Latest Research

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Effects of Modified Milieu Therapy Intervention on the Social Communicative Behaviors of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
J Autism Dev Disord, by Mancil, GR, Conroy MA, and Haydon TF, published in 2009, summarized Nov 2010

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques can be combined to help children replace aberrant behavior with functional communication skills.

The purpose of this study was to see if two therapies (milieu therapy and functional communication training) could be combined to help children replace bad behavior with language. The authors measured increased communication skills, decreased use of prompts, and decreased bad behavior in three young children with autism at home and in the classroom. They found that prompts decreased with the therapy. Communication increased and bad behavior decreased to almost zero with therapy. All of these skills were generalized to untrained settings and persons.


Effective Methylphenidate Treatment of an Adult Aspergers Syndrome and a Comorbid ADHD: A Clinical Investigation with fMRI
Journal of Attention Disorders, by Roy, M., Dillo W., Bessling S., Emrich HE, and Ohlmeier MD, published in 2009, summarized Nov 2010

Methylphenidate may help adults who are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger syndrome.

This case study presents an adult patient with ADHD and Aspergers syndrome. The 26-year old man had had problems since childhood with making and keeping social contacts. The authors note that when an adult has both ADHD and Aspergers syndrome the case may be complex and hard to diagnose. This is because both ADHD and Aspergers syndrome may result in poor social skills and lack of attention. In the case of this patient, treatment with methylphenidate improved his ability to function and reduced his ADHD symptoms.


Gastrointestinal Symptoms in a Sample of Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders
J Autism Dev Disord, by , published in 2009, summarized Nov 2010

Children’s GI problems appear less likely to respond to autism treatment and therefore GI symptoms may need to be considered and treated when creating a treatment plan for a child with autism.

The purpose of this study was to study the GI problems in a large sample of children with autism. The authors studied 172 children who entered two large-scale autism drug therapy trials. The groups (GI problems and no GI problems) were the same with regards to sex, race, special education placement, and family background. It seemed that those children who had more GI problems also had more behavioral problems. Children with autism and GI problems also had more social problems than children without GI problems.


Comprehensive Synthesis of Early Intensive Behavioral Interventions for Young Children with Autism Based on the UCLA Young Autism Project Model
J Autism Dev Disord, by Reichow, B., and Wolery M., published in 2009, summarized Nov 2010

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) may be an effective intervention for some children with autism.

EIBI is based on applied behavior analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the research on early intensive behavioral interventions (EIBI) for children with autism. This review describes only a small number of effects from the small number of studies on EIBI. The findings from the EIBI research were mixed. It seems that the best results on IQ change might be seen when staff were trained using the UCLA model, intervention happened for a long time per session, and the total hours of therapy were high.


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