Archive for June, 2007

Every parent will put forth all their efforts to see their children groomed into a self-sufficient adult. In fact, it is the primary duty of the parents to shape their children’s behaviour and growth to reach the long-term goal. The education system also plays a vital role in equipping the children with right skills and assisting them in growing to become a responsible adult.

The Difficult Task of Educating Autistic Children

Parents helping their children in grooming, children going to schools, studying well and growing with good manners, complete studies and take up a job, and become a successful adult in the society – all may sound simple and easy in a hypothetical condition. Such things are highly impossible for autistic children.

Though the parents of these autistic children also wish to see their children grow, perform well, and become self-sufficient, in the real scenario it is not so as today’s available autism education is not sufficient enough to fulfill such dreams of parents who have autistic children.

You can have a list of institutions and special schools that offer good autism education, but before you could make your mind to admit your autistic child in one of the schools, you should consider many points that may influence your child’s personality development.

We will see few of them now:

– In a any general school, one single teacher may be able to manage around 15 pupils and cater to the needs of the studying children, but in case of autistic children the teacher student ration should be in the range of 1:3 meaning that for every three autistic children there should be at least one teacher. Because of the special attention required to teach and guide autistic children this 1:3 teacher student ratio must be maintained and in case of more autistic children left under the care of one single teacher, then the children may not get the required attention and interaction.

– Autism education is not easy as it is very time consuming and monotonous in nature and requires special skills to handle non-responsive autistic children. Many times the children may need one-to-one interaction for making progress.

– The level of expertise attained by the teacher and the training staff need to be in high order so as to have an effective impact while handling the autistic children. In majority of the time when the autistic children makes inappropriate reaction or response, only a well trained teacher or the staff alone can understand and give corrective measures to the children. Only a good training can make teachers giving correct and appropriate training to the autistic children.

– The staff and the teacher involved should be very friendly and should talk freely so as to gain confidence levels of the children and be able to meet to the needs of the autistic children. In many of the autism education programmes, the progress of the child should be closely monitored for incorporating necessary changes and for including additional therapies. Deciding on the right kind of treatment or therapy is a long drawn process and hence the parents and the teachers should work in coordination for achieving desired results.

If you can get all the above-mentioned facilities or advantages in an autism education programme, then such programme will be beneficial to your autistic child.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autism Education

Modern medical science is yet to give us the exact reason that causes autism and it is yet to give a cure. However, many associations, parents and voluntary organisations are collecting information in order to understand the disorder better and for finding an effective cure for autism. When the science depends on the fact and figures of the research findings, many of the parents who have autistic children started trying the autism diet.

A very prolonged study and the try have in fact resulted in emergence of important and major dietary treatments such as casein and gluten-free diet, supplements of vitamins A, D, C and B-12, and cod liver oil.

How a Diet can Help

If your child has been diagnosed for autism and if the reason is not from physical causes, then an autism diet can be of certain help. There is a popular belief that there is a link or relation between autism symptoms and food allergies or sensitiveness. It was observed that autism as a neurological condition often combined with few physical and mental abnormalities. Few autistic children have even developed gastrointestinal problems including irritable bowel syndrome.

Further, there is a high incidence of children suffering from food allergies and may interfere with the symptoms of autism. As the autistic children have some impairment in communicating, parents should take necessary care and precaution to take the food allergy into account and should act fast in case of doubtful symptoms.

When it comes to autism diet, the most sought after and the recommended one is the casein and gluten-free diet. You can find casein in milk products and oats, rye, barley and wheat are rich in gluten compound.

Children very often develop sensitiveness to both the above foods. Casein and gluten being high protein food items and are hard to be broken by the digestive system, they trigger neurotransmitter receptors in the brain and act as a sedative.

You can find casein and gluten in many foods such as breads, cakes, cereals used for breakfast, ice creams, pizzas, milk and milk products, cheese, wheat, rye, oats, and barley. Hence it is advised to keep away such food items from the autistic child’s regular diet to avoid any possible complications.

If your child is below five years, then your child will normally be put on autism diet for three months and the outcome will be monitored closely. Despite the confusing normal improvements that is far from any judgement and in enforcing the diet, certain parents still swear by the results and continue to go ahead with such diets.

