Cell-El Ltd. is striving to correlate changes in biomarkers (see previous posts) with behavioral changes/ changes in core symptoms of ASD. One of the tools we use to track these changes is the ATEC – Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist.
The ATEC is an evaluation tool in the form of a checklist designed to be completed by parents, teachers, or clinicians. It consists of 4 parts: I. Speech/Language Communication (14 items); II. Sociability (20 items); III. Sensory/ Cognitive Awareness (18 items); and IV. Health/Physical/Behavior (25 items).The checklist is designed to evaluate the efficacy of treatments as well as to monitor how an individual progresses over time. Parents or clinicians can complete the ATEC prior to treatment to create a baseline and then repeat the checklist after a period of time, as needed.
A major obstacle in autism research has been the lack of objective means of measuring the effectiveness of various treatments. Over the years, researchers have published hundreds of studies attempting to evaluate different biomedical and psycho-educational interventions intended to benefit autistic children. Much of this research produced inconclusive or, worse, misleading results, because there are no useful tests or scales designed to measure treatment effectiveness. Lacking such a scale, researchers resorted to using scales such as the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS), or the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), all of which were designed to diagnose autism- to tell whether or not a child is autistic–and not to measure treatment effectiveness.
Cell-El’s Biomarker clinical research protocol seeks to observe change in immune markers pre/post treatment. We strive to understand whether changes we observe in the biomarkers correspond to changes in ASD core symptoms and behaviors. The ATEC – designed specifically for this task – is central to our research. Parents can access the ATEC for free, online and try it out as a baseline prior to implementing therapies and as the therapy progresses. Click here to visit ATEC.
Please join us in making a difference in the lives of children with ASD and their families! We are recruiting both participants who are typically developing as well as those dIagnosed with ASD. We are also looking for parents to help spread the word to others and thus enable this important tool to be integrated into Autism treatment as quickly as possible. And we want to hear from you about your concerns and challenges relating to ASD testing and related therapies. To contact us and learn more please click here.