Dr. Partington is a licensed psychologist and Doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D). He has more than 35 years experience working with children with developmental disabilities, and operates the Strategic Teaching and Reinforcement System (STARS) Clinic. 

Partington Behavior Analysts is a service-delivery system working with children with autism and other developmental disabilities, their parents, and other professionals.  Each child’s curriculum is unique, individually developed through the assessment of basic language and learning skills.

First there is a precise measurement of the existing skills of the child. Next, the Partington makes a clear analysis of the conditions under which the skills are utilized. These direct observations provide insight into the behaviors or circumstances that prevent the child from acquiring new skills.

As the autistic child learns further, Dr. Partington’s ABLLS-R system tracks and continually measures learning achievements, giving his team ongoing data and ensuring the student’s acquisition of new skills and learning. Dr. Partington will speak more the developments that led to his system and the implementation at ICare4Autism’s upcoming August 2012 conference Autism: A Global Perspective.

The Abrahams lab works to understand the “whys” and “hows” in the Autism Spectrum Disorders and to use these insights to achieve better patient outcomes. Dr. Abrahams has identified DNA variants that increase risk for disease and discovered how some of these impact brain structure and function. Ongoing work is poised to take these insights back to the clinic and improve quality of life for patients and families.

All of the work that they accomplish begins and ends in the clinic. The Abrahams team is always actively recruiting patients (and family members) to participate in genetic studies. If you are interested in being part of their study, you can contact them directly for more information.

Widely sought by instititutions nationwide, he chose to come to Einstein and now he is choosing to speak at ICare4Autism’s upcoming August Conference Autism: A Global Perspective. This is the second time that we have invited Dr. Abrahams to speak after the rave reviews of his last speaking engagement at our Jun 6^th conference in 2011.

Dr. Abrahams speaks from a history of personal patient interaction and detailed experiments with a protein called Cntnap2. He writes that, “convergent lines of evidence support involvement of Contactin Associated Protein-Like 2 (CNTNAP2), a Neurexin family member, in the ASDs and related disorders of cognition.” The Abrahams lab explores the biological mechanisms by which mutations in CNTNAP2 may cause disease. They characterized animals in which the murine homolog is deleted.

Cntnap2 KO mice were found to have behavioral abnormalities reminiscent of core deficits observed in patients. Mutant mice were also seen to be hyperactive and show spontaneous epileptic seizures, both primary reactions in autistic patients. Treatment with the FDA approved drug risperidone alleviated a subset of behaviors in mutant mice. Dr. Abrahams will discuss further possible treatments and elaborate on the numerous successes that his team has encountered at Einstein.

The Parent Child Training Program (PCTP) at Action For Autism is a ‘model’ program that addresses the critical need for parent education. How to parent an autistic child is not an intuitive process. True parental involvement is the key to successful autism programming and activities.

PCTP’s training empowers parents to take charge of their children’s health and education. Parental involvement on this level not only helps educate children, but it heals the emotional stresses that parents face. The PCTP training program is a ten-week country wide opportunity.

The coursework covers behavior modification and skills maintenance. Mothers learn tools and tactics for facilitating learning. Most importantly, they gain confidence through community by meeting other parents. This is the goal of ICare4Autism’s conference and our institute at large. By sharing information we strengthen our skills.

Ms. Barua’s organization quotes that they hope for “a society that views the interdependence of people of every ability as valuable and enriching.” AFA seeks to provide equal opportunities for all. Their goals are not only research and expanding autism education in India but also independent life training and skills.

The AFA’s reach goes beyond Los Angeles and India to the Europe. AFA created “Activate Yourself!” to put into action the value of all people. Due to the nature Autism, people with this disorder have difficulties in terms of self-advocating their fundamental rights. Therefore “Activate Yourself” was developed to encourage active participation of young people with ASD; empower them as active citizens, make them aware of their role in creating their own future and promote their equal rights and opportunities. The project is supported by the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union.

This kind of active work is right in line with the International Center for Global Research. We learn as much in the classroom as we do from the scientists in our lab. How to educate our autistic youth comes directly from their communication and achievements.

