Baby Communication Gives Clues to Autism

Approximately 19 percent of children with a sibling diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will develop Autism due to shared genetic and environmental vulnerabilities, according to previous studies. For that reason, University of Miami (UM) psychologists are developing ways to predict the occurrence of ASD in high-risk children, early in life, in hopes that early intervention will lead to better outcomes in the future. Their findings are published in the journal Infancy.

The study is one of the first to show that measures of non-verbal communication in children, as young as eight months of age, predict autism symptoms that become evident by the third year of life. The results suggest that identifying children, who are having difficulties early enough, can enhance the effects of interventions.

"For children at risk of developing an ASD, specific communication-oriented interventions during the first years of life can lessen the severity of autism's impact," says Daniel Messinger, professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at UM and principal investigator of the study. Before children learn to talk, they communicate non-verbally by using eye contact and gestures. These abilities are called referential communication and are in development by eight months of age. However, "impairments in non-verbal referential communication are characteristic of older children with ASD," says Caroline Grantz a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at UM and co-author of the paper.

In the study, a team of researchers tested two groups of children. One group was at high-risk for ASD and the second group was at low-risk. The evaluations took place during 15 to 20 minutes sessions, at 8, 10, 12, 15 and 18 months of life. The team measured the development of three forms of non-verbal communication:
 •Initiating Joint Attention (IJA) -- the way an infant shows interest in an object or event to a partner. For example, making eye contact and pointing to show a toy.
•Initiating Behavioral Requests (IBR)-the manner in which an infant requests help from a partner, by making eye contact to request a toy, reaching toward, pointing to, or giving the examiner a desired toy.
•Responding to Joint Attention (RJA)-the way infants respond and follow the behavior of a partner. For example, when the examiner points to something and the child follows the experimenter's gaze to look at that an object. The results show that lower levels of IJA and IBR growth between eight and 18 months predicted the severity of ASD symptoms for children that had a sibling with Autism.

"Overall, infants with the lowest rates of IJA at eight months showed lower social engagement with an examiner at 30 months of age," says Lisa Ibañez, research scientist at the University of Washington Autism Center and first author of the paper. Ibañez conducted the study as part of her dissertation research in the Department of Psychology at UM.

These results are important enough that the research team is following up the study with collaborator Wendy Stone, Professor of Psychology and Director of the University of Washington Autism Center.

The project was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

Dream it and Therapeutic Resources will make it real. OTs two new jobs available in NYC..

Profession: OT
Population: Pediatric
Location: Manhattan
Description
Full-time and part time positions available at two District 75 sites on West 50th Street.

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App Thursday: iPad Helps Autistic Children to Speak (VIDEO)

Five-year-old Jacob was diagnosed with autism at just three years old. He was having trouble talking and wasn't able to communicate at all, until he got help from an iPad.

The iPad is now playing a key role in teaching kids to talk. For example, Jacob was able to have full conversations with his mom via the Apple tablet.

The screen displays pictures, which Jacob points at. He was able to communicate various things like having to go to the bathroom or that he was hungry. After that, his words started coming naturally.

Jamie McGillivary of the Beaumont Hope Center says the iPad has become a critical tool in teaching autistic kids to speak. She says, "It's completely revolutionized the way we teach the kids."  There are now hundreds of apps dedicated to helping adults and their children living with autism.


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(Source: latino.foxnews.com)

New and exciting jobs for COTAs and OTs in Brooklyn and Bronx

Profession: COTA
Population: Adult
Location: Brooklyn
Description
This multi-faceted, 320-bed skilled nursing facility in Brooklyn that provides groundbreaking elder care through innovations such as an environmentally-friendly facility; a horticulture program; computer access for residents; and a music therapy program seeks a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) for coverage 10/4, 10/8-10/12. A large rehab clinic and many rehab therapists, make this an ideal organization to work for. The therapists welcome new comers who can help with the busy demands of providing therapy.

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Profession: OT
Population: Adult
Location: Bronx
Description
A 200 bed Nursing Home in the Bronx serving a unique and diverse population of residents with varied clinical deficits including spinal cord injuries, strokes, and AIDS related conditions seeks an Occupational Therapist (OT) for coverage 10/31.

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Do Exercise Programs Help Children Stay Fit?

Getting children to be more physically active seems as if it should be so simple. Just enroll them in classes and programs during school or afterward that are filled with games, sports and other activities.

But an important new review of the outcomes of a wide range of different physical activity interventions for young people finds that the programs almost never increase overall daily physical activity. The youngsters run around during the intervention period, then remain stubbornly sedentary during the rest of the day.

For the review, which was published last week in the British medical journal BMJ, researchers from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in England collected data from 30 studies related to exercise interventions in children that had been published worldwide between January 1990 and March 2012.

