Here's an interesting article from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/conditions/11/30/autism.study/index.html "Study: Early autism intervention in toddlers is effective ... All the children in the trial were between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old at the beginning of the study. Half of the children were given community-based interventions or therapies and the other half were enrolled in a 20-hour per week intervention program called "Early Start Denver Model" (ESDM), developed by Rogers. The goal of this research was to determine how much the debilitating effects of autism can be prevented or reduced. ESDM was designed to address the needs of toddlers with autism as young as 12 months old, and it is delivered by trained therapists and their parents in a very natural setting -- the child's own home -- with children sitting on the floor and playing, rather than having a more adult-directed therapy. "It's a very pleasing kind of therapy, kids are happy. It is play, and it can happen everywhere," Rogers explains. Dawson adds that this type of intervention builds on a fun, positive relationship with the therapist. This is a contrast to traditional Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), which is delivered at a desk, with the child sitting next to the teacher or therapist, who breaks down complex tasks into small components and then gives tangible reinforcements. At the end of two years, all of the children showed improvements. But children in the ESDM group had increased their IQ by nearly 18 points -- 10 points higher than the children getting the standard autism therapy offered in the community. Scores for listening and understanding as well as motor skills and self-care skills were all higher in the ESDM group. ... Perhaps there's not a lot to debate and discuss, but it sounded fun to post something positive. The topic is treating autism with a type of interactive therapy, involving parents and a therapist in the home, from the earliest dates of detection. It looks like there is a real positive signal here that the most difficult effects can be somewhat mitigated. Note that the work does not offer a "cure," if that's even an appropriate word, but it just offers to give autistic people and their families more hope for functionality and life options.
Early intervention is critical, if you're in fact able to identify the child as having ASD, or some other developmental disability. my advice, if you are concerned with your child's development, is to get them tested as soon as possible. our son was not diagnosed until he was nearly 3 1/2, and i often wonder what his progress would now be had we been able to get him services sooner.
right, and see how difficult it is even with presumably solid health care coverage? imagine all those children who have parents who cannot afford this, and do not have access to resources.
this issue is not relevant to the health care debate. EI services are typically provided by, and mandated by, the Board of Ed.
I saw something on the news awhile about this treatment. It is right now very expensive and requires a lot of hands on involvement from a therapists but the group that developed this treatment is puttting a program online that parents can follow to do the therapy themselves.
incorrect. IDEA mandates a free and appropriate education for all children. that education begins as soon as a problem is identified, in the case of ASD services are typically begun between ages 2-3, and yes, they are provided by the BOE.
I guess my problem is that diagnosis would have to be begun before the children came under the auspices of the board of ed. So that would still fall under health care reform.
It's enough to break your heart. I can't imagine anything more frustrating and emotionally draining then thinking there might have been something that could have been done to improve the health of a child, if only the information was there. Information of need and information for treatment. My wife and I went through a trauma with my son, now 1900 miles away from home in his freshman year at university, the summer before last. He was in critical condition at an excellent local children's hospital for a week (he was 17 at the time) and then suddenly recovered. We still don't know what happened and have our fingers crossed that he's "OK." People without children, even those with the most empathy, simply can't comprehend how you feel when your child ill, in intensive care (in our case), wired up to the max, having nurses run in every few minutes, being interviewed by a host of doctors trying to discover what is wrong. It's enough to drive one mad. For many, many years, I was one of the "empathetic, sympathetic childless people attempting to understand." It's certainly different being the parent.
i think this is probably where most of the antipathy to Palin comes from: people w/o children, who simply do not understand her pride in, love for, and loyalty to all her children. w/o naming names, i'm fairly confident that most of the Trig haters in the other threads do not have children. it would be interesting to see if their tone changed were they parents themselves. this is just about the only on-point post in that whole embarrassing thread. Glad to hear your son is ok now.
I will be very clear, since you are so far off the correct path. Most of the antipathy from Palin comes from the fact that she is dishonest, intentionally divisive, and completely unqualified as an individual to hold any national office. It has zero to do with her being a dedicated parent or not being one. You are the person who brings up Trig not others unless now they do it to mock you for bringing itr up and using it as a weapon in previous posts. The fact that you imagine itr has anything to do with people having or not having children only shows you aren't reading anything in the stupid threads you start, or that you are too dense to understand what is being written and presented to you.
Jesus. You just can't ****ing help yourself can you? It's really pathological. B-Bob, posts a substantive article on autism treatment, various posters make substantive comments and engage you reasonably, and you can't refrain from throwing out bs about "Trig haters". Unbelievable. And just to let you know, I'm a parent who worked many years as a special educator, worked with many autistic kids, and I consider Palin to be one of the most despicable politicians in my life time, Trig or no Trig. Giving birth to a baby with DS does not shield her from criticism no matter how much you wish it were so.
you misunderstood my post. i was talking about Palin-hate, not Trig-hate, but there's plenty of that on display in the Trig thread. i'm just speculating on where it comes from, or at least the cavalier manner w/ which it's displayed.
I think it is more a problem of education/entitlement. By that I mean that your local elementary is required to provide diagnostic services to kids in the area for free. The problem is the poorer parents will not know that or often feel a hesitancy to use the system or to go through the system. And, of course, many parents don't know about the warning signs or choose to ignore them. My mother diagnosed one of my friends as developing tourettes just from being atround him in elementary school. She told his mother and she got angry, ignored the problem and then by HS he was sully taken over by the disease and finally got treatment. Last I heard he had improved, but responding earlier would have been huge. On top of that, they are probably not getting annual checkups and the like for their kids because of cost so in that part you are correct - that could also help catch something early if it were available and there was a culture of prevention, etc..
My post had nothing to do with Palin, who was the farthest thing from my mind when I wrote it. It was directed at B-Bob's opening post, your own situation, and something that happened to me personally. I don't really give a tinker's continental damn about Ms. Palin and her idiocy.
Of course you are completely correct that this also falls under health care reform. Before kids enter school, pediatricians are often the first to catch signs that there is a problem. If parents aren't taking their kids in for regular doctor's visits because they don't have insurance, it is a huge problem. My adopted daughter is a perfect example. She was nine months old when we she was placed with us as a foster child. As my wife and I took her to numerous doctor's appointments and discussed her developmental milestones with her pediatrician, it became apparent that she was speech delayed. At that point, we contacted the local deptartment of education and arranged for services.
i read your post to be about empathy, and how being a parent made one more so. i certainly didn't infer, nor did i mean to imply that you supported Palin in any way.