In particular, of the 29 cytokine levels investigated, the researchers found disturbed levels in five related to the T-helper cell immune system and three involved in hematopoiesis or the production of blood cells possibly affecting antibody production required for normal functioning of the immune system.

Both the immune system and genetic factors have been implicated in the biological basis for autism, said Merlin G. Butler, professor of psychiatry at the KU Medical Center. “Our study further supports a disturbed immune system in children with classic autism that may be related to genetic factors as cytokine proteins are coded by genes distributed among the human chromosomes.”

Additionally, studies in families with autism have shown the significant contribution of genetics, including deletions and duplications of chromosomes and mutations or variants found in specific genes involved with brain development and function, he said.

“The importance of identifying early immunological disturbances that may contribute to autism has implications for identifying risk factors, diagnosis and possibly intervention as cytokines may play a role in the function of the developing brain,” he said.

The study was one of the largest of its kind to date, analyzing the plasma of 99 children with AD between 5 and 10 years of age and that of 40 age- and gender- matched unrelated healthy siblings without AD under the same clinical assessments, specimen processing and laboratory conditions. The male-to-female ratio closely matches that seen in the ASD population, and there were gender-based differences found in five cytokines.

Butler said that the purpose of this research is linking the genes encoding immune-related proteins and cytokines to ASD along with identifying the sequence of the events during critical periods of brain and neurological development. This could allow for earlier recognition, diagnosis and potential treatment.

Ann Manzardo, assistant professor of psychiatry, was the first author on the study. The study was published in the April 2012 International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience.

Martha Naber, education program coordinator at KVCC, said the program is important for the health of families and communities.

As the prevalence of Autism rises, so does the need for educators to have a thorough understanding of those autism spectrum disorders.  Naber said the courses will be helpful for a host of people, including education technicians, teachers in search of recertification credits, health-care workers and family members.

“Each person on the spectrum is unique,” she said. “There is no one method (of teaching). One (child) might be very verbal and one might not have any language. One might flap their arms and one might not at all. One might be highly sensitive to light and another might be sensitive to sounds.”

Courses in the college’s 62-credit program include Working with Family Members, Language Development, Data Collection, and Assisted Technology.

Kennebec Valley Community College President Barbara Woodlee said the college is reacting to the needs of the community.

“KVCC has always adapted its program offerings to meet changing workforce needs, and the addition of a two-year autism degree is both timely and appropriate given the college’s experience in autism education and the significant increase in autism diagnosis nationwide,” she said.

Two courses for the degree will be offered this summer, according to Jonathan Humphrey, media specialist at the college. One will be available statewide through interactive television sites and one will be available online.

Tammy Movsas, M.D., a postdoctoral epidemiology fellow at Michigan State University.

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered a connection between length of pregnancy and the severity of autism symptoms.

The research suggests normal term children born with autism have less severe symptoms than children with autism who are born pre-term or several weeks late.

Researchers also say that children with autism who were born either preterm or post-term are more prone to self-injury compared with children with autism who are born on time.

The research appears online in the Journal of Autism and Development Disorders.

While it is not yet clear why there is an increase in symptoms of autism, Tammy Movsas, M.D., a postdoctoral epidemiology fellow, believes the reasons may be tied to some of the underlying causes of why a child is born preterm (prior to 37 weeks) or post-term (after 42 weeks) in the first place.

“We think about autism being caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors,” she said. “With preterm and post-term babies, there is something underlying that is altering the genetic expression of autism.”

“The outside environment in which a preterm baby continues to mature is very different than the environment that the baby would have experienced in utero. This change in environment may be part of the reason why there is a difference in autistic severity in this set of infants.”

Researchers utilized an online database compiled by Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University of nearly 4,200 mothers — with children with ASD ages 4-21 — between 2006 and 2010. It divided the data on births into four categories: very preterm (born prior to 34 weeks); preterm (34 to 37 weeks); standard (37 to 42 weeks); and post-term (born after 42 weeks).

