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Twin Study Suggests Girls are Protected From Autism Risk
A comparison of autism-like behaviors in nearly 10,000 pairs of fraternal twins suggests that girls are somehow protected from the disorder1. The findings, published 19 February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may partly explain why autism is four times more common in boys...
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Insomnia and Anxiety May Be Linked in Individuals with ASDs
More than half of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) also experience clinically significant problems with anxiety (Sukhodolsky et al., 2008). New research conducted at the Center for Autism Research (CAR) at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania...
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Finding and Evaluating Empirically-Based Interventions
Parents are often overwhelmed with a mountain of information regarding treatments for various symptoms of autism spectrum disorders or their co-morbid disorders. Some publications claim to reverse or even cure autism. Some of these publications and advertisements are well written, logical, based...
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Assessment and Understanding of Fear in Children with an ASD
Intense fears and phobias have been reported in up to 64% of children with an ASD (Muris Steerneman, Merckelbach, Holdrinet, & Meesters, 1998). In comparison, only 5% of typically developing children present with intense fears (Ollendick, King, & Muris, 2002). Children with an ASD also have...
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Boys with Regressive Autism Have Larger Brains than Age-Matched Health Counterparts
In the largest study of brain development in preschoolers with autism to date, a study by UC Davis MIND Institute researchers has found that 3-year-old boys with regressive autism, but not early onset autism, have larger brains than their healthy counterparts. The study is published online today...
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Excessive Folic Acid Supplementation: A Cause for Autism Spectrum Disorders?
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of phenotypically heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disabilities characterized by impairments in three core functional domains: reciprocal social interactions, verbal communication and stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behaviors. The ASDs are...
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Inhibition of Eye Blinking Reveals How Toddlers with ASD Attend Differently to What They Watch
One of the central goals in autism research is to better meet the needs and experiences of individual children on the autism spectrum, even and especially children who may not be able to easily communicate those experiences. Researchers hope that doing so will provide an inroad into helping those...
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Future Directions in Medication Treatments for ASD
There has been enormous growth over the past 10-15 years in research attempting to identify effective medications for children and youth with ASD. A few classes of medications have been shown to be effective for treating specific symptoms associated with autism. There is accumulating data to...
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How Science and Evidence Won Out Against Auditory Integration Therapies
There are many ways of learning about our world. One way is through science and the scientific process. There is a growing belief that the methods of science and scientific inquiry are the standards that should be employed when designing and evaluating autism treatments. Ideally, by adhering to...
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New Trends in Brain and Tissue Banking for Autism Research
Professor Giovanni Morgagni, of the University of Padua published in 1761 a book, “The Seats and Causes of Disease Investigated by Anatomy,” that described nearly 700 autopsies and demonstrated that disease is recorded in the pathology of organs in detectable ways. Dr. Richard Cabot’s review...
