Doctors MayBe Missing Signs of Autism in Well-Child Visits

 The 10 to 20 minutes of a typical well-child visit isn’t enough time to reliably detect a young child’s risk of autism, a new study suggests.

“When decisions about autism referral are made based on brief observations alone, there is a substantial risk that even experts may miss a large percentage of children who need a referral for further evaluation,” said lead study author Terisa Gabrielsen. She conducted the study while at the University of Utah but is now an assistant professor in the department of counseling, psychology and special education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Survey: Autism Harder to Diagnose Among Latinos

Screening for autism spectrum disorders in Spanish-speaking families has posed a challenge for many pediatricians, even those whose practice includes a high proportion of Latinos, a survey indicated.Only 29% of California pediatricians surveyed offered Spanish-language screening for autism and related disorders on the recommended schedule, Katharine E. Zuckerman, MD, MPH, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and colleagues found.

Study: Training Pediatricians Will Help Identify Children with Autism Earlier

A training program designed to teach pediatricians to better identify kids with autism may be an effective way to decrease wait times and flag children with the developmental disorder at younger ages, researchers say.

Currently many children suspected of having autism wait months to see diagnosticians for an evaluation, but researchers say that training community pediatricians to conduct assessments may allow kids to enter treatment programs more quickly.

Autism and Health Care

Family can help calm a child with Autism. So often we may find ourselves focused so much on one particular disorder or illness, and forget that people can still get common colds and cavities. And that's the same for my son. I often find myself so caught up on trying to teach him behaviors, focus on speaking and spelling (he's becoming a wizz on the iPod Touch virtual keyboard), that I forget that he has other needs too. And, unfortunately for him, he inherited my baby teeth and now has at least one massive cavity.
Because my son has Autism and is non-verbal, he can't tell us that his jaw hurts when he tries to eat. So we need to rely on body language to help guide us. It's not easy, because any behavior caused by continuous pain could also be caused by his need for constant deep pressure. It's difficult to tell what the problem is, and how to best address it. It wasn't until I started looking into his mouth that I noticed a large cavity forming.

‘Environment’ Poses a Knotty Challenge in Autism

NEW YORK -- Parents of children with autism often ask pediatricians like me about the cause of the condition, and parents-to-be often ask what they can do to reduce the risk. But although there is more research in this area than ever before, it sometimes feels as if it’s getting harder, not easier, to provide answers that do justice to the evidence and also offer practical guidance.

Recent research has taught us more about the complexity of the genetics of autism, but the evidence also has suggested an important role for environmental exposures. It has become a very complicated picture: Genes matter, but we usually can’t tell how. Environmental exposures matter, but we usually don’t know which.

Study Finds Quick Tests Help Spot Development Delays

A new study out of Canada can help parents and doctors ask the right questions to identify developmental delays in children.

BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Researchers with BC Children's Hospital and the University of British Columbia say two quick, low-cost questionnaires can help family doctors better identify developmental delays in children.
Parents can complete the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) or the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) at home or in the family physician’s office, with the physician scoring the tests and providing results in a matter of minutes.

"It really asks them, 'Do you have concerns about your child's development in a number of areas?' so that's not too difficult for most parents to answer anyway," said family doctor and study co-author Dr. David Joyce.

"And just asking those simple questions about concerns is better than asking none of those questions at all."

Pediatricians Take a Stand on Vaccines

CHICAGO -- A small but growing number of parents think vaccines against childhood diseases are unsafe and are refusing or delaying shots for their children, despite the discrediting of a medical study linking vaccines and autism that stirred alarm.
Ground zero in the debate is the pediatrician's office.
Some frustrated pediatricians are drawing a line in the sand by requiring parents in their medical practices to vaccinate their children or seek health care elsewhere, a position that rubs some medical professionals the wrong way.