I've been meaning to write about this since we started the study because I think it is so interesting what they are trying to do. We started when Bennett was 6-months - picture on left. The University of Washington Autism Center, along with 4 other institutions is participating in a study sponsored by the National Institute of Heath to study the younger siblings of kids with Autism. At 6, 12 and 24 months we take Bennett to about 4 appointments to review his development and to have him participate in various tests. In additon he gets an MRI. Since siblings of Autistic kids have a greater chance of getting Autism, they are studying these kids which theoretically will have a larger percentage of Autism than the general population. The study will last 5 years and also includes a genetic component (blood test for me, Kurt, Luke and Bennett) as well as MRIs for Bennett (at the same intervals). The MRIs are to look for brain structure differences between Autistic kids and typical kids (that what we call 'normal' kids) as well as brain development patterns in Autistic kids (such as a certain part grows faster after 1 year than normal or bigger, smaller etc.)
The assessments we do are really fascinating. I've decribed some of them below. The hope is that the study will prove these tests are an effective way to diagnose Autism much earlier than they do now. People could start getting therapy as early as 6-months when kids show early signs.
- Voice comparison: Bennett sits on my lap and a horn appears on a TV screen and makes a sound. A light flashes on the right and then a voice says something. The horn on the screen in front sounds again (so he orients back to the center). A light flashes on the left and a different voice says something. The horn reorients again. From that point on the light will flash and the voice will speak based only on the way (left or right) that Bennett looks. They want to see which voice he prefers. One is a mom talking to a baby in a cooing voice. The other is saying the same thing but in a very tonal non-human sound. The babies know once the horn sounds to look either right or left for the 'reward' (the voice). I was amazed how quickly Bennett understood 'the game'. At the 6-month visit they had us wear noise cancelling headphones so we couldn't influence which way they look. However I could tell that the mom voice was to the left (yes, where Bennett looked). At the 12-month visit they played music into the headphones.
- Pictures review: Bennett has a weird cap on (pictured) while he watches pictures or video appear on the screen. The videos are either Baby Einstein stuff (spinning tops etc.) or people doing nursery rhymes. The pictures are either of people or things. While Bennett watches the pictures/videos, they monitor what part of his brain he is using to look at them. People with autism register people and things in the same part of the brain. Typical people register them in different places (human / inanimate).
- Picture review 2: They video Bennett while he watches a TV. It has a animated bell in the center and then shows an animated animal on the right or left. From the video they measure how fast he looks from picture to picture. I am unclear what this one means but I assume based on how I would think Luke would react (he noticesless) that kids with Autism wouldn't look at the new picture as fast as typical kids.
- Delayed imitation: He plays with 5 specific toys one at a time. Then he watches a guy play with them in a specific way. We go away for 10 minutes. Then we come back in the room and Bennett gets the toys one at a time. They watch to see if he plays with them the same way that the guy did. Again I was totally amazed that he did imitate what he saw.
- General developmental review: He is assessed in fine and gross motor, language, emotional development and others.
We go back on Wednesday to get his 12-month assessment based on the general developmental review. Since the other tests (besides the general review) are all really experiments, they cannot give us results on that. Hopefully they will prove effective!
