Screening, treatment center to open on Florida Tech’s campus in 2009. Florida Tech is hosting an Autism Conference on Oct. 18 and 19 for educators, health care and social service providers, and families. A positive step in promoting the early detection and treatment options for Autism. See full article from “Florida Today” below:
“One of triplets, Nicholas Diaz began falling behind his brothers, developmentally, as early as 8 months of age, according to his mother, Dee Dee.
“There were big delays in crawling, talking and eye contact, even then,” she said.
But, because of other medical problems associated with entering the world two months prematurely, she said, Nicholas did not get an official autism diagnosis until about 21/2 years ago.
Today, at age 5, the Palm Bay boy goes to a small clinic on the Florida Tech campus, where he undergoes applied behavioral analysis, a highly structured therapy that rewards him for learning language and social skills appropriate to his age, so he can eventually attend regular school.
“I am seeing a huge difference,” his mother said, citing better word recognition, among other new skills, even though Nicholas still rarely speaks. “Applied behavioral analysis is the most research-proven therapy we have.”
By spring 2009, Florida Tech in Melbourne plans to showcase this intervention for as many as 30 to 40 other individuals every week in a new 18,000-square-foot Autism Center, to be built on campus, starting next year. Estimated cost: about $4.5 million.
Although most of those undergoing treatment will be children Nicholas’ age or younger, university officials said, the center will serve individuals across the life span with autism, a spectrum of disorders that cause substantial impairments in social interaction and communication, along with odd behaviors and peculiarly intense interests.
As part of the school’s mission to develop this comprehensive new autism resource, Florida Tech is hosting an Autism Conference on Oct. 18 and 19 for educators, health care and social service providers, and families.
“We want to educate the public about autism and the types of treatments that are known to be the most effective,” said Mary Beth Kunkel, dean of the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts. “One of the hallmarks for our center is we are committed only to treatments with empirical support.”
That means the university does not intend to offer still-controversial biomedical therapies some parents swear by, such as nutrition and vitamin supplementation; chelation therapy to remove mercury and other metals from the blood; and hyperbaric oxygen, to improve circulation to every area of the body, including the brain.
Nor, Kunkel said, will there be any talks about thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative once routinely put in children’s vaccines, but now a rarity, which remains at the heart of a fierce debate over its role in autism’s development.
“Research tells us now mercury is not related to autism, but it is still an issue with some parents,” she conceded. “It’s a major controversy.”
1 in 150 affected
By existing standards, autism spectrum disorders in the United States are the second most serious developmental disability after mental retardation, affecting about 1 in 150 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Because prevalence is clearly on the rise, and no one yet knows the cause, “everybody is concerned,” Kunkel said. “But our real focus is, if you have a loved one with autism, what are you going to do?”
Eb Blakely, a behavioral analyst with the nonprofit Quest Inc. in Orlando, and one of the conference speakers, said he intends to address that question in his talk, “Autism and the Scientific Method.”
“What I hope to do is help people figure out what to do with their kid if he or she is diagnosed with autism,” he said. “It’s complex. You need to ask: Is there any research on a (particular) treatment, and if there is, what kind is it?”
To illustrate his point, Blakely plans to use a case study, involving hormone-replacement therapy, whose early promise in the 1980s and 1990s arose out of “weak” observational studies, he said, rather than the gold standard — controlled, randomized trials.
As a result, in 2003, the government abruptly halted a major study in postmenopausal women after it was found this therapy increased, rather than lessened, the risks for heart attacks, breast cancers and stroke.
Of the various treatment approaches to autism, Blakely said, “it’s a difficult topic and I’m not taking any stands. Let the science speak for itself.”
The best-known study backing a behavior-based approach to autism dates to 1987, experts say.
Sixty children were randomly assigned at that time to several years of intensive therapy with one of three approaches, including applied behavioral analysis.
Rewards in this approach, often a toy or some type of social interaction, come as a child completes each task at his or her age level, based on performance.
The study found 47 percent of children who got the behavioral intervention were able to go back into regular classrooms, said David Wilder, an associate professor in Florida Tech’s psychology college.
“At the end of the study, they were indistinguishable from their peers,” he said. “And their IQ improved dramatically.
Like his colleagues, Wilder emphasized the importance of early intervention, however.
“The earlier we get to these kids, the better,” he said.
Alternative approaches
Despite her clear support for behavior-based therapy, Dee Dee Diaz said she and her husband also have taken Nicholas to the nonprofit International Child Development Research Center in Melbourne, run by Dr. Jeffrey Bradstreet, to try alternative therapies.
Bradstreet is a leading proponent of unproven biomedical therapies that enhance methylation, a process critical to normal cell function and nerve development and overall immune responses.
Nicholas not only eats a restricted diet, his mother said, he also has undergone chelation therapy and hyperbaric oyxgen treatments at Bradstreet’s center — both of which appeared to bring some benefit.
“From a parent’s perspective, we try one thing out at a time,” she said. “When you see your child turn around and suddenly say a few words, it’s monumental.”
As an elementary school teacher and an educator, she added, “I think hard science is wonderful,” but parents worry, if they wait 20 years for the science, “their children may be so far out into their own world by then, nobody will be able to help them.”
BY SUSAN JENKS
FLORIDA TODAY