Dealing With Autism Essay

Autism is defined as a pervasive developmental disorder in which the patients have severe impairments in social interaction, including verbal and non-verbal communication and general cognitive development. According to the DSM-IV Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by developmental delays in children when dealing with socialization and communication, along with restricted, repetitive and stereotypical patterns of behavior. Those with autism display the inability to communicate with the world around them. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder that often presents within the first three years and usually within the first 30 months of a child’s life and then continues on throughout the patients life hopefully getting better with treatment.

However, it is more common to notice the slight antisocial or awkward behaviors that those with the disorder perform, such as repeating movements like rocking back and forth, clapping fingers and hands, or twisting their body around. Often when speaking with a patient with the disorder there is a little to no eye contact or facial expression and or other emotional connection, usually they will be preoccupied with something they are holding or something that they see in the distance. In relation to emotional connections the patient will rarely look comfort in others during times of distress, or to share pleasure. The impairments continue to become a problem for patient as he or she ages as they typically are unable to make relationships with those around them and soon become set on a specific daily routine becoming very anxious upon any deviance from that routine. Young children often are slow to speak and perceive emotions poorly causing their own emotions to bubble and leading them to act out in a way that parents and or health care professionals deem inappropriate. As the child is growing up there is a delay in the development of imaginary play along with

Diagnosis of an Autistic Disorder via the DSM-V Checklist for autism includes: Deficits in use or understanding of social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays, and manifest by all 3 of the following:

1) Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction; ranging from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication, through abnormalities in eye contact and body- language, or deficits in understanding and use of nonverbal communication, to total lack of facial expression or gestures.

2) Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; ranging from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back and forth conversation through reduced sharing of interests, emotions, and affect and response to total lack of initiation of social