Behavior Therapy Normalizes Brain in Children with Autism
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This article was about how a child with Autism (a genetic disorder), could have their brain "normalized" through a behavioral intervention program. This article sparked my interest for two reasons. One, after listening to many of the student lectures that were done on genetic disorders, I understand how difficult it can be to have a cure, or even lessen the symptoms. And two, because after studying much of the neurophysiology of the brain, any article involving the brain fascinated me!
This article explains the research being done for children with autism, starting from the ages of 18 months to 2 years old. The research study took these young children and had "intervention therapy" with them, and results showed an average improvement of 17.6 IQ points, (which we know from class are relative to the type of IQ test taken, and not much detail was given on this point). These improvements that were shown were dramatic increases in developmental behaviors. This article does specify it is not a cure for autism, but an improvement in decreasing the symptoms of autism in these children. In order to measure the brain activity of these toddlers (aged 18 months to 3 years), they took EEGs (electroencephalograms). The findings showed that the toddlers with the treatment had reversed the amount of brain activity, which was more like a "normal" child. What they found was the earlier they started with these treatments, the more successful they were with the outcome. Once the child aged 6 years, they were less likely to have optimal results. Altogether this article was very enlightening, and I look forward to see where future research in this field of study goes!
This article was about how a child with Autism (a genetic disorder), could have their brain "normalized" through a behavioral intervention program. This article sparked my interest for two reasons. One, after listening to many of the student lectures that were done on genetic disorders, I understand how difficult it can be to have a cure, or even lessen the symptoms. And two, because after studying much of the neurophysiology of the brain, any article involving the brain fascinated me!
This article explains the research being done for children with autism, starting from the ages of 18 months to 2 years old. The research study took these young children and had "intervention therapy" with them, and results showed an average improvement of 17.6 IQ points, (which we know from class are relative to the type of IQ test taken, and not much detail was given on this point). These improvements that were shown were dramatic increases in developmental behaviors. This article does specify it is not a cure for autism, but an improvement in decreasing the symptoms of autism in these children. In order to measure the brain activity of these toddlers (aged 18 months to 3 years), they took EEGs (electroencephalograms). The findings showed that the toddlers with the treatment had reversed the amount of brain activity, which was more like a "normal" child. What they found was the earlier they started with these treatments, the more successful they were with the outcome. Once the child aged 6 years, they were less likely to have optimal results. Altogether this article was very enlightening, and I look forward to see where future research in this field of study goes!
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