by Steve Kaufman, Founder AHSS
I believe this 8 1/2 minute video discusses a development that will profoundly affect the autism community.
As this video explains, analyzing the genome of family members with and without autism will lead to extremely early diagnosis. Doctors may even be able to diagnosis a child while they are still in their mother’s womb. This article is just one example of the many projects occurring in America and overseas. Groups of scientists are working collaboratively to understand what causes autism in order to develop tools for extremely early diagnosis. Researchers in Israel are working on the smoking gun of “inflammation” as a possible cause of autism. Meanwhile researchers at UCLA are attempting to understand why the morphology of placenta cells are different in mothers who deliver a child with autism than in mothers who deliver a neuro-typical child.
I strongly believe one of these projects will yield a usable method for extremely early diagnosis, perhaps in the first few months of life, by early 2017 at the latest.
The field of ABA must learn how to deal with children in the earliest stages of development. Speech pathologists have experience working with children as early as one week old. They teach sucking and swallowing to premature babies who do not have those skills. Perhaps we can learn from their techniques and strategies.
At about the seven minute and 20 seconds mark of the video, the mom clearly articulates her belief that her son would have benefited from therapy at six months of age rather than waiting for another three years. Ami Klim PhD has been making the same plea for well over a year.
We have an opportunity to help families by identifying appropriate interventions for clients with early diagnoses.
