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ers Tips for a happy holiday, FALL 2013 FALL page 2 Welcome It is sometimes difficult to find a trustworthy source for answers to complex questions about your child’s health and development, so we provide this newsletter to bring you up-to-date information from specialists and researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. For more information about the clinic or if you have a question about your child’s development, please call the Autism Warm Line at 323-361-6102. In This Edition: 2 Holiday Tips From the Autism Parent Advisory Board Research Highlights: THE DEVELOPING MIND The Boone Fetter Clinic: Diagnostic, Clinical and Research Center for Autism Other Neurodevelopmental Behavioral Disord 3 A New View on Autism 3 Researching Genes and Autism at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 4 Autism Community Events To make an appointment, call the Autism Warm Line at 323.361.6102, email [email protected] or visit CHLA.org/AUTISM. 1300 N. Vermont Ave., Ste. 905, Los Angeles, CA 90027 Holiday Tips from the Autism Parent Advisory Board Research Highlights: A New View on Autism Holiday Season • Talk to your occupational therapist to o Are you OK with an artificial tree? attributed solely to diminished sight. The holiday season is a joyful time of the make recommendations on how to work Complicating the diagnosis is the fact o Do you have glass ornaments? Is your year, but it also can be stressful for parents. up to tolerating noise. that many screening methods for autism child safe with these? If not, what Preparing and planning early can help you rely on visual cues such as making eye • Reward your child throughout the event about plastic? avoid some of the holiday stress. Creating a contact—problematic for children with and reinforce positive behaviors. visual story (a series of pictures or drawings) • Take great care to be sensitive to your poor vision. before each holiday can help your child • Use ABA and floor-time techniques—“First children’s sensory issues. prepare for the day’s activities. Here are we will do this, second we will do this,” etc. Borchert’s solution: a diagnostic tool that • Assign tasks that you feel your child some additional ideas to help you and doesn’t depend on a child’s ability to see. The • Keep your eye on your child for signs of can manage, so her or she can participate your child enjoy the season. study team has modified existing instruments anxiety or distress. If your child is very on some level. that screen for autism to eliminate vision- active, take him or her to the park or a Make a calendar so your child knows dependent tests. This included replacing Holiday Meals place to freely move, to help calm down. • • Prepare for holiday meals by practicing when the tree is coming and when it small toys with larger or lighted toys, as sitting at the table with the plates, lighting, • Practice any expected behaviors will be taken down. well as finding non visual responses, such music, etc., before the event. Make it fun. in advance. as turning toward a person’s voice instead Gifts of pointing. • Prepare your child’s favorite foods and Decorations • Does your child have the fine motor skills snacks in case he or she doesn’t like the • Take your child to a small store so he or needed to open gifts? If not, start practicing So far, the modified test has proven effective holiday meal. If you are going to another Mark Borchert, MD, is an expert in eye birth defects and eye technology. she can look at lights prior to setting up early in the year. Have your child wrap in predicting ASD in a small number of home, take your child’s favorite foods, your tree. Some things to think about: little fun objects and open them. children with ONH. The next step is to music and snacks. Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Mark Borchert, MD, an eye specialist at enlarge the study. This innovative new o Is your child fixated on lights? • Some children might not recognize Angeles are focused on developing new Children’s Hospital, estimates that nearly strategy will help children receive a • Schedule an early dinner if you think the everyone’s name; so put pictures on diagnostic tools for children who have a third of children with ONH also have an diagnosis sooner and enable them to menu might be a problem. o Does your child have an aversion to the gifts instead of names. both developmental and visual challenges. ASD. Many behaviors in visually impaired get the care that they need. Borchert is lights? If so, think of alternatives to • Try out foods in advance to determine Optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) is a children resemble ASD symptoms—such as working toward that goal. “It will make a having lights on your tree. • Count down when the gifts will be what your child does or does not like, and visual impairment often associated with repetitive speech, pronoun reversal, singsong huge difference in the lives of all children, opened. Consider hiding them until help him or her become more comfortable o Have an alternative if your child likes developmental delay and autism language and ritualistic movements. Often including those with a visual impairment,” Christmas Day. with the food selection. to eat pine needles on the tree. spectrum disorders (ASDs). these behaviors are termed “blindisms” and he says. o Is your child allergic to pine? Gatherings • Know your setting. You may have to prepare another area where your child Autism Genetics Expert Joins Research Team can play or a space to decompress if he or she is overwhelmed by the sensory at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles stimulation. Try to get a few other children or adults to join your child. Autism spectrum disorders are likely A well-known expert in neurodevelop- “If we can identify the genetic factors that caused by both genetic and environmental mental disorders, Pat Levitt, PhD, recently lead to autism and the other co-occurring • Think about your family traditions and factors. Research has shown that children’s joined Children’s Hospital Los Angeles health challenges a child has, we can your child’s sensory/behavioral profile development is largely determined by their and the Institute for the Developing Mind created targeted therapies to intervene and how your child will interact. genes, but that their surroundings and to help answer these questions. Levitt’s in the most effective way,” Levitt says. • Prepare an activity for your child if you experiences can change how they grow and groundbreaking research is uncovering know he or she will have an aversion to develop. These complex influences also the complex interactions between genes Throughout his career, Levitt has provided a holiday tradition. For example, some determine how the brain itself develops and the environment, and how they leadership to numerous committees and families watch football on Thanksgiving over time, and for some children may lead influence a child’s brain functions, behaviors boards, including his current membership with surround sound and high volume. to developmental disorders such as autism. and abilities. His work will help health on the research advisory board for the Your child may have an aversion to loud However, there are still many questions care providers identify autism earlier Autism Speaks Autism Treatment Network. noises. Be prepared to take your child about how this process works. and intervene to improve the quality of He is a frequent lecturer on autism and outside to play, or have the children life of children and families affected by other neurodevelopmental disorders at the play games in another room. the disorder. local, national and international level. 2 3 Autism Community Events Autism Parent Advisory Board member Kameena Ballard-Dawkins (left) and Michele Kipke, PhD, at the Sunset Soiree Everyone benefits from being part of a • Walk Now for Autism Speaks: Led by • Autism Speaks Sunset Soiree: Aug. 21, community, and Children’s Hospital members of our Autism Parent Advisory 2013, we co-hosted a networking event Los Angeles is proud to be part of the Board, we walked to show our support with Autism Speaks for health care autism community in Los Angeles. This for Autism Speaks in this amazing providers and community leaders from past spring and summer, through our event on April 20, 2013, at the Rose throughout Los Angeles who work with partnership with the Autism Speaks Autism Bowl in Pasadena, alongside thousands children with autism spectrum disorders. Treatment Network and the Autism Speaks of families affected by autism The event was an opportunity to celebrate Southern California Chapter, we’ve spectrum disorders. three years of partnership through the participated in some great events to promote Autism Speaks Autism Treatment Network Over the Edge for Autism Speaks: Aaron autism awareness and the importance of • and our organizations’ collective efforts Tanner, speech pathologist in the Boone early screening and identification. to improve the lives of families impacted Fetter Clinic, along with other leaders by autism. in the autism community, went “Over • Autism Awareness Month and Light It Up the Edge” on July 27, 2013, fearlessly Early Screening Event: A group of Blue! Staff from clinics and offices • rappelling off the 11-story Renaissance dedicated clinicians from Children’s throughout Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Los Angeles Airport Hotel For Tanner, Hospital Los Angeles teamed up with showed their support for autism awareness this event was an opportunity to emphasize Autism Speaks to provide free on April 1, 2013, by wearing blue to the importance of communication developmental screenings to families work and discussing with co-workers, about ASDs.