The mothers were required to complete a pair of questionnaires regarding the symptoms of their children, and the results revealed very preterm, preterm and post-term children with autism had significantly higher screening scores for autism spectrum disorder than those born full term.

“The findings point to the fact that although autism has a strong genetic component, something about pregnancy or the perinatal period may affect how autism manifests,” said Nigel Paneth, M.D., an MSU epidemiologist who worked with Movsas on the paper.”

“This adds to our earlier finding that prematurity is a major risk factor for autism spectrum disorder and may help us understand if anything can be done during early life to prevent or alleviate autism spectrum disorder.”

Researchers Martin Knapp, Ph.D., of the London School of Economics, and David Mandell, Sc.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, compiled information from recent studies of autism costs from many sources to determine the current cost of autism associated with the previous CDC-reported prevalence that 1:110 children were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The prevalence has now increased to 1:88 and as high as 1:54 in boys. The cost of autism continues to grow with the rise in prevalence. The research team found that the cost of autism in the U.S. alone is greater than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 139 countries around the world.

“The need for action has never been more urgent.” said Dr. Joshua Weinstein, CEO & Founder of Shema Kolainu - Hear Our Voices in Brooklyn, NY and ICare4Autism in Jerusalem, Israel   “The soaring autism rate is one of our major concerns and one that I have been trying to alarm the world for many years. That is why I am convening the International Autism Conference in August that will take place in Jerusalem”

This research also found that intellectual disability plays a key role in the cost of autism to individuals, families, and society as a whole. The costs of autism per year are nearly twice as high on average for children and adults with intellectual disability than for children and adults without intellectual disability, $2.3 million in the U.S. and £1.5 million in the U.K. ($2.4 million) for those individuals who are impacted by intellectual disability compared with more than $1.4 million in the U.S. and £917,000 ($1.46 million) in the U.K. for those who do not have intellectual disability.  The latest CDC report found that in the U.S. the majority (62%) of those with ASDs did not have intellectual disability.

Experts consistently point to early interventions as key to increasing language and IQ scores, and reducing life span costs.

“We have entered a new age of autism, characterized on the one hand by unprecedented incidence, and on the other by advanced research, earlier diagnosis, and progressively more effective intervention.”  Dr Weinstein adds.

The rate of U.S. cases of autism and related disorders rose to about 1 in 88 children. The previous estimate was 1 in 110.  The study showed that there are five times as many boys with autism as there are girls and there are fewer recorded instances of autism in African-American and Hispanic children.

The study is considered the most comprehensive U.S. investigation of autism prevalence to date. Researcher gathered data from areas in 14 states — Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.

This new number means autism is nearly twice as common as officials said it was only five years ago, and likely affects roughly 1 million U.S. children and teens.

Health officials believe the increase largely due to better recognition of cases, through wide screening and better diagnosis. But the search for the cause of autism is really only beginning, and officials acknowledge that other factors may be helping to drive up the numbers.

“We’re not quite sure the reasons for the increase,” said Coleen Boyle of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For decades, the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe language and social impairments and unusual, repetitious behaviors. The definition of autism has slowly expanded, and “autism” is the umbrella term for a group of milder, related conditions, including Asperger’s syndrome. Meanwhile, there’s been an explosion in autism-related treatment and services for children.

“The soaring autism rate is one of our major concerns and one that I have been trying to alarm the world for many years. That is why I am convening the International Autism Conference in August that will take place in Jerusalem” said Dr. Joshua Weinstein, CEO & Founder of Shema Kolainu - Hear Our Voices in Brooklyn, NY and ICare4Autism in Jerusalem, Israel  ”We are going to have 50 major international researchers address this very topic”.

A study led by UK researcher Simon Baron-Cohen revealed that those with autism spectrum disorders often have excellent attention to detail that is directed towards detecting ‘if p, then q’ rules (or [input–operation–output] reasoning).  It’s no secret that those with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome excel in technical fields and there are great efforts to place them in suitable employment.

While there are already companies that work to place people with developmental disabilities into the technology field, the newest player Square One has a different approach.

