Autism
University Composition and Communication 2
September 27, 2013
Jamie Benton

Autism is a mental condition present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and is using language and abstract concepts. There is no cure for autism, but studies states it’s caused by abnormalities in the brain structure of function. (www.PubMedHealth.com) Being that it’s no cure a human being will have to live with this disease there entire life. The families of this human will have to be more understanding and helpful to help the person make it through the disease. The most obvious signs of autism and symptoms of autism tends to emerge between 2 and 3 years of age. Most cases of autism appear to be caused by a combination of autism risk genes.
There are several characteristics when having this disease which consist of social skills, language, and behaviors. (www.PubMedHealth.com) Social skills consist of the child has poor eye contact, failure of hearing you, and he doesn’t want to be held or cuddle with. Poor eye contact means when you talk to him are if he talks to you he want look at you the same amount of time you will look at him. His attention span want be focus on looking at you while you are talking its more off in space, but he hears you. Then you have failure of hearing which can consist of anybody talking to him sister, mother, father, and even teacher and he just doesn’t hear them. No matter what the conversation is about he will not be attentive, he will be more focus on himself and whatever it is he has going on before you started talking to him. Having this disease will have you to interact only on your terms alone. Then it’s the part when not wanting to be held. Every parent loves to hold and cuddle with their children, I know I do. Having a child that doesn’t want to be held or be your cuddle buddy would be hard to handle, because that’s when you know he is not like other children. It’s not that he wouldn’t want to be held but the condition he has prevents all that. An autistic child is very to themselves they keep everything neat and know where everything is, so if something is moved he will know it. My son was in a class with an autistic child and I watch the teacher deal with the student, and he was the total opposite of these characteristics. He was attentive, always wanting to be under the teacher, but he just wouldn’t play with the other kids in the class. I meet the little boy, and he was real friendly, and smart, after meeting him I believe the disease affect every child differently. It’s a sing by the name of Toni Braxton, who son has autism. She has a TV show with her family and when it shows a scene with her little boy he doesn’t talk much he just likes to be under his mommy. She always compliments him from being smart and for making her proud. He played in their family sport baseball and he hit a homerun, the entire family was so excited. Anything is possible with your children no matter the situation it just takes patience.
The language of an autistic child is not your average daily language. Talking to a person without a disease would be a piece of cake because we all do it on a daily basis. With an autistic child language would consist of not talking, delayed speech, can’t start a conversation or keep one going. (www.PubMedHealth.com) Some children that speak uses language in unpredictable ways. Some children can’t combine their words in to meaningful sentences, so they just use single words. Autistic children are able to parrot some words they hear, this condition is called echolalia. Without consistent training echoing others words will be the only way an autistic child will acquire. Also, gestures is a great way to help communicate with a child with this disease. It will minimize the frustration of the child trying to speak and tell you what he wants. Talking to a child in this condition I think is