Latest news with #Cheerio
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New autism clinic opens at Riverton hospital, offering early intervention services
Lily is a 13-year-old Swiftie with dreams of being a singer and actress despite being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at a young age. While she is now a happy, energetic teen, Lily's parents still remember the early challenges she faced with a severe sensory disorder — which can be common among children with autism — that required her to use a feeding tube at just 16 months old. Over the next few years, Lily underwent occupational therapy to overcome her struggles with food and teach her how to eat solids. At around 3 years old, she had her first breakthrough, according to her father, Roger. "She had a Cheerio. She took a bite of it, and didn't make it to the hole in the Cheerio, but she swallowed it. She got it down. We were super excited," Roger said. Lily's experience overcoming her struggles through early therapeutic intervention demonstrates the kind of outcomes the new Applied Behavior Analysis Clinic at Primary Children's Hospital in Riverton hopes to make possible for other children with autism. The clinic, which opened earlier this year, held a celebratory ribbon-cutting on Tuesday. Administrators there say it aims to address the need for more autism services in the area by offering early intervention programs for children ages 2 to 6, such as behavioral assessments, individual therapy and group therapy. Katie Maday, service line director for Developmental Pediatrics and Autism Services at Intermountain Health, explained that the growing need for these services currently outpaces the number of programs available for children with autism. "We are currently looking at 1 in 36 children who will be diagnosed with autism nationally, which equates to 25,000 children in Utah alone. That means that the need for services and supports is absolutely staggering compared to the supply of available providers in our service area," she said. Maday said the focus for her department is to increase capacity, train providers and open new services to meet the demand. "Meeting demand is so crucial because we know that when we don't have enough supports, our children wait for services that they need to thrive, and that waiting time can impact outcomes," she explained. Children with autism who receive early intensive behavioral intervention have fewer challenges with communication and severe behaviors and a lower incidence of intellectual disabilities, according to Maday. The new clinic will be part of the effort to expand access to autism diagnostics and early behavioral intervention services that patients need to thrive. Intermountain Healthcare's Primary Promise campaign raised over $600 million to fund the new autism clinic. During Tuesday's ceremony, the owner and founder of luxury blanket company Minky Couture, Sandi Hendry, announced a $3 million donation to the campaign to support autism services. Hendry explained that when one of her grandchildren started showing signs of autism at a young age, he was placed on a waitlist for over two years before receiving a diagnosis. She said that personal situation is what motivated her to become part of the effort to expand these services in Utah. "I started calling people I knew with autism in their family and, through connections with community, we found the best answers (out) of anything. So when I heard ... that IHC and Primary Promise were doing this new facility for autism, I thought: There are thousands of people that need these answers, thousands of moms that lay in waiting to know, 'What's my next step?' So, I am grateful today to be able to donate this portion, and I pray that as I grow as a business woman, that I will be able to continue to contribute." Through her company, Hendry previously donated $1 million to Intermountain Health's Newborn Intensive Care initiative. Minky Couture has also donated over 50,000 mini-Minky blankets to infants being treated in NICUs throughout the United States. Lily and her family were also present at the celebratory event. Her parents each shared their gratitude for those who supported the clinic's opening and have been part of helping Lily overcome the difficult aspects of having autism. Lily presented Hendry and Primary Promise Executive Campaign Cabinet Co-Chairwoman Gail Miller with pieces of her artwork as a token of appreciation for their financial support. "I just want to thank Gail Miller and Sandi for helping everyone with autism," Lily said. "Some people with autism have friends that treat (them) different because of it, and we all don't know why. But we're not doing anything wrong; we're just trying to find our way. I just want to say thank you to everyone helping us with autism, and I can't wait to see what you do in the future to help people with disabilities." While the new clinic is a noteworthy step in helping more families in Riverton and surrounding areas, there is still a need for these services in many Utah communities, according to Maday. This need includes children with autism who demonstrate severe or aggressive behaviors, like self-injury, and require help from a specialized team of professionals. "We know to be able to meet the capacity needs of the community, we need to expand our diagnostic services so we can get kids diagnosed sooner and into therapy sooner. We also need to expand our early behavioral intervention services," Maday said. "We are (also) looking to expand or establish severe behavior services in Intermountain's geography in Utah. Severe behavior services are very lacking in our geography right now. We have about one location for the whole state, and there's so much need." For more information on how to support the Primary Promise initiative to expand autism services, visit its website.