Autism
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A newly understood disease is attacking humankind in devastating numbers in our present time. In the past, not much was known about it and it was
only researched, examined and diagnosed until recent decades. This is not classified as a disease, but rather a mental disorder. This mental disorder
is known as Autism and is growing rapidly throughout societies around the world. It is a disorder that leaves parents flustered and confused as to
what happened with their son or daughter. It is a problem that effects a whole family and changes their life styles, goals and overall views on life.
Due to parental and psychoanalytical involvement, the future for young children diagnosed with autism grows day by day.
Until the 1940s Autism was an unrecognizable condition. Autism is a mental disorder that generally starts to take affect within your first two years
life. It has been debated that from that point on it can become progressively worse. With the new psychotherapy treatment, many doctors beg to differ.
Doctors believe that it can now be controlled and maintained if caught early enough and with proper mental treatment. Repetetive actions, social, and verbal
problems, and obsessive interests are the three key problems involved with the disorder. To catch early signs in children development, look for lack of
eye contact and smiling or struggling to speak by sixteen months. ===The Centers for Disease Control says that one in every fifteen hundred kids has some
form of autism===== It is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States says Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, director of medical research at the
Kennedy Krieger Institute Center. To understand more about you must look into how the diagnosis is made and what causes it.
Diagnosis of Autism is still difficult to determine. It is a diagnosis with many grey areas due to the fact that it is a behavioral syndrome. This means that
you must evaluate the childs behavior for a period of time and in different situations until you can come up with a proper conclusion. These specific behaviors
include the childs social relationships, repetitiveness and communication problems. But you must be carefull in evaluating these individually becuase most of
these problems are common developmentat issues with children growing up in society at early stages in their life. It makes the diagnosis much more clear in the
sense that if you can connect all of these problems together and look for consistency then there is a good chance that the diagnoses with autism has been
properly examined and calculated. The other key aspect involved in the development is age. If not all evaluations are done by the age of thirty six months than
it can not be properly diagnosed. For the assessment of the diagnosis is a little more complicated. One of the biggest problems with the diagnosis of autism
is that it can be confused with other diseases.There are a number of other conditions autism can be confused with therefor the diagnosis must be a meticulous one.
The following are some other conditions that are very similar to autism. One is elective mutism- where depending on the child and the situation he is in decides
on whether he will communicate or not. Another one is the attatchment disorder. This happens when a child is dependent on a certain tight relationship he or she
may have. If that person is not around then they will not act the same. Specific language disorder is just a late development with language but has no correlation
with social struggles. In an evaluation they must look at all of the other possibilities before diagnosing a child with autism because there is always the good chance
they could have something other than autism and they must be diagnosed correctly for proper treatment.Autism can not be diagnosed at infancy because the
child development is not as complex and apparent. Also there is no clear pattern of behavior until at least two years of age. Also children with autism have normal
development during there beginning stages of development.
What causes autism is a frequently asked question for many people that are not too familiar with the disease. Back in the sixties there were some interesting theories
out there. One psychoanalyst named Bruno Bettelheim beleived that autism was caused from bad parenting and in order to treat it decided the removal of the child from
the parents would be the best solution. Of course these practices were unsuccessful.====The biological theory is proving to be more and more accurate throughout the
years. ====The biological theory holds that in autism there are one or several abnormalities in the brain, and that these are caused by one or several biological
factors (such as genes, complications during pregnancy or birth, or viral infections).==== The fact that it is evenly dispersed culturally takes the
the fact that it could be caused socially out of the equation.====The following chart helps provide strong support for the Biological Theory of autism.
FEATURES OF THE SYNDROME
more often found in males
Roughly equally common in all areas and cultures
ASSOCIATED FACTORS
mental handicap
epilepsy
neurological symptoms
minor congenital anomalies
difficulties in pregnancy and labour
LINKS WITH OTHER CONDITIONS
chromosomal/genetic conditions
metabollic conditions
viral infections
congenital anomaly syndromes
Since the medical conditions found with in children are very diverse they all are related to some kind of brain damage or malfuncition. Another commonly asked
question is does autism run in the family and what about its occurence with twins. The chances of other siblings developing the disorder is 2 or 3 percent
greater than that of someone not related. Based off this information alone can not determine that there are many genetic findings involved, but looking into
twins can prove this wrong. Since identical twins