Through Step By Steps expanded counseling services program, licensed social workers provide one-on-one individual and group counseling to address the social deficits that many children with ASD struggle with daily. Worthington, OH (PRWEB) March 30, 2013 Children with ASD struggle greatly with picking up on social cues and often experience anxiety because they dont know how to behave in certain situations, especially in unfamiliar settings. Improving social skills is the key to increasing independence, and increased socialization and expressive communication often lead to a decrease in maladaptive behaviors and greater ease at setting up children and adolescents for success as adults. Through Step By Steps expanded counseling services program, licensed social workers provide one-on-one individual and group counseling to address the social deficits that many children with ASD struggle with daily. This services main goal is to work on engagement and social connectedness as a way of decreasing anxieties and maladaptive behaviors with peers. This service is now offered to children enrolled in the full-time on-campus program and is accessed throughout their typical day. Children and adolescents often require additional support in developing the social skills necessary to function successfully in their everyday environments, said Michele LaMarche, BCBA, executive director … Continue reading →

Parents of children with autism and professionals who work with children can hear the latest on research, treatment and strategies at United Service's autism information fair, scheduled from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 6 in the Community Commons at Spencer Road Library, 427 Spencer Road in St. Peters. Physicans and researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, Mercy Children's Hospital and SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center will host breakout sessions to bring the community up to speed on thelatestfindings from the field. "More children are being diagnosed with this, and it's a lifelong condition. There's so much we need to learn about how the condition works and how to make their livers better," said Natasha Marrus, an instructor andresearcherin the Division ofChildand Adolescent Psychiatry at WashingtonUniversitySchool of Medicine. Until recently, the Centers for Disease Control reported that one in 88 children were diagnosed with autism. A phone survey of 95,000 parents released by the CDC in March found as many as one in 50 children could be affected by autism. Marrus said prevalence has been on the rise for decades, much of that due to better diagnostic techniques. "It's not clear if it can account for all of … Continue reading →

In Thursday's Healthier Me,scientists say they've discovered new ways in which small changes in our DNA can increase the risk for breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer. It is a trove of new genetic information about cancer that could soon help millions of patients: researchers have found nearly 50 new markers for breast cancer, 26 for prostate cancer, and nearly a dozen for ovarian cancer. Groundbreaking studies of more than 200,000 people in some 200 labs around the worldalmost doubled the number of gene variations known to affect risk for some of the deadliest cancers. Thisnew genetic information could soon lead to new blood tests to help determine how much a person is at risk and how serious the cancer might be. Because the research involved so many subjects, some of the tests should be in your doctor's office in a year or two, with others coming further down the road. The explosion of genetic information has been made possible through the development of robotic machines capable of identifying the slight differencesin the DNA which signal cancer risk. Finding these variations used to take months or years; now it takes just days. Dr. Fergus Couch, Mayo Clinic: "We started this project … Continue reading →