Effectiveness Vitamin Supplements

Though the medical world has not yet approved the use of vitamin B, many parents of autistic children have laid faith on vitamin B supplements. The B complex vitamin group is useful in brain functioning and the vitamin B-12 has a specific direct effect on the nervous system.

In fact, many families have reported that their autistic children have made eye contact and have shown improvement in behaviour after a continuous administration of vitamin B in their regular diet.

Further, Vitamin C also lends a helping hand in improving one’s brain functioning. Few studies have also revealed that after administering vitamin C to the autistic children, they have shown better eye contacts and positively responded to the communication attempts.

Maintaining a favourable vitamin supplement in easier than maintaining the autism diet. Besides vitamin C and B, Vitamins A and D are also found to be very effective in brain functioning and bone growth and you can have a lot of vitamin D in cod liver oils.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autism Diet

Autism is a neurological disorder that severely impairs social skills in a person and autism normally afflicts persons within the first three years of life.

When it comes to infantile autism it is said that one in every 1000 children is having the disorder and this disorder affects more boys than girls. Further, infantile autism doesn’t discriminate between social, racial, or ethnic conditions and is known to affect people from all walks of life.

Autism Results in Impairment

Autism disorder interferes with the development cycle of an individual and causes impairment of language and social skills. Autistic people will be very poor in understanding non-verbal communication and normally avoid eye contact with others. They also retreat to solitude and are interested in repetitive actions. They also become unruly when their routine gets affected and doesn’t like comforting gestures such as touching or hugging.

Where It Starts First

The cause of autism is yet to be known and one school of thought says that the infantile autism is caused by brain damage. Few other experts opine that genetics play a vital role for the onset of autism in a child.

And still others put the blame on environmental aspects such as lead or mercuric toxicity in our atmosphere. The only common thing that you can observe in all these assumptions could be that autism is a condition that affects brain.

In fact, in one of the recent studies, it was proved beyond doubt that autistic persons, especially boys, have fewer number of neurons in the amygdala area of their brain that controls emotional and memory functions. However, researchers are yet to pinpoint the exact cause of causes for autism in children.

Therapies for Autism

The basic or fundamental treatment for the infantile autism aims at putting the afflicted child in a specific programme designed for development. They also will be given with speech therapy to improve both verbal and non-verbal skills.

In few cases, medicines were also used for treating infantile autism. Autistic persons undergoing such therapies have started showing remarkable improvements and they also live a self-sufficient, productive and a near normal life.

However, there are cases where autistic people do not respond to any kind of treatment and for them the only recourse will be to get into some institutes or autism communities for betterment.

The most important thing is that you should not consider persons afflicted with infantile autism as disabled persons. Autism disorder shows off in a variety of forms and severity levels and makes the afflicted people to respond in a different fashion. In he first instance, it is important to educate the general public first so as to make them aware of the autism and its associated disorders.

With such awareness we can make the non-autistic people to understand the behaviour of autistic persons better and extend help in a more professional way. As a responsible citizen we can extend all our cooperation for the autism research and one day we can have a definite cure that can see the world without any autism disorder at all.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Infantile Autism

When you are in need of some information, then internet may be your natural choice. Like any other topics, internet does have a lot of information about autism disorder also.

Searches made through any search engine such as google for information on autism is sure to land you on many sites. The information you get may not be mind boggling, but still it is sufficient enough to educate you on various aspects of autism.

Explicit Information on Autism

Autism is like good art and few people understand them easily and few others find it difficult to understand. It is difficult to explain autism in clear terms or detail but once you see it you know it.

Autism is generally considered as a neurological condition that hampers or creates impairment in developmental abilities. Based on the standard medical definition, autism typically afflicts people well before the age of three and any later date or later age affliction is called as “atypical” autism.

Symptoms of autism and the severity levels are never same and in known to differ from person to person. The exhibited symptoms are considered as traits or behavioural patterns and they are not physical in nature.

Due to the absence of any physical symptoms, diagnosing autism is difficult especially in children under the age of three. You cannot say whether a person is afflicted with autism or not by just seeing the outward appearance and you need to observe the behaviour and actions to decide or confirm your doubts.

