What Is Autism?
Autism is a complex neurobehavioral condition that includes impairments in social interaction and developmental language and communication skills combined with rigid, repetitive behaviors. Because of the range of symptoms, this condition is now called autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It covers a large spectrum of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment. ASD ranges in severity from a handicap that somewhat limits an otherwise normal life to a devastating disability that may require institutional care.
Children with autism have trouble communicating. They have trouble understanding what other people think and feel. This makes it very hard for them to express themselves either with words or through gestures, facial expressions, and touch.
- A child with ASD may become distressed over breaks in their routine.
- ASD is an umbrella term that accounts for a number of neurodevelopmental conditions.
- While different types of ASD occur, common experiences among people with the condition include impairment in social situations and the adoption of repetitive behaviors.
Some children with autism might seem to show symptoms from birth, while others may develop more obvious signs as they become older.
Autism also has links to other medical conditions, such as epilepsy and tuberous sclerosis complex. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), an estimated 20 to 30 percent of people with ASD develop epilepsy by the time they reach childhood.
A child with ASD who is very sensitive may be greatly troubled — sometimes even pained — by sounds, touches, smells, or sights that seem normal to others.
Children who are autistic may have repetitive, stereotyped body movements such as rocking, pacing, or hand flapping. They may have unusual responses to people, attachments to objects, resistance to change in their routines, or aggressive or self-injurious behavior. At times they may seem not to notice people, objects, or activities in their surroundings. Some children with autism may also develop seizures. And in some cases, those seizures may not occur until adolescence.
Some people with autism are cognitively impaired to a degree. In contrast to more typical cognitive impairment, which is characterized by relatively even delays in all areas of development, people with autism show uneven skill development. They may have problems in certain areas, especially the ability to communicate and relate to others. But they may have unusually developed skills in other areas, such as drawing, creating music, solving math problems, or memorizing facts. For this reason, they may test higher — perhaps even in the average or above-average range — on nonverbal intelligence tests.
Causes for Autism
The causes of autism are currently not known, but significant numbers of studies are underway with a view to learning how it develops.
Researchers have identified several genes that appear to have connections to ASD. Sometimes, these genes arise from spontaneously mutate. In other cases, people may inherit them.
In studies of twins, autism often has a strong correlation between twins. For example, if one twin has autism, the other is likely to have autism an estimated 36 to 95 percent of the time, according to the NINDS.
Those with autism may also undergo changes in key areas of their brains that impact their speech and behavior. Environmental factors might also play a role in the development of ASD, although doctors have not yet confirmed a link.
However, researchers do know that some rumored causes, such as parenting practices, do not cause autism. Symptoms of Autism
ASD may have a number of effects on a person’s social interaction and communication, including:
Adoption of unusual speech patterns, such as using a robot-like tone
Avoiding eye contact with others
Not babbling or cooing to parents as an infant
Not responding to their name
Late development of speech skills
Having difficulty with maintaining a conversation
Frequently repeating phrases
Apparent difficulty in understanding feelings and expressing their own
In addition to impaired communication, a person with autism may also display repetitive or unusual behaviors.
Examples of these include:
Becoming so invested in a topic that it seems to consume them, such as cars, train timetables, or planes
Becoming preoccupied with objects, such as a toy or household object
Engaging in repetitive motions, such as rocking side to side
Lining up or arranging toys or objects in very orderly ways
Around 1 in every 10 people with autism exhibits signs of savant syndrome, although this condition might also occur in people with other developmental conditions or nervous system injuries.
Savant syndrome occurs when a person demonstrates extraordinary abilities in a particular field, such as playing a musical instrument, calculating extremely complex sums at high speed, reading two pages of a book simultaneously, or being able to memorize vast amounts of knowledge.
People with autism thrive on routine, and the ability to predict the outcomes of certain behaviors and places. A break in routine or exposure to loud, overstimulating environments can overwhelm a person with ASD, leading to outbursts of anger, frustration, distress, or sadness.
No specific test can diagnose autism. Instead, doctors reach a diagnosis through parental reports of behavior, observation, and by ruling out other conditions.