Podcast – fascinating listening for ASD families

I am a great lover of radio, mainly because I can listen to really interesting things as I do housework.  After mastering iTunes and iPod, I now catch up on a whole range of programmes whilst washing up, folding clothes, tidying etc etc.

Loading the dishwasher, washing up the pots and pans and wiping down the tops, sorting out the general family debris has become (almost) a pleasure thanks to the hard workers at the ABC and the BBC.

Occasionally a podcast mentions autism/ASD, and fairly often I’m disappointed by the quality of the research.  Not so in the podcast you can find at:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2567806.htm

This is from the excellent show “All In The Mind” – the ABC’s weekly show about the brain and mind. In this episode,   Autism: genetics, early detection and the ethics of screening newborns, presenter Natasha Mitchell interviews two American neurologist/paediatricians and also Assoc. Proff Cheryl Dissanayake, who is a developmental psychologist and is Director of the new Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at Latrobe University.

Dr Dissanayake does research into the early detection of ASD, and talks about the effects of beginning treatment very early.

As a parent, I feel sure that studying the very early signs of ASD, and then trying to treat children in infancy, is a crucial area which will answer some of the toughest ASD questions:

What causes ASDs?

What are all the different types of ASDs

Can any be prevented?

Whilst these questions do not press upon my mind as harshly as they did when my son was first diagnosed, I do hope one day to know for sure the answers to them.   The volume of research being done on ASD is truly enormous, and I am sure there will be many answers found within the next few years.

Do you read scientific research?  

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