Sunday, January 01, 2006

THE FACTS OF AUTISM

WHAT IS AUTISM?
Researchers in all around the world are trying to understand autism: what is it, what causes it, how to diagnose it, how to treat it. Autism is very complex. No two people with autism are exactly the same. No two people with autism respond to treatment in the same way. So research in autism is also very complex. Some people have compared solving the puzzle of autism to peeling an onion: new insights reveal themselves one layer at a time. Knowledge of autism is always changing, as research peels away more and more layers of this perplexing disease.

Autism is a complex biological disorder that generally lasts throughout a person’s life. It is called a developmental disability because it starts before age three, in the developmental period, and causes delays or problems with many different ways in which a person develops or grows.

Autism impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Children and adults with autism typically have difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities. The disorder makes it hard for them to communicate with others and relate to the outside world. In some cases, aggressive and/or self-injurious behavior may be present. Persons with autism may exhibit repeated body movements (hand flapping, rocking), unusual responses to people or attachments to objects and resistance to changes in routines. Individuals may also experience sensitivities in the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Over one half million people in the U.S. today have autism or some form of pervasive developmental disorder. Its prevalence rate makes autism one of the most common developmental disabilities. Yet most of the public, including many professionals in the medical, educational, and vocational fields, are still unaware of how autism affects people and how they can effectively work with individuals with autism.

In most cases, autism causes problems with:
  • Communication, both verbal (spoken) and nonverbal (unspoken)
  • Social interactions with other people, both physical (such as hugging or holding) and verbal (such as having a conversation)
  • Routines or repetitive behaviors, like repeating words or actions over and over, obsessively following routines or schedules for their actions, or having very specific ways of arranging their belongings.

The symptoms of the disorder cut off people with autism from the world around them.Children with autism may not want their mothers to hold them. Adults with autism may not look others in the eye. Some people with autism never learn how to talk. These behaviors not only make life difficult for people who have autism, but also make life hard for their families, their health care providers, their teachers, and anyone who comes in contact with them.

Autism is a lifelong disability, meaning that if left untreated it will affect people their entire lives. Left untreated, many people with autism will not learn to talk, behave normally, or develop social skills, so that they are unable to live on their own. There is no one cure for autism, but the good news is that there are a wide variety of treatment options which work to varying degrees of success for some people, and those will be discussed below.

The uniqueness of each individual with autism makes the experience of raising a child with autism different for each family. But there are some consistent themes or issues that most families will want to be aware to be able to provide the best support to the individual and to family members.

Autism is a complex disorder that affects people differently. Because people with autism have a lot of similarities and differences, doctors now think of autism as a “spectrum” disorder; so rather than being just one condition, autism is a group of conditions with a range of similar features. Doctors use the term “autism spectrum disorder (ASD)” to describe people with mild symptoms, severe symptoms, or symptoms that fall anywhere in between.

In most cases, the symptoms of autism are measurable by certain screening tools at 18 months of age. However, parents and experts in autism treatment can usually detect symptoms before this time. In general, a formal diagnosis of autism can be made when a child is two, but is usually made when a child is between two and three, when he or she has a noticeable delay in developing language skills. Recent studies show that at least 20 percent of children with autism experienced a “regression,” as reported by their parents. This means that the children had a mostly normal development, but then had a loss of social or communication skills. To date, however, there is little information about this type of regression, such as the age it seems to start, how severe it is, and what, if anything, triggers it. Researchers are looking into a variety of possible causes for both early onset and regressive autism.

THE GENERAL TYPES OF AUTISM

We have outlined some major points that help distinguish the differences between the specific diagnoses used:

Autistic Disorder:
Impairments in social interaction, communication, and imaginative play prior to age 3 years. Stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities.

Asperger's Disorder:
Characterized by impairments in social interactions and the presence of restricted interests and activities, with no clinically significant general delay in language, and testing in the range of average to above average intelligence.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Not Otherwise Specified
(Commonly referred to as atypical autism) a diagnosis of PDD-NOS may be made when a child does not meet the criteria for a specific diagnosis, but there is a severe and pervasive impairment in specified behaviors.

Rett's Disorder :
A progressive disorder which, to date, has occurred only in girls. Period of normal development and then loss of previously acquired skills, loss of purposeful use of the hands replaced with repetitive hand movements beginning at the age of 1-4 years.

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder:
Characterized by normal development for at least the first 2 years, significant loss of previously acquired skills. (American Psychiatric Association 1994)

Depending on his or her specific symptoms, a person with autism can be in any one of these categories.

Autism is a spectrum disorder. In other words, the symptoms and characteristics of autism can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations, from mild to severe. Although autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors, children and adults can exhibit any combination of the behaviors in any degree of severity. Two children, both with the same diagnosis, can act very differently from one another and have varying skills.

Therefore, there is no standard "type" or "typical" person with autism. Parents may hear different terms used to describe children within this spectrum, such as: autistic-like, autistic tendencies, autism spectrum, high-functioning or low-functioning autism, more-abled or less-abled. More important to understand is, whatever the diagnosis, children can learn and function productively and show gains from appropriate education and treatment. The Autism Society of America provides information to serve the needs of all individuals within the spectrum. Diagnostic categories have changed over the years as research progresses.

What Causes Autism?

Researchers from all over the world are devoting considerable time and energy into finding the answer to this critical question. Medical researchers are exploring different explanations for the various forms of autism. Although a single specific cause of autism is not known, current research links autism to biological or neurological differences in the brain. In many families there appears to be a pattern of autism or related disabilities— which suggests there is a genetic basis to the disorder—although at this time no gene has been directly linked to autism. The genetic basis is believed by researchers to be highly complex, probably involving several genes in combination.

Several outdated theories about the cause of autism have been proven to be false. Autism is not a mental illness. Children with autism are not unruly kids who choose not to behave. Autism is not caused by bad parenting. Furthermore, no known psychological factors in the development of the child have been shown to cause autism.

Autism is not a disease that you “get,” the same way you can get the flu. Instead, scientists think autism has its beginnings before a person is even born. No one knows the exact cause or causes of autism, but scientists have some theories. Some of the researchers in are focusing their efforts on possible genetic causes of autism. These results lead researchers to believe that some people could have an error in their genes that makes them more likely to develop autism. The researchers are also looking into other factors that could be involved in autism, in addition to genetics, including neurological, infectious, metabolic, immunologic, and environmental.

Who usually gets autism?

Current figures show that autism occurs in all racial, ethnic, and social groups. These statistics also show that boys are three-to-four times more likely to be affected by autism than girls are. In addition, if a family has one child with autism, there is a 5-to-10 percent chance that the family will have another child with autism. In contrast, if a family does not have a child with autism, there is only a 0.1-to-0.2 percent chance that the family will have a child with autism.

God bless you!!!

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