To be included in the review, the studies had to have involved children younger than 16, lasted for at least four weeks, and reported objectively measured levels of physical fitness, like wearing motion sensors that tracked how much they moved, not just during the exercise classes but throughout the rest of the day. The studies included an American program in which elementary school-age students were led through a 90-minute session of vigorous running and playing after school, three times a week. Another program involved Scottish preschool youngsters and 30 minutes of moderate physical playtime during school hours, three times a week.

In each case, the investigators had expected that the programs would increase the children’s overall daily physical activity.

That didn’t happen, as the review’s authors found when they carefully parsed outcomes. The American students, for instance, increased their overall daily physical activity by about five minutes per day. But only during the first few weeks of the program; by the end, their overall daily physical activity had returned to about where it had been before the program began. The wee Scottish participants actually became less physically active over all on the days when they had the 30-minute play sessions.

The review authors found similar results for the rest of the studies that they perused. In general, well-designed, well-implemented and obviously very well-meaning physical activity interventions, including ones lasting for up to 90 minutes, added at best about four minutes of additional walking or running to most youngsters’ overall daily physical activity levels.

The programs “just didn’t work,” at least in terms of getting young people to move more, said Brad Metcalf, a research fellow and medical statistician at Peninsula College, who led the review.

Why the programs, no matter their length, intensity or content, led to so little additional daily activity is hard to understand, Dr. Metcalf said, although he and his co-authors suspect that many children unconsciously compensate for the energy expended during structured activity sessions by plopping themselves in front of a television or otherwise being extra sedentary afterward. It is also possible, he said, that on a practical level, the new sessions, especially those taking place after school, simply replace time that the youngsters already devoted to running around, so the overall additive benefit of the programs was nil.

But the broader and more pressing question that the new review raises is, as the title of an accompanying editorial asks, “Are interventions to promote physical activity in children a waste of time?”

Thankfully, the editorial’s authors answer with an immediate and emphatic “no.” If existing exercise programs aren’t working, finding new approaches that do work is essential, they say.

They point out that active children are much more likely to be active adults and that physically active children also are far less likely to be overweight. A convincing, if separate body of scientific evidence has shown that the most physically active and fit children are generally the least heavy.

So if structured classes and programs are not getting children to move more, what, if anything, can be done to increase physical activity in the young? “It’s a really difficult problem,” said Frank Booth, a professor of physiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who was not involved with the review.

Determining the most effective placement of classes and programs, so that they don’t substitute for time already spent running around and instead augment it, would help, he said.

But a more vital element, he said, “involves mothers and fathers,” who can encourage children to leave the couch, subverting their drive to compensate for energy expended earlier by sitting now.

A welcoming setting may also be key, the authors of the accompanying editorial wrote, pointing to a 2011 study of same-sex twins, ages 9 to 11. In that study, the most important determinant of how much the youngsters moved — or didn’t — was their local built environment. Children with more opportunities to be outside, in a safe, well-designed space, were more likely to be outside, romping.

But none of these suggestions will be easy to put in place, Dr. Booth said, or inexpensive, and all will require scientific validation. No one expected, after all, that well-designed exercise interventions for children would prove to be so ineffective.

Ultimately, he continued, the best use of resources in this field may be to direct them toward unearthing the roots of childhood inactivity. “Kids naturally love to run around and play,” Dr. Booth said. “But they’re just not doing it as much now. And we don’t know why. So what we really need to understand is, what’s happening to our kids that makes them quit wanting to play?”

(Source: well.bllogs.nytimes.com)

SLPs, PTAs,COTAs and OTs, knowledge is power and Therapeutic Resources has the job for you in Queens and Bronx

Profession: SLP
Population: Pediatric
Location: Bronx
Description: An elementary school in the Bronx that services children from Kindergarten through 6th grade seeks a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) for a
temporary maternity coverage position (starting 1/2/2013 for 12 weeks). Interested candidates must have elementary school experience.

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Profession: PTA
Population: Adult
Location: Queens
Description: A 314 bed facility in Queens that provides extended stay nursing care to seniors with various levels of disabilities seeks a Physical Therapy
Assistant (PTA) for coverage 10/8. There is an active rehab department that has a variety of OT, PT, SLP clinicians to work.

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Profession: COTA
Population: Adult
Location: Queens
Description: A 314 bed facility in Queens that provides extended stay nursing care to seniors with various levels of disabilities seeks a Certified Occupational
Therapy Assistant (COTA) for coverage 10/3. There is an active rehab department that has a variety of OT, PT, SLP clinicians to work.

APPLY!

