That Happened!

New York - Researchers in an autistic study believe that children with autism have a difficult time understanding syllables as they are spoken and this in turn prevents them from communicating effectively. The study shows that autistic children have unique brain waves than do children without autism. They believe these different brain waves can help in determining if a child has autism or not.

The researchers used a helmet type machine, it looks like a big hair salon hair dryer, to find these brain waves and are hoping that when the findings are confirmed they will be able to use it to detect autism in children who are as young as one year of age. Most autism isn’t detected until the earliest age of two so this would be a big step in getting the behavioral therapy necessary to help these children learn better ways of communicating.

Doctors typically diagnose a child with autism off of what their parents say they observe in their child and by observing the child themselves. With the findings of this new research a noninvasive way of finding the disorder by using MEG, magnetoencephalography, would be a better way of diagnosing autism as it can show that is truly the issue. An MEG measures magnetic fields within the brain and records brain activity as it’s happening to find the brain waves that may show autism as the cause of the behavior that is being exhibited.

The research was done with 64 children, thirty of which has autism, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, ages 6 to 15, and the results were compared to those children without. All the children were instructed to wear headphones and listen to a series of beeps, vowels, and sentences. When the results were compared it was found that the autistic children responded one fiftieth of a second slower than those without autism.

According to the experts one child out of every 150 children has autism. There is no cure and along with poor communication, repetitive behaviors are common. These behaviors can include head banging and an avoidance of eye contact. There are medications and behavioral therapies that can help to reduce the symptoms of autism.

A child with autism can find it extremely difficult to go through life normally, with the inability to communicate effectively, and the earlier it is detected the easier it will be on the child. Knowing what to look for and getting parents the education needed to help their child is most important.