All children should be displayed for autism at 18 months of age and again at 2 years, even if they do not show signs of delay in development, according to new Guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Hope is that universal sorting during well-child pediatric checkups will lead to the anterior diagnosis of the disorder. There is increasing recognition that early diagnosis and intervention can result in better results for children with autism and related disorders.
The guidelines were launched Monday at the AAP Annual Meeting in San Francisco, along with reports highlighting the reports on the identification and management of autism.
The reports are published in the November issue of AAP Journal pediatrics.
Gym Fat Loss Routine - Routine Autism Screening Recommended
While language delays are the most common reason to evaluate children for autism, the more subtle warning signs were identified for babies that There are still no speech stage.
Some of these signals can be recognized before a child's first anniversary, including a delay in smiling, failure to follow the look of the parents and failure to respond to his name or a father gesture for age of 10 12 months.
Other advance alert signals include:
- Failure to point as a means of directing a parent or caregiver's attention through 12 to 14 months
- of "back and forth" babble with a parent or caregiver as a means of communication around 6 months
- Do not make eye contact
forming an attachment with an unusual object , like a lantern, keys or a ballpoint pin instead of an animal, blanket or other soft item can also indicate a problem.
But report co-author Chris Plauche Johnson, MD, is quick to point out that many children normally developed form annexes to unusual objects, just as many children with autism make eye contact.
"None of these subtle indicators should be taken alone as a defined sign of autism" The University of Texas Health Science Center Pediatrics Professor Account WebMD.
But they can alert parents and pediatricians to a potential problem before less subtle indi workers become obvious, it says.
The mainly verbal red flags that were previously identified as absolute indicators for evaluation are:
Neurodevelopmental Pediatra Scott Myers, MD, tells WebMD that about a quarter of children with autism experiences verbal regression. The average age that occurs is about 21 months, he says.
"There is certainly a cause for concern if a child who has used 20 words a few months ago, suddenly has no language," he says.
The report on autism management and related disorders requires intervention as soon as possible even before a defined diagnosis. / p>
Treatment should include at least 25 hours per week of intensive behavioral therapy with a low student relationship for teachers, parents involvement and sufficient once.
The report also requests pediatricians to learn about the many alternative treatments being embraced by parents so they can discuss these options in an informed way.
These include vitamin and mineral treatments, chelation therapy and restricted diets such as wheat free diet and dairy diet that actress Jenny McCarthy is promoting in a new book on the autism of her child.
"Pediatrics need to keep the communication lines open and take an active role to help educate families about the evaluation of evidence," says Myers.
It says the WebMD that there was enough research to prove or refute the value of most alternative treatments.
Exceptions, it says, are treatments involving digestive hormonal secretin and interactive therapy known as facilitated communication.
Myers says that both interventions were well studied and has not been effective for the treatment of autism.
