Thursday, May 27, 2010

Another iPhone application helps those with Communication Disorders.

Now communicating is just a click away! Proloquo2Go, an application available to the iPod touch, iPad and iPhone has over 7,000 words to choose from for people suffering from communication problems.

Take a look at their website here.

Great news for parents and adults who are having trouble expressing themselves.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Research may give way to possible cure for hearing loss

Stem cells taken from mice are suggesting the possible treatment of many types of deafness and hearing loss.

The experiment, done with two types of stem cells, raises the possibility of treating many types of deafness and hearing loss. The research has to do with generating stereocilia, which are cells in the inner ear have hair-like projections. When sound vibrations reach these cells, the vibrations are converted into a signal that can be processed in the brain as sound. But when these hair cells are lost or damaged, they cannot regenerate, resulting in hearing loss.

The researchers hope to generate stereocilia in the millions, which could lead to leaps and bounds on the road to curing deafness for many in the future, according to their report in the May 14 issue of the journal Cell.

"This gives us real hope that there might be some kind of therapy for regenerating hair cells," David Corey, professor of neurobiology at Harvard University, said in a news release from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Read more about this here.

Infertility drugs and Autism.

A recent study conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that autism was nearly twice as common among children of women who were treated with the ovulation-inducing medicines than women who did not suffer from infertility.

About 34 percent of moms with an autistic child had used fertility drugs compared to about 24 percent of around 3,900 mothers without an autistic child, according to the research. Nearly 47 percent of moms of autistic kids reported infertility, compared to about 33 percent of the other mothers. And, according to the study, the longer women reported being treated for infertility, the higher the chances were that their child had an autism spectrum disorder (Salahi, Lara).

Although this study was recently presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia, the details of the study have not yet been published- so there is still much evaluation to be done regarding this topic. It does pose an interesting question regarding an ostensible link between infertility drugs and autism.

Read more about it here.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Importance of Early Intervention & Follow-ups

While many people are fortunate enough to catch symptoms of their child potentially suffering from a communicative disorder, not all parents know the warning signs. For those who do, screening and diagnosis are just the beginning. There are many steps that must be taken, forms that must be filled, professionals that must be consulted, and treatment that must be sought to ensure that a child receives the best care possible to maximize his/her progress and improvement.

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month, let us take a moment to emphasize the importance of care and awareness for special needs children. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 97% of infants born in the U.S. have had their hearing screened in a newborn nursery. Marcus Gaffney, a health scientist with the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that as many as 46 percent of children who failed the newborn screening test in 2007 did not have documented repeat testing and treatment.

Follow-up exams are essential to the proper treatment and diagnosis of a child; without them, we can’t get the full picture. The New York Times recently posted a great article regarding infant hearing loss and the importance of following-up if your child has irregular results to screening tests. Read more about it here.

The article highlighted that hearing loss is one of the most common congenital disabilities, affecting 2 to 4 of every 1,000 babies. It can be genetic, or it may result from prenatal infection: Of the so-called TORCH infections that can attack a developing fetus (the letters stand for toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes and “other”), several can damage hearing (Klass, Perri).

If you are concerned about your child's hearing, please get him/her checked out.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Recent Announcements Suggest Cellceutix Is Well Positioned With Autism Compound

With biomedical research and pharmaceutical development happening all over the world, it is exciting to see companies now finding a new interest in Autism and ASD. Cellceutix recently indicated that they are in a position to move forward with Autism treatment research.

"These announcements indicate that Cellceutix is in a prime position in the development of treatments for autism spectrum disorder," said Leo Ehrlich, the Chief Financial Officer of Cellceutix. "We are developing a novel compound for a disorder which has few treatment options. In an area that people were once skeptical about pharmaceutical advancements being possible, it is encouraging to see other companies showing significant interest."

Read more about this on the MarketWatch.

Cellceutix acquired the rights to KM-391, its compound for the treatment of autism spectrum disorder, last year and has been diligently developing the compound since. Cellceutix has already completed an animal study that shows very encouraging results. Details of the data from the study are available at the Cellceutix website at www.cellceutix.com.

Monday, May 10, 2010

DynaVox Voice Output Device

This device is one of many kinds of speech-generating devices used by people who can't speak.

Read more about it here.

Some other Augmentative Communication and Speech Generating Devices can be found here.

Often times, devices like these serve as an excellent gap for people struggling with communicative disorders. Through visual cues and sounds, they can also help individuals develop their coordination and work on their interpersonal skills.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mother's Day

For many of us, Mother's Day is a time to appreciate the valuable and inspiring women in our lives. Mothers with children who suffer from Autism may find it more challenging to celebrate this special day.

Rethink Autism provides online videos and tools to help parents and professionals deal with Autism.

Rethink Autism’s curriculum spans the entire autism spectrum and covers a broad range of skills, including academic, language, social, motor, daily living, and behavior management. All video lessons are consistent with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) methodology. Endorsed by the US Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics, ABA is the only treatment for autism that has been consistently validated by independent scientific research (Dillon, Shelly).

In appreciation of mothers of children with autism, Rethink Autism has drawn from its library of video lessons to provide a free online video with a few tips on how to teach a child with autism to appreciate Mom by making a gift or even a meal (using a microwave).

Read more about Rethink Autism here, in an article by the Seattle Special Needs Issues Examiner.

Happy Mother's Day! Please take out some time in your day to value and appreciate all of the strong, dedicated and cherished women in your life.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month

Voice of Toronto posted a very powerful article regarding BSHM, take a look.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

More on diets and Autsim...

The verdict seems to be up in the air regarding diets and Autism. Some studies have shown that certain diets can help children suffering from Autism, as we mentioned in the last post.

A recent article posted by WebMD however, uncovers results found by the University of Texas at Austin conveying that glutton-free and casein-free diets do not seem to show any impact on improving Autism symptoms.

You can read the article here.

Interesting article with useful information. As research progresses, we hope to learn more about effective approaches to helping individuals with ASDs.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Alternative Approaches to Autism

According to the CDC's December, 2009 ADDM autism prevalence report, 1 in every 110 American children is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; for boys, the odds increase to 1 in 70. The Autism Society estimates that the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million; and the United States spends almost $90 billion annually on ASD related costs for research, educational spending, housing, transportation, insurance costs and non-covered expenses and Medicaid waivers for autism, not to mention related therapeutic services and caregiver costs (CDC, 2010).

Although many resources are available for parents of children with Autism, many are still desperate to find alternative techniques and therapies that could help their child move even further. In fact, 1 in 5 parents of children with autism are currently relying on some sort of non-conventional therapy for autism, according to research presented at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Vancouver this weekend (Thornton, 2010).

The most common alternative treatments for autism involve placing affected children on a special diet, with quite a bit of anecdotal evidence, at least, showing that special diets help improve the behavior and quality of life among those with ASD. The most common special diets among children with autism are gluten free, dairy free or both (Thornton, 2010).

Diets, picky eating, trouble in digestion and food intake are hot topics in ASD community and this subject has been discussed previously on this ; refer to: this post.


To read more about alternative approaches to autism, you can find this article by the Dallas Healthy Trends Examiner.