Exposure to Traffic Pollution in Pregnancy, 1st Year of Life Appears Associated with Autism

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1393589

ADHD Drugs Impact The Brain's Reward System

Two to three percent of children in denmark meet the standards to be diagnosed with ADHD, making it extremely important to understand how ADHD drugs work. Now, University of Copenhagen researchers are gathering new information about the impact of ADHD medicine by utilizing a new mathematical reconstruction of a small part of a particular brain region which processes reward and punishment, which always involves the chemical dopamine.

Jakob Kisbye Dreyer, postdoctoral candidate at the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, said: 

"It had been discussed for years whether treating ADHD with Ritalin and similar drugs affects the reward system to any significant degree, simply because the dosage given to patients is so low. We are the first to show that some components of the dopamine signaling pathways are extremely sensitive to drugs like Ritalin. We have also developed a unified theory to describe the effect of such drugs on the dopamine signal."

A 2006 study looked into the effects of ADHD drugs on the brain and said that "they primarily target the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region of the brain that is associated with attention." 

Dreyer stresses in the new study, which was published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, the significance of understanding what happens during treatments with ADHD medications, such as Ritalin, because knowledge helps to develop more advanced drugs, and also to comprehend the psychology behind ADHD. 

Human behavior is driven by unconscious assessment of the cost to gain ratio. The new findings demonstrate that ADHD drugs lessen the signals regarding expected consequence or punishment. 

Dopamine, a chemical found in the brain, assists in several processes which alter human behaviors. Certain activities, such as having sex, taking narcotics, winning a competition, and eating, boost levels of dopamine being released. The researchers believe that dopamine plays a part in urging us to repeat behaviors that had, in the past, been linked to reward. 

Dreyer explained:

"Control mechanisms in the brain help keep the dopamine signal in balance so we can register the tiny deviations that signal reward and punishment. We discovered while trying to describe these control mechanisms that our model can be used to examine the influence of Ritalin, for example, on the signal. Suddenly we could see that different pathways of the reward system are affected to different degrees by the medicine, and we could calculate at what dosage different parts of the signal would be changed or destroyed."

Ritalin and other ADHD medications have been seen to have inconsistent results, because high dosage increases activity and low dosage decreases it, often making it difficult to find the right dosage for each individual patient. 

"We can explain this double effect using our theory. The dopamine signal in the part of the brain that controls our motor behavior is only affected at a higher dose that the dose usually prescribed for treatment. Also, our model shows that the threshold between a clinically effective dose and too high a dose is very low. That may explain why the small individual differences between patients have a big impact on treatment," concluded Dreyer.

Written by Christine Kearney.

(medicalnewstoday.com)

Could Fidgety Philipp be proof that ADHD is not a modern phenomenon?

by Roger Dobson

According to a new study Zappel-Philipp, a character in the 1846 children's book Struwwelpeter, is probably the first written mention of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by a psychiatrist.​psychiatrist.

The book, written for his son by Dr Heinrich Hoffmann, founder of the first mental hospital in Frankfurt, contains a series of short stories about a boy called Zappel-Philipp, which translates as Fidgety Philipp.

In a study in European Psychiatry (published online ahead of publication at www.aep.lu/publishing/) Dr Johannes Thome, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wales School of Medicine, Swansea, and co-author Kerri Jacobs say the character has all the symptoms of ADHD.

“It is astonishing how clearly the typical symptoms of ADHD are depicted in Hoffmann's book. Struwwelpeter can be considered the first description of ADHD symptoms by a psychiatrist and thus represents an important document of medical history,” says the report, which suggests that Hoffmann's description of ADHD was probably based on his psychiatric experience with children.

“Many of the ICD-10 [international classification of diseases, 10th revision] criteria for ADHD are fulfilled: Philipp fails to give close attention and to sustain attention for his task and does not listen to what is being said to him. The symptoms of hyperactivity are evident: he fidgets and squirms on his seat and exhibits a persistent pattern of excessive motor activity... Finally, his impulsive behaviour causes significant distress within the family.”

They add, “It has been argued that ADHD is a typical result of the adverse conditions of modern society, thus questioning it as a nosological entity.

