Autism Campaign Goal

Few other organizations, nationally or internationally, can boast a more intensive or comprehensive focus on the issue of autism. Yet, in spite of all the lives we've touched and progress we've made, there is still much that needs to be done.

No one needs to tell the doctors, researchers or therapists at Kennedy Krieger that autism figures are growing at an alarming rate - that current statistics predict that as many as one in 150 children are destined to develop the disorder each year. Nor is any media coverage necessary to convey how parents feel when their seemingly healthy child suddenly retreats into a world of his own.

Over the years we've seen the tremendous toll that autism takes on children's lives. It was our ongoing frustration with the lack of available answers that led us to question: If we could diagnose autism earlier, could we intervene with better results? Studies conducted by Dr. Rebecca Landa, Director of Kennedy Krieger's Center for Autism and Related Disorders, have shown that children with autism do, indeed, exhibit signs of the disorder much earlier than previously known. Research conducted at Kennedy Krieger's Center for Autism and Related Disorders has made it possible to diagnose and treat autism in children as early as 14 months.

This discovery has led to innovative therapies and educational models that begin as early as infancy and continue through the school-age years to help children with autism come into their own. Our researchers are now also following a group of infants in order to chart the actual progression of autism, while others are working to isolate the gene or genes that could be at fault.

As the number of children affected by autism continues to grow, we are determined to expand our quest to solve it.

• Our researchers are examining whether the inability of children with autism to speak and socialize may be the result of abnormal development in certain regions of the brain
  
  
• By creating maps of children's bains, one day we will be able to diagnose autism in infancy, allowing for the earliest possible interventions and outcomes
  
  
• In partnership with Autism Speaks, our researchers are developing the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), a national autism database that will connect families, doctors and researchers worldwide, dramatically increasing the knowledge of the disorder