{"id":6971,"date":"2021-04-08T19:21:52","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T11:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=6971"},"modified":"2021-04-08T19:21:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T11:21:53","slug":"early-detection-intervention-vital-for-identifying-destigmatizing-autism-spectrum-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/early-detection-intervention-vital-for-identifying-destigmatizing-autism-spectrum-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Early detection, intervention vital for identifying, destigmatizing autism spectrum disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Early detection and intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder could help millions worldwide gain greater\u00a0developmentally appropriate skills,\u00a0enhance\u00a0independence,\u00a0and\u00a0harness their\u00a0unique\u00a0abilities, says an expert at Cleveland Clinic\u00a0Children\u2019s,\u00a0marking World Autism Awareness Day on Friday, 2 April.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cynthia Johnson,\u00a0PhD,\u00a0Director of Cleveland Clinic Children\u2019s Center for Autism, said: \u201cEarly detection and early intervention\u00a0leads to better outcomes. Increased awareness\u00a0destigmatizes\u00a0the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. While every parent\u00a0views\u00a0their\u00a0child\u00a0as a\u00a0perfect\u00a0gift, we want to tell them that\u00a0identifying and\u00a0treating autism spectrum disorder is not changing their child, but\u00a0rather\u00a0helping them to adapt and to\u00a0capitalize on\u00a0their\u00a0unique\u00a0abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autism\u00a0spectrum disorder\u00a0is one of the more common childhood disorders, with the World Health Organization estimating that, globally, 1 in 160 children\u00a0has\u00a0autism spectrum disorder.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Autism spectrum disorder has two key components: lack of or weakness in social and social communication abilities, and presence of restrictive or repetitive behaviors, with identification possible as early as in the first year of life. While there is no one known medical cause for autism, research suggests a mix of many genetic and environmental factors are risks, such as older parents, premature birth, and environmental pollutants. Diagnosis can come from interviews with parents and teachers, along with specialized developmental tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParents with toddlers and preschool-aged children should be on the lookout for delayed speech and unusual communication development,\u201d said Dr. Johnson. \u201cPossible symptoms can include repetitive speech or phrases, lack of imitation of other people\u2019s actions and emotions, atypical, repetitive and restricted play, engaging in repetitive motor movement such as hand flapping or finger flicking, or oversensitivity to sound. The earlier that we can identify autism spectrum disorder, the faster we can address these patients\u2019 differences and hopefully offset a cascade of disruptions in early development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with autism spectrum disorder are more likely to have seizures, epilepsy, gastrointestinal and nutritional issues, sleep disturbances, and\u00a0anxiety.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Professionals focus treatment on one-on-one behavior therapy, and training parents on enhancing their children\u2019s social skills. Technology solutions are also seeing increasing uptake among patients, according to Dr. Johnson. For example, children with autism spectrum disorder can use tablet devices with special speech software to better develop their multiple-word communication and vocabulary. As many people with autism spectrum disorder may be uncomfortable around people, they may be more comfortable to learn social skills from humanoid robotics that have fun and simplified expressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medications are often used to treat disruptive behaviors and attention weakness and hyperactivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Johnson concluded: \u201cMany people with autism spectrum disorder do want to be social and be part of their social community, they may just need to develop age-appropriate social skills and reduce interfering restricted behaviors. Medical treatment and applied behavior analysis can help patients become more independent. Many people with autism spectrum disorder are among the brightest people I\u2019ve ever met. They have the ability to contribute to society in different ways because of their attention to detail, laser focus, mastery of fields, and thinking outside of the box.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autism spectrum disorder is one of the more common childhood disorders, with the World Health Organization estimating that, globally, 1 in 160 children has autism spectrum disorder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2371,2316,848,2138,1661,1828,2137],"class_list":["post-6971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","tag-autism","tag-autism-spectrum-disorder","tag-mental-health","tag-parental-advice","tag-parenthood","tag-parenting","tag-parenting-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6973,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971\/revisions\/6973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}