Autism has been a heavy subject in the media regularly for the past 5-10 years. Many people have their theories as to how autism is caused and why it has become more prevalent in the United States. Of course, as controversial as it appears to be, when there’s a debate science isn’t too far behind giving us the facts.
According to an article published in the journal Current Biology, autism can be defined as “a developmental disorder diagnosed on the basis of early-emerging social and communication impairments and rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests” (Frith, U. & Happé, F., 2005). There are several claims as to how often this disorder occurs in children, but the best estimate available gives that 1 in 68 children have an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) (Daniels, J., et al., 2018). Usually these children struggle to recognize facial cues and avoid eye contact.
As you can probably see, this disorder makes social interactions extremely difficult for these children. ASD will affect their futures with coworkers, personal relationships, etc. A current standard therapy being used to treat ASD is called applied behavioral analysis (ABA). Even though this therapy is effective in improving eye contact, increasing IQ, and emotion recognition, most of these behaviors are learned and not natural dependent upon prompts from the behavioral source (Maglione, M., et al., 2012).
A small tangent, I know many of you are looking for the cause of the disorder itself. Vaccine critics have long been blaming the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This came about from Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist (note that this is not an immunology specialty), claiming he found the cause: MMR vaccine. Thus, starting the anti-vaxxer niche within our society and has easily been the most damaging medical hoax of the past 100 years (Flaherty, D., 2011). For good measure, seven controlled studies and two ecological studies in the U.S., Great Britain, Denmark, and Japan have failed to document as association between MMR vaccination and autism. By 2004, the scientific community was in agreement that vaccines did NOT cause or contribute to autism.
With that out of the way, the scientific community now has a small study suggesting that technology can greatly improve autistic symptoms! This study was published online in Digital Medicine on August 2, 2018, by Daniels, J., et al. This study used technology like Google Glass to deliver audio-visual feedback to children with ASD. Instead of needing a prompt from a person to give to a child with ASD to respond correctly, these glasses would give feedback to the child (Daniels, J., et al., 2018). This study was based on 14 families and complied with wearing the device at home for the minimum usage requirement of 10 weeks. The feedback from the families was measured by interviews with prepared questions. In a short conclusion, the families agreed that the technology was helpful to their child with ASD and encouraged the child to be engaged with their surroundings. Also of note, was that 12 of the 14 families had stated their child increased eye contact from start to finish.
Could wearable technology that society had prepped to be purely for entertainment purposes only be the gateway to helping autistic children understand their surroundings thus living independently through their own means? While this study was a small population, it does suggest that these glasses could give ASD children the confidence needed to navigate their environment without the help of their parents or cues from strangers who may not know they have ASD.
References
Daniels, J., Schwartz, J., Catalin, V., Haber, N., Fazel, A., Kline, A., Washington, P., Feinstein, C., Winograd, T., & Wall, D. (2018). npj Digital Medicine, 1(32), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-018-0035-3
Flaherty, D. (2011). The vaccine-autism connection: a public health crisis caused by unethical
medical practices and fraudulent science. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, (45), 1302-1304.
Frith, U., & Happé, F. (2005). Autism spectrum disorder. Current Biology, 15(19), 786-790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2005.09.033
Maglione, M., Gans, D., Das, L., Timbie, J., & Kasari, C. (2012). Nonmedical interventions for children with ASD: recommended guildelines and further research needs. Pediatrics, 130(2), S169. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-09000
B. Johnson says
If you are interested in reading about a potential cause to ASD, please read this article. It appears that there is a link between the mother being exposed to an insecticide and having an increased risk of giving birth to an autistic child. I would be curious to see a study involving other pesticides and not just DDT. I have a feeling though… that kind of study might not be accepted in the rural mid-west…
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180816081500.htm
Sara Snipes says
Hello B. Johnson,
Thank you for your post! I love engaging material. Yes, this may be hard to explain or ‘sell’ to a rural area such as ours. However, there are various pesticide studies that link them to varying illnesses including ASD. There is another theory, as I replied below to another commenter, that it is a deletion within a genetic component that may also lead to ASD. But both can be true independently of one another.
Thank you!
George says
What’s long and hard on a trumpanzee? Third grade science.
Thomas E.H. says
//What’s long and hard on a trumpanzee? Third grade science.//
Hi George, would you care to explain the relevance or purpose of this post? If your plan is to make more people decide not to vote for Trump, you may want to reconsider your tactics.
George says
How about “The day I am elected health insurance costs will drop drastically?”
Thomas E.H. says
//How about “The day I am elected health insurance costs will drop drastically?”//
That’s a superb place to start for a relevant post. I’m sure you can expound on that a bit.
Pat says
“…when there’s a debate science isn’t too far behind giving us the facts.”
Only if science is not conflicted, which it is sometimes.
Thomas E.H. says
//Only if science is not conflicted, which it is sometimes.//
Are you thinking of something specific, Pat? From my understanding, scientists may be conflicted, but the science should be able to be repeatable by independent sources to illustration its soundness. If course, science is not perfect and humans certainly are!
Sara Snipes says
Hello Pat,
Thank you for your comment!
Is there a particular subject you are thinking of when saying science is sometimes conflicted? Many times science is not conflicted, but rather people who are not trained to interpret results confuse the main idea of study outcomes or falsely represented studies (such as Dr. Wakefield’s vaccine study) are maliciously used to gain notoriety.
Science can be tough because we are inherently biased as humans. We subconsciously lean towards what we favor. However, the scientific method is built to eliminate bias, but if you let bias intrude in on your study then you can get conflicting results. However, those results then can’t be replicated and will debunk whatever work was previously done (again, Dr. Wakefield’s work has never been replicated either).
I hope that helps your journey into the realm of science! Thank you!
virginia says
Autism is a terrible disorder that causes much suffering to children and their families. In the latest statistics, there has been a strong increase in the number of cases. Scientific research has not yet provided a clear answer to the cause. Maybe it’s not the vaccine, but we do not know exactly what causes the disease. I believe that medical studies need to be stepped up with international collaboration.
All hope is in science. I ask the leaders of the world to get involved in saving the children.
Virginia -Romania
Sara Snipes says
Hello Virginia,
Thank you for your comment. As to a cause of autism, please read this excerpt from a paper published by Shreya Bhat, U. Rajendra Acharya, Hojjat Adeli*, G. Muralidhar Bairy and Amir Adeli in 2014:
“It is more common in White children compared with African-American or Hispanic children,
and boys are five times more prone to this disorder compared with girls (Falco, 2014) because of mutations in the X-chromosome patched-related (PTCHD1) gene. The microdeletion of the PTCHD1 gene is maternally inherited and is dominant in males as they possess XY chromosomes whereas females have XX chromosomes. The microdeletion of the PTCHD1 gene becomes a recessive character in females (Noor et al., 2010). Around 5% of male ASD cases are due to the compound heterozygous, rare inherited functional loss of homozygous, and X-chromosome hemizygous mutations (Stein et al., 2013).”
In short, there is a cause and it is determined before birth. However, as usual, there can be other explanations, but this is a well-rounded look at the cause of autism. I hope this helps!