Allostasis, epigenetics, and autism

This week I studied dementia in human development, and I guess one thing that is interesting is that there are many causes for dementia. Most are not Alzheimers. Maybe collapsing the diagnosis of autism wasn't such a bad idea, until we've got a bead on some causes, which I'm now thinking there will be more than one of. I'm also considering the concept of allostasis. Some are critical of the concept. It's embodied in the book "Zebras don't get ulcers". I'm not sure if allostasis is the best word for something like metabolic syndrome. Though I think the concept that insulin resistance is a defense against oxidative stress might fall into that realm. I think addiction is a similar flavor of problem (as it involves the enzymatic manipulation of intracellular messenging). If we expand this idea to behavioral addictions, it's not such a leap to autism. Some people are looking at attenuation to stress as an epigenetic problem, as with the study of cortisol in 9/11 babies. Though for it to be truly epigenetic, it would have to be children born from gametogenesis of 9/11 survivors. In utero transmission of cortisol management would point to an allostatic situation. You could think of this as the Scarlet O'Hara effect. In the novel, Scarlet is constantly disappointed in her own behavior, measuring herself against her mother. And she observes that she seems to be more like what people remember about her grandmother. The classic epigenetic study from Sweden found diabetes in people whose parents experienced famine; in utero for mothers and pre-adolescent for fathers. It takes a long view.

Social Learning and Learning Disability

My human development class as been exposing me to the theories of Vygotsky and Bandura, and it finally dawns on my why ADHD is such a problem for someone already struggling with ASD. I suppose it's symptomatic of my own ASD tendencies that I've never considered social learning to be that important. The theories of Piaget and Chomsky have always seemed more compelling to me, that the unfolding of cognition is an inherent process. Relationships had a mysterious quality for me, like the notion that a relationship has a life of its own. It is strange for me to consider it a tool for learning. Of course the truth will lie somewhere in between for most people. There are other theories as well. I use cognitive behavior tools and speak of Maslow's hierarchy. I throw evolutionary explanations around on occasion. But if socialization is a learned process and learning is a challenge, where does that leave us?

Broader Autism Phenotype

I came across this phrase today when I was raking pubmed for hits on progesterone and the brain. Well, first I'll post the link to an article about progesterone and autism: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24485701 And here's an article from the 90's discussing BAP. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/AJP/3673/185.pdf The 90's is a long time ago, so I'm not sure if BAP is considered a thing or not. I guess I'll ask my sister.

Preschool evaluation

In the peculiar yin and yang of raising kids with ASD, I spent my morning with a team of folks from the school district observing Cedar for special education preschool, and then I spent the afternoon driving my oldest to and from an interview for an Ivy League college. While in general he has a vocabulary of maybe 6 words, Cedar will do something surprising now and then like count his fingers or sing the last several bars of the sandman song. The language specialist at his evaluation yesterday thought he said "red car", even though I've never heard him using a noun or an adjective before. It's probably echolalia, but I guess you start somewhere. Spacepook had a song she used to butcher, and I think she may have been this age. It was a song from Barney, "Ha ha ha, Hee hee hee, come on get silly and laugh with me." She had the first part, but then it became "gwanaiooo." I think it was supposed to be "go on you." My sisters used to say "Oh come on!" a catchphrase from Tommy Boy. Spacepook would say "Oh, go on!" Like, on some level she knew that go and come were related meanings, but inverted it likely due to an autistic theory of mind. I also remember how she used to build a 25 piece puzzle upside down, relying on the shapes of the pieces rather than the pictures. It occurred to me this little parlor trick may be analogous to their acquisition of language. Perhaps all the features that are readily noticeable are just seem like noise, when the autistic child sees structure as the important thing.

Opioid Excess theory

I was surprised that my nutrition textbook said there was some evidence for Gluten Free Casein Free diet (GFCF). There are studies, though the methodology is disputed, especially by the pediatrics establishment. What I learned about it today makes me willing to try a dietary change for a few reasons. 1) As I understand it, we shouldn't need to be utterly GFCF to see any benefit, while a lot of the Gluten Free movement in society more generally makes a big stink that you can't have a speck or you're back to square one. I was not willing to eliminate gluten AND casein on this basis. But I can do my best to come up with alternative sources of carb, protein and calcium. 2) My kids' tuning out and retreating behavior is consistent with a concept of opioid excess. 3) Me and my middle child have a marked preference for sweets, also could indicate opioid sensitivity. It goes with the lability characteristic of ASD. In other news Cedar has been humming some recognizable tunes. We thought the Dr. Who song might be wishful thinking, but the Timmy Time recess tune was clearer and now he does the chorus of "I am a Child of God." What's interesting is these seem to be fairly complex.

We'll get there... when we get there

Cedar seems to be counting, which is super cute. He doesn't really talk, but he started chattering (it's like babbling but sounds purposive and has intonation to it, similar to spacepook though I'm not sure whether it was at the same age.) He has a few words at a time, like go and uh-oh, but as has been the case over the last year he has two or three at a time, then retires one to start saying something else. P.S. The counting sounds like "uh, doo, rhee, or." He counts up and back.

Slice of Life 1

I suppose I'll always have my early intervention notes. I guess what I was wishing for as I was looking for books at the library today is how it is living with Cedar, my toddler. I guess the part that is strange for me is having lived through this twice before and the inevitable tendency to make comparisons. We're told we shouldn't, but it's kind of an automatic process. I'm mining my past experience looking for hope, I suppose. Was my oldest this quiet? Was she this odd? When she babbled, was it the same? I didn't record very much from that time because I was so anxious about her. Am I the same? Am I hiding from the reality of it as I did for the first couple months after Cedar was diagnosed? Hekka was diagnosed at a much older age (first through third grade), because her speech was not especially delayed. I went the long way around, looking for another explanation of her deficits. And a big part of finally accepting her diagnosis was seeing the disorder in myself. So there was double the grieving process and on the heels of that, Cedar's diagnosis. And somewhere in there, Sputnik spending a lot of time in the assistant principal's office.