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What I like about you.

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This week is a “brick-a-brack”: of topics. They include: 1. how COVID-19 is especially dangerous for people with neurodevelopmental disorders; 2. how certain genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders can affect other body functions other than the brain (like the digestive system and kidney function and metabolism); and finally, 3. why parents think their autistic children are so great. No overall theme, just information we hope you can use.

https://www.ijidonline.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1201-9712%2822%2900048-0

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-021-05405-x.pdf

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2788262

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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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Advice for better understanding underrepresented groups in autism research

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This week, we talk to Karla Rivera-Figueroa and Inge-Marie Eigsti, who together with Nana Yaa A. Marfo published a systematic review asking about parental perceptions of autism in both LatinX and Black Sociocultural contexts. Six themes popped out, and the question for Karla and Dr Eigsti were “how can research help”? What funding opportunities, culturally relevant materials, and future research directions need to be focused on? The conversation included ways to battle stigma, improve provider relationships, recruit a more diverse sample in research and fund those underrepresented scientists who want to study autism. As a note, ASF will be releasing their undergraduate fellowship mechanism on Tuesday which will focus on underrepresented groups.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34979034/

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How important is the sensory system?

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Most people with autism have some sort of sensory dysfunction: hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity or sensory avoiding behaviors to touch, smell, sound, light. But a new study looking at kids from the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED) suggest that it may be more important than you think. In fact, it was the only feature to unify those with autism compared to those with developmental delay. Are there treatments outside of environmental supports to help sensory issues? There could be: a drug that tried and failed to treat other features of autism called arbacolfen supports the idea that this drug target could be helpful in treating sensory issues.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34985973/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34967132/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34873147/

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The 2021 Year End Summary of Science

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It’s up! The 2021 Year End Summary of Autism Science. It covers everything from glial cells to girls and females, from those that are traditionally underserved to the genetic underpinnings of ASD and siblings and everything in between. It’s a 30 minute recap of the highlights of research from the past 365 days. You can read the full summary here:

The Year in Review, 2021
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“Profound” Autism

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On Tuesday, the journal Lancet published a 2+ year long endeavor around understanding the heterogeneity of autism not just in features but in access to services for individuals and families across the world. They called for a stepped care to help individualize and prioritize needs in different individuals based on their needs, not their diagnosis. They also called for the label of “profound autism” which describes individuals with very different outcomes compared to those who have a higher verbal and cognitive ability. Recognizing everyone needs supports and help, the “profound autism” label needs different supports, like different employment situations and different living accommodations. Thankfully, to authors, Dr. Catherine Lord from UCLA and Alison Singer from ASF explain the article and the impact they hope it makes on the field.

The article is open access but you have to register to download a copy, here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01541-5/fulltext

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How the Pandemic Affected Parents

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You have heard a lot about how the pandemic affected those with a diagnosis – and it isn’t good. Recent studies have turned their attention to stress and anxiety and depression of caregivers during the pandemic. It was higher in those parents with children of a neurodevelopmental disorder, but it was also complicated, related to the functioning of the child and of course, when the questions were asked. Some used a “pre vs. during” pandemic design and some used a case-control design. But altogether, you can learn about the variation across families and across the world on this week’s #ASFpodcast.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34591373/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34591364/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34657487/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34776249/

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Have things changed for the autism community in the last 40 years?

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On this week’s podcast, we interview Dr. Giacomo Vivanti from the AJ Drexel Autism Institute who, together with Daniel Messinger from University of Miami, wrote an analysis of how research and intervention have changed since the DSMIII was written 40 years ago. They include theories of the causes of autism, the theories of the deficits and strengths of autism as it has changed over time, as well as intervention styles to meet the expanding understanding of autism. You can read the paper below, but Dr. Vivanti gives a great summary in a 30 minute interview!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33491120/

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Rare and common genetic variation in autism

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Two weeks ago the topic was gene x environment interactions. But some genetic variants, including rare genetic variants, can exert huge influence on a diagnosis by themselves. New data from genetic samples that have been sequenced are showing an increase in the number of these genes and the role of these genes, and how they work with common variants. What are rare and common variants? How do they influence a genetic diagnosis? And what does this mean for the future of genetics in ASD? Listen to Dr. Behrang Mahjani at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine who authored two recent publications on the topic.

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All about ABA

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The practice of ABA, or applied behavioral analysis, can be easily misunderstood. Rather than a single procedure, ABA is a variety of techniques that can be applied to different situations to improve communication, reduce aggression, and improve the quality of life of people on the spectrum. Why is it getting a bad reputation? Is the ABA of today the same as it was in the 1960’s? And what benefits does the techniques and principles of ABA confer to those on the spectrum? Listen to today’s #ASFpodcast which also includes footage from Melanie Pellecchia’s Day of Learning presentation.