Alisa Kanganis
AP Biology
January 31, 2019
Current Event 15
Wright, Jessica. “Genetic Tests for Autism Can Sometimes Change Lives.” Scientific American, 31 Jan. 2019,
For years, Angela questioned if her son was developing normally. Her son, James, was not able to sit up on his own until he was 1 or crawl until he was 18 months old. He was also struggling to breath and could not sleep for periods longer than 20 minutes, but doctors assured her that he was fine. However, when James was four, he was finally diagnosed with autism. Up to this point, James had had five nasal surgeries, the first of which resulted in a complication due to his abnormally low platelet count. He had to be rushed back to the hospital in an ambulance after having a nosebleed that his mother referred to as looking like “someone had been killed in his bed”. This all could have been avoided if genetic testing for autism was available at the time that James was born. Years later, when this testing surfaced, Angela discovered that James had a mutation in the TAF1 gene, which explains his autism and developmental delay; and one in the gene GP9 that causes his low platelet count and led to the complications after surgery. While this screening is expensive, it is slowly becoming more and more affordable, hopefully to the point where it is accessible to all children who appear to be experiencing developmental delays or autism. Clearly, as with James’ case, receiving testing can prevent unexpected complications and have extremely beneficial effects on a child’s development as a whole since the physiological areas impacted by the mutation(s) can be identified.
These recent advancements in genetic screening have a monumental impact on society. According to the CDC, 1 in 6 children have developmental delays and 1 in 59 have autism, so there is obviously a large amount of people who could benefit from this. While it is not a cure, it can help people identify the treatments needed to manage their issues.
This article was not only informative, but very impactful. By following James early life, I was able to understand just how much this genetic testing could have influenced him. Furthermore,the author is very detailed and gives a good description of the accessibility and results of the screening. However, the article does lack an explanation as to how exactly genetic screening works. If the author included this, the article would be very well-rounded and include all the information a person with no background in biology would need to fully understand it.
Clara DeMagalhaes Current Event #15
ReplyDeleteWright, Jessica. “Genetic Tests for Autism Can Sometimes Change Lives.” Scientific American, 31 Jan. 2019, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-tests-for-autism-can-sometimes-change-live./.
Alisa’s review was overall very well put-together and gives insight into an important issue. One well done aspect is how she is able to remain objective throughout the entire thing. Even in the critique section, which has a largely opinion based nature, the advice is still formal and objective. Another positive is how she wrote the summary in a clear and concise manner. It’s very easy to understand what’s going on in the article and there is no room for confusion. It’s also no longer than it needs to be, making every sentence written valuable. Finally, Alisa’s criticism of the article was very fair and thoughtful. Knowing how genetic screening would work would definitely be a boost to the information given, making the issue described much clearer and increasing credibility.
One aspect that could be improved is the introduction to the summary. Though the paragraph itself is solid, there wasn’t really a proper hook and instead jumped directly into the information, which can be a bit confusing to readers. This can be corrected by having a single sentence that gives a brief overview of what the article is about. Also, the second paragraph is a bit too short and doesn’t give as much information as it could have. Important information such as how exactly the advancements in genetic screening benefit the children can enhance it.
Genetic engineering is a vast field that still has a lot to uncover. The potential that it offers in the future does not only benefit children with autism, but it can also help countless people with a varying amount of genetic disorders. This is likely the answer that scientists have been seeking for these past decades in regards to how the quality of these people’s lives can be improved. I feel as this will encourage me to keep up with more updates in the scientific community so that I can see if any new breakthroughs occur.
Szilvia Szabó
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology
February 5th, 2019
Wright, Jessica. “Genetic Tests for Autism Can Sometimes Change Lives.” Scientific American, 31 Jan. 2019,
www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-tests-for-autism-can-sometimes-change-lives/.
Alisa chose a really interesting topic to write about. At first, I did not think her topic was going to be that captivating from the title because there is so much misinformation about autism and “treatments”. However, Alisa did a really good job of making her audience care. I think that her using the anecdote about the boy, James, really appealed to the emotions of her audience. Who wouldn’t care about the well-being of any child? By describing the experiences of James and his mother, Alisa portrayed the problem very clearly. Additionally, I think that Alisa also had really good facts and information in her writing. For example, she writes, “1 in 6 children have developmental delays and 1 in 59 have autism,” clearly outlining a problem that could be improved by the increased prevalence of genetic screening. Lastly, I think that Alisa did a really good job at identifying the faults of the author. From her writing, I gathered that most of the article’s content spent a lot of time on the experience of James and his mom and less so on genetic testing, so I’m glad Alisa mentioned how, “the article does lack an explanation as to how exactly genetic screening works.” I noticed that this information was somewhat lacking in Alisa’s writing so I think it was good that Alisa acknowledged this.
Despite Alisa’s overall well articulated writing, there were some parts I felt she could improve on. I feel like Alisa should have included more general facts and statistics regarding autism and the physical complications it may cause and genetic screening. Although including the experiences of James and his mother was helpful and captivating, I think she might have spent a little bit too much time discussing their personal experiences rather than going over scientific information that would’ve been helpful for the audience to fully understand the weight of the problem. Additionally, Alisa states, “the author is very detailed and gives a good description of the accessibility and results of the screening,” but I feel her writing is missing all of those details. If she took out some details about James and included more details about the screenings, I think her writing would be more effective.
I have heard many times before about genetic screening but I had never actually read much about it or looked too much into it. So, Alisa’s writing on this topic was pretty new and interesting. Initially, I was somewhat turned off by the title because I had heard so many misconceptions regarding Autism and its causes. However, I had not heard anything on this subject in a while, so I decided to read it. Alisa did a really good job of hooking me with the experiences of James and his mother, Angela. I never really knew the kinds of physiological complications autism can cause for a child, so I was never really aware of how genetic testings could impact their lives. As we continue to progress in the medical world, I hope we can only further the complexity of these screenings to continue to help improve the quality of life and preserve life in general.
Paul Magaud
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
Current Event #15
2/5/19
Wright, Jessica. “Genetic Tests for Autism Can Sometimes Change Lives.” Scientific American, 31 Jan. 2019, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-tests-for-autism-can-sometimes-change-live./.
This week, I chose to read Alisa's review of Jessica Wright's article "Genetic Tests For Autism Can Sometimes Change Lives." I think that Alisa's use of the story of James, the boy in the article, helped bring the reader into her review, and add an element of empathy. I also appreciated how her review was concise and easy to understand. Furthermore, I like the fact that she held the author accountable for some of the subjective faults in the article. She adequately acknowledged the lack of scientific detail in certain specific sections of the article.
There are certainly some areas in which Alisa can improve her review. She could have included some of her own background information, in addition to the points directly from the article. Furthermore, she could have used more specific scientific details from the article itself, including more quotations or statistics that could have enhanced the effectiveness of her critique.
Autism is a prevalent disorder throughout the world, and one we see every day when we see the special education classes. It's fantastic to see that genetic screening can potentially change so many lives.