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cockatoo Saying 'Please' Before Mom Gives Him a Treat Is the Most Well-Mannered Gentleman
Cockatoos are some pretty incredible birds. They are intelligent and have impressive mimicry skills that make them highly entertaining, magnetic creatures to interact with. But some of these birds, such as Toad the cockatoo, are also exceptionally well-mannered. Just check out this adorable video where Toad kindly says 'please' before his mom gives him a tasty treat, and you'll see that this incredibly beautiful bird is also a true gentleman. Wow, Toad is such a polite little gentleman! Notice how he doesn't grab at the Cheerio. He patiently waits for his mom to hand it to him. He also manages to say 'please' without fail each time in a variety of settings. Clearly, Toad is a very sweet guy. He's also a handsome little fella, and with his manners, he is definitely a real charmer! Boy, we wish that we could hang out with Toad and feed him people in the comments section just loved how sweet and polite Toad was. Several people commented that he is actually more polite than most human beings. Somehow, this doesn't surprise us, unfortunately. Other people in the comments section shared how their own cockatoos also say things like 'please' or 'thank you' when they give them treats. If that isn't sweet enough to give you some feels, we don't know what will. Cockatoos have long been renowned for their capacity to mimic human speech. As part of the parrot family, cockatoos have the ability to mimic human speech at a very high level. They have been known to learn extensive vocabulary, sometimes memorizing more than 100 words. Additionally, these charismatic avians can also mimic other human sounds, like laughter or coughing. They truly are masters of vocal imitation. Cockatoos have this unique ability because of a specialized vocal organ called the syrinx. The syrinx, which is located at the base of the trachea, allows cockatoos to create a wide range of sounds. Even though these birds have the ability to mimic highly articulated sounds of human speech, this is not an innate skill for them. Cockatoos have to learn how to imitate humans through training and interacting with them. While not all cockatoos can mimic human speech as well as Toad in the video, teaching them to talk like humans requires a lot of patience. At first, it is best to start with simple words and phrases before attempting to teach a cockatoo complex vocabulary. Something simple, like 'please,' and rewarding a cockatoo with a treat, like this woman does in the video, is a good place to start. It is also important to keep in mind that while some cockatoos exhibit a real affinity for mimicry, others can show very little interest in it or struggle to mimic sounds. Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos. Or share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips.
The Independent
21-02-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Parents of boy with rare eye condition hail ‘amazing' results of gene therapy
A couple whose son was among one of the first patients in the world to receive an innovative treatment for a rare genetic condition that causes blindness has said he can now pick small things up off the floor and identify toys from a distance. Jace, from Connecticut, USA, was diagnosed with leber congenital amaurosis type 4 (LCA4) – a rare inherited eye disease that causes blindness – when he was just a baby. He was selected for the pioneering gene therapy after his parents had a 'chance encounter' with the UK specialist involved in the trial. His parents Brendan and DJ, who did not wish to share their surname, said the results have been 'pretty amazing'. Jace, now six, was one of four children selected to have the treatment by specialists from Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. Doctors performed keyhole surgery and injected healthy copies of the affected gene into the retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye. Three to four years on, vision in the treated eyes has 'improved substantially', according to findings now published in The Lancet. Jace's mum DJ, 35, told the PA news agency: 'Pre-surgery, at around two years old, you could have held up any object, even a couple of inches away from Jace's face, and he would not be able to track it. 'It didn't matter how bright it was, what colour it was, what shape it was. 'And now we get calls and notes home from school that he's stealing phones out of teachers' back pockets, which is hysterical to us. 