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Why developmental milestones are so telling

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Thanks to Dr. Susan Kuo at Broad Research Institute and MIT, there is an analysis of 17,000 individuals with autism across 4 different studies that all looked at how developmental milestones emerged. The results show a great deal of diversity – across different studies, time, intellectual disability and genetic background. Different groups of people with autism have different experiences based on some commonalities. But all people with autism showed a delay in many milestones. They are important for understanding people with autism, changes across time in the diagnostic criteria, and their impact on later abilities.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2794306?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamapediatrics.2022.2423

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Parents! Parents! Parents!

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Parents are now used as intervention partners through a design called parent-mediated intervention. It started to be studied before the pandemic but has now become a necessity. Does it work? Should it always work for everything? How long should the intervention last and how often? These are all questions of interest, and while research is still early, parents can be amazing partners in intervention especially below age 5. The provide opportunities for learning and communication, and they can utilize more hours during the day at home than traditional in-clinic services can. Of course not every family is the same and may not have the same abilities to learn the intervention, and in the future more of these contextual factors need to be studied. But for now, three cheers for parents helping their kids!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34867556/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35037520/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35040001/

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Four problems and a solution: Is there a way to solve the heterogeneity problem in research?

While a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder may encompass many strengths, challenges, features and conditions, it is becoming increasingly difficult for researchers to figure out what is autism, and how to help those on the full spectrum. This week’s ASF podcast summarizes the challenges and a possible solution to grouping people according to their behavioral features. However, not everyone agrees with this approach. What do you think? How can researchers best help people across the spectrum recognizing the unique needs of those with different symptoms? Share your thoughts in the comments.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.2494

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.2529

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.2547

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Sex differences: It’s not about the diagnostic measurements.

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A fresh take on an existing topic: why there are more boys diagnosed with ASD than girls. Even from a few months old, girls are different than boys, and they show subtle differences in toddlerhood. But at the time of diagnosis, they score the same on standardized instruments of ASD used to categorize someone as having ASD or not. This means it isn’t about the measures. It could be cultural factors, it could be a protective effect, but there needs to be a better understanding of these differences across the lifespan to help everyone with ASD, especially females.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S096098222030419X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS096098222030419X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04526-z

https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13242