The software and design firm has a small pilot program working to design a software-testing training program for people on the autism spectrum.  However, what is unusual about this program is that they are not using any funding or subsidies and have the bottom-line firmly in mind.

Currently a significant amount of software testing is outsourced to workers in the developing world. Square One co-founder Chad Hahn points out that his software testers will work for $15 to $20 an hour – pay comparable to, or even lower than, that of software testers in India, but with the benefit of being right here in the U.S. Hahn makes the case that there aren’t a lot of alternatives provided for people with autism —when they do find work, it’s usually unskilled work for minimum wage.

Hahn has had good feedback from parents of those with autism, who are supportive of the program if paying less makes hiring the developmentally disabled a viable option.

“I haven’t had one parent of an autistic child come to me and say this isn’t going to work,” he says. “They say, ‘This is a way for my child to make more money than they would have made otherwise, and allow them to be more independent.’ They worry, what is my child going to do when I’m gone? And this is kind of a way out.”

ICare4Autism also acknowledges the natural ability of those with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome to excel in the I.T. sector. Our autism workforce development initiative based out of our Global Autism Center in Jerusalem will work to assist students on the spectrum find high level career opportunities.  The service will provide individuals with a customized job plan, job coach, skills training and ongoing on-the-job training and support.  ICare4Autism is hoping to create a model that will be replicated internationally creating new high private sector opportunities world wide.

ICare4Autism’s workforce initiative, along with many other strategies in autism education, research and policy will be explored at our upcoming International Autism Conference – Autism: A Global Perspective on August 1^st-2^nd in Jersualem, Israel.

Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele (left) and Randy Blakely pose at the entrance to the Vanderbilt Laboratory for Neurobehavior, where their studies in mice have revealed a clue to autism.

Vanderbilt University researchers are using mice to explore how altered brain serotonin levels during development may produce long-lasting changes in behavior and impact the risk for autism.

Serotonin is known for giving a sense of well-being and happiness. It is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that acts like a radio tower in the brain conveying signals among cells called neurons.

An earlier study at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences explored the role that serotonin plays in autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Georgianna Gould and colleagues showed that a medication called buspirone improved the social behaviors of mice.  Some genetic variations result in diminished transmission of serotonin between neurons. Buspirone increased transmission by partially mimicking the effects of serotonin at cellular sites called receptors.

The supply of serotonin is regulated by the serotonin transporter (SERT). In 2005, a team of Vanderbilt researchers led by Randy Blakely and James Sutcliffe identified rare genetic variations in children with ASD that disrupt SERT function.

In a new study published this week the researchers detail the creation of a mouse model with a small biochemical change that appears to cause SERT in the brain to go into overdrive and restrict the availability of serotonin at synapses.

“The SERT protein in the brain of our mice appears to exhibit the exaggerated function and lack of regulation we saw using cell models,” said Blakely, director of the Vanderbilt Silvio O. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research.

“Remarkably, these mice show changes in social behavior and communication from early life that may parallel aspects of ASD,” noted first author Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, assistant professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and pharmacology.

The researchers conclude that a lack of serotonin during development may lead to long-standing changes in the way the brain is wired.

In 1961, Schain and Freedman reported that about 40% of children with autism are born with high circulating blood levels of serotonin. This finding has been repeated many times by other researchers.  Despite around 600 published research papers looking at autism and serotonin, researchers have been largely puzzled by this – until now.

In the current study, Veenstra-VanderWeele, Blakely and their colleagues showed that they could produce elevated blood levels of serotonin, “hyperserotonemia.” in mice that express a variant of a human SERT gene associated with autism.

Because the genetic change makes the transporter more active, higher levels of serotonin accumulate in platelets and therefore in the bloodstream. In the brain, overactive transporters should have the opposite effect — lowering serotonin levels at the synapse and producing behavioral changes relevant to autism. That’s exactly what the researchers observed.

This is one more potential factor in understanding the causes of autism. Experts believe the wide spectrum of autistic behaviors represents a complex web of interactions between many genes and environmental factors.