“In such a situation it can be useful to go back in the history of medicine. By doing so, it is possible to show that the typical symptoms of ADHD were described as early as 1846.”

(British Medical Journal, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Food, Toxics and ADHD: Old Fears, Ever Stronger Science

by David Wallinga, M.D.

Posted: 11/09/2012 10:35 am

A Harvard study just published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine journal, associates a mother's low level exposure to mercury while pregnant with greater risk of her child later developing ADHD-related behavior.

The research coincides with another study earlier this year that correlated the increased prevalence of ADHD in the U.S. -- along with other developmental disorders, including autism -- with the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to the American food supply. The link is that until quite recently, it was common for HFCS to be manufactured using mercury-contaminated caustic soda.

Together the findings are leading to closer examination of the myriad toxins that fetuses are exposed to such as lead, nicotine, pesticides, and mercury; science consistently shows such exposures early in life contribute to the development of brain and behavior disorders later in life.

In the case of mercury, exposure from food occurs through the consumption of fish, HFCS and food colors according to a 2009 article published in the Behavioral and Brain Functions journal. Through its website, the U.S. Department of Agriculture records average annual consumption in the U.S. of 9.5 pounds per year of fish and shellfish and 28.7 pounds per year HFCS.

In the recent study, Harvard researchers collected fish consumption data and hair samples from pregnant mothers, testing the latter for mercury. Their children were followed, including neuropsychological testing at 8 years of age to determine signs of inattention, impulsive behavior or hyperactivity -- the hallmarks of ADHD. The researchers determined that fish consumption during pregnancy can protect somewhat against ADHD -- it's known, for example, that fish and shellfish provide the human body with the essential omega-3 fatty acids required for maintaining neuronal plasticity and learning capacity. But that's not the whole story. As the mother's prenatal exposure to mercury increased in the study, so too did their child's later risk of developing ADHD behaviors.

So, the trick is to eat fish, but to try and avoid mercury. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises women and children to eat smaller fish with lower mercury levels, and avoid eating larger fish of the species containing higher mercury levels. Low-mercury seafoods are species found at the bottom of the food chain: sardines, clam, tilapia, haddock, flounder, squid, salmon, oysters, crab, scallops, sole, trout, shrimp, catfish, crawfish, and anchovies.

On the other hand, HFCS is of no nutritional value. It is the most common "added sugar" in food and drinks, and the most ubiquitous single ingredient in processed foods today. This explains why American eat or drink 28.7 pounds of it each year. In a recent report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that children reduce their dietary intake of all added sugars, including HFCS, to prevent the development of diseases associated with them.

The chlor-alkali chemicals once widely used and perhaps still used to manufacture HFCS can leave trace amounts of mercury in the product, according to researchers in a 2009 article. In Europe, HFCS is not widely consumed and blood mercury levels are much lower in European populations compared to Americans. Consumption of HFCS creates a number of pathways for the development of autism and ADHD. According to a Mercury Toxicity Model published in 2009, the consumption of HFCS can lead to mercury accumulation in the brains and bodies of individuals in certain sensitive populations. This bioaccumulation may occur, for example, when HFCS consumption helps create mineral imbalances that interfere with the elimination of heavy metals such as mercury. When heavy metals accumulate in a child's body, delayed or altered development of the brain and nervous system can occur, and, in some cases behavioral disorders arise. If the child is also diet-deficient in magnesium or calcium, it increases even further the risks to them from accumulated heavy metals.

Fructose consumption also can lead to the development of autism, according to another study, by interfering with the expression of a key gene, called the PON1gene. When normally "expressed" in cells, this gene is responsible for producing a protein or enzyme that breaks down organophosphate pesticides. If not broken down and excreted, these pesticides wreak havoc on the brain and nervous system. While American children continue to ingest organophosphates on fruits and vegetables -- especially including from snap beans, watermelons, tomatoes, potatoes, pears, cucumbers, grapes, lettuce and apples -- he or she also eat or drinks 28.7 pounds per year of HFCS. It turns out HFCS is the same substance scientists use to suppress PON1 gene expression and create disease conditions in animal experiments.[1],[2]

Food and diet are key factors in potentially mitigating the interactions between genes and toxins in the environment and protecting against neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and autism. In consuming the standard American diet, the sad truth is that pregnant women cannot realize these protections. Instead, the fast and processed foods so common to this diet contain lead, mercury, pesticides and other toxic substances that may impact fetal brain development.

