Word: behaviorally
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...just within range of normal intelligence. Much of the gain came in their ability to understand and use language. The control group, by contrast, gained just seven points, remaining in the zone of intellectual disability. Children who received the intervention also improved dramatically in what psychologists call "adaptive behavior" - which includes such everyday behaviors and skills as getting dressed, brushing teeth and participating in family meals. Children in the control group improved much more slowly, falling further behind normal peers. (Read "New Studies See a Higher Rate of Autism: Is the Jump Real...
Specifically, the Denver Model uses key elements of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), a rigorous system for shaping behavior by parsing desired behaviors into small, measurable - and teachable - units and using rewards to reinforce them. It also incorporates a more naturalistic, relationship-based approach that draws heavily on decades of research on normal child development. "We follow the sequence of normal development in everything we teach," explains psychologist Sally Rogers of the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, who developed the Denver Model while at the University of Colorado...
Charlie Lamb was among the 24 children in the treatment group. Though the first few sessions were hard ("He would scream and cry and pound on the door of his room," his father recalls), Charlie soon began to enjoy the playful therapy and made steady progress in speech and behavior. Now 5½, he attends a special preschool and continues to work with therapists on social skills and language. The Lambs expect that Charlie will ultimately attend a regular school. "His autism is subtle," says Susan Lamb. "Most people say they can't tell." But like most children with autism...
...This kind of exuberant consumer behavior helps to explain why China has powered through the global recession with only limited damage. Local officials expect Xi'an's gross domestic product to surge 13.5% in 2009, far faster than the central government's 8% target for the national economy. Even more importantly, the thriving economy in this city of 8 million lends hope that China might be able to complete its next great economic transformation. China has come to depend too much upon exports and investment for growth. What's needed is economic rebalancing, so that domestic consumption contributes more...
...dopamine is at the root of addiction, for instance: Cocaine, for one, works in part by preventing brain cells from reabsorbing dopamine that the brain has released in connection with pleasurable sensations. And once the brain has learned to like cocaine, it causes all kinds of self-destructive behavior to satisfy its cravings...