Clinic Notes: Aggressive Behavior in Children

Aggressive behavior is common in the kids we see in our clinic who present with various neuropsychological disorders. Nonverbal kids learn to use aggression as a way to communicate. Neurological damage to the cortex of the brain, caused by trauma or drugs taken by the mother while she is pregnant, can cause cortical disinhibition in the child and further increase the level of aggression. Children with neuropsychological disorders, as well as those without, also learn violent, abusive behavior from adult role models, video games, and the media.
Twenty-five percent of men imprisoned for violent crimes had a history of cruelty toward animals in their childhood. A comparison sample of men convicted for nonviolent crimes had no history of cruelty toward animals. Aggressive women prisoners show a similar history. Cruelty toward animals is also associated with child abuse. Apparently, the abused child takes out his frustration on family pets.
Since aggression is, at least partially, a learned response ABA programs can reduce and usually eliminate aggression. Occasionally, certain psychoactive drugs must be used along with the ABA programs.
See case Histories # 6, 16, and 20 in Little Bubba's Not Ready for Nashville Yet at http://www.aba4autism.com

Clinic Notes: Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood

Transient hemiplegia (one-sided paralysis) can be caused by low blood sugar in childhood diabetes and other organic conditions, such as transient ischemic attacks (TIA’s), and also some types of migraines. Like adults, children can have strokes with permanent paralysis. Sometimes the term transient hemiplegia refers to a rare condition known as Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood. In this disorder, one side is paralyzed one day, and the other side is paralyzed on other days, which seems to defy basic neuroanatomy. The only minimally effective treatment reported for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood is a calcium channel blocker called Flunarizine. The FDA has not approved this drug, and since so few cases of Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood exist; they are not likely to do so. Only 250 children worldwide are affected by this disorder so there’s a real shortage of patients for studies into the causes. Years ago, I saw a young child in my clinic with a diagnosis of Alternating Hemiplegia. I didn’t think it likely that such a rare disorder would pop up in my clinic and was suspicious of the diagnosis from the beginning. After several months it turned out to be a case of the parents reinforcing the child whenever he was "paralyzed". The child could not remember which arm was "paralyzed" and often alternated his "paralysis" from day to day. See http://www.rarediseases.org and The 2000 June-August issue of the online publication of Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine at http://mentalhelp.net/perspectives/ for a brief account of this case. This case is also available on my website http://www.ABA4Autism.com

Clinic Notes: Autism and Faces

Children with autism do not show interest and are not proficient in recognizing people’s faces. If they do look at a person’s face, they concentrate only on one part, such as the eyes or the mouth. In a paper presented to the Society for Research in Child Development, Geraldine Dawson showed groups of three-and four-year-old children with autism, mental retardation, or normal children, pictures of their mother and a stranger and pictures of their favorite toy and a strange toy. The brain wave recordings registered to pictures of mom and the favorite toy in the children with mental retardation and the normal children. The brain waves of the children with autism responded to the picture of the favorite toy, but there was no difference in the response to their mom’s face and the face of a stranger.
Excerpted from Little Bubba's Not Ready for Nashville Yet: Case Histories of Children with Autism or Other Neuropsychological Disorders. Available at http://www.ABA4Autism.com