Living With Autism

Abstract

Living With Autism

Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. This is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain. 

Autism is four more times prevalent in boys than girls. Autism shows no racial, ethnic or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle and educational levels do not affect the chance of autism's occurrence. Autism and its associated behaviors have been estimated to occur in as many and one in five hundred individuals. In this essay, I will discuss the signs and symptoms of autism, types of autism, the causes and studies done on autism.
There are many signs and symptoms that a child has autism. Some are very obvious and are easily noticed and others are under the radar and have to be looked for in order to be noticed. Autism isn’t characterized by one symptom but is identified by three separate symptoms. The three symptoms are: impairments in social interaction, impairments in communication, and restricted interests and repetitive behavior.
Problems in social interaction began to show in early childhood. Children with autism tend to not react well to social stimuli. They tend to have trouble with eye contact and they have a tough time with turn taking. Their communication tends to not be verbal; it ends up being them manipulating the other person’s hand to get what they want. At the age of three to about the age of five, children begin to develop differently than children with autism. Normal children can approach people spontaneously, communicate nonverbally, imitate and respond to emotions, and can take turns with others. But the children with autism struggle with these simple ideas everyday. Contrary to popular belief autistic children do not prefer to be alone. Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendship not the number of friends shows how lonely they feel.
Another symptom of someone with autism is impairment with communication. About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. In the first year of life a child with autism develop many differences in communication compared to a normal child. They may include; delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the parent or guardian. Autistic children are very likely to repeat someone else’s words instead of using their own and they sometimes reverse pronouns when they talk. Also they have trouble using their imagination and they are a hard time turning something they see into words.
The last of the three symptoms usually seen in autistic children are restricted interests and repetitive behavior. There are five different categories of either restricted interests or repetitive behavior. The first and most commonly known of the four is, stereotypy. Stereotypy is a repetitive movement that is performed often by an autistic child, it includes: hand flapping, making noises and body rocking. The second category is compulsive behavior. This behavior is intended and