Discovering The Characteristics Of Autism

The research and data compiled by leading institutions have shown that autism, or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) affects approximately 1 in 165 children in America. Based on those numbers, that would indicate that an alarming 1.5 million Americans have autism to various degrees. It should be noted that many of these cases of autism have not been diagnosed. The annual growth rate of autism is greater than 14%, meaning it has become a major developmental disability for todays children.

Autism is not seen only in children, although studies indicate that most afflicted patients are born with it, instead of it developing during growth or as the result of an accident or injury. Autism does not appear to favor any particular race or even social class, although for reasons unknown, it is 3-4 times more likely to be seen in males versus females.

In order to properly understand autism, also known as autistic spectrum disorder or ASD, we need to first begin with a definition of what autism is, as well as what it is not. Autism is one of several cognitive disorders that have a detrimental effect on the developmental or learning ability of the afflicted individual. Autism can be detected as early as age 2 or 3 in most children, and is thought to be a neurological disorder that plays varying degrees of havoc with how the brain interprets different information. The most common signs seen are that autism causes difficulty with the childs communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal. In other words, from the non-verbal standpoint, the afflicted child typically has problems with social interactions with other children, their peers, and even their parents.

Since there are varying degrees of autism, it is critical that a child who is suspected of being afflicted with autism be diagnosed as early in life as possible. By doing this, the child can benefit from schools that specialize in children with special needs, which are becoming increasing prominent in almost all school districts. Professionals at these schools have been trained to understand autism and to take into account the specialized learning techniques that can reach these children.

One of the common myths about autism is that children afflicted with this disorder are lacking in intelligence. This is not necessarily the case, and in fact in terms of intelligence, the autistic child can rank right up there with their peers. The movie Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman illustrated this, where Dustin Hoffman played an autistic adult with many social interaction problems, but yet was a genius in the casino and with numbers in general.

People who are afflicted with autism display many traits that, when combined, may indicate the presence of autism to a certain degree. But since there are no definitive laboratory tests that can confirm the presence or absence of autism, it is important to watch for these traits when the child is still at a very young age. Those traits include severe resistance to change, difficulty in verbal communications, difficulty or lack of desire to have social interactions, difficulty in making eye contact, a low threshold for pain, and being obsessively fixated on a particular object.

It is critical to get a child suspected of being autistic diagnosed as early as possible so that an effective course of treatment can be started.