autism intervention

[Guest guest]

Hi Listmates,

Regarding the inquiry as to what interventions were available to young children with "autism"----a virtual myriad of treatments are discussed across media. I'm a believer that different phenotypes of autistic disorder are likely to respond differently to different interventions; that's probably why in general studies of persons with "autism" (clumped together as one diagnostic entity) many different treatments that are studied are often not found to be of significant benefit. It's like trying to treat all infection with penicillin----it isn't going to be effective on all types of infections!! Until phenotypes can be delineated in autistic disorders, it will be hard to target biospecific therapies. For those of us that have a mitochondrial diagnosis for our kids with autism/pdd, we have more information than most regarding the origins of our children's autism. I am a firm believer in testing for treatable co-existing conditions (or comorbidities) when a child is diagnosed with autism. The workup will depend upon variables such as the child's developmental and family history as well as current symptoms and any regression of skill should be paramount in the determination of this workup.

That said, however, I am also a believer in the effectiveness of early intensive behavioral intervention for young children with autism. There are several resources that one can refer to in order to access information on this topic. It's established as the treatment which has stood the test of time and study as a means of building skills in many different areas.

How important is the autism diagnosis? I think it can help in two main areas: 1) help to better understand and more effectively teach your child and 2) obtain access to the services (financial, educational, therapeutic) to which they are entitled. After that, they are still the same child and still require the same medical care just as would any child with such a serious illness. The autism label shouldn't disuade physicians or other professionals from looking into symptoms and write off concerns as 'autistic behaviors'. I've seen children have migraines for long periods of time before the head banging, screaming, self-hitting, photophobia, auditory sensitivity and behavioral outbursts are recognized as pain responses. Instead, many were told that 'autistic kids do those things'. That's very sad. With or without an autism label, one should not suffer migraine pain untreated. That's just one example. Many other medical symptoms can often be written off as autistic behavior. It takes some detective work to usually pinpoint such problems.

Best regards; good luck in your searches,

Terri Buckley