For families planning to get pregnant, and hoping for the best outcome, here's some simple advice: Try and avoid eating or drinking high-fructose corn syrup and alcohol as well as other chemicals found in processed foods. And, eat fish low in mercury and plenty of whole, organic foods.

But shouldn't an America that struggles to compete economically, to educate top-notch workers for the future, and to cut health-care costs also be helping out these families? No approach to health or education reform is worth its salt without an explicit discussion about the policies we need to raise healthier kids by curbing the use of mercury, pesticides and HFCS -- and, hopefully helping to curb the expense of ADHD and related disorders as well.

References:

[1] Ackerman Z, Oron-Herman M, Pappo O, Peleg E, Safadi R, Schmilovitz-Weiss H, Grozovski M: "Hepatic effects of rosiglitazone in rats with the metabolic syndrome." Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol 2010, 107:663-668.

[2] Costa LG, Giordano G, Furlong CE: "Pharmacological and dietary modulators of paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activity and expression: the hunt goes on." Biochem Pharmacol 2011, 81:337-344.

(huffingtonpost.com)

Does ADHD Really Exist?

Why is this a problem?

Occasionally I read about people who claim that ADHD doesn't exist. As if you cut down on sugar intake, turn off TV and computer games, and spin around 3 times and click your heels it will magically disappear.

Well, that is not true. For the people who have to deal with the challenges of ADD, especially adults, who often have few resources available to them, this is like kicking someone when they're down. Many people with ADD don't seek diagnosis or treatment for themselves or their children because of the stigma created by some judgemental ignorant people.

Would you tell someone who's a diabetic that he shouldn't take insulin, it's not good for them, diabetes is a phoney condition thought up by the drug companies and all they have to do is stay away from the chocolate bars and have happy thoughts?

Why is it that people who would not assume they're knowledgeable enough to make pronouncements of the validity of physical medical conditions assume that they are knowledgeable enough to make sweeping pronouncements of the validity of mental medical conditions?

Why do they then decide (usually without doing any real research on the subject) that they know enough about what are acceptable and unacceptable treatments ( i.e., Ritalin as a tool of the devil theory) and condemn someone for using what they deem are unacceptable treatments? As if the brain is easier to understand than the body.

While ADHD is sometimes underdiagnosed, overdiagnosed and misdiagnosed, most commonly UNDERdiagnosed, it is a real condition with often severe negative consequences for the person who has it. 

Once they learn about the condition and begin to deal with it, by medication, coaching, therapy, support groups or other methods. Then they can start focusing on and developing the advantages of having ADHD. 

Unfortunately, too many people with ADD don't even get diagnosed because of the misinformation and stigma out there by the ignorant (occasionally vocally ignorant). You can't deal with what you don't know you have.

So I've put together a few links to articles that give hard, clinical evidence of the existence of ADHD as a real condition. If you have ADHD, how you decide to treat it should be your choice not something that is dictated by others. After all you're the one who has to deal with the consequences of your choices (or of simply continually researching the condition with little action).

Sample Response to a Person with a General Lack of Knowledge of ADHD

If someone simply has a lack of knowledge about ADHD, or believes the myths out there, you can give them this blood pressure analogy to explain it.

" We all have blood pressure. If it's in x range it's normal, if it's in y range it's a cause for concern, and if it's in z range you have a medical condition called hypertension and have to be treated for it."

You could use a similar example with blood sugar levels. I.e., occasionally low blood sugar, hypoglycemia and diabetes. You could also use the example of clinical depression. Some people have some of the symptoms of depression on occasion i.e., they may feel sad and depressed for a single day but that does not make them clinically depressed. You need to have a certain number of symptoms over a certain period of time and a certain degree of severity.

Most people have some of the symptoms of ADHD on occasion, but just becasues you're sad for a weekend, that doesn't make you clinically depressed. What makes it ADHD is:

• How many of the symptoms you have
• How severe the symptoms are
• The degree that they negatively effect one or more areas of your life
• How long they have been a problem in your life.

