Understanding the science of autism

A difficult part about having a child with Asperger Syndrome, commonly referred to as Asperger’s, a mild form of autism, is getting a diagnosis.

Daniel Kim
Daniel Kim THE DAILY


“We knew all along, but we didn’t know what to call it,” Kathy Vincent said of her son Connor.
Just before Connor entered junior high, his parents decided to take him to the UW Autism Center, where he was diagnosed with Asperger’s. Kathy began to suspect Connor had autism, after reading a story on autism in a magazine.
Even though the center didn’t make social skills classes available to the Vincents, the diagnosis made all the difference.
“It was awful, when nobody knew what it was,” Kathy said.
Although autism is unique to each case, it’s generally defined as a person’s inability to understand social situations and is often marked by repetitive behavior and social awkwardness.
While disabilities services at the UW make accommodations for students with Asperger’s, the Autism Center is both working on how to treat autism and researching the brain development of small children with autism.
Autism Research
Researchers believe genes are related to autism, because a child’s chance of having autism rises to 3 to 7 percent when his or her sibling has it. This is about 100 times the risk of the rest of society, said Annette Estes, the associate director of the research program of the UW’s school of autism.
Working from this hypothesis, the center is beginning a brain development research project Dec. 6 with children as young as 6 months.
Stephen Dager, a UW radiology professor, will be doing the scans with an MRI machine at Children’s Hospital. Then autism researchers will jointly interpret the information.
The project will also scan the same babies at ages 12 and 24 months, in order to follow their brain development.
“The current project is based in part on work conducted with the autism research center over the past 10-plus years, initially using MRI to study 3-year-olds,” Dager said.
The UW’s research will be done in conjunction with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Pennsylvania, he added.
Participating families in this new study are candidates because they have a child with autism, and there is no way of knowing if their 6-month-old has autism or not, Estes said.
“It can be pretty devastating news,” she added. “The way that they cope is they get activated.”
Participating families get the report and some treatment.
“The reason they’re doing this is to help families in the future,” Estes said.
It’s hard to diagnose children at infancy, but in some cases, at 12 months, psychologists can identify symptoms. Babies are typically interested in people and will sit up and look around, watching facial expressions. However, babies with autism often won’t do this, Estes said.
Researchers hypothesize that early problems have a “snowball effect” on a child’s development. For example, if a baby doesn’t watch people, he or she will be slow to learn facial expressions and then language.
To help limit this effect, psychologists work with families, teaching them how to better interact with their children. About 50 percent of the children that go through this intervention are able to join regular classrooms, Estes said.
The other 50 percent, however, might be able to use other bio-medical prevention, she said.
“Brains are a response to the environment,” she added. “We think we’re able to change brain development.”
Although in some cases babies can show signs of autism at young ages, unless someone is watching for autism, it can be years before people get a diagnosis, especially with Asperger’s.
Asperger’s on campus
Connor Vincent struggled through elementary school, often being labeled as a belligerent child.
For Connor, when the classroom was too active and noisy, he became overwhelmed to the point that it caused him physical pain. In response, he put his sweatshirt hood over his head and tuned out. When his teacher asked him to participate, he physically could not do it.
Once his parents learned of his diagnosis, they put him in an alternative junior high in the Lake Washington School District called Stella Schola, Latin for “star school.” It taught classical education, but was primarily good for him because the students stayed in the same class of 30 for all three years.
The social situation was consistent, making it easier to socially navigate. His parents also made the decision to talk to the students in the class about Connor’s autism.
“We were so afraid to tell them what was going on. When the kids found out, they just embraced him,” Kathy said.
Asperger’s is mild enough that some people with it are also able to attend the UW.
“You can’t come to the University of Washington if you’re not bright,” said Dyane Haynes, the director of Disability Resources for Students.
There are about seven to 10 students at the UW with Asperger’s, Haynes said. Some of them request accommodations, while others are perfectly fine on their own.
A few common requests include educating the student’s professors, finding ways to work around group projects and providing those staying in dorms with single person rooms, which allows them to get away from people and relax.
“For students with Asperger’s, it’s work having social interaction with people,” Haynes said.
For some, it’s difficult to make eye contact with people. However, it’s not that they’re not interested in that person, Haynes said.
“Often times, what happens is that the people will pick up that there is something not exactly right with this person … and then rather than being patient and non-judgmental, there starts to be assumptions made about the person,” Haynes said.
Haynes recommends that people be clear and direct with their language. People with Asperger’s don’t always pick up on the nuances of language, such as sarcasm and jokes.
Because there aren’t many students on campus with Asperger’s, Disability Resources hasn’t had any education programs. It would be difficult, because each case is so different.
“We try to accommodate a person, not a disability,” Haynes said.
[Reach reporter Celeste Flint at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]