'Probably not the best thing to be happening in school, but it just goes to show how much growth he's had in his visual abilities over the past four years. 'And that's unheard of with LCA4 – you don't progress to having more vision naturally. 'It's a progression of losing it before the age of four years old. So it's amazing to watch him.' Dad Brendan, 36, added: 'He's picking up small things off the floor. He's calling out toys. 'He's doing things that are really driven by his sight, that never would have, in our opinion, had been done before or would have been done. 'We can hold up our phone, for example, and he'll tell us, this is our phone from a good distance away. Or hold up a toy, and he can tell us what toy it is. 'If he drops something when he's eating, even if it's the smallest thing, like a Cheerio, or a gummy bear, or whatever it may be, he's able to find it on the tile or on the carpet and pick it up. 'We try to get him to not eat it, but he picks it up, I guess that's a treat for him if he can find it. It's fine with us. It's pretty amazing.' DJ added that the family feels 'lucky' to have been given the opportunity for treatment. 'There's such a need to amplify how this treatment has been working because we think about all the other parents that are sitting there with their five-month-old scared out of their mind about what their future is going to look like,' she said. 'We were so lucky to have been able to have this option available to us and to Jace. 'No parent wants to not do as much as humanly possible for their child. 'So yes, it's giving the gift of sight to these children, but it's also giving the ability for other parents to be able to make this decision for their child by making the treatment more mainstreamed and available to the masses.' DJ suspected something was not right with her son when he was eight weeks old and he was not looking at her and smiling. His eyes would dart around and roll, which the couple later found out was nystagmus, a condition that causes involuntary eye movements. DJ said being selected for the treatment felt 'very fortuitous'. She told PA the couple had a 'chance encounter' with Professor Michel Michaelides, a consultant retinal specialist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and professor of ophthalmology at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, at a conference about two months before their son was formally diagnosed with LCA4. 'We knew he had LCA, we didn't know his gene variant,' she added. 'Michel was speaking at this LCA family conference in Philadelphia, and we got his contact information on the off chance that Jace would have had a version of LCA that he and his team were researching. 'Hearing the genetic diagnosis of LCA and knowing this is the exact version that Dr Michaelides and Bainbridge and their whole team at Moorfields were researching, there was almost an excitement in the room when his results were being read. 'We started the conversations almost immediately after getting his report, and we're in constant contact with the Moorfields team ever since.' The family travelled to London in September 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and quarantined for two weeks in hospital housing. 'Jace's surgery was the last day in September of 2020,' DJ said. 'He went in happy as a clam, the staff was amazing in keeping him well rested and entertained, and Brendan and myself too. 'The surgery was pretty quick. He was only under for about an hour. He has four little, kind of, I won't even call them scars, just really like pinpoints, in his eye from where they actually injected the gene therapy. 'And he came out of surgery dancing, singing, making all the nursing staff laugh. He was happy to be eating afterwards and back in our arms. 'His recovery, other than having to tolerate an eye patch for a couple of days and some drops that he didn't really like, it was pretty easy.' Brendan said he noticed a difference within the first month when his son reacted to the sun shining through a window. 'He kind of pulled himself back,' he said. 'It wasn't just even an eye shut, it was more of a physical reaction. 'And I remember welling up and getting really emotional because that was the first time that Jace ever had any reaction to any sort of light stimulus or anything of the sort. 'From there, it's been pretty amazing.' It is not yet known if the gene therapy will have a permanent impact on Jace's vision. DJ said: 'We've been prepped that at some point nature kind of takes over the way that nature intended. 'I think we don't expect this to be the treatment that gets him through the rest of his life, there's always going to be changes likely in his vision, but at a certain point, too technology is getting better every single day. 'Just being able to have more children treated through this genetic therapy is going to help to give more context to what's happening within the LCA4 community. 'And our hope is that this treatment becomes more mainstreamed, and maybe if he does start to lose his vision down the road if he has a retina that's still intact, maybe there is the option for retreatment down the road. 'But this first step was huge in being able to make that a reality.'
