Exciting new research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is helping us all learn more about autism. Researchers are investigating causal factors in autism, identifying early biomarkers, better understanding the social, physical, and psychological implications of autism, and suggesting intervention options to improve outcomes for autistic children. Research is also pointing the way to new treatment options for improving daily living skills and helping children succeed.
Here are 15 new research findings representing some of the most exciting discoveries, helping us better understand and provide effective interventions to support autistic children.
This study looking at the gut nervous system points out why many autistic people suffer from gut issues. It indicates that these gastrointestinal problems may be caused by the same genetic mutations that are responsible for brain and behavioral issues in autism. The brain and gut share many of the same neurons and mutations that influence connections between neurons and could be behind the gut problems in many patients.
The nerves that control our sense of touch, pain, and other sensations - the Peripheral Nervous System - may play a role in autism. More than 70% of autistic people have differences in their sensory perception. This study found that autistic people had degenerated nerve fibers and were more likely to report feeling pain from a heat stimulus and could be unaware that they had gotten scratched or bruised.
This study found that high-functioning autistic students, ages 10 to 17, benefit from school-based mindfulness programs that emphasize self-awareness and controlled breathing or focusing attention on the body, thoughts, and emotions. They showed improvement in their executive functions like controlling emotions, maintaining self-control, focusing attention, and being flexible in changing their perspectives.
Pets lead to strong bonds and reduced stress for both autistic children and their parents. In a survey of more than 700 families from the Interactive Autism Network, parents with multiple pets reported more benefits. Pets can help increase social interaction and decrease anxiety and can help support both autistic children and their parents.
Hour-long weekly music therapy sessions for over 10 months showed benefits in inattentive behaviors in autistic children. More than half of the participants in the study showed a positive effect on behaviors such as restlessness, aggression toward other children, noisiness, and tantrums.
A longitudinal study in its 14th year found that around 30 percent of young autistic children have less severe autism symptoms at age 6 than they did at age 3, with some children losing their autism diagnoses entirely. Children with higher IQs and more girls in comparison to boys show an improvement in their symptoms. As part of this study, these children received substantial community-based autism intervention throughout their childhood.
87 autistic toddlers ages 12-30 months underwent two prominent early intervention programs delivered at 15-hours or 25-hours per week intensities. After receiving one year of interventions, assessments reveal that neither style nor intensity of intervention had a different effect overall on the study's four outcome measures: children's progress in receptive language, expressive communication, nonverbal ability, and autism symptom change.
Microbiota Transfer Therapy (MTT), a revolutionary fecal transplant technique, combined with antibiotics, a bowel cleanse, a stomach-acid suppressant, and a fecal microbiota transplant demonstrates long-term benefits for children diagnosed as autistic. 18 participants followed two years after the treatment continued to demonstrate improvements in GI symptoms, ASD symptoms, and the microbiome.
Earlier diagnosis of autism at 12 to 18 months shows fewer impairments in behavior than in children diagnosed at a later age. Later-diagnosed children are more impaired in nonverbal reasoning, adaptive behavior, and autism spectrum disorder severity. Also, fine motor, receptive language, social skills, and communication skills impairment were proportional to the delay in diagnosis.
EEGs measure brain electrical activity that can be used to predict autism spectrum disorder in infants, even in some as young as three months. The measurements are fed to the algorithms that could predict the clinical diagnosis of ASD with high specificity suggesting its potential use as a digital biomarker for early diagnosis.
Standard hearing tests administered to newborns around the world can be a way to detect autism early on. The tests work by measuring auditory brainstem response (ABR), which gauges how well a baby's inner ear and brain respond to sound. Researchers found that a slower response is associated with a later diagnosis of autism.
A meta-analysis of 47 papers found significantly poorer emotional self-awareness in autistic children. When observed for age groups specifically, autistic children aged 12 years and under were similar to their neurotypical peers. However, difficulties emerged during adolescence and increased with age.
Parents’ decision to either disclose or withhold an autism diagnosis from their children impacts adolescents’ perceptions of autism and their identity development. Findings suggest that mindful disclosure, early in their development, can help children develop a more positive, neurodiversity-aligned perspective in autistic children.
Several factors are associated with a disproportionately lower clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) like non‐White race, no intellectual disability, older age at first developmental concern, older age at first developmental evaluation, special education eligibility other than ASD, and need for fewer supports. This gap needs to be addressed so that appropriate intervention can be made available as early as possible.
Nearly 78 percent of autistic children have at least one mental health condition. The most common are behavior/conduct problems, anxiety, attention deficit disorder (ADD)/attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depression. These conditions increase with age and raise a need for effective assessment and treatment.
This article is based on studies published in several leading autism research journals and from the Science Daily website.
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