Children With History Of Institutional Care Have Increased Risk For Autism
Nadia Shanab | autism, general advice, parenting, tips23 Jul 2015
Tip
Autistic behavior doesn’t always mean the child has ASD. Parents, adoptive parents, and educators, make sure to have your child evaluated and assessed at a young age. Don’t mistake poor social skills and communication abilities for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) published a study in February 2015 to show that children who were abandoned to institutional care have an increased risk for an autistic-like behaviors, as well as impaired social and communication skills. But when these children were moved into child-centered foster family care at a young age, their social behavior improved.
Tip
Early intervention, by moving institutionalized young kids into quality foster care, will help improve their social behaviors.
The senior author of the paper, Charles A. Nelson PhD of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School suggests:
“We believe that both groups suffer deprivation, but of different types: In institutionalized children, the deprivation comes from their environment, while in the general population, the autism itself causes a kind of deprivation, making it harder for children to perceive and understand social cues.”
nadia shanab
Tags: asperger's syndrome, autism, behavior modification, communication, diagnosis, early intervention, health, institutionalized kids, parenting, signs of autism, social behavior, social interaction, symptoms of autism, tips