It is not easy to reduce the possible symptoms of autism so as to have a precise and concise list that can referred to in case of doubt. In order to have a broad understanding about autism and the information on autism it can only be told that autistic people process and respond to external stimulus in unique ways, and they are no way similar to the responses of any normal person.

Autistic people have impairment in their sensory integration and hence respond violently to any external stimulus such as loud noise or strong odour. It is due to the conflicting perception of the situation by the brain of the autistic people and the response is triggered that is quite different from other normal people.

Conspicuous Information on Autism

Autistic people find it difficult to derive meaning from non-verbal communications and have a weird taste preference, be it the colour of dress or the taste of food items. They sometimes get engaged in repetitive movements and scream at imaginary things.

They retract from outside world and like to be in solitude majority of the times. Autistic children also avoid eye contacts and are indifferent to comforting gestures such as touching or hugging. For many of the normal or the so-called neurologically typical persons, the information on autism presented will be a bit one-sided or very odd.

Autistic symptoms are not physical and it is outwardly behavioural one. Normal people will find the behaviours of autistic people little bit odd due to the reason that autistic people will have difficulty in communicating. Normal people may even start wondering about the indifference shown by the autistic people towards their comforting gestures such as hugging or touching.

The condition of the autistic child will be overwhelming for any parent. The best advantage of internet in dispersal of information on autism could be that you will be able to get all the related points or rather view points from various person’s angle such as doctor, teacher, therapist, parents, friend, relative and of course the high spectrum autistic person himself.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autism Information

The mindset of the parents of autistic children will be disgusting and the harsh fact of non-existence of any cure can further add to their woes. The parents of the autistic children have to necessarily depend on treatments or therapies for betterment of their children’s social and language skills and as well as for motor coordination.

Parents of the autistic children have to set aside their long cherished dreams about their children and concentrate on various therapies for setting right the impairment in their children. The only immediate option for parents of autistic children will be “defeat autism now”, as an early therapy can greatly improve the chance of the child leading a normal life.

Knowing The Cause

Members or the followers of the defeat autism now movement are vigorously influencing the lawmakers and authorities concerned for supporting research on autism and autism cure. The forum which has the most of the autism afflicted children’s parents as members is an active movement today and is responsible for many of the today’s known advancements in autism therapies.

Many people believe that the environmental pollution caused by heavy metals such as lead and mercury is the main cause for autism in a child. There is one more school of though that put the blame on the thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative found in childhood vaccines, for causing autism in children.

Whatever may be the thoughts or assumptions, all people who have some association with autism strongly believe that arriving at the root cause of autism is the suitable way to defeat autism now.

Finding a Cure

The parents of the autistic children still continue to be the driving force behind the movement that fights for finding a cure. Further, the emphasis is on ascertaining the true cause for autism first, as finding a cure for the identified cause will be easy and the research can give the much sought after cure for autism.

Some parents of the autistic kids prefer to get their children treated for removal of mercuric toxins from the body and few other parents like to depend or lay their faith on the vitamin supplements and special diets as a mode of treatment. But the impact of special diets and vitamin supplements are still in the research stage and is yet to be accepted an effective treatment method for fighting autism.

When it comes to the spectrum of autism disorders, the severity of the symptoms will vary widely and are accordingly classified as low-functioning and high-functioning ones. In the spectrum of the disorder, any low-functioning category of autistic persons are the ones that need immediate attention and treatment, as they are not capable of living independently and have impaired communication abilities. These are the persons who get self-inflicted injuries and hence need medications to stop such acts at the first instance.

What about the High-Functioning category

Persons, who have been identified to belong to the high functioning end of the spectrum, are in fact leading a normal life. Though they are also classified as autistic people, they take their autistic condition at their strides and want to live with the condition rather than looking for a cure or treatment. They in fact do not endorse the defeat autism now movement at all.

In both the Aspergers autism and the high functioning spectrum of autism, people are known to possess unique personalities and would like to pursue their blessed lives as such. Many feel that the autistic condition is a blessing in disguise that makes them to show their strengths in fighting the nature’s odds all by their own.

