Diagnosis: Autism
Latest Weapons Are Early Detection And Treatment
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Stahl's Reporter's Notebook
Only On The Web: Lesley Stahl talks about her upcoming "60 Minutes" report on how some scientists believe they can change an autistic child's brain development if autism is caught early.
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Preview: Diagnosing Autism
Behavioral scientists believe if autism is caught early, they can change the way a child's brain develops. Lesley Stahl reports Sunday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
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Detecting Autism Before Age 2
In Full: Early treatment of autism has allowed many children to lead easier lives. Lesley Stahl reports on what scientists are studying while the debate over autism's cause rages on.
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Breaking The Silence
Find out more about autism, and where to get help for someone who may have this neurological disorder.
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She says she is aiming for a diagnosis age of 12 months. Ozonoff is tracking 200 babies from birth, like Gabe, a normal 12-month-old, being tested for his reactions to a new toy.
"He's very interested in it. And he communicates that to her with that great look, big eyebrows raising, smile. And then he asks for it without language—he’s 'Ah, I want that,'" Ozonoff observes.
This behavior, Ozonoff says, is typical of a healthy one-year-old.
But when a boy named Jacob is shown the same toy, he stares at it in silence, never reaching for it, never looking up at the examiner.
"There's no communication at all with the woman," Stahl remarks.
"That’s right. It's as if she isn't there. Like she’s an object-handing machine," Ozonoff says.
Jacob was later diagnosed with autism.
Ozonoff also uses high tech methods, like eye tracking. A normal baby looks right in mom’s eyes when she talks to him. But children who are autistic avoid eye contact, looking more at the mouth.
Like most autism researchers, Ozonoff believes children are born with the disorder. She went into her study convinced she would spot the symptoms as early as six months.
But so far, researchers have not been able to see the symptoms at such an early age.
Diagnosing one year olds has proved just as perplexing. Repetitive behavior, like the way Jacob plays with a lid for example, looks like a clear symptom.
"All he's doing is the picking up and watching it wobble, over and over again," Ozonoff observes.
But Ozonoff has found that not all one year olds who do this end up with autism. Her "most reliable" test so far is surprisingly simple.
"Starting about six months maybe even a bit earlier, if you say a child's name, they quickly turn and look at you. And you’ll see this with Gabe," Ozonoff explains. "Say his name, his head whips around…makes eye contact and smiles."
When the same experiment was done with Jacob, the result was different.
"The experimenter's gonna walk behind him. Call his name three times at normal volume," Ozonoff explains.
Jacob didn't respond to his name.
But even with this test, only half the children who fail it end up having autism. Haydn was six months old when he was first evaluated and, to Valerie's relief, he tested on par with children his age.
On one of her visits last year, Ozonoff gave Valerie a copy of her book on Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.
"So I was reading this book. And through the whole book I just cried because I felt like I was reading this book about Michael," Valerie remembers.
Michael is her nine-year-old. Through years of speech and occupational therapy, no one had ever suggested that his problems, including his struggle to make and keep friends, could be Asperger's, until Valerie began asking questions.
"So now you're basically told you have two sons with autism," Stahl remarks.
Valerie admits she was reeling. "I was. You feel like you should, you should have pulled your genes out of the gene pool a little sooner you know, at that point," she says.
And there was still the question of Haydn: his 12-month visit a half-year later was distressing. He wasn’t smiling anymore and he seemed to be regressing into his own world. And then, he stopped responding to his name.
"I knew my son wasn’t hearing me. Everyone around me was saying, 'Oh, he’s just stubborn. He doesn’t want to listen to you.' But I knew that wasn’t it," Valerie recalls. She says she knew it wasn't a hearing issue.
Despite Haydn's symptoms, Ozonoff felt it was still too early to tell.
"I would hate to cause the pain…and anguish of having another child diagnosed on the spectrum and then be completely wrong," she explains.
