by Ms. LaRouge

Created on: December 22, 2009

Identifying, accepting, and dealing with Autism.

 Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Autism is one of the five Pervasive Development Disorders (PDD). The rate of people being diagnosed with autism in the last decade has reached alarming numbers. According to several autism foundations, one out of every 150 children born in the United States has been diagnosed with autism.

Like other disorders there are different types of autism. Autism's range of symptoms covers a very large field. It includes autistics who are very near to being mentally retarded, to the autistic person who shows very mild symptoms. Normally the terms high of low functioning autism are used to describe the level at which the autistic person can perform the daily activities that are a part of living and related to their IQ level. Autistic persons who have an IQ of less that 80 being categorized as having what is called “low-functioning autism. The autistic person whose IQ is higher that 80 is categorized as having “high-functioning autism. I have learned that “low-functioning autism” is also known as or referred to as Kanner’s autism and “high-functioning autism” is known as or thought of as  Asperger’s syndrome.

We can't detect autism by just looking at an individual; there are various symptoms. Writer Namsing Then stated that some of the main symptoms are: learning difficulties, communication or speech problems, difficulty relating to people, marked by a lack of awareness, short attention span, not exhibiting creative or imaginative play, performing actions that are often repetitive and reacting extremely to changes in the immediate environment. She goes on to say “as with most disorders or diseases, the earlier the problem is recognized, the sooner treatment can begin”.

 Although autism has been around for a few decades, the cause of autism is still unclear. There is no strong consensus, and researches are studying a wide spectrum of possible factors to try and pinpoint what causes autism. It has long been presumed that there is a common cause at the genetic, cognitive, and neural levels for autism's characteristic triad of symptoms, however, most of the mutations that increase autism risk have not been identified. Typically, autism cannot be traced to a Mendelian (single-gene) mutation. Not being able

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