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Parents of boy with rare eye condition hail ‘amazing' results of gene therapy
A couple whose son was among one of the first patients in the world to receive an innovative treatment for a rare genetic condition that causes blindness has said he can now pick small things up off the floor and identify toys from a distance. Jace, from Connecticut, USA, was diagnosed with leber congenital amaurosis type 4 (LCA4) – a rare inherited eye disease that causes blindness – when he was just a baby. He was selected for the pioneering gene therapy after his parents had a 'chance encounter' with the UK specialist involved in the trial. His parents Brendan and DJ, who did not wish to share their surname, said the results have been 'pretty amazing'. Jace, now six, was one of four children selected to have the treatment by specialists from Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. Doctors performed keyhole surgery and injected healthy copies of the affected gene into the retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye. Three to four years on, vision in the treated eyes has 'improved substantially', according to findings now published in The Lancet. Jace's mum DJ, 35, told the PA news agency: 'Pre-surgery, at around two years old, you could have held up any object, even a couple of inches away from Jace's face, and he would not be able to track it. 'It didn't matter how bright it was, what colour it was, what shape it was. 'And now we get calls and notes home from school that he's stealing phones out of teachers' back pockets, which is hysterical to us. 'Probably not the best thing to be happening in school, but it just goes to show how much growth he's had in his visual abilities over the past four years. 'And that's unheard of with LCA4 – you don't progress to having more vision naturally. 'It's a progression of losing it before the age of four years old. So it's amazing to watch him.' Dad Brendan, 36, added: 'He's picking up small things off the floor. He's calling out toys. 'He's doing things that are really driven by his sight, that never would have, in our opinion, had been done before or would have been done. 'We can hold up our phone, for example, and he'll tell us, this is our phone from a good distance away. Or hold up a toy, and he can tell us what toy it is. 'If he drops something when he's eating, even if it's the smallest thing, like a Cheerio, or a gummy bear, or whatever it may be, he's able to find it on the tile or on the carpet and pick it up. 'We try to get him to not eat it, but he picks it up, I guess that's a treat for him if he can find it. It's fine with us. It's pretty amazing.' DJ added that the family feels 'lucky' to have been given the opportunity for treatment. 'There's such a need to amplify how this treatment has been working because we think about all the other parents that are sitting there with their five-month-old scared out of their mind about what their future is going to look like,' she said. 'We were so lucky to have been able to have this option available to us and to Jace. 'No parent wants to not do as much as humanly possible for their child. 'So yes, it's giving the gift of sight to these children, but it's also giving the ability for other parents to be able to make this decision for their child by making the treatment more mainstreamed and available to the masses.' DJ suspected something was not right with her son when he was eight weeks old and he was not looking at her and smiling. His eyes would dart around and roll, which the couple later found out was nystagmus, a condition that causes involuntary eye movements. DJ said being selected for the treatment felt 'very fortuitous'. She told PA the couple had a 'chance encounter' with Professor Michel Michaelides, a consultant retinal specialist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and professor of ophthalmology at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, at a conference about two months before their son was formally diagnosed with LCA4. 'We knew he had LCA, we didn't know his gene variant,' she added. 'Michel was speaking at this LCA family conference in Philadelphia, and we got his contact information on the off chance that Jace would have had a version of LCA that he and his team were researching. 'Hearing the genetic diagnosis of LCA and knowing this is the exact version that Dr Michaelides and Bainbridge and their whole team at Moorfields were researching, there was almost an excitement in the room when his results were being read. 'We started the conversations almost immediately after getting his report, and we're in constant contact with the Moorfields team ever since.' The family travelled to London in September 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and quarantined for two weeks in hospital housing. 'Jace's surgery was the last day in September of 2020,' DJ said. 'He went in happy as a clam, the staff was amazing in keeping him well rested and entertained, and Brendan and myself too. 'The surgery was pretty quick. He was only under for about an hour. He has four little, kind of, I won't even call them scars, just really like pinpoints, in his eye from where they actually injected the gene therapy. 'And he came out of surgery dancing, singing, making all the nursing staff laugh. He was happy to be eating afterwards and back in our arms. 'His recovery, other than having to tolerate an eye patch for a couple of days and some drops that he didn't really like, it was pretty easy.' Brendan said he noticed a difference within the first month when his son reacted to the sun shining through a window. 'He kind of pulled himself back,' he said. 'It wasn't just even an eye shut, it was more of a physical reaction. 'And I remember welling up and getting really emotional because that was the first time that Jace ever had any reaction to any sort of light stimulus or anything of the sort. 'From there, it's been pretty amazing.' It is not yet known if the gene therapy will have a permanent impact on Jace's vision. DJ said: 'We've been prepped that at some point nature kind of takes over the way that nature intended. 'I think we don't expect this to be the treatment that gets him through the rest of his life, there's always going to be changes likely in his vision, but at a certain point, too technology is getting better every single day. 'Just being able to have more children treated through this genetic therapy is going to help to give more context to what's happening within the LCA4 community. 'And our hope is that this treatment becomes more mainstreamed, and maybe if he does start to lose his vision down the road if he has a retina that's still intact, maybe there is the option for retreatment down the road. 'But this first step was huge in being able to make that a reality.'