Sample Response to a Person Who's Strongly Denying ADHD Exists

If that doesn't work and you're dealing with someone who is strongly denying that ADHD exists and claiming that ADHD is a not real condition, thereby stigmatizing those with ADHD and preventing other people who may have undiagnosed ADD from seeking treatment, you might consider asking them this question,

"What do you know about ADHD that the following institutions don't?

American Medical Association (AMA)

Canadian Medical Association

Canadian Psychological Association

Canadian Psychiatric Association

Surgeon General of the United States

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)

They all say ADHD exists and is a real condition.

What research have you done that show's that all of the organizations above are wrong?"

Clinical Evidence of the Existence of ADHD as a Real Condition.

International Consensus Statement on ADHD PDF

From Attitude Magazine. 75 international scientists were deeply concerned about the periodic inaccurate portrayal of ADHD in media reports. So they "created this consensus statement on ADHD as a reference on the status of the scientific findings concerning this disorder, its validity, and its adverse impact on the lives of those diagnosed with the disorder as of this writing (January 2002)"

Here's one particular quote I like

"To publish stories that ADHD is a fictitious disorder or merely a conflict between today's Huckleberry Finns and their caregivers is tantamount to declaring the earth flat, the laws of gravity debatable, and the periodic table in chemistry a fraud."

Two anterior regions of the corpus callosum were significantly smaller

in ADHD boys. MRI scans assessed the frontal circuitry in 18 ADHD boys in comparison to 18 matched controls. They found that two anterior regions of the corpus callosum (the rostrum and the rostral body) were significantly smaller and concluded that this was evidence for frontal lobe dysfunction and abnormal development. The callosal fibres in the rostral body relate to the premotor cortex, which is critical for “the suppression of relatively automatic responses to certain sensory stimuli”. This is consistent with a defect in the person’s ability to inhibit responses, which is considered by Barkley to be the fundamental deficit in ADHD.

Brain Imaging Data of ADHD

Psychiatric Times August 2004 Vol. XXI Issue 9. Amir Raz, Ph.D. Assistant professor of clinical neuroscience in the department of psychiatry, at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Documents how advances in the functional imaging of the living brain are shedding new light on our understanding of the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and treatment of ADHD.

Brain Scans Reveal Physiology of ADHD

Psychiatric News 2004. New high-resolution, three-dimensional maps of the brains of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder indicate significant and specific anatomical differences within areas of the brain thought to control attentional and inhibitory control systems, compared with brain scans of children without ADHD.

The images are thought to be the most advanced to date to reveal the anatomical basis of the disorder. Includes two 3d scan photos.

Cerebral glucose metabolism in adults with ADHD

The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers measured adults with ADHD with a PET scan. None of the adults had ever been treated with stimulant medication. RESULTS. Global cerebral glucose metabolism was 8.1 percent lower in the adults with hyperactivity than in the normal controls. The largest reductions were in the premotor cortex and the superior prefrontal cortex--areas earlier shown to be involved in the control of attention and motor activity. The largest reductions were in the premotor cortex and the superior prefrontal cortex--areas earlier shown to be involved in the control of attention and motor activity.

The dopamine theory of ADHD

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. The dopamine theory of ADHD is supported by neuroimaging, genetic and stimulant medication studies, which confirm an inhibitory dopaminergic effect at striatal/prefrontal level. Anterior and posterior attention systems are involved in inhibition, working memory and orientation. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and subtypes are likely to reflect deficits in both inhibition and working memory, and may be heterogenous.

PET, SPECT Studies Find More Evidence of Dopamine's Role in ADHD

From Medscape. Free registration required. Studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and other approaches suggest new details about the underlying biology of ADHD. Released here at the 50th annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. 3 different studies mentioned.

Caudate nucleus volume asymmetry predicts ADHD symptomatology in children.

Journal of Child Neurology. 2002 Dec;17(12):877-84 Schrimsher GW, Billingsley RL, Jackson EF, Moore BD 3rd. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.