Produced By Karen M. Sughrue
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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See all 189 CommentsIf 60 Minutes wants to do a real piece on autism, contact Dr. Martha Herbert (Harvard), Dr. Thomas Burbacher (University of Washington), Dr. Jill James (University of Arkansas), Dr. Mady Hornig (Columbia University), Dr. Richard C. Deth (Northeastern University), Dr. Diana L. Vargas (Johns Hopkins University), and many others. They will tell you of their findings of inflammation in the gut and brain, oxidative stress, immune dysfunction, neurotransmitter imbalances, and loss of or absence of glutathione, a protein needed to excrete toxic metals, which is why toxic metals are more evident within, especially mercury.
Shame on Sally Rogers for her comment on not knowing how to "touch the biology." The biology is there but the denial continues.
As a mom with a son with Autism, I'm very disappointed with your lack of knowledge and research on this topic. You are promoting more ignorance to the causes and treatment of Autism than helping expose the truth.
Thank you for taking the time to read my comments and for at least putting the topic out there.
Sincerely,
Vivian Duckett
Mom of a beautiful 5 year old son w/ Autism
It would be easier to remove the nail.
Ignoring the biology of autism is nothing more then ignoring the nail sticking out of half a million children's hands.
I believe that many well-meaning people are jumping the gun with the limited research findings that are available to us now.
God bless the MIND Institute for doing what they can to help families to help their child with Autism be able to function happily and successfully in this difficult world.
Of course, we still want to find treatments and cures for autism, but in the meantime, let's not ignore the interventions that we KNOW help these children.
I've heard Martha Herbert speak and I believe her theories about environmental toxins causing Autism prenatally ring true and are astounding.
This is a world-wide crisis that does need to be looked at and billions of dollars should be dedicated to research, but let's not attack those who have dedicated their lives to helping the children who already have Autism.
Shame on you for doing so!
Mother of three children on the Autism Spectrum and two children who are neuro-typical.
This is an untrue statement. Research shows that the incidence of autism has risen in direct proportion to the vaccination rate. The ingredients in vaccines cause autism: the vaccine viruses cause injury to the gut, and to the myelin sheath; mercury causes brain inflammation. Altogether the toxic vaccine ingredients destroy the liver, immune system, digestive system, nervous system, etc. This is a complex illness that is caused by vaccinations. It requires bio-medical treatment to reverse the damage and allow healing. This is possible. Info can be found at: www.autismresearchinstitute.com, www.thedaviscenter.com, www.scdiet.com, and many books. It's about time reporters started reporting the TRUTH about autism ... instead of the lies from the CDC, FDA, AMA, and pharma industry.
These are the ones who can be taught to become productive members of society, who can have jobs, get married, have lives, outside of their parents. These are the ones who need appropriate schooling, teaching in social skills and biomedical or other kinds of therapy to help them "fit in" to society. They may always seem a little odd but they can function if they are given the right support. If a cure was available, sure lets have it, but until then lets help these guys live up to their full potential.
You're right, there's no red carpet at Ronald McDonald house for us, most people just think that those of us with High Functioning kids are just bad parents, with uncontrollable brats.
The more light we shed on Autism, the more help and understanding we will all receive. With these kinds of rates, everyone knows someone, or is in a classroom with someone with Autism.
My child falls into the 'high functioning' catagory. This doesn't always make things easier at school. When she is doing well, they want to take away the special services that allow her to do well. Once they are taken away, she stops doing well. Sometimes I think if she were doing worse, they would help her more - or believe that she needed and deserved the help, and that help they are providing is the REASON she does well. I a well pleased with her school now, she has gone from no social interaction and screaming fits and getting kicked out of pre-school because they couldn't handle her to the top 10% of her grade and well-liked by peers - all because of this school. (mainstreamed, too
WE ARE LOOSING OUR BATTLE WITH OUR KIDS. WHAT WILL WE DO WITH THEM WHEN THEY GET OUT OF SCHOOL? ARE THERE ANY JOBS? IF YOU THINK THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IS BURDEONED NOW, WAIT TILL OUR KIDS ARE OF AGE WHAT WILL YOU DO THEN.
