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Every day there are bad news on the way, but the worst of them all are those that affect innocent children. The awful fact is that the government has recently acknowledged that autism is becoming a national health crisis, increasing at a rate of 10 to 17 percent a year and no one knows why.
Autism is one of the five autism spectrum disorders, it's characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior, all exhibited before a child is two or three years old. Of the other four autism spectrum disorders, Asperger's syndrome is closest to autism in signs; Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder share several signs with autism but may have unrelated causes; finally, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified is diagnosed when the criteria are not met for a more specific disorder.

In contrast to those bad news announcing the increase of the Autism disorder. Doctors such as Thomas Anders, a child psychiatrist, and Edward R. Ritvo, a well-known figure in the world of autism research, claim that there is no epidemic.

"It doesn't necessarily mean there's an epidemic," Anders says. "It means that there's a huge increase in the number of reported and diagnosed cases."

"THERE IS NO EPIDEMIC OF AUTISM! Rather my research efforts to identify mild forms of the disease which began in the 1970s is paying off. We now diagnose a spectrum of severity ranging from the "classical" Kanner description of the most sever cases to the mildest forms called "Asperger's Syndrome "says Edward R. Ritvo"Also, increased case finding is mainly due to: a) Our efforts to educate physicians and the public as to the nature of autism so that more accurate diagnoses are made and cases are identified. b) The availability of public agencies and schools to provide services in the community and thus keep tabs on newly - properly diagnosed cases. c) The closure of State and private "warehouses" where many were improperly diagnosed, and housed."
Another good thing is that there are a lot of accessible communities on the Internet that offer great help to the parents and to their kids. It's amazing that there are such a people who are willing to devote themselves and their spare time to the others. Another fascinating peace of news is how much the medicine has developed in the last few years and that the number of the alternative and innovative therapies has increased. Still the best known and researched therapy is the Analysis, after it are the speech therapy, Occupational therapy, Social and Therapy. Some of the good alternative therapies are The Nutrition Therapy and the Craniosacral Therapy for Autism and Other Developmental Delays that involves Traditional Chinese medicine, Play therapy, Music Therapy, Immunotherapy. Still the parents must know that every child is different and it needs its own special treatment. Yet looking at these treatments gives us hope that soon there will be a cure for The Autism and all we can do is just to believe and help these children live their lives as normally as possible.

Learn more about this author, Katherine La Moll.
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