A greater degree of right to left caudate volume asymmetry predicted subclinical inattentive behaviors in a sample of nonreferred children. This finding is congruent with neuroanatomic models of attention emphasizing lateralized alteration in prefrontal/striatal systems. The results support the view that clinical ADHD is the extreme of a behavioral continuum that extends into the normal population.

ADHD is characterized by a delay in cortical maturation

Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

We found maturation to progress in a similar manner regionally in both children with and without ADHD, with primary sensory areas attaining peak cortical thickness before polymodal, high-order association areas. However, there was a marked delay in ADHD in attaining peak thickness throughout most of the cerebrum: the median age by which 50% of the cortical points attained peak thickness for this group was 10.5 years (SE 0.01), which was significantly later than the median age of 7.5 years (SE 0.02) for typically developing controls (log rank test χ(1)2 = 5,609, P < 1.0 × 10−20). The delay was most prominent in prefrontal regions important for control of cognitive processes including attention and motor planning. Neuroanatomic documentation of a delay in regional cortical maturation in ADHD has not been previously reported.

Supporting info and movies here

Cortical Thinning of the Attention and Executive Function Networks in Adults with ADHD

Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(6):1364-1375. ADHD has been associated with structural alterations in brain networks influencing cognitive and motor behaviors. Volumetric studies in children identify abnormalities in cortical, striatal, callosal, and cerebellar regions.

We carried out a structural magnetic resonance imaging study of cortical thickness in the same sample of adults with ADHD... Compared with healthy adults, adults with ADHD showed selective thinning of cerebral cortex in the networks that subserve attention and EF. In the present study, we found significant cortical thinning in ADHD in a distinct cortical network supporting attention especially in the right hemisphere involving the inferior parietal lobule, the dorsolateral prefrontal, and the anterior cingulate cortices. This is the first documentation that ADHD in adults is associated with thinner cortex in the cortical networks that modulate attention and EF.

Attention and Executive Systems Abnormalities in Adults with Childhood ADHD: A DT-MRI Study of Connections

Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(5):1210-1220; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm156. In this study of adults with childhood ADHD, we hypothesized that fiber pathways subserving attention and executive functions (EFs) would be altered. To this end, the cingulum bundle (CB) and superior longitudinal fascicle II (SLF II) were investigated in vivo in 12 adults with childhood ADHD and 17 demographically comparable unaffected controls using DT-MRI. Relative to controls, the fractional anisotropy (FA) values were significantly smaller in both regions of interest in the right hemisphere, in contrast to a control region (the fornix), indicating an alteration of anatomical connections within the attention and EF cerebral systems in adults with childhood ADHD. The demonstration of FA abnormalities in the CB and SLF II in adults with childhood ADHD provides further support for persistent structural abnormalities into adulthood.

Volumetric MRI analysis comparing subjects having ADHD

with normal controls. Despite similar hemispheric volumes, ADHD subjects had smaller volumes of (1) left total caudate and caudate head (p <0.04), with reversed asymmetry (p < 0.03); (2) right anterior-superior (frontal) region en bloc (p < 0.03) arid white matter (p < 0.01); (3) bilateral anterior-inferior region en bloc (p <0.04); and (4) bilateral retrocallosal (parietal-occipital) region white matter (p < 0.03). Possible structural correlates of ADHD response to stimulants were noted in an exploratory analysis, with the smallest and symmetric caudate, and smallest left anterior-superior cortex volumes found in the responders, but reversed caudate asymmetry and the smallest retrocallosal white matter volumes noted in the nonresponders.

ADHD: More Prevalent Than We Thought?

LARISSA HIRSCH, MD Instructor of pediatrics at New York Presbyterian Hospital, medical editor for KidsHealth.org and CHARLES A. POHL, MD, professor of pediatrics and associate dean of student affairs and career counseling at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia

There are frequently stories in the news and talk among the public of the over-diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in today's hypervigilant society. However, a study recently published in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine may serve to debunk this common belief...Interestingly, only 47.9% of the caregivers of children who met the DSM-IV criteria in the past year reported that the disorder had been diagnosed in their child...Children from the lowest income group received less consistent treatment than those in higher income groups.

