Autism: What is it?

As a student at a disability-friendly school, I wanted to know more about different kinds of disabilities and disorders that can affect the brain for students to cause them to not be able to learn and live like normal teenagers. Hitting the Internet, I started to look for these disabilities and disorders and found out about Autism.

I have heard of Autism before, but never actually got the understanding of what it actually was. All I knew was that it was a disorder than affected people and how they were psychologically and socially. It had sparked my interest and I started to research what it was.

Pronounced [aw-tih-zum], Autism is known to be the most common disorder that affects the brain in children in today’s society. It used to be that it was a rare disorder about ten years ago but it has been affecting more children, an increase of 600% from ten years ago. It now affects 1 in 150 children around the world and doctors still do not understand what actually causes this disorder. Parents who find out that their child is autistic are overwhelmed on that fact and struggle to come to terms that their child will never be ‘normal’.

Q. What exactly is Autism? Who is affected?

A. Autism is a developmental disorder that affects children at the younger stages. It is usually diagnosed within the first three years of a child’s life. Autism can also be called infantile autism or autistic disorder. It is a spectrum disorder (abbreviated ASD) which means that there are various symptoms can be together and its strength can differ depending on the person. If you know a person who has autism, you only have seen one way of how autism can affect a person.

It is part of the list of the five pervasive development disorders (abbreviated PDDs). This list includes Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, Rett disorder and pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). PDDs are defined as “severe and pervasive impairment in several areas in development” (as defined in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association).

Now, how to put all of this in regular talk? Autism is a developmental disorder that attacks the brain during a child’s early development causing one to be impaired in several areas of the brain’s normal functions. An autistic child would be first noticed by the parents seeing a difference in how their child acts during communication. An example of this is when a child is cannot keep eye contact with their mom or dad.

Random Fact: Boys are four times more likely to be autistic than girls and signs of the disorder usually show up at the age of three.

Q. What are the common symptoms and behavioural problems of Autism?

A. People who are diagnosed with Autism have difficulty in communicating with others. They can’t freely express what they want to say and have difficulty trying to figure out what an action can mean. They like to keep to themselves rather than interact with others. They like to keep a repeated routine and want things to be in the same place as they were always. They basically like repetition. They may have a hard time making friends and keeping them and they sometimes can’t talk like a kid. When they are athletic, they usually participate in individual sports that require endurance. They may not like to talk that much.

Behavioural Problems can differ between autistic people. They can be very hard to deal with at times. For example, a child may not like yellow things or brown things so they may refuse to look at or touch things that are these colours.

Q. What causes Autism? Is there a cure?

A. While there may be several factors on why this disorder occurs in children, there is no specific part of DNA or gene that causes Autism. Doctors and scientists are still trying to figure out the main cause of it. Researchers have found that some cases are hereditary and/or there is a chemical imbalance (although, researchers can’t find a reason why that may be).

Unfortunately, there is no cure for Autism but there are non-profit organizations raising awareness on Autism that raises money to fund research for this disorder.

Q. How do you diagnose Autism? How can you treat it?

A. Since there isn’t a known main cause of Autism, it’s hard to create a test to see whether or not a person is autistic. Instead, a team of doctors and specialists will monitor a child’s behavioural patterns, how they learn, play and communicate with other people. They also have to listen to what the parents have noticed before making the final diagnosis.

After being diagnosed with Autism, they usually get treatment as soon as possible. The earlier you get an autistic child for treatment, the more beneficial it is for the child. Treatment is dependent on how strong the Autism is. There are many kinds of doctors, teachers and therapists who work with autistic kids all the time.

Therapists would usually work with the child to help kids with autism learn to be more social toward others. Teachers or Aids would help with a child if they’re in school for them to get the best quality education that they can get.

There are medications that can be given to help with a child’s moods and their behavioural problems but there is none to remove the autism for a certain period of time.

Q. Well, all I hear are negative things about Autistic kids. Is there anything positive about them?

A. Absolutely! This is not a mental illness. There are many traits that autistic people carry that people who are in the relative ‘normal’ can learn from.

Some positive traits of autism are that they don’t lie. They are always honest with people making them less prone to play games with your mind. Also, they don’t judge others and don’t care for what others think of them. Autistic kids aren’t very materialistic and they have amazing memories. As for special talents, they are very passionate about things. These things can include mathematics, music and sports.

So, there you have it. That’s the major gist of Autism. If you meet a person who is autistic, don’t hesitate to become friends with them. Autism is not contagious and being friends with one can teach you a lot of lessons on life.