Autism

What is Autism?

Autism is a developmental disorder that typically appears in the first 3 years of a child's life, and affects the brain's normal development of social and communicational skills. Autism is a physical condition linked to abnormal biology  in the brain. The specific causes of these abnormalities remain unknown, but this is a very active research area. Chromosomal abnormalities and other neurological issues are also more common in families with autism.
Boys are 3 to 4 times more likely to develop autism than girls; a fact that was unknown to me untill recently.
Children with autism typically have difficulties in:

• playing pretend
• Social interactions
• Verbal/nonverbal communication

Some children with autism appear normal before age 1 or 2 and then suddenly begin to regress and lose language and/or social skills they had previously acquired.


(Cute  kid, eh? :3 )

People with autism may:

• Be overly sensitive in the 5 senses
• Have unusual distress to change
• Perform body movements repeatedly
• Show unusual attachments to objects

Communication problems may include:

• Cannot start a conversation
• Communicates with gestures, not words
• Develops language slowly, if at all
• Uses nonsense rhyming
• Does not adjust gaze to look at objects others are looking at
• Does not correctly refer to self
• Does not point to direct others' attention to objects
• Repeats words or passages, such as commercials

Social interaction:

• Doesn't make friends
• Doesn't play interactive games
• May avoid eye contact
• Withdrawn behavior
• May treat others as objects
• Prefers to spend time alone
• Lack of empathy

Other behaviors:

• Doesn't startle at loud noises
• Has heightened or lowered senses
• May withdraw from physical contact because it is overwhelming
• Rubs surfaces, mouths or licks objects
• heightened or lowered response to pain

Play:

• Doesn't imitate the others
• Prefers ritualistic play
• Shows little imaginative play

Behaviors:

• intense tantrums
• Gets stuck on a single topic
• short attention span
• very narrow interests
• overactive or very passive
• Shows aggression to others or self
• strong need for sameness
• repetitive body movements