Posted on 11/07/2013 8:23:53 AM PST by Seizethecarp
Autism can be identified in babies as young as two months, early research suggests.
US researchers analysed how infants looked at faces from birth to the age of three.
They found children later diagnosed with autism had shown diminished eye contact - a hallmark of autism - in the first few months of life.
The findings, reported in Nature, raised hope for early interventions to tackle autism, said a UK expert.
In the study, researchers led by Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta used eye-tracking technology to measure the way babies looked at and responded to social clues.
They found infants later diagnosed with autism had shown a steady decline in attention to the eyes of other people from the age of two months onwards, when watching videos of natural human interactions.
"In infants with autism, eye contact is declining already in the first six months of life," said Dr Jones.
But he added this could be seen only with sophisticated technology and would not be visible to parents.
"It's not something that parents would be able to see by themselves at all. If parents have concerns they should talk to their paediatrician."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
It’s a gradient effect. Older fathers carry more mutations in their sperm. Therefore, risk is greater with 40 y.o. fathers when compared to 25 y.o. fathers, and much higher with 70 y.o. fathers, for example.
“Of course, couldn’t it also indicate that the raised awareness caused more correct diagnoses?”
Yes, that is true, but autism (at least the severe form) is something that you would expect to be noticed without having any need for raised awareness. A parent would certainly know something was wrong, even if they had no idea what autism was.
It could also mean there is something environmental in that location causing increased diagnoses, or just a doctor in that area that is more likely to diagnose. I do think the study, if I remember correctly, only saw the increase in diagnoses after an already autistic child was introduced into the area from elsewhere, so the environmental idea is not likely.
“One study found that having an autistic child in the neighborhood increased the likelihood that other children in the area would be diagnosed. It’s not a contagious disease, so that means there is a social element going on, causing increased diagnoses that probably shouldn’t be happening.” - BM
Wow, non-contagious diseases can cluster. It doesn’t have to be “social” or mis-diagnosis. You are way off-base coming to that conclusion so fast.
In my mind, until they successfully make predictions, they're still in an information gathering mode and really don't know that they've discovered anything at all yet.
People find predictive patterns all the time in past stock market data, but they got a bunch of useless trivia until they can use it to actually predict future trends.
One of the more interesting unanswered questions I’ve seen is why does autism seem to affect the children of very intelligent people, particularly people who excel in areas like mathematics or physics, more often than others?
Maybe because it is hard to diagnose a disease marked by difficulty communicating before most children really start communicating?
Those with more severe symptoms would have been deemed mentally retarded and not integrated into the public schools. Those more functional would have been deemed odd but not have received a diagnosis.
I have a cousin that would been diagnosed if we were 30 years younger, I may meet diagnostic criteria for a variant of the condition myself.
That may be true for some allergies, but I don’t remember anyone with a peanut allergy years ago. Everybody ate PB&J. No kids went into anaphylactic shock in the lunchroom because of it.
Babies get vaccinated on their first day of life.
HepB then and depending on the state, again at 1m.
Plus pregnant women are getting (my OB insisted) flu shots and DTaP shots as well.
I think if you read the second post I made about the study, I cover some of the other reasons why the could cluster, and the study didn’t just ignore those reasons.
If you believe in autism that is. My foreign friends seem to all be utterly amazed at how many people here claim to have autistic, ADDHD, asbhergers, etc etc,, kids.
American moms have slipped into a delusion as grand as phrenology, and finding killers by looking for the last image which HAD to be locked into the dead persons eyes.
Its nuts.
Oh, another thing that I just remembered from the study which weighs against environmental factors, or just a doctor in the area more likely to diagnose, was that they found a direct correlation between the proximity of the families in the neighborhood to the autistic child that was introduced, and the likelihood that the family would then have a child diagnosed with autism.
“I never heard of autism growing up. Why is it so prevalent now?”
Because a frightful number of American moms today are filled with narcissistic histrionic disorder and are wacked out on meds themselves. Having a “special needs child” lets them wear the holy veil of victimhood, freeing them from blame for raising bad kids.
It is exactly the same feeling for them that a sane person would get for having an honor student.
Some of them, yes, but I doubt that increase is all legitimate. There was an allergy study recently that did blind tests on people who claimed food allergies and found that a very large percentage who were claiming them showed no allergic reaction at all when exposed to their supposed allergen.
I think everyone just wants to be “special” nowadays, and that is contributing to some of this.
The more feminist the country, the more you see western style “autism”. It’s a cultural delusion, no different from global warming. “Proof” is everywhere, there is no objective test. Refusing to buy into the delusion subjects the doubter to shrieking personal attacks.
Highly intelligent kids are often misdiagnosed with ADHD, Autism, Aspergers etc. Here’s a book that explains it:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.