Breakthrough or Known Fact

Autism breakthrough? Hmm. Can someone please explain to me why this is a breakthrough? It was reported this morning on ABC News that researchers have found a gene that simply sits idle and just needs to be "turned on."

Have we not always known—at least for the last twenty years or so--that intense therapies early in the child’s development can greatly improve the child’s chances of either “recovering” from autism or simply “improving” their skills given the child’s severity. I think we have always referred to this as making connections or reconnecting or rewiring the brain.

I know that it is pointed out in this ABC News article that some children with mild autism can improve…due to what we already know? So please, please tell me why I will be educating people, family members, concerned friends, that this in not a medical "breakthrough" for a cure—and that, in fact, I’ve been engaging in this “breakthrough” for the last 13 years.

My daughter has had the benefits of every therapy known to man (or men/woman understanding autism) and has improved through the years in being able to engage in some activities but her behaviors are still so extreme; hence, we need to send her to a residential school now that she is 13. So what is this study saying, that if my daughter has supposedly recovered from autism--since we have (and are still) worked for the last 13 years in “turning on” those sleeping genes that she would otherwise be destined for a life in military school or worse, jail??

Not a breakthrough, just a confirmation of what we already know.

I’m not trying to cause trouble; I’m just a blogger looking for REAL answers.


Watch the breakthrough in autism research video if you haven't already:
http://a.abcnews.com/search?searchtext=autism%20breakthrough&type=