By Anne Dachel

Read Anne's commentary and view the links after the jump.   The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and OurKidsASD, an online supplement retailer for patients with special needs.

Jan 12, 2015, FOX 13 (Salt Lake City) New BYU study shows childhood autism often goes undetected by doctors

'With the number of children who have autism growing, early detection is key.'

'Early detection'?  Why isn't finding the cause ever key?

This is an outrageous insult to parents and actually to doctors.

BACK SIX YEARS AGO...I wrote the story, AAP Autism Toolkit: "Insert Sound of Crickets Chirping." 

 (Actually Kim Stagliano came up with the clever title.)

The President of the AAP, Dr. David Tayloe, recently released a letter to doctors entitled, Autism: opportunities for pediatric leadership, partnership. In the midst of an unprecedented epidemic of neurological disorders among our children, this is the best response from the organization that claims to be focused on the health of our children.  In his letter, Tayloe advises doctors to use the "Autism toolkit" provided on this link. This amounts to a pathetic joke in the face of the struggle faced by countless thousands of parents.

Actually eight years ago, the AAP was telling their doctors what signs of autism they should look for.  

I'm confused.  The current autism rate of one in every 68 children, one in every 42 boys, is the result of "better diagnosing-that's what the press constantly tells us.

BUT NOW, we're being told that doctors still don't know what they're doing.  What are parents to think?  When is the medical community going to know anything for sure about autism?

New BYU study shows childhood autism often goes undetected by doctors

Video:"Utah has the second highest rate of autism in the nation and today a study from BYU was released showing a large majority of doctorsare failing to catch autism in young children early enough."

Reporter:"A trip to a pediatrician may not be enough to spot autism in a child.  Researchers are pointing to the amount of time doctors spend with children as the reason

Terisa Gabrielsen (lead researcher): "If a pediatrician is looking at a child for just a brief amount of time, they're not going to have enough information to make a good decision about whether they should refer a child for autism."

..Gabrielsen:'With the number of children who have autism growing, early detection is key."

FROM THE STORY:

The study, entitled Identifying Autism in a Brief Observation, finds that many medical professionals are missing signs of autism in child patients because time frames for clinical observation are too short to detect the disorder. The researchers found that in a 10-minute screening, autistic children displayed "typical" behavior 89 percent of the time, and medical specialists failed to detect autism cases 39 percent of the time.

BYU Assistant Professor Terisa Gabrielsen, along with her colleagues, concluded that earlier intervention could potentially change outcomes.

They suggested parents should be more proactive and involved in the autism screening process.

It would be nice if FOX 13 would tell us that the autism rate for Utah, as of 2012, is actually one in every 47 children in that state, one in every 32 boys.


The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and OurKidsASD.  Lee Silsby is one of the most respected compounding pharmacies in the country and is committed to serving the needs of the Autism community. OurkidsASD is an online retailer for nutritional supplements for patients with special needs. OurkidsASD carries thousands of products from more than 60 brands and offers free ground shipping on all orders.

Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of  The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which is on sale this Fall from Skyhorse Publishing.