new YORK (Reuters Health) – A study suggests that the
social skills and communication of the autistic children
improve with therapy in some, but not others.
As expected, children with milder symptoms to the
moment of the diagnosis had better evolved a few years
after those with the most severe form of autism.
But among the nearly 7,000 children studied had a group of
the so-called “late maturity”, that had begun with
many problems of communication and social, but improved
quickly during primary school.
“There are a wide variety of children with different types of
“”
symptoms in Autism”, said Christine Fountain, author
main of the study and researcher at Columbia University,
in New York. “We want to know how these symptoms be
behave in time”, added.
The results are published in the journal Pediatrics
a few days after the centres for the Control and the
United States disease prevention (CDC by its acronym
in English) disseminate new information suggesting that you one of
every 88 American children has a spectrum disorder
autistic.
The Fountain team used data from the centers of
California which they assess and treat autism to children
to a group of patients aged between 2 and 14 years old who are les
had made at least four evaluations.
In these annual test, were symptoms of the
social and communication and behavior disorders
repetitive.
The authors observed that especially when it was
of social skills and communication, most of the
children improved with time; although some did so much more
faster than others.
White children and children of parents with higher level
education used to have milder during treatment symptoms
and were more likely to be part of the 10 percent of the
considered children “of late ripening”, in which the
symptoms improved quickly between 3 and 12 years old.
Instead, the children with autism and other disorders
intellectuals not improved too much.
“The conclusion is that mental retardation as disease
“”
concurrent autism worsens the prognosis”, said Johnny
Matson, autistic spectrum disorders specialist and
the Louisiana State University, intellectual disabilities
in Baton Rouge.
Unlike the social skills and communication,
repetitive behaviors not tended to improve or get worse
too much time in the majority of the participants.
The majority of children will improve
Differences in improvement of children according to ethnicity and
the education of parents are perhaps due to access to a
treatment of quality, as believed Matson.
The good news is that “these differences are
“”
reducing fast”, by laws requiring them to companies
health insurance cover intensive treatment to all the
autistic children, told Reuters Health.
Matson, who did not participate in the study, raised some doubts
on “trajectories of the Symptoms” which the authors
they classified the children and noted that there are many assessments
autism that are incorrectly and prevent
interpreting changes over time.
Other specialist outside the study believed that the existence or
the absence of improvement patterns coincide with its
professional experience.
“We see this problem on a daily basis and we perceive that there are
“”
different patterns or trajectories (…) during development”,
said Dr. Andrew Zimmerman of the Lurie Center for the
Autism, of the Massachusetts General Hospital for children,
in Lexington.
“With some children we worked very hard and achieved little or nothing,
“”
and others obtain good results”, added.
Fountain and Matson agreed that parents of the
autistic children should insist that their children receive the
help they need without losing optimism.
Source: Pediatrics, April 2, 2012
