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Autism. A Medical Mystery. Autism Explained. Autism is a developmental disorder that some people are born with — it's not something you can catch or pass along to someone else. It affects the brain and makes communicating and interacting with other people difficult.
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Autism A Medical Mystery
Autism Explained • Autism is a developmental disorder that some people are born with — it's not something you can catch or pass along to someone else. • It affects the brain and makes communicating and interacting with other people difficult. • This disorder is recognized early on in the first 3 years of life. • Often it looks as though the child is developing normally. The severity of Autism varies from child to child.
Symptoms • Inadequate verbal and social skills. • Impaired speech, repetition of words. • Bizarre or repetitive behavior patterns, uncontrollable head-banging; screaming fits, arm flapping. • Little or no interest in human contact, unresponsiveness to parents and other people. • Extreme resistance to minor changes in the home environment. • Self-destructive behavior. • An inability to care for oneself. • Sometimes epilepsy or seizure like brain activity occurs.
Diagnosis • 1)The child does not babble or coo by twelve months. • 2) The child does not use gestures to communicate and the child does not wave. • 3) The child does not grasp objects or point to objects by twelve months. • 4) The child does not say single words by the age of sixteen months and does not say two-word phrases on his or her own by 24 months. 5) The child has a loss of any language or social skills at any age.
Who is affected? • Occurs in more males than females. • The chances someone you know could have it are 1 in 150.
The Cure • Autism has no cure. • Much research has been done and nothing can be linked to heredity. • Even with using different treatments autism will not be cured. • Many scientists work to find the cell that triggers autism.
Treatments • Drugs are of minor importance but some used are anti-seizure drugs and prescriptions to reduce anxiety, hyperactivity, and attention disorders. • Anti depressants sometimes work. • Anti-psychotic drugs work but have many side effects such as involuntary body movement and are highly sedative. • Stem cell research is also known to help.
Related Information • Daryl Hannah played in splash, blade runner, and kill bill, border line autitstic. • Michelle Dawson was an autism researcher and activist made ethical challenges to applied behavior analysis, had high functioning autism. • Fictional characters believed to have autism, Boo Radley (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ZanIBoGHU
What parents should look for Infants with Autism Normal infants Infants with Autism Normal infants Communication Exploration of Environment Social Relationships
References http://kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/school/autism.html http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8776&cn=20 http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/causes.phphttp://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/famous-people-with-autism.htmlwww.nmha.orghttp://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8781&cn=20http://educate-yourself.org/vcdautismamystery.shtmlAutism written by Elaine Landau, published by Franklin Watts, 2001, in Danbury, Connecticuthttp://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=clin&id=764&cn=20&t=0http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HWRC/hits?SU=autism&basicSearchOption=KE&origSearch=true&r=s&o=&bucket=all&searchTerm=2NTA&l=r&index=BA&c=1&locID=nysl_sc_taehs&secondary=false&t=RK&s=1