There is no wonder why such autistic people regard the defeat autism now movement as a judgment against them. In fact, in the place of the movement what they want is the simple acceptance of their differently abled neurological conditions by the people blessed with normal neurological abilities.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autistic therapies

When it comes to making things happen or to make a statement, then you can think of wearing special ear-studs, necklaces and rings that can kindle interests in others and help in making a statement.

Further, such type of things given as gifts can also propagate your love towards others. Many times such jewelry items also help other people who are not affluent enough to buy such items.

But there can be times when wearing such jewelry adornments have a meaning or a message behind them to be conveyed to others. Wearing an autism bracelet also has one such life-changing message for others. One can have many types of autism bracelets made from different materials covering a wide range of price.

One such autism bracelet is modeled after a charm bracelet and the bracelet is in the form of a puzzle pieces to rightly denote the true mystery of the autism. You can get them either in silver or other metals and they are decorated with colour beads.

There will be multicoloured beads and one bold yellow coloured bead will be implanted in the middle and the meaning behind the charm bracelet is to indicate the broad spectrum of families affected by this disability and the contrasting and conspicuous yellow bead represents the hope held by the family for the possible cure.

Creating Awareness

Any autism bracelet is capable of conveying many messages of importance related to autism. The two main messages that an autism bracelet can spread are an increased awareness and fund raising.

Creating awareness is the first step in any endeavour for making a change and in that context the autism bracelet is the right choice for calling and garnering the attention of the general public.

Once the required attention or the enthusiasm is attained, the wearer can disseminate information about autism and share information that may help others to understand better about the existing disability.

The disturbing information could be that every 4 to 5 babies out of 10000 born are having this disability in America and this information can be first told by the wearer of the autism bracelet to the persons seeking information. Sensitivity to loud sound is also a symptom of autism in children and you may even wonder to listen at autistic people engaging in conversation on very strange topics.

Once you come across a person with an autism bracelet you can start to know about autism and understand that autistic people become fascinated with abnormal movements and unusual movements such as spinning objects or even strange gesticulations made by your fingers.

Autism is considered as a lonely disability meaning that autism drives people to solitude and keep them away from making friends and they live in their own world of fantasies.

Utilising the Profits

Wearing autism bracelet can also make general public to contribute for research and for conducting prayers. While making up your mind to get an autism bracelet, you have to make a donation and be sure to make yourself aware that you are in fact donating for a noble and good cause. Most of the donation so received will be utilised for research purposes and kindly ensure that all the donations go for such developmental activities.

If you can get an autism bracelet and if the fund so raised is utilised cent percent for the autistic research, then you have made your day for having purchased a useful item for a useful purpose. However, since certain costs are involved in manufacturing or making the autistic bracelet, not all the amount will go for charity but an estimated 65 % is a good amount.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autism Awareness, Autism Bracelet

Autism is a neurological development disorder that triggers a series of behavioural maladies such as impairment in social skills, impairment in language learning and communication abilities.

Autism afflicted children normally avoid eye contacts with adults including their parents and would like to retract to solitude. They also dislike or indifferent to affectionate gestures such as touching and hugging.

The spectrum of autism is of two kinds namely low functioning and high functioning autism. In a low functioning category the afflicted person will have difficulty in speech and communication and they also will lack in self-caring abilities. In the case of high functioning autism, the afflicted person will have high IQ and is regarded as genius some times, but they lack in understanding non-verbal communication and social skills.

Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome is considered as a form of high functioning autism and it was named after the Austrian scientist who first defined it. Persons afflicted by such autism disorder may have an IQ level of 85 and above and they are normally adept in taking care of themselves when grownup.

This type of Asperger Autism was first noticed in 1944, but the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) refused to accept the findings and make a note in their journal for nearly 50 years. Failure in recognising this type of autism has lead to many grownup persons suffering from high functioning autism not getting diagnosed and they all lost the valuable treatment to alleviate the sufferings.

