First described and named by Leo Kanner in 1944, the mysterious disability of autism is characterized by a peculiar emotional and intellectual detachment from other people and the common human world. In autistic children, an impaired capacity for communication and human relationships and a severely restricted range of activities and interests become evident before the age of three. Although the symptoms vary in nature and severity, language and the capacity for a normal social life are always seriously affected. Two to four out of 10,000 children are autistic; 75% of them are boys (Chase et al., 1993). The earliest signs may appear in the first months of life. Autistic infants often shrink from touch. Instead of cuddling when picked up, they may go limp or stiffen, and they do not cling to parents who return after an absence (de Benedetti, 1993). Normally, infants will smile at the sound of their mother’s voice when they are two or three months of age. Later, in the first year, they begin to reach with their hands, carry on wordless “conversations” and eventually progress to syllables like “ma” and “pa.” Before the end of the first year they are pointing out objects to others attention and looking sad when someone else looks sad or anxious. Many autistic children never reach these stages or pass through them at a later age (Loesche, 1990). In infancy, the symptoms may be subtle and almost unnoticeable or optimistically disregarded by parents, but it is usually clear by age two or three that something is wrong (Baranek, 1999). Autistic infants have little interest in others or understanding of their needs and feelings. They do not maintain eye contact and seem barely able to distinguish their parents from strangers. They ignore other children and prefer repetitious, solitary play, such as staring at revolving objects. Their air of detachment and drive for solitude sometimes create the impression that they come from or live in a world not ours, and it has been suggested that autism is the source of stories about children who are fairy changelings (Harrison, 1996). There are many questions as to what exactly causes autism. Prospective studies of young children (18-24 months) have highlighted the importance of social-communicative functions as early predictors of a later, more reliable diagnosis of autism (Baron-Cohen et al.,
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be detected early in a child’s life. ASD is a developmental disorder classified by problems with social interaction,
Autism can be diagnosed according to symptoms which can vary widely in severity. Most cases can be identified by the ages of 6-18 months of age, with noticeable disturbances in areas such as development rates and sequence of motor, social, and cognitive skills. Most symptoms are prevalent by the age of three years old, such as semantic and pragmatic delays, (if the child is even speaking), apparent repetitive actions, toe walking, and dissociation to the outside world. Pragmatic issues would regard basic social manners, such as taking turns, reciprocating interaction, etc. Semantic problems are in regards to misunderstood or misuse of vocabulary in which the child is executing a false meaning of the word they are using with the intentions of them being correct. Some examples would be a child of 6-18 months of age not responding to other people, or fixating on objects, and older toddlers not responding to their names, avoiding eye contact, or unusual pl...
Development of social skills is very important for children that are diagnosed with autism because of ...
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. In infants those with the disorder tend to not be attached to their parents, not caring to be held or be interacted with in any physical or emotional way. It is common for the disorder to go unnoticed for a period of time due to the outer appearance not indicating any problem until a detailed physical and neurological exam takes place. 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 pro...
For diagnosis of Autism, problems in communication, socialization, and/or restricted behavior must be present before the age of three. The Department of Health and Human Services explains that ASD usually appears between 12 and 36 months. Possible indicators of Autism Spectrum Disorders include the child not babbling, pointing, or making meaningful gestures by the age of one, the child not speaking one word by 16 months, the child not combining two words by age two, and the child's inability to respond to its name. Other indicators include poor eye contact, appearing to have impaired hearing, excessi...
Autism is a composite neurodevelopment disorder describe as damaged social interaction, communication discrepancies, limited activities, and repetitive interactive acts. These characteristic extents mild to severe cases and are probably supplemented by cognitive deficiency and related comorbidities.
There are many symptoms of autism. They include: extreme difficulty in learning language, inappropriate response to people, avoiding eye contact, resisting being picked up or cuddled, uncooperative play with other children, extreme hyperactivity and many others. There are five major areas in children highly affected by autism. They are communication, social interaction, sensory impairment, play and behavior.
Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. It affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with oth...
As observed in the research within 7 decades’ autism has quickly emerge into society. Signs that parents need to look out in their infants for autism are “lack or delay of language, reparative language or motor mannerism, little or no eye contact, lack of peer in peer relationships, lack of spontaneous or make believe play, and persistentfixation on parts of objects”; as suggested by Autism Society (2016, para. 4). In the following interviews done by the author of this paper there are observations an example on how autism culture has affect many
Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by impairments in social reciprocity and communication, and the presence of restricted or repetitive activities. Onset of autism is before the age of three. The etiology of autism is organic, though no single pathologic event has been identified as uniquely or universally associated with the disorder. The diagnosis of autism can be made accurately at two years of age, with social and communication impairments presenting as primary impairments.1,2 Treatments that are specialized for autism and begin at young ages have been found to contribute to significant gains in cognitive, social and language functioning.3-8 Thus, several different professional practice parameters emphasize the
The term Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) encompasses 5 neurobiological disorders (Phetrasuwan). These include Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Rett’s Disorder (Phetrasuwan). Autism itself can be diagnosed in about 1 out of every 88 children, and it is estimated that it is more prevalent in boys than in girls (autismspeaks.org). All children with ASD have issues with social and communication skills, however, the range of these developmental delays vary by individual (music in SpEd book). While the characteristics of ASD last throughout the individual’s life, with the aid of interventions
This video has several different parents discussing their autistic children. Many of these parents did not realize there were problems with their child, but they discuss how this was detected. The reason for this lack of awareness was that many of these autistic children were first kids so the parents did not have a reference point for milestones. Due to this lack of a comparison, they would realize their child was not meeting goals when answering questions of the pediatrician. In fact, one conversation involved the doctor asking how many words the child knew. The parent said none. This was a startling realization that something wasn’t normal. Another way these parents discovered there were problems is seeing children of friends and realizing their child was not acting the same way. Fortunately, in these examples, a diagnosis was obtained very early in the child’s development, which is a critical time for interventions, so that child will be able to meet their full potential (Boutot 2017, p. 43).
People tend to think that anyone who has trouble interacting socially has Autism, but this is not the case. There are specific signs to look for when attempting to find out if someone has Autism. These indicators will appear at specific times in a person’s life. Autism Speaks notes that Autism can be identified in children as early as 18 months, but most signs don't appear until the ages of 2 and 3 years of age. Autism is often paired with other health issues such as "gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, seizures, sleep disturbances, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and phobias" ("What is Autism?"). The timing of a person’s inability to interact socially along with these other health issues can be a strong indicator of Autism. The signs have a wide variety within the inability to interact socially. They are largely different than just
My focus is not autism prevention or treatment, but rather look for ways a parent can catch early signs that their child may be autistic. I hope to provide ways to develop an understanding of language, and correctly using verbal and non-verbal language. First, I will provide some insight on autism and the early signs parents can look for, later,
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.,