how strong the connections were. In Mecp2-mutant mice, these recordings indicated that the visual circuit formed normally at first, and that during the second week of life, weaker connections were pruned away and others strengthened, just as they should be.

But after day 21 of life – after mice open their eyes and when the visual circuitry should be further pruned and strengthened based on visual experience – it became abnormal. The number of inputs and connections actually increased, while the strength of the synapses decreased.

NOTE: To read more about Autism Spectrum Disorders, click on the title above.