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March 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) — Children with autism often
display challenging behaviors, but new research suggests that parents can
learn to better handle tantrums and aggression, which may improve their
child’s overall functioning.
“Parent training is one of the best, evidence-supported treatment
interventions in child psychiatry for other conditions, such as for
children with ADHD or children with oppositional defiant disorder,” said
senior study author Lawrence Scahill, a professor at Yale University
School of Nursing and Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn. “But
strangely enough, it had never really been tried with children with autism
or with developmental disabilities, so we had to make our own manual.”
The study involved 124 children aged 4 to 13 with an autism spectrum
disorder and serious behavioral issues, including daily, prolonged
tantrums, aggression or self-injurious behavior. The children were
prescribed risperidone (Risperdal), an antipsychotic drug approved by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating severe behavioral problems
in children with autism.
Half the children and their parents were also assigned to a six-month,
structured “parent training” program. Parents were asked to identify the
most difficult, disruptive behaviors and to think about what preceded the
incidents and why the child might do it. They then worked with counselors
to devise strategies to avoid the triggers and help the child respond
better to the everyday stressors.
Parents who underwent training reported a greater decrease in problem
behaviors than the parents of children on medication alone, researchers
found. By the end of the study, the average dose of risperidone
was lower for kids in the parent-training group.
“On the tantrums, the aggression and the self-injury, the combination
of medications and parent training was better,” said Scahill. “How much
better? Not a huge amount, but it was an incremental improvement over an
already effective improvement.”
Parents who received training also reported improvements on a test
known as the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale, which measures how well a
child does everyday activities, such as communicating, socializing,
dressing, eating at the table and going to school.
By diminishing serious problem behaviors, such as tantrums and
aggression, children’s skills in other areas improved, but the difference
was not statistically significant.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired
social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, restricted
interests and behaviors, repetitive behaviors and sometimes intellectual
disability.
The study is published in the February issue of the Journal of the
American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry.
Researchers plan to share the manual with the public. The training
involves in-person sessions with a parent-training therapist, phone
sessions and home visits that take place over several months.
Dr. Joseph Horrigan, assistant vice president and head of medical
research for Autism Speaks, said studies like this provide more evidence
that parent training can help kids and their families cope with
autism-related behavioral problems.
The approach is “pragmatic and practical,” he added. “We’re all doing
our best as parents, but we can all use a second set of eyes and an expert
opinion to better our game, and this is shedding that light on the
technique.”
It also makes the point that medication isn’t the only way to help kids
with autism, he added.
In any case, not all children with autism should or would be prescribed
risperidone, experts said. The drug, also used to treat schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder, is for children with very serious behavioral issues that
affect their ability to function in daily life in an extreme way, Scahill
said.
Parents shouldn’t take the term “parent training” to mean they are
doing something wrong, Scahill said. Rather, with an expert’s help they
may learn tricks that make their life — and their child’s life — a
little easier.
“One of the first things I tell parents, we are not blaming the
parents,” he said. “Children with an autism spectrum disorder present
unique challenges to parents. Children with autism spectrum disorder who
also have disruptive behaviors present even more challenges.”
“If a parent had a child with a serious medical condition like diabetes
or asthma, there are all kinds of things that parent would have to learn
that average parents don’t, and so it is with children with autism
spectrum disorder,” he added. “There is no reason to think a parent would
automatically know how to manage these problems.”
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and
Stroke has more on autism.
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