Sept. 9, 2014 -- Kristin Hinson knows the signs of autism well.
Her two older sons, Justin and Simon, both have the disorder. So when baby Noah didn't seem to be making much eye contact and wouldn't always respond when Hinson tried to play simple games like peek-a-boo, she feared that he, too, might going down the same road.
"It was a little scary," she says. "I hate to say scary because I've done it before, but it was. We were worried."
Fortunately, her older sons had been enrolled in a study at the University of California at Davis that was tracking siblings with autism.
When researchers there told her about a new project that was going to test early intervention to help babies who were showing signs of developmental problems, Hinson didn't hesitate.
"I said absolutely, anything to help," she recalls.
Today, Hinson says, Noah is symptom-free. He was one of seven infants at high risk of developing autism who got early, intensive attention from their parents in a bid to change their fates. Researchers say these daily, play-based exercises that are done at home may help steer growing brains into more typical development and could spare kids a lifetime of disconnection and delays.
Risks Among Siblings
Children with autism have trouble connecting and interacting with other people. They misinterpret social cues, or miss them completely. They may be highly sensitive to their environments, upset by everyday noises like the blare of a car horn or by textures they don't like, such as the scratchy tag on a shirt. And they often repeat certain behaviors like rocking or flicking their wrist.
While no one is sure what causes autism, researchers do know that there's a strongly inherited aspect to the disorder. A baby boy has a 1 in 4 chance of getting the disorder if an older sibling also has it, a 2011 study in the journal Pediatrics found. For girls, the risk is about 1 in 9.
That's far higher than the risks seen in the general population, where 1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls has autism at age 8, according to the latest figures from the CDC.
And even when brothers and sisters don't go on to have full-blown autism, studies have shown they're at higher risk for other kinds of developmental delays.
Searching for Early Signs of Trouble
Knowing that the risks are so high, researchers have focused on siblings of children with autism to see if they can catch children early and perhaps alter their fates.
Noah Hinson was 9 months old when he joined what became known as the "Infant Start" study.
He and six other babies between the ages of 6 months and 15 months were put through a battery of tests to check their development. Four of them had siblings with autism. Three others did not, but were referred to the study because their parents were concerned about their development.
source : Taking Action Early May Protect Against Autism