BOB LANZIERI
BRICK NJ
http://www.RollingRains.com
http://www.RollingRains.com
clarifies that many patterns associated with autism are desirable, some so much so, that the human capacity to concentrate, excell, and have forms of extra inner sensory perception has already benefitted from imitating the mysterious benefits of autism.
Safe Minds
Generation rescue
National Autism Assoiciation
We used all sorts of early intervention with him, but still could not improve his speech and could not bring him at par with other children. Now that he is an adult, I gather from your program that this is it for my son! All research and programming that I hear about are for new born.
Cheryl Moore
Cheryl Moore
My daughter was diagnosed in 1998, one month after her second birthday, but since she also had a language delay she had services starting at age 19 months. Keep getting second opinions, and keep advocating for your child to get services. My daughter is almost 11 now and she is in regular fifth grade and continues to make progress thanks to ongoing services, due to our constant efforts to advocate for her-with teachers, school administrators, doctors, and agencies. Parents need to keep asking for services; don't give up, because every minute of childhood is a learning opportunity that can make all the difference for your child's lifetime.
Since oxytocin is important in inducing birth contractions and lactation, a woman with genetically low or behaviourally reduced levels of oxytocin goes into labour (due to social anxiety, stress, and alcohol, drugs) will experience greater difficulty in labor. That stress reaction can further reduce the level - difficult delivery communicated to the infant both physically & hormonally. The low level can also make lactation difficult - reinforcing the stress reaction and creating another barrier between mother & child. Nursing tends to stimulate oxytocin secretion in the mother. If she's having trouble producing enough milk, the stress/physical discomfort could lead to frustration or even anger - thus impeding the initial establishment of a positive mother- infant bond.
If the mother's oxytocin levels are systemically low, her behaviour is likely to be disaffective. Consequently, unless there are other nurturing parental figures on the scene, the infant's level of oxytocin secretion will remain low, never achieving a higher set point.
Since oxytocin is important in inducing birth contractions and lactation, a woman with genetically low or behaviorally reduced levels (due to social anxiety, stress, alcohol or drug abuse) can have more difficult labour. The stress reaction can further reduce the level, communicated to the infant both physically and hormonally. The subsequent difficulty lactating reinforcies the stress reaction and creates another conflict between mother and infant. Nursing tends to stimulate oxytocin secretion (both sucking and infant hand massage motion) in the mother. If she's having trouble producing enough milk, the stress could block that effect, leading to frustration or even anger, thus impeding the initial establishment of a positive mother- infant bond.
If the mother's oxytocin levels are systemically low, her behavior might continue to be disaffective. So, unless there are other nurturing figures on the scene, the infant's level of oxytocin will remain low, never achieving a higher set point, possibly combining with other factors to result in autism.
Interestingly, some doctors are silly enough to prescribe medications for Aspergers now.
Early diagnosis AND early intervention works, and slowly plodding on DOES see results, however small they seem. During the wait while these results take their time, it's good to concentrate on one fact about your handicapped child...that EACH handicapped child ALWAYS has a HIDDEN BLESSING. It just takes patience and eyesight to see that.
But a caution. Some areas of medicine come out with crocks...ADHD being the prime example. The treatment FOR ADHD, Ritalin, is a derivative of cocaine. Yet, better diets and stronger parenting skills do better than Ritalin.
And with big money in drugs and treatments, some caution towards diagnoses which are dubious and iffy. Normal kids get called Aspergers or ADHD for the wrong reasons. Which takes away from the need for services for the more severe cases of Autism.
There is another message board offerred by CBS Nightly News:
http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?BoardID=762&ThreadID=190478&BoardsParam=Page%3d59%26nocache%3d1&lc=1033
Posts #705-#706
Read the definitive points of proof the CDC is defrauding the American public on a matter of national emergency implicating them and fluoridation.
Give us a break, dual diagnosed as mental retardation, autism effects upwards of 1 in 50, maybe more if kids were supposed to being doing better with unadulterated standards in public schools.
We live with populism trying to promote anti-intellectualism, that dumb is cute, and that ridicules any considered thought about anything.
Small wonder. Drink distilled.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/14/eveningnews/main709269.shtml
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/07/01/autism_mercury_and_politics/
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