January 2018 – ASF Weekly Science Podcasts

January 28, 2018

Improving early detection of ASD by listening to parents

Subscribe: RSS

It’s well known that both parent report and observational measure are crucial to an autism diagnosis. But what about prior to a diagnosis, in the critical period of 12-18 months when symptoms may be seen but a diagnosis cannot yet be made? A research collaboration across Canada has been studying better detection and translating it to early intervention, and postdoc Lori Sacrey from University of Alberta took the lead on a multi-site study investigating the utility and contribution of a parent report measure together with an observational tool in toddlers. She found that the parent report measure provided insights which improved the ability to predict a later autism diagnosis. It is because of the collaboration across Canada that this research is possible. Also, the autism journal Autism took an unusual and bold step in ensuring that adults with autism are represented in their perspective. Hear why on this week’s podcast or read the link below:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1362361317748556

Here is the Sacrey publication: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29356441

January 21, 2018January 21, 2018

What is the can do vs. the will do of autism?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Often overlooked in intervention studies, it is becoming increasingly clearer that adaptive behavior, the “will do” vs. the “can do” of functioning, should receive more focus. In people with autism and high IQ, cognitive ability, the “can do” is higher than adaptive behavior, the “will do”. Why? The key in new research from the National Institutes of Health may be social abilities. Another study this week from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in adult with high IQ demonstrates that social motivation may be the key to improving social skills and socialization in people with ASD.

January 14, 2018

Supporting the support staff, at least a first step

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Paid support staff are critical to helping individuals at all ages with autism. Unfortunately, they are mostly poorly paid, and exhibit high levels of burnout. What psychological constructs are most important, and can they be targeted for services to help provide better services for those with ASD? As it turns out, more important than preventing burnout is building up psychological capital, which helps deal with the effects of burnout. In addition, a new important feature of autism has been identified: intolerance to uncertainty. Previously linked to ASD through anxiety, now it is shown to have direct connections to ASD diagnosis and symptomatology. Is this a new core feature?

January 8, 2018

What is the real prevalence of ASD?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Unfortunately this podcast does not really provide an answer, but does highlight data published over the holidays which shows in another dataset, that the prevalence of autism seems to be leveling out, rather than continue to increase as it has done for the past several decades. It isn’t the final word and clearly there may be exceptions, but now two national datasets have shown no further increase in autism prevalence in the last few years of looking. Is it 1:68 as reported in one study or 1:39 in another? Is it somewhere in between? Still to early to say, but white boys seem to be the most likely to get a diagnosis no matter where you look. Also, folic acid proves to show an effect on the probability of not just an autism diagnosis, but autism symptoms. This is especially important for women taking anti epileptic medications for seizures and bipolar depression. Welcome to 2018!

Here are links to the articles. Some of them are open access!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29297068

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db291.pdf

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2667432

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29279889