Dec 28, 2006 1:13 pm US/Eastern
Researchers Working To Solve The Mystery Of Autism
by Dr. Mallika Marshall
(CBS4)
Researchers recently announced they've found a genetic mutation that could raise the risk of autism.
Experts hope the finding could help them some day find a cause for the brain disorder but right now there are still more questions than answers.
Kate Lento was only 15-months-old when she was diagnosed with autism.
"It seemed like she'd drifted away right before our very eyes," said Diane Lento, Kate's mother.
Autism is a spectrum of brain disorders that begin in early childhood.
Kids have trouble speaking, they don't interact well with people, avoid eye contact, have emotional outbursts that can be violent, and have repetitive behaviors.
"We have some individuals with autism who have high IQ, good verbal functioning and special skills and we have other
individuals with autism who are profoundly mentally retarded," said Dr. Eric Hollander of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.
Often we hear about the most severe forms of autism but there's a milder form called Asperger's Syndrome.
Patients with that do very well and many of them even go to college.
"I was getting picked on by everyone and t was miserable for me...there was obviously something different about me," said Jonathon Lentine.
He is a junior psychology major who was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was about 8-years-old.
Kate Lento, now 14, may never go to college. But she's made tremendous progress with a therapy called "Applied
Behavioral Analysis" at an institute in New Jersey.
"Every one of the kids who are in our program now speak, has some level of language and many of them did not speak when they came here," said Dr. Dawn Buffington Townsend.
"It's extraordinary, just to get your child back after all this time," said Frank Lento, Kate's father.
While kids with autism face different challenges experts say early diagnosis and intervention give them the best chance at independence.
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