Autism

Autism means "self-ism". About four children out of every ten-thousand develop this rare but troubling disease and most of these are boys. It begins in infancy or early childhood and most likely will last a lifetime,but improvement is possible. Autism is usually detected by the age of six months. Autistic children have been found in all types of family backgrounds-rich and poor, educated and uneducated. Most of these children look normal and often are very good-looking. The disorder may exist in any degree varying from very mild to very severe. Separate from their autism,autistic persons may be emotionally disturbed or well-adjusted but these people are not necessarily mentally handicapped and they are able to do certain kinds of tasks. Autists have a failure to communicate with others and most cannot explain how they feel,yet others are limited to an interpretation of their behavior. They vary as much as any other group of people: they may be bright or dull,cheerful or difficult,mischievous or compliant,and so on.

People with this condition are sometimes echolalic(repeating meaninglessly everything they hear) and they often speak with a monotonous or oddly-pitched tone of voice.

Autists find it difficult to process information about people and their relationships;this is demonstrated by their inability to recognize facial expressions and their general difficulty in understanding what is going on in common social situations. They get through life by learning rules for dealing with situations but have little understanding of the meaning of what they are dealing with. People who have this condition are emotionally unresponsive and sometimes avoid relating to people. In babies,this is displayed by failure to maintain eye contact with a parent or to display feeling through facial expressions. In older children,it may be indicated by the child's inability to make friends or the inability to play in other children's company.

They may insist on an unchanging environment and may carry out repetitive,purposeless activities,such as lining up objects repeatedly or counting things over and over again. Attempts to interrupt such routines may result in intense displays of temper,with children biting themselves,repeatedly strinking thier heads against walls,or punching themselves to a degree sufficient to produce severe injury. Autists attentional mechanisms incline him or her to "tune-out" outside happenings and for this reason they are able to maintain concentration on such tasks as multiplying large numbers mentally or memorizing phonebooks.

These children are often enthralled by their surroundings and they may show skill in handling objects,for example,finishing jigsaw puzzles on the basis of the shapes of the pieces and without help form the picture,which they are generally unable to interpret.

The echoed speech,the inability to be touched,the walking on tip-toe,the painfulness of sounds,the rocking,and the repetitive movements(biting the hands,rotating an object,flapping the arms) are common traits shared by most autistic persons.

Autists are either very active or inactive and their performance of tasks varies:they may do one task well,but may perform at the level of retarded people in other tasks.

They learn to speak and understand language slowly and there tends to be a mix-up of the pronouns me and you.

They express their emotions formt he inside instead fo outside sources ,outbursts of laughter or crying for an unknown reason are examples of this. They are unresponsive to pain.

Problems during pregnancy or around the time of birth may cause autism. It is not caused by bad parenting,but is the result of some abnormality of brain development that occurs either before birth or early in childhood. Researchers found subtle structeral abnormalities in the brains of some autistic persons,this is linked to why autists become oblivious to many social cues. It may be caused by a biological abnormality because they tend to have unusually high levels of endorphins(brain chemicals) or it may be caused by a biochemical problem because half of all autists need larger amounts of vitamin B6 and the mineral magnesium than others. The removal of cow's milk,wheat,and eggs from the diet improved hundredsof shildren's behavior. In between eight to twenty percent of autists,metabolic problems may be the basic cause of problems within the autist. One form of food intolerance associated with autism is phenol intolerance. The sensitivity to colorings,flavorings and preservatives is associated with hyperactivity. When intolerance does not cause actual damage,it affects the body's rate of absorption of vitamins,minerals,and toxic substances and this affects the functioning of the brain.

The autistic person must be able to recognize him or herself as non-normal in some sense,then the person must be highly motivated to try hard to overcome the difficulty. Teachers use behavior modification(the reward and punishment process) to help autistic children learn the colors and the alphabet. Autistic shildren learn best in a highly structured environment witha regular routine. The majority of autistic children will need special education throughout their school lives,this is because of the range of intelligence,which goes from above average to severely subnormal and also because some have severe language handicaps. Some goals of education are:
(1)to aid the child in becoming an accepted part of society
(2)to help the child make-up for his/her handicaps
(a) he/she needs to be taught methods for dealing with the world.
(b)he/she needs help in developing the skills which he/she does have.
(3)education that will enable him/her to get a job,either in open or sheltered conditions
(4)to help the child to undrstand the world,so that he/she can find some enjoyment in life

This article should have provided some basic insight on the disorder of autism.

Kalat,James W. Introduction to Psychology.
3rd ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, Inc.,1993

Williams, dona. Nobody Nowhere.
New York: Times Books,1992.