The Froehlich study indicates that we are under-diagnosing ADHD. We need to be on the lookout for children with this disorder, make an accurate diagnosis, and do our best to follow affected children closely.

7 Myths about ADHD

From Schwab Learning.

Real Science Defines AD/HD as Real Disorder

From CHADD. Some of the most prestigious scientific-based organizations in the world conclude that AD/HD is a real disorder with potentially devastating consequences when not properly identified, diagnosed, and treated. Excerpts from the following organizations.

American Medical Association (AMA), Surgeon General of the United States, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)

Take the 5 minute Adult ADHD Screener test by Harvard, NYU and the WHO.

(addcoach4u.com)

How to teach autistic children

In the last three decades there has been a gradual increase in the number of children being diagnosed with autism. It is unclear if this has been due to actual increases in the percentage of children being born with some form of autism or if it is because of changes in how autism is diagnosed. Currently, there are 1-2 children out of a thousand being diagnosed with autism worldwide. This figure is higher in the west; in the United Kingdom 10 out of a 1000 children are autistic while in the United States of America, 11 out of a 1000 children are diagnosed autistic. The causes of autism are yet unclear, although it is known that genes are a factor and that autism can be inherited. Many other causes are being investigated without clear evidences yet being found; these include environmental pollution, parental drug taking (including cigarettes and alcohol) and childhood vaccinations. Recent hysteria about autism being linked to the MMR vaccination has been mostly discredited.

So what exactly is autism? It is difficult to give a simple definition of autism as people who are autistic are very different from each other. Some autistic people may not be able to speak, communicating with pictures and signs, while other autistic people will demonstrate genius like abilities within a narrow field e.g. maths, art or music. In general, true autism develops early on, in the first eight weeks of pregnancy and is identified within the first three years of a child’s life. Three other conditions are often referred to by the same word, but are quite different; these are Asperger’s Syndrome, Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and PDD-NOS. Quite often, autistic children also have other learning disabilities such as dyslexia at the same time. There is no known cure, the condition lasts for the whole of a person’s life and develops with time. You cannot tell someone is autistic by looking at them; the condition is diagnosed by looking at how a person behaves, particularly how they interact with other people. Autistic people find it difficult to make friends and understand and express emotions. They also do not like change, have a narrower range of interests, activities and behaviours than the general population and are more likely to be visual learners.

In some ways teaching, autistic children is similar to teaching any other children, only some teaching techniques become more important than usual. Some autistic children have above average memory abilities so it may be possible for them to learn arabic alphabet and memorise important chapters. Paying careful attention to the following principles will make it easier for an autistic child to learn:

1.Stick to a regular pattern of activities; all children like routine but this is more important with autistic children as they are resistant to change.

2.Keep a tidy learning area; all children are distracted by clutter, but autistic children can be over-stimulated very easily, so keep any visual items that are unrelated to the current learning task out of the way.

3.Give regular breaks; this is good for all learners. Every twenty minutes, change the activity or incorporate a short break. With autistic children, some may not like breaks as often, especially if it is their favourite activity, others will refuse to do more than a few different activities. It is very important not to push an autistic child when he/she is stressed, frustrated or tired. Allow them to take a break to relax before continuing, rather than push them to finish the task before taking a break even if there is only a little bit left.

4.Find out what is the preferred learning style of the child. People in general display different learning styles, but this is accentuated in autistic children. Have activities that will stimulate more than one sense and work out which sense the child finds easier to learn with. Most autistic children are visual learners, but not all. It is important that you find out which style or combination of styles each particular child finds easiest to learn by.

Remember that each autistic child is different from other autistic children. You need to find out what each particular child can and cannot do, be patient, give plenty of praise when the child does the right thing and find his/her strength. Some autistic people display above average memory and concentration and can excel in certain activities, especially if it is their favourite subject.

Mohammed Mominur Rahman
Senior Tutor and Education Consultant.

Mohammed has a B.Sc. in Psychology and Management from Aston University. He has been teaching in various organisations for over 20 years and has worked with people with learning disabilities and amnesia. Currently he teaches children from KS2 to KS5. Some of his students are autistic and learn quran, read quran online and face to face with him.

(eaalim.com)