With the following six type of symptoms as mentioned in the DSM, you can be able to identify Asperger Syndrome in a person:

1. Impairment or total absence of quality social skills such as interaction, etc.
2. Presence of interest towards odd items and interests towards repetitive, restricted and stereotyped behaviors
3. Lack of coordination in vital areas of functioning
4. Despite the impaired social skills, there will not be any lacuna in language learning
5. Near normal mental development, self-help skills and adaptive behaviors (other than social skills)
6. Majority of the symptoms will be similar to the symptoms of specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia and hence note to differentiate

Persons afflicted with asperger syndrome are in fact regarded as normal person barring few odd behaviour. They are usually regarded as aloof, but communicate in a normal way showing interests towards few special areas and engage in uninterruptible monologue on such interested topics. Asperger syndrome affected persons can lead a productive and gleaming life provided they are not put in a circumstance that may need social interaction.

High Functioning Autism

It has been observed that persons with high functioning autism have an IQ of 85 and above and they show a restraint when it comes to social interaction or mingling. The reason for usage of “high functioning” word can be attributed to the skills present in asperger syndrome person that can help them in leading independent life.

And where as the “autism” word part refers to traits that restrict persons from free social interaction and the inability to understand the non-verbal communication. There will be a tendency to take the spoken word literally and asperger syndrome affected persons will love to repeat few restricted movements.

They are also not able to concentrate due to the sensory overload that may result in frustration expressed more violently and visibly. Despite the fact of persons afflicted with high functioning autism looking normal, they still require some help and treatment for mending various other behaviours.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Asperger Syndrome

Parents of autistic children will become desperate in their search for an effective cure of the autism in their child. The situation will turn to be more traumatic when they come to know that there is no cure for autism and they can do nothing in the matter.

In majority of other ailments or diseases, parents can have a good relationship with the child and can show their concerns that may comfort the child to certain extent. Where as in autism, the afflicted child will enter into his/her own world of solitude and never mingle with the outside world. And in such a scenario, even the parents cannot do any thing and they can be only a silent spectator to the unfolding events.

Autistic children never respond to outside stimulus and they cry or laugh very little and that too in solitude. They also shun or dislike comforting gestures such as touching or hugging and hence the parents are left wondering as what to do next.

What Exactly Is Involved in Chelation Therapy for Autism

Chelation therapy is a kind of de-toxifying treatment used in removing lead and mercuric toxicity in humans. In this method, a binding agent or the popular chelation agent will be administered into the body, which in turn will bind with the free lead or mercuric toxic radicals and flush them out. Some of the commonly used binding agents are DMSA (known to be safest amongst the available ones), DMPS and the lipoic acid.

In certain cases a combination of such compounds will also be put to use. The chelation process should strictly be done under the supervision of an experienced doctor, as the treatment is known for its side effects of affecting vital internal organs such as heart, kidney and liver.

Now for having understood little about the chelation therapy for autism, you should not jump to conclusions that removal of lead and mercury from the autistic person body can reverse the autistic condition and make the person normal. The truth is that by just removing the toxins from the body, you cannot bring back the autistic person to his/her original better form.

The FDA has not yet approved usage of the chelation agents in children and there are no medical research findings to support chelation therapy for autism for its effectiveness. But, despite the absence of any concrete or proven results, people are still going after such treatments with an only hope that they will get respite one day.

To instill some confidence one may say and prove that the chelation therapy for autism has worked wonders, but the results are very scattered and you cannot just rely on such sporadic cases. In many cases doctors used to desist from prescribing the chelation therapy for autism for their patients.

In reality, many people are going for the chelation therapy for autism, as many doctors are still practicing it. The administration of chelation therapy for autism is very much legal and that makes for its presence despite the absence of any FDA approval. Before you could make your mind to go for the treatment, you should consider the cost involved.

Any normal treatment will cost you $75 to $125 for single sitting and for any successful or at least noticeable improvement the child should be subjected to a minimum of 40 to 75 treatment cycles. Also be aware that insurance companies also does not cover such type of treatments and it has to be done under the direct supervision of a doctor all the times.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Chelation Therapy

Want to have a perfect solution for your problem? First acknowledge it and you have put your best foot forward in finding the solution! In other words, the moment you recognise your problem, you will be able to find a solution easily.