Profession: OT
Population: Adult
Location: Bronx
Description: A 200+ bed facility in the Bronx serving a unique and diverse population of residents with varied clinical deficits including spinal cord injuries,
strokes, and AIDS related conditions seeks an Occupational Therapist (OT) for coverage 10/29-11/2 (4-5 hours).

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Autistic Boys Alter Ego on YouTube: Meet Dr. Mad Science (VIDEO)

If you love kitchen counter science experiments like watching food coloring disperse magically in a bowl of milk, or creating your own lava lamp out of water, Alka-Seltzer and oil, then you need to know about the Doctor Mad Science YouTube channel.

Doctor Mad Science is 10 years old. He's also autistic. He has also become a YouTube star after uploading 14 videos to his channel beginning one year ago.



The videos, which include gems like "Alka-Seltzer Rocket" and "Foam Explosion," have been viewed more than 2.4 million times, and it's easy to understand why: my 4-year-old could watch these videos five times in a row, and the truth is so could I.

Before beginning an experiment, Doctor Mad Science goes through a list of what you'll need to re-create the experiment at home, then he narrates what he is doing in a forceful and clipped style. One charming quirk: He almost always refers to water as H20. The videos are short and I haven't seen one that hasn't made me go "AWESOME!"

But what is more awesome for Jordan Hilkowitz's mom, Stacy, is the changes she's noticed in her son since he started making his Doctor Mad Science videos. 

Hilkowitz was diagnosed with severe autism when he was just 18 months and didn't talk until he was 5.  Stacy remembers watching her son bang his head against the tile floor in frustration at not being able to make himself understood. 

"I used to sit at the top of my stairs and just cry," she said.

But Hilkowitz always loved science, and it was his baby sitter Tracy Leparulo's idea to have him start making the videos. (Leparulo is also the camerawoman, and the adult supervisor for most of the Doctor Mad Science videos).

Stacy said something changed when her son started making the videos.

"Jordan’s confidence grew, his speech started to improve and kids at school wanted to be a part of his videos," she wrote in a guest post on the YouTube blog. "While building his online persona, Jordan was suddenly making friends in the real world."

Now Hilkowitz is a local celebrity in the Richmond Hills area of Ontario, Canada, where he lives, and Stacy said kids ask him to come sit with them at lunch and talk to him about his videos. 

Talk about the power of science.

(Source: latimes.com)

Rehabilitation Robots Help and Customize Post-Stroke Therapy

(Canada) When it comes to stroke rehabilitation, it takes a dedicated team to help a person regain as much independence as possible: physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, recreation therapists, caregivers and others. Now, a University of Calgary research team has added a robot to help identify and customize post-stroke therapy.

Rehabilitation robots improve detection of post-stroke impairments and can enhance the type and intensity of therapy required for recovery, according to a study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

Researchers studied 185 subjects -- 87 recovering from stroke and 98 people unaffected by stroke -- and found that tests using a robot better measure patients' sense of limb position, speed and direction of limb movement. Patients were assessed approximately 15 days after stroke.

"For years, therapists have known that limb awareness is very important to predicting a person's outcomes after stroke. Yet we have never before been able to quantify it," says lead researcher Dr. Sean Dukelow. "Identifying these deficits opens the door to the next step: how do we treat it?"

Until now, rehabilitation experts have relied on their judgment and subjective rating scales to assess impairment after stroke. Robotic technology standardizes these measurements.

"Awareness and control of our limbs' location allows us to do everyday things like reach for a coffee cup while watching television," Dr. Dukelow says.

In the Calgary study, a robotic frame moved each patient's stroke-affected arm at a preset speed and direction while they attempted to mirror its movement with their unaffected arm. Participants were not able to rely on their vision for assistance.

Dr. Dukelow and his team found:

• 20 per cent of the stroke patients failed to acknowledge that the robot had moved their affected arm;
• 70 per cent of stroke patients took significantly longer to react to the robot's movements;
• 78 per cent of stroke patients had significantly impaired sense of movement direction; and
• 69 per cent had diminished ability to match movement speed.

"Impaired limb function is a serious problem for people with stroke," says Dr. Mark Bayley, Co-Chair of the Canadian Stroke Congress and Medical Director of the Neurological Rehabilitation Program at Toronto Rehab. "It can prevent people from performing small daily tasks that give them some measure of independence."

The final goal of precise assessment is more patient-specific treatment, a concept Dr. Dukelow calls "personalized medicine." Ideally, robotics will be used to guide patients through the repetitive movements and personalized treatment plans required to remap the brain and restore function.

"Rehabilitation is an important part of recovering from stroke," says Ian Joiner, the director of stroke for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, who is also a physiotherapist. "Robotic technology is very useful supplement to traditional rehab. The end result - the one we're all working toward - is better patient care and improved recovery."

(Source: news.medical.net)