In the News ...

Here are a couple of interesting news items you may have missed. I found these on the Science Daily news service over the weekend.

Second-Hand Smoking Affects Neurodevelopment in Babies
How does it affect the baby? ..."poor physiological, sensory, motor and attention responses". Read it - it's an eyeful.

Disorder of Neuronal Circuits in Autism Is Reversible, New Study Suggests
Scientists have found an impaired set of circuitry affecting many symptoms of autism and have reversed the problem in mice. This gives hope that we may be able to do the same in humans once we are better at pinpointing brain chemical therapy to a given small region. A breakthrough in that technique was also reported last week.

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AJOT Issue on Autism

You might want to check out this month's edition of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) - which is devoted to autism. Here are some highlights from the articles:

• Modifying sound and light in a classroom for students with autism by insulating walls with sound absorbing Owens Corning Basement on Finishing System (TM) and replacing fluorescents with area-based halogen lighting decreased the act-out behaviors of 4 teens (ages 13-20) who use the room.
• Yoga for children with autism is shown to be a good intervention for kids on the spectrum - we already knew that, but it's great to see it verified.
• Also, several articles look at the incidence of sensory issues (oral motor, auditory processing and proprioception) in children with autism as opposed to that in typically developing children.