~WHAT IS AUTISM~

Autism is a very puzzling and painful disorder for parents to understand and deal with. You have a beautiful child who seems totally withdrawn--you reach out with love in your heart and get no response. You are bewildered and hurt. You feel helpless. Autism, h owever, is not an impenetrable wall; there are things you can do to reach your child and to try to help her. But before you can help her, you need to understand what autism is, how it is diagnosed, and how it is treated. ~What Is Autism~

Autism is a physical disorder of the brain that causes a lifelong developmental disability. The many different symptoms of autism can occur by themselves or in combination with other conditions such as mental retardation, blindness, deafness, and epilepsy. Because children with autism - like all children - vary widely in their abilities and behavior, each symptom may appear differently in each child. There are six major symptoms of autism.

~The Symptoms of Autism~

FAILURE TO DEVELOP NORMAL SOCIALIZATION

          The inability of children with autism to develop normal social skills is probably the most noticeable characteristic of autism. Children with autism dont interact with others the way most other children do or simply dont interact at all... They prefer to be alone. They tend to avoid eye contact or appear to 'look through' people...They might have no desire to initiate contact or to be held or cuddled. When they are held, they might stiffen or arch their back as if being held is somehow distressing.

Children with autism sometimes use people mechanically. For example: your child may approach you and take you by the hand to something she or he wants - like to the refrigerator for juice..without a word or a glance. You are treated just like any other tool.

Most children with autism have extremely limited social skills and seem to live in a world of their own, separate from and unfathomable to outsiders. This inability to relate to the world of people is often the strongest clue to autism.

DISTURBANCES IN SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND COMMUNICATION

          Autism's second major symptom is speech, language and communication problems. Approximately 40 percent of children with autism do not speak at all. Others have what is called 'echolalia', a parrotlike repeating of what has been said to them.

Your child may have little or no understanding of abstract concepts such as danger, or of symbolic gestures such as waving 'bye bye'.

ABNORMAL RELATIONSHIPS TO OBJECTS AND EVENTS

          Children with autism are usually unable to relate normally to objects and events.

          A great many children with autism have what is called a 'need for sameness' and may become very upset if objects in their environment or schedules are chnged from their familiar placement or pattern.

          The way children with autism 'play' may be very unusual; sometimes children with autism do not play at all. Your child may have no 'pretend' play an dmay start few, if any , play activities on her own. When she does use toys or play materials, she may use them in unusual ways.

          These unusual responses to people, objects and events can and do change. Over time, and with appropriate treatment, children with autism can learn to enjoy using various objects appropriately and can learn to tolerate some change in their world.

ABNORMAL RESPONSES TO SENSORY STIMULATION

          Sensory stimuli are the things in the environment that we touch, smell, feel, see and hear. While we respond to much of what goes on around us, our brains filter out certain unimportant stimuli, allowing our attention to be gucused on the most improtant information in the envirnment at that moment. Children with autism have difficulty with this 'filtering out' process. They may greatly overreact to sensory stimuli, or have almost no reaction whatsoever. They even may appear deaf at times.

          As part of her sensory problems, a child with autism may be fascinated with lights, color patterns, logos, shapes or the configuration of letters and words. She may be preoccupied with scratching or rubbing certain surfaces. She may also furiously avoid certain food textures..for example, rough testures like toast. Or smooth textures such as pudding.

          Generally speaking, children with autism, especially younger children, appear to use their sense of taste and smell more than their senses of hearing and vision to learn and explore.

DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS AND DIFFERENCES

          The fifth symptom of autism is the significantly different way a child with autism develops. Children without special needs develop at a relatively even pace across all of the many areas of development. A child's skills at a given age may be slightly ahead of or behind most other children's and still be wiwell within normal limits. For example, a child may learn to walk sooner than most childrenm, but learn to talk a bit later. For children with autism, however, this development process is not at all even. Their rate of development is quite different, particularly in communication, social and cognitive skills. In contrast, motor development - the ability to walk , hop, climb stairs, manipulate small objects with the fingers - may be relatively normal or only slightly delayed.

BEGINS DURING INFANCY OR CHILDHOOD

       The sixth symptom of autism is that it begins during infancy or childhood. Autism is a lifelong disability that one is born with. Generally, parents get a diagnosis before their child is thirty-six months old, but later diagnosis sometimes occurs.

TYPES OF AUTISM

          Some children with autism are more disabled by their disorder than others. Autism in children can run the gamut from mild to severe, with the majority of children clustering toward the mid point.

          Sometimes, instead of hearing that your child has 'classic autism'..you might hear labels like: Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Atypical Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Autistic-Like or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Other Specified **Note: it is important to remember that, regardless of their label, the education and treatment of these children is the same.

SOICAL INTERACTIONS

--Shows little or no interest in making friends.
--Prefers own company to being with others
--Does not imitate others' actions (e.g. raising arms for 'so big')
-- Does not interact playfully (e.g., participating in 'hide and seek' games)
--Seems unaware of others' existence; for example, treats family members and strangers interchangeably.

COMMUNICATION

--Has difficulty maintaining a conversation despite good speech skills.
--Reversse pronouns such as 'you' and 'I'
--Has echolalia--repeats others' words, either immediately or after a delay
--Lacks imagination or the ability to pretend
--Does not use symbolic gestures such as waving 'bye bye'
--Cannot communicate with words or gestures

BEHAVIORAL SYMPTOMS --Does not respond to requests by familir people --Has picky eating habits
--Throws frequent tantrums, often for no known reason
--Behaves aggressively, physically attacking or injuring others
--Injures self with behavior such as head-banging or eye-gouging

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE AUTISM?

          In the United States, there are at least 360,000 people with autism..{this includes approximately 110,000 wiht the full syndrome, and approximately 250,000 who exhibit most, but not all, of the symptoms required for diagnosis} one-third whom are children. Autism is the fourth most common developmental disability; only mental retardation, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy occur more frequently. Autism occurs in about four to five of every ten thousand births.

DO MORE BOYS THAN GIRLS HAVE AUTISM?

          For reasons we do not yet understand, autism occurs about four times more frequently in boys than girls.

I have these links here because my son Vinnie is autistic. Vinnie
"Learn More About Autism With This Site	PDD Support Home Page	Autism Society of America
My Family & Autism :-) The Adams Family Links To Books About Autism