The Kids Who Beat Autism: New York Times

[Anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/magazine/the-kids-who-beat-autism.html

In the last 18 months, however, two research groups have released rigorous, systematic studies, providing the best evidence yet that in fact a small but reliable subset of children really do overcome autism. The first, led by Deborah Fein, a clinical neuropsychologist who teaches at the University of Connecticut, looked at 34 young people, including B. She confirmed that all had early medical records solidly documenting autism and that they now no longer met autism’s criteria, a trajectory she called “optimal outcome.” She compared them with 44 young people who still had autism and were evaluated as “high functioning,” as well as 34 typically developing peers.
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In May, another set of researchers published a study that tracked 85 children from their autism diagnosis (at age 2) for nearly two decades and found that about 9 percent of them no longer met the criteria for the disorder. The research, led by Catherine Lord, a renowned leader in the diagnosis and evaluation of autism who directs a large autism center and teaches at Weill Cornell Medical College, referred to those who were no longer autistic as “very positive outcome.”

Autism specialists hailed the reports. “Those of us who work closely with children with autism,” says Geraldine Dawson, a psychologist and researcher at Duke University’s department of psychiatry and the Institute for Brain Sciences, “have known clinically that there is this subgroup of kids who start out having autism and then, through the course of development, fully lose those symptoms — and yet people always questioned it. This work, in a very careful and systematic way, shows these kids exist.” She told me that she and many of her colleagues estimated that 10 percent or more of their autistic patients no longer had symptoms.

[Anonymous]

Or maybe they weren't actually "autistic" and therapy works?

[Anonymous]

Wow, a whole 119 kids compared to the 1 in 68 children identified with autism...

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0327-autism-spectrum-disorder.html

OP, this is a diagnosis issue (or misdiagnosis) not kids "beating" or "overcoming" autism.

[Anonymous]

The research by Fein and Lord doesn’t try to determine what causes autism or what exactly makes it go away — only that it sometimes disappears. There do, however, seem to be some clues, like the role of I.Q.: The children in Lord’s study who had a nonverbal I.Q. of less than 70 at age 2 all remained autistic. But among those with a nonverbal I.Q. of at least 70, one-quarter eventually became nonautistic, even though their symptoms at diagnosis were as severe as those of children with a comparable I.Q. who remained autistic (Fein’s study, by design, included only people with at least an average I.Q.) Other research has shown that autistic children with better motor skills, better receptive language skills and more willingness to imitate others also tend to progress more swiftly, even if they don’t stop being autistic. So do children who make striking improvements early on, especially in the first year of treatment — perhaps a sign that something about their brains or their kind of autism enables them to learn more readily. Researchers also say that parental involvement — acting as a child’s advocate, pushing for services, working with the child at home — seems to correlate with more improvements in symptoms. Financial resources, no doubt, help too.
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For now, though, the findings are simply hints. “I’ve been studying autistic kids for 40 years,” Fein says, “and I’m pretty good at what I do. But I can’t predict who is going to get better and who’s not based on what they look like when I first see them. In fact, I not only can’t predict who is going to turn out with optimal outcome, but I can’t even predict who will have high-functioning autism and who will be low-functioning. There’s so much we still don’t understand.”

[Anonymous]

Autism could be caused by a virus and some kids can beat the virus.

[Anonymous]

Though many studies show that early intensive behavioral therapy significantly eases autism symptoms, most children who receive such therapy nevertheless remain autistic — and some who don’t get it nevertheless stop being autistic. Only two of the eight no-longer-autistic children in Lord’s study received intensive behavioral therapy, because at the time it wasn’t commonly available where the research was conducted, in Illinois and North Carolina.

In Fein’s study, children who lost the diagnosis were twice as likely to have received behavioral therapy as those who remained autistic; they also began therapy at a younger age and received more hours of it each week. But roughly one-quarter of Fein’s formerly autistic participants did not get any behavioral therapy, including a boy named Matt Tremblay.

[Anonymous]

Well, since it's a spectrum and a syndrome, it's quite likely some of the cases caused by factor x got better, since factor x is transient in some way. Those cases caused by factor y are caused by something permanent.

They still have no idea what causes it, and it probably is many different things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Autism could be caused by a virus and some kids can beat the virus.

Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Though many studies show that early intensive behavioral therapy significantly eases autism symptoms, most children who receive such therapy nevertheless remain autistic — and some who don’t get it nevertheless stop being autistic. Only two of the eight no-longer-autistic children in Lord’s study received intensive behavioral therapy, because at the time it wasn’t commonly available where the research was conducted, in Illinois and North Carolina.

