Autism And Child Development Essay

There is increasing attention at the European policy level over disability issues.
In 2010 the European Union ratified the United Nation Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which “protects the rights and promotes equality of persons with disabilities” (Clifford, 2011). Improving the social condition of people with disabilities is also a relevant theme in the Europe 2020 Strategy, which provides Member States with guidelines to renovate their welfare systems by means of social investments. Disability’s increasing awareness is also reflected in the developing of a new academic field, that of disability studies, which critically stresses the situational nature of disability. This because, in the past decades, the quantitative

They would trace its socially constructed dimension in the diagnostic and evaluation process. Indeed, there is no universally accepted medical test to assess whether a child is affected by ASDs. Symptoms differ from child to child. Their skills can range from gifted to severely compromise: in the common sense, autism disorders are associated with intellectual disabilities, but autism can also occur in individuals of normal or superior intelligence. Some individuals need a lot of help in their daily lives, others need less. It is a problem also to establish diagnostic boundaries. Therefore, there is disagreement about what can be regarded as a “simple personality variant” and what behavior “constitutes necessary diagnostic features” (Molloy, 2002). Furthermore, as autism is a developmental disorder, changes occur over time. Once the child grows older, symptoms might change. The treatment procedure is equally unclear, because of the lack of a clear understanding of the disorders, and there is no agreement on which are the most effective treatments (Howlin, 2000). Thus, it can be speculated about the utility of the diagnostic