Autism or Something Else?

... Autism is a primary disorder of social development whose earliest signs are usually apparent by 18 months, but may be recognizable even earlier.

Researchers have learned that autistic children don't always prefer to hear the voice of a human being over something inanimate. For example, whereas a nonautistic child usually prefers a human voice to a doorbell, an autistic child might not. Such early preferences might result in abnormalities in the manner in which socially relevant information is normally perceived -- and might even affect a child's motivation to interact with family or friends.

Ultimately, young children with autism tend not to share attention with others over the things they are interested in or to respond typically to the social overtures of their caregivers.

Once an expert identifies a developmental delay in one or more of these six areas of development, he or she will usually begin with an intervention that tackles a specific area or areas of development, not only to bolster the ones that are lagging, but to increase their abilities in other areas to compensate for those that are weaker.

Although these interventions are becoming increasingly sophisticated, parents can handle a lot of these treatments themselves at home, especially when the treatment is put into the context of play time.

For children with autism, spending time rolling a ball back and forth with the child; maintaining his/her focus, attention and interest as long as possible; and building in as much eye contact, communication and expression of emotion as possible may help him or her learn how to react to and give back to another person.

Similarly, playing with action figures, puppets or stuffed animals gives children added experience in forming mental images of thoughts and feelings that are critical to the development of language.

Experts still aren't sure how current treatments affect developmental disorders in the long term, but it appears that children with developmental disorders are faring better now than what would have been predicted in the days before these treatments were commonplace.

More research is needed to answer questions about which treatments work best for which children, and whether or not these treatments are worth the cost. In the meantime, early identification of developmental disorders and early treatment are the best remedies that science has to offer.

* John Constantino is an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St.Louis.

•	Autism or Something Else? ABCNews.com, Monday, Jan. 8, 2007 Byline: John Constantino, M.D., Washington University