Recently a new study has emerged in regards to the development of autism, this study suggests that signs of autism may be visible prior to birth. You can read the article here.
Its claim is there appears to be an error in early formation of brain cells, children have the cells but they don’t “prune” as they would in typical development. This takes me back to nutrition, the bodies innate ability to heal, and turning gene expression on or remaining off. The question being “what is causing these genes not to prune? How do we fix that?” Although the study offers an interesting take, it doesn’t provide hope, or a solution. We are no where near recognizing and fixing these signs during pregnancy. Therefore, we must tackle the condition head on with treatment as soon as we identify it; and at the same time be mindful that many other conditions mimic similar if not the some of the same characteristics as autism.
There are three categories of red flags often seen with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Those include: Impairment of Social Interaction, Impairment in Communication, and Repetitive, Behaviors & Restricted Interests. Lack of appropriate eye gaze, natural imitation, warm/joyful expressions (i.e. social smile), response to name (often parents will report their child ignores them), three point gesture (pointing to an object and gesturing back and forth from parent to object), and lack of awareness of others are all signs of impaired social interaction. This category may also include over and under responsiveness to environmental sounds and/or signals. Communication impairments to be concerned of include: lack of “showing” gestures (showing you something, not to share or get help, but to show), hand leading or using a person as a tool rather than a social partner, no shared communicative intent, pronoun confusion or referring to self in third person, impaired or lack of coordination and quality of nonverbal communication, and unusual prosody (pitch, odd intonation, irregular rhythm, unusual voice quality). Restricted Repetitive Behaviors and Interests are what is often noticed first by parents. Repetitive movements with objects, repetitive movements with parts of the body or posturing of limbs, hands, or fingers, obsessive interests and interests in parts versus the whole (such as toys- wheels on the car, spinning, etc). These all display nonconventional use of toys, objects, and body parts.
If you notice a majority, or some of the above, you may want to take charge and get to your pediatrician. Neurotypical developing children often demonstrate finger pointing, shared eye contact with others, response to name, and showing their possessions by the ages of 24 months (2 years). If these main four are missing, you may want to proceed with intervention support, clean up your child’s diet, and visit your pediatrician.
