This blog is a way of sharing the information and resources that have helped me to recover my son Roo from an Autism Spectrum Disorder. What I have learned is to view our symptoms as the results of underlying biological cause, which can be identified and healed. I say "our symptoms" because I also have a neuro-immune disorder called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

And, of course, I am not a doctor (although I have been known to impersonate one while doing imaginative play with my son)- this is just our story and information that has been helpful or interesting to us. I hope it is helpful and interesting to you!


Saturday, July 17, 2010

Seizures in Autism- How Common Are They?

 

In this TED talk, Aditi Shankardass,who leads a team at Harvard that uses EEG and other tools  to assess the neurological basis of suspected brain disorders in children, discusses her findings that as many as 50% of children diagnosed with autism have seizure activity- usually previously undiagnosed.  She makes the point that although 1 in 6 children is diagnosied with a brain disorder of some type, these diagnoses have nearly always been made entirely on the grounds of observable behavior rather than any actual biological or neurological test.  Her finding that many of these children have seizures, and can improve substantially with appropriate treatment, underscores the meed to consider autism and related disorders not as "learning problems" or "mental problems" only but as actual, biologically based disorders that can be treated.
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