I am a third year psychology student, I recently wrote my final paper on Autism for my statistics class and learned a great deal from the research. I have always been interested in this particular disorder ever since I encountered an autistic child during my senior year in high school when I had taken an education class where I spent 90 minutes every day with 1st grade children. I read a lot of non-fiction books about children suffering from mental or emotional disorders and I have researched a lot on Autism. I just wanted to post the notes I have on Autism, I have edited a lot of information but still ended up with three pages. If a topic similar to this has already been posted then mods please close this one, just wanted to share my knowledge on this disorder.
A movie I would recommend to watch "Rain Man" a great movie, portrays the autistic behaviors very well, it is one of my favorite movies.
One thing that I have personally noticed and heard from a psychologist is that autistic children happen to be extremely beautiful. I am not sure if it is true for all autistic children but most of them are very beautiful.
Autism: the Facts; What, When and How
What: Autism is a brain disorder that very often results in a lifetime of impaired thinking, feeling, and social functioning. This developmental disorder begins at birth or within the first two-and-half years of life. It is detected in children generally by the age of 3 or earlier. Autism affects a person's ability to communicate, form relationships, and respond appropriately to the external world. Most of the Autistic children appear very normal but they engage in disturbing behaviors which are very different from the behavior of normal children. Autisms are characterized with three different behaviors, the first being the difficulties autistic children face with social interactions. The second is that they present problem with verbal and nonverbal communication, and the third difficulty is that they show recurring behavior or contracted, obsessive interests. An autistic child has poor judgment and is therefore always at risk for danger.
Autism is a lifelong disease that ranges in severity from mild cases in which the autistic person can live independently, to severe forms in which the patient requires social support and medical supervision throughout his or her life. The children's appearance and muscle coordination are often normal. Occasionally, an autistic child has an outstanding skill (splinter skills), such as an incredible rote memory or musical ability. Such children may be referred to as "autistic savants", and occur in almost 10% of cases of autism. These skills can be quite astonishing. One example is the ability to play a piece of music almost perfectly after hearing it one time.
How: Autism is a name given from the group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorder. Autistic spectrum disorders include autism and asperger syndrome; these are developmental disorders affecting how the person communicates with and relates to people and the world around them. There are several factors that are considered to be the cause of autism, the two main ones being the combination of genetic and environmental aspects and the infancy vaccines. Though there still has not been any concluding answer to what really causes autism, all are just theories which are yet to be proven true.
When: It was in 1940's when autism was first introduced as a unique disorder but it was in early 1990's that autism diagnosis started to rise. Autistic spectrum disorders include autism and asperger syndrome; these are developmental disorders affecting how the person communicates with and relates to people and the world around them.
Rates: One recent study evaluated that autism in United States is the highest among other western countries. Currently 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with autism in United States, ten times or ever more worse than other western countries. It has been estimated that approximately one million in the U.S suffer from this disorder. Autism often strikes boys more often than girls – roughly four times more common in boys. With statistics being 1 in every 150 children that makes it 1 in every 94 males.
Symptoms:
The symptoms vary greatly but follow a general pattern. Not all symptoms are present in all autistic children.
Motions: Autistic children usually display irregular motions.
slapping continuously on their head, thigh or other part of their body
flicking their eyelashes with their fingers
moving around in broad circles,
rocking back and forth
placing their hand before their eyes; the fingers outstretched separately and rapidly moving the hand back and forth.
staring at hands or flapping arms and hands
walking on tiptoe, rocking, tantrums, strange postures,
unpredictable behavior and hyperactivity.
Most of these motions that appear in autistic children are said to be attempts in providing sensory input to themselves. The children are able to control these motions through special education but these motions still occur when the children are in stress or excited.
Many autistic children are fascinated with some part of different objects or things that have repetitive motions such as spinning wheels, turning the lights on and off.
Behavior:
The autistic children do tend to have aggressive behavior and also self-injurious behavior (scratching themselves, slapping themselves hard and such).
Extremely overactive or underactive
Short attention span
Don't have any fear when in dangerous situations (running into a busy street without any sign of fear).
Abnormal sensory stimuli, basically some are oversensitive to pain (a small scratch can cause them too much pain) and some under sensitivity to pain (don't feel any pain no matter how serious the injury is).
Fascination and attachment with strange objects and play in odd and unusual ways.
Don't like irregularity or change. Follow routine, any slight change can have them on edge.
May not like to cuddle or be cuddled.
Usually don't respond to verbal cues (act deaf when others are addressing them)
Interacting and socializing with people is very difficult for them, they prefer to be alone.
They are unconscious, unaware of emotions. Laughing and crying makes no difference to them. They do not seek others to share their interests, enjoyment and feelings. Involve others only as tools of aid.
Have echolalia ( repeat words and sentences spoken to them).
They repeat the conversations they have heard from word to word (repeating the whole weather telecast they heard on the radio or repeating the dialogues of some shows including the commercials).
Make odd noises while playing, rocking back and forth, running around in circles.
Address themselves in third person,
Lack of speech (sometimes delayed and sometimes abnormal which makes it difficult for them to initiate or sustain conversations).
Sensitive to noise and touch
Little or no eye contact
Inappropriate laughing or giggling
Tantrums (display extreme distress for no apparent reason)
Difficulty understanding nonverbal conversation (such as gestures and expressions)
Sports
