Autism Reseach
Essay Preview: Autism Reseach
Report this essay
The topic of research for this assignment will be autism. There is an abundance of information available on autism, but there is also a large quantity of unknown. First it is important to understand what autism is. Next, we can investigate the countless aspects of this particular pervasive developmental disorder, particularly characteristics (general, cognitive and social), signs, causes and myths, prevalence, and diagnosis and treatment.
Autism usually appears before age 3, and is a developmental disability that affects the functioning of the brain, particularly the areas that control communication skills, social interaction, and activity. It is called a developmental disability because it starts in the developmental period, before age three, and delays or stunts human development. This disability is complex and lifelong, and is often found in combination with other disabilities. Autistic individuals display a very limited collection of interests and activities, repetitive behavior (example: repeating the same sentence over and over), obsessively following routines, or having methodical and specific ways of arranging things. People with autism typically “see the trees but not the forest,” meaning they can focus on detail but have difficulty seeing the big picture.
Autism can be tricky to identify because it is a spectrum disorder. In other words, there are a number of combinations of characteristics that are attributable to autism, and these symptoms have highly varying degrees (severe to mild). This makes it very possible for two autistic individuals to have very different behaviors.
Most autistic children can see and hear normally, but they respond to sensory input in a distorted way. From a very early age they are either under or over responsive to all kinds of stimuli. Both ways of responding can often be seen in the same person. Some of the perceptual disturbances of autistic children seem to decrease with age, especially in cases where the child responds well to treatment for the overall disorder, but there is no doubt that early cognitive development is abnormal.
The most universal symptom of autism is language disturbance. More than half of all autistic children remain mute, and specific aspects of language disorder remain for those who do speak. One characteristic of autistic speech is the reversal of “I” and “you.” Another characteristic is echolalia (mentioned earlier) in which the child echoes or repeats all or part of what has been said to her or him. The language and the manner of speaking of autistic children seem mechanical and monotonous.
Autistic children also display a lack of symbolic play. Using a big box for a playhouse, or a stick for a snake are examples of symbolic play. This usually develops in normal children by about 21 months and becomes more elaborate as the child grows older. At least half of autistic children show a complete lack of symbolic play.
Autistic people have abnormal interpersonal relationships that seem to be related to their emotional and affective abnormalities. Research studies have shown that the emotional facial expressions, gestures, and vocalizations of autistic children are often idiosyncratic. Autistic children seem to lack the normal childs ability to coordinate affective expression and behavior. They seem neither to recognize the signals sent out by other people nor to display normally coherent patterns of feelings. Researchers suggest that this is why they fail to participate in the coordinated patterns of feelings and action that usually occur between people.
Usually by the age of 18 months the symptoms of autism are measurable, although parents and experts, in most cases, can detect symptoms before this age. Formal diagnoses are usually made between ages two and three when the child shows lag in language development, but can be made as early as age two. Diagnosis is discussed in more detail later in this paper.
According to recent studies, about 20% of autistic children experienced a regression. These children have normal development for the most part, and then experience a loss of social and communication skills. We know very little about these regressions. It remains a mystery about what triggers, age of onset, or severity of these regressions.
Some of the basic and commons signs of autism that have not been mentioned yet are: little or no eye contact, insistence on sameness, aversion to physical contact, spinning of objects, doesnt point or wave, appears deaf at times, and noticeable physical over-activity or under-activity. The full list can be obtained from the Autism Society of America website.
Science has yet to determine a single biological agent that absolutely causes autism although significant discoveries have been made. It is believed that a number of factors have to be at work to cause autism. Generally, most researchers believe that there is a strong genetic component with an assortment of external or environmental triggers. According to recent studies, there could be genetic factors at work (a predisposition) as early as during in utero growth.
The CPEA (Collaborative Programs in Excellence of Autism) is a world wide research network co sponsored by the NICHD (National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders). They are constantly conducting studies on autism. Two of their studies are also pointing to genes that are involved in autism. These results suggested that some people have an error in their genes that makes them more likely to develop autism. Still more of their studies have been suggesting that autism is occurring more frequently in people who have certain medical conditions such as Fragile X Syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, congenital rubella syndrome, and untreated PKU (phenylketonuria).
Because of the pattern of cognitive disabilities associated with autism, researchers have focused on the left hemisphere of the brain where language and symbolic material are assumed to be processed. These difficulties might be caused by early damage to the limbic system (the limbic system is