When you look at autism from this viewpoint, you will be able to appreciate how being aware of autism is so important in finding a correct and a perfect treatment.

Autism is an eccentric and unusual disorder and if the same is seen afflicting adults, due to the exhibited behavioural changes one will possibly consider the afflicted person as arrogant and an egotist.

The autistic person will never be able to understand that they are in fact suffering from one of the peculiar disorders due to their withdrawal from the external world. Only the people who used to interact with such persons alone can identify the problem and arrange for help.

Lack of Knowledge about Autism

People when they come to know about the autistic condition of their child or a close friend may get devastated. The autistic person himself may not be aware of his/her disorder and they will continue to dwell in their solitude world happily. Parents after knowing about their child’s autistic condition will get into predicament and may not know where to go for the possible treatment.

Being aware of autism is the first step in your endeavour for finding an effective treatment. Knowing more about autism can help you to digest the harsh facts about autism and you can make your next move with confidence for finding the solution.

Each and every small thing that you can do to alleviate the problem is worth and is regarded as a great contribution. When it comes to treating autism, there are many therapies available and being aware of autism can expand your knowledge level and help you in deciding the right treatment.

Today many popular personalities and general public are getting involved in promoting awareness regarding autism. A small step towards showing your support for autism awareness is wearing the autism ribbon.

You can recall the earlier incidences of creating great awareness towards popular diseases through wearing the coordinated ribbon. To quote one, you can take the case of wearing Red Ribbon that created a very great awareness towards the debilitating killer disease of AIDS and the whole world is aware of AIDS today.

Similarly, wearing the autism ribbon can definitely promote awareness and the dissemination of information regarding autism will be fast. On the other side, being aware of autism can certainly help parents and families who have autistic children in coping with the disorder in a more efficient way.

One more desirable benefit from being aware of autism is that others also start to be sympathetic towards autistic children and start lending a helping hand in the treatment cycles.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autism awareness

Managing autism and autistic people will be very demanding and will drain all the energies from the parents and the caretakers. You can make your job of managing autism little bit easy if you have awareness and know what to do, when to do and how to do and you will be able to put forth a valid and worthwhile efforts in autism management. And for getting all the relevant resources you can rely on an autism support group for all your needs.

Autism support group comprises of practising professionals and very knowledgeable persons who know all the intricacies involved in autism management and treatment and they can help in all your efforts. While searching for the right and efficient autism support group you should look for few key elements that makes a part and parcel of the group s functions.

The five major and critical roles played by any autism support group are partnership support, comprehensive support, educational support, positive support, and advocacy support.

Partnership Support

An autism support group should be able to promote partnership interactions. The group should support and encourage partnership participation based on the available educational opportunities so as to fall in line with the needs of the autistic children and their family members.

Comprehensive Support

The autism support group should also be in a position to offer comprehensive support as a part of their support programmes. The dedicated comprehensive support extended should be in line with the traditional education and the individualised or the customised support should be based on the specific needs of each autistic child and must available as an all-in-one category.

Positive Support

The next critical component of an autism support group is the positive support extended. This positive support should be so devised so as to take care of all people namely the autistic child, family members and the caretakers.

It is important that the group honestly provides an opportunity and encourages people to express their emotions without any fear or reservations so as to make the available atmosphere still better and more amenable. The positive support or the encouragement of the
autism support group will assist in dissolving any possible barriers and provides a level playing field for achieving wonderful accomplishments.

Educational Support

The emotional strength of the family members of the autistic child does play a very important and pertinent role in the therapy for the autistic child. The strength can be instilled through various educational programmes and by creating autism awareness among the family members.

Hence the autism support group should be able to give a predominant importance in giving the educational support. The autism support group can strengthen the core family group through dissemination of information about the disorder, symptoms, treatments, etc.

Advocacy Support

The next major critical component of an autism support
group is the promotional role played to drive away any misconceptions about the autistic people. The group should get actively involved in eliminating any inconvenience caused to the autistic due to negligence of the general public or due to ignorance. The best part of an autism support group is that it will be able to represent the autistic people at all levels and be able to assist in social issues and restore the deserved privileges.

Technorati Tags: Autism, Autism Support