In Fein’s study, children who lost the diagnosis were twice as likely to have received behavioral therapy as those who remained autistic; they also began therapy at a younger age and received more hours of it each week. But roughly one-quarter of Fein’s formerly autistic participants did not get any behavioral therapy, including a boy named Matt Tremblay.

Dip-shit, OP. Matt Tremblay did get behavioral therapy/ABA:
http://apps.beta620.nytimes.com/accessible_nytimes/Top+News/2014/08/03/magazine/the-kids-who-beat-autism.html

There is no cure for autism and therapy makes it better. Just b/c someone doesn't need behavioral therapy doesn't mean they're not autistic just higher functioning.

Also, a quarter of Fein's study population is 8.5, big whoop-dee-doo!

[Anonymous]

As a research scientist in biology, I do not doubt that some children with severe symptoms of classical autism can get better. I also don't doubt that they are in the minority.

We don't yet know what causes autism. I've often wondered myself if there is a link to proper or improper myelinization of the brain.

We may also find, as in inattentive and hyperactive types of ADHD, that different types of autism have actually little to do with each other, and that some have a better prognosis than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As a research scientist in biology, I do not doubt that some children with severe symptoms of classical autism can get better. I also don't doubt that they are in the minority.

We don't yet know what causes autism. I've often wondered myself if there is a link to proper or improper myelinization of the brain.

We may also find, as in inattentive and hyperactive types of ADHD, that different types of autism have actually little to do with each other, and that some have a better prognosis than others.

Do you mind explaining this, and also what would cause it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Autism could be caused by a virus and some kids can beat the virus.

Lol

Research scientist here again: you know that one hypothesis to explain Multiple Sclerosis is exposure to a virus or vaccine?

Not as silly as it seems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Though many studies show that early intensive behavioral therapy significantly eases autism symptoms, most children who receive such therapy nevertheless remain autistic — and some who don’t get it nevertheless stop being autistic. Only two of the eight no-longer-autistic children in Lord’s study received intensive behavioral therapy, because at the time it wasn’t commonly available where the research was conducted, in Illinois and North Carolina.

In Fein’s study, children who lost the diagnosis were twice as likely to have received behavioral therapy as those who remained autistic; they also began therapy at a younger age and received more hours of it each week. But roughly one-quarter of Fein’s formerly autistic participants did not get any behavioral therapy, including a boy named Matt Tremblay.

Dip-shit, OP. Matt Tremblay did get behavioral therapy/ABA:
http://apps.beta620.nytimes.com/accessible_nytimes/Top+News/2014/08/03/magazine/the-kids-who-beat-autism.html

There is no cure for autism and therapy makes it better. Just b/c someone doesn't need behavioral therapy doesn't mean they're not autistic just higher functioning.

Also, a quarter of Fein's study population is 8.5, big whoop-dee-doo!

Matt received speech, occupational and physical therapy until he was 7 or 8. But he wasn’t given behavioral therapy because, his mother recalls, the pediatrician never suggested it and the schools in their town in upstate New York didn’t provide it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or maybe they weren't actually "autistic" and therapy works?

+1 There are many things that look similar and its the quick and easy diagnosis to get services. Its the catchall like ADD and ADHD were years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a research scientist in biology, I do not doubt that some children with severe symptoms of classical autism can get better. I also don't doubt that they are in the minority.

We don't yet know what causes autism. I've often wondered myself if there is a link to proper or improper myelinization of the brain.

We may also find, as in inattentive and hyperactive types of ADHD, that different types of autism have actually little to do with each other, and that some have a better prognosis than others.

Do you mind explaining this, and also what would cause it?

Oh, it's purely hypothetical on my part.
Myelin is the fat layer that envelops nerves to increase conductivity, and therefore efficiency of messaging between neurons. It is highly specific yet develops in a very predictable way in normal brains: practicing a specific skill makes more myelin layers in that particular neuronal circuit, making it even faster and highly tuned. This is how infants learn to walk and talk. By dint of listening, observing and imitating sounds or movements, they build up myelin in those circuits and eventually master walking or talking. Same for playing violin or chess.
However, if you don't use that circuit, the myelin degrades. "Practice makes perfect" describes it well.
Perhaps in atypical brains such ADHD and autistic brains, myelin cannot build up in the typical way, even with intense therapeutic focus on certain skill acquisition. There would be a kind of myelin block upstream.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which myelin is progressively destroyed. So myelin could play a role in other brain diseases.

Very fuzzy-wuzzy, isn't it? We're only just realizing the immense power and ramifications of myelin, and studies are pretty thin on the ground. You know Einstein is supposed to have had enormous quantities of it in his brain, whereas his neuron mass was exactly the same as an average brain?