Word: researchers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...detected before ages 3 or 4. Now, thanks to growing awareness and widespread screening at 18 and 24 months, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, more autistic children like Charlie are being identified when they are toddlers. But for all the emphasis on early detection, very little research exists on how to intervene effectively for children so young. (See TIME's photo-essay "A Journey into the World of Autism...
...that there are many competing brands, including some therapies that are promoted as cures, but few have been subjected to rigorous study, and virtually none have been tested head to head. The Pediatrics report "brings the methodological rigor that's often been lacking," says psychologist Tony Charman, an autism researcher and professor at the Institute of Education in London, who was not involved in the study. Charman was further impressed with two features of the Early Start Denver Model: it deeply involves parents in their children's treatment - an approach "for which there is good evidence" - and it combines...
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...
Whether the Early Start Denver Model will prove to be more effective than other therapies remains to be seen. Leading autism researcher Tristram Smith, an ABA expert at the University of Rochester, who lauds the new study for its methodological rigor, notes that the gains made by children in the intervention group were similar to those reported in studies of ABA models. "I do think there is a need for head-to-head studies," says Smith. Also needed is high-quality research on how to match individual children with the therapy that suits them best...
...citing another worry. "How do we know these areas are going to stay protected? What happens if a forest burns to the ground?" A third concern is calculating how much carbon is stored in a forest, and what emissions are actually avoided by preserving it. In September a multinational research team led by French landscape ecologist David Gaveau asserted that the Ulu Masen scheme might not significantly reduce deforestation in northern Sumatra because much of the ecosystem is upland, inaccessible and therefore unlikely to be logged anyway...