Jonathan Brunot Wins Yurbud's'#Beyond The Wall' contest.mp4 Olga Brunot, the stoic matriarch of the family, fought to hold back her tears. What mother wouldn't after seeing her son's image scroll across the jumbotron in the middle of Times Square? Her twenty-three year-old son, Jonathan, just completed his eighth marathon; an accomplishment revered by every serious athlete. In doing so he won the Yurbud's'#Beyond The Wall' contest, earning Jonathan a spot on the jumbotron for three months. As Olga proudly stood in Time Square looking up at her son's image, she couldn't help but to think back to the time just over twenty-years ago when Jonathan was diagnosed with severe autism. She was crying then too, but for a completely different reason. This is a special time for Jonathan. As unlikely as it is, in November he'll run his 5th New York City Marathon, 10th overall. The odds of someone with autism as severe as Jonathan's competing in just one marathon are astronomical; competing in ten gives hope to the millions of parents of children with autism. Running along side of Jonathan will be Dr. Bobby Newman, a Board … Continue reading →

By Barbara Bronson Gray HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Laughing, giggling and making silly faces. Building a tower of blocks together and then crashing it down. Engaging young children with autism in a program that involves such fun, interactive play can affect their brain activity, making it resemble that of children without the disorder, a new study shows. The research is the first trial to demonstrate that early behavioral intervention may be associated with normal patterns of brain activity and improved social behavior in young children with autism. Researchers used a tested behavioral program that has been shown to raise intelligence, language and adaptive behavior in children with autism to evaluate whether such therapy might be associated with measurable improvements in their brain activity. The investigators found that interventions designed to enhance the ability of children with autism to attend to social cues -- like human faces -- and engage with others may help their brains develop more normally. "After the treatment, the EEGs [brain activity tests] of the children with autism looked like those of children who were developing normally," said Sally Rogers, a study author and professor of psychiatric and behavioral sciences at the MIND … Continue reading →

(Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nicole VanBuskirk walks her 6-year-old autistic son, Austin, to play in the backyard swingset, Monday, October 29, 2012. Austin works with Breanne Berg, left, who teaches an autism therapy like the one covered in the state-funded pilot, Monday, October 29, 2012. Berg is walking with Austin's younger brother, Trevor. Carol Embry and her husband have full-time jobs with health insurance, but neither their salaries nor their policies cover the cost of the autism treatment their 5-year-old son needs. Theyve tried other therapies. Theyve borrowed money and tapped into retirement funds. Lottery closed on Wednesday Oct. 31 was the last day for Utah families to apply for free treatment for autism under a Medicaid-funded pilot project. By close of business Wednesday, 390 had applied for the estimated 250 slots, but the number of families could rise because applications were being accepted online until midnight and by mail. That means the Utah Department of Health will hold a lottery to choose the winners, ranking the applications at random while ensuring wide geographic distribution. Winners will be notified the week of Nov. 12, and services are expected to start by mid-November. "All of my sons medical … Continue reading →

Parkview Huntington Hospital plans to open an autism treatment center next year, Parkview Health officials announced Tuesday. The Parkview Huntington Hospital Autism Center will serve children ages 2 to 18, offering therapeutic and rehabilitation services. Families of autistic children will also be able to attend support group meetings at the center, officials said. Estimates place the number of children affected by autism at one in 88, including one in 54 boys, and rising. Experts say its unclear whether detection is improving or more children are affected by the serious developmental problem. Autism spectrum disorders affect a childs ability to communicate and interact with others. Symptoms and severity vary but generally appear in children before age 3. Autism costs the U.S. $137 billion each year, according to Autism Speaks.org. Officials plan to open with capacity of 10 patients and expand to serve up to 40. Indiana Applied Behavioral Analysis will provide some trained staff. The Parkview Huntington Foundation has pledged $45,000 of the $70,000 needed for the centers startup, Parkview spokesman Eric Clabaugh said. The autism center will serve children throughout the region. Parkview Health chose the Huntington County hospital in part because of interest shown by Dr. Duane Hougendobler, who … Continue reading →

By Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD Oct. 29, 2012 -- Early, intensive autism treatment improves children's brain development, a new study shows. The treatment, dubbed Early Start Denver Model or ESDM, offers a child 20 hours a week of one-on-one treatment with a trained therapist. It also calls for many more hours of the treatment, in the form of structured play, with a parent trained in the technique. By age 4, children given the treatment had higher IQ scores, more adaptive behavior, better coordination, and a less severe autism diagnosis than kids given the standard autism treatments offered in their communities. But that's not all, researchers Geraldine Dawson, PhD, and colleagues report. "We jump-started and improved the responses of children's brains to social information," says Dawson, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and chief science officer at Autism Speaks. Normal child development depends on interactions with parents and other people. Without such interactions, language and social skills do not develop. As measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG), small children's brains show a specific pattern of activity when they look at a picture of a human face. This doesn't happen when they … Continue reading →