Autism And Intellectual Disabilities

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In the United States the onset age for intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities is before turning eighteen years old (Odom, Horner, Snell & Blacher, 2009). In my searching’s, I found a 27 year old, Alex, who was diagnosed with Autism at the early age of three years old. According to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), an intellectual disability is a disability in which is characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual use and in adaptive behavior. Intellectual functioning is also referred to as intelligence, which means the general mental capacity, such as learning, reasoning, problem solving etc. Adaptive behavior is seen is the collection of conceptual, social, and practical …show more content…

Though negative or nonexistent social interactions may not be immediately shown in early years, they gradually increase and become more prevalent as the child becomes more mobile and as other children become more socially interactive (Lord et al., 2009). Young children with Autism usually do not seek out others when they are happy, they tend to not show or point to objects of their interests, or call their parents by name (Odom et al., 2009). About 40% of individuals on the spectrum have “average” to “above average” intellectual abilities and often times have remarkable potential in visual skills, music and academic skills compared to social and interactive skills (Odom et al., 2009). About 25% of those living with ASD tend to be nonverbal but can learn to communicate using other means such as art, sign language and gestures (Manning at al., …show more content…

Those living with Autism Spectrum Disorder have a very hard time dealing and adapting to changes. Signs of ASD, again, begin during early childhood and mainly last a lifetime. Individuals with Autism avoid eye contact, prefer not to be held, have trouble relating to people, repeat or even echo words or phrases, have trouble with playing “pretend” and often times those individuals have a very difficult time expressing their needs using typical words (Manning et al., 2015).
As far as treatment goes there are no specific drugs or medications that these individuals can take. These people with Autism are all affected by it in various ways that there is no one type of treatment. Everyone has their own tailored plan to help and address their needs. At a previous internship site of mine, which then became my job, at the Barry Price Center: ASCENT Program I worked with a group of high school graduates in Newton which all were being affected by an intellectual disabilities of developmental disabilities – which included Autism. While there we were not “treating” this individuals but we were helping them be the best they could be. ASCENT (Advocacy, Social Skills, Career Exploration, Networking and Transitions) is

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