Archive for November, 2007

Autism is considered as a neurological disorder than can cause impairment in communication abilities, social interaction and varied patterns of behaviour and in areas of interest in people.

The word autism originated from the Greek word meaning “self” and as of today the exact cause for autism is not known. However, few researchers and medical experts have found striking similarities in certain genes in people who are autistic. Only a series of general and psychiatric tests alone can find out whether the person is suffering from autism or not.

Living Happily with Autism

Autistic people exhibit classic symptoms of impairment in social interaction and are slow in language learning. In the recent past autism cases have shown an increasing trend and nobody was able to find out the exact reasons for occurrence of autism.

It may be a surprising news to you if you know that autistic people are in fact happy about their condition and take this opportunity to exhibit their courage and conviction to fight the condition so as to lead a near normal life.

There are treatments that can cure autism and it was established that many of the autistic children could have better communication abilities with proper training and intense tailor made therapies. In fact autistic children can be made to lead a near normal life and socialise freely with others through proper schooling and other related treatments.

The stark truth is that autism doesn’t have any cure and once afflicted, only management practices alone can make life better. Many adults and children who have been affected by autism have taken their autistic condition in their strides and are leading a normal life.

Studying the Symptoms of Autism

The symptoms of autism can easily be observed in the childhood stage itself. Children afflicted by autism will not socialise and interact freely and avoid eye contact. You can easily find out the difference in behaviour of an autistic child from that of normal child not afflicted by autism.

Children with autism always prefer to be in solitude and will be very indifferent to caring gestures such as hugging, etc. Few children afflicted by autism may even prefer to be alone and never be in need of any attention at all.

Once the children afflicted by autism grow old, they draw themselves away from the general public, including their beloved parents.

Though one theory suggests that autistic children are emotionally attached to their parents, another school of thought say that it is not so and autistic children never exhibit their attachment to their parents. It will be a heart-breaking situation for many of the parents who have autistic children as their children constantly distant themselves from them.

In many situations, autistic children will show uncontrolled behaviour and such acts are exhibited in the form of yelling or crying. Few even go to an extent of kicking at the imaginary friends or objects and the children growing with autism show aggressive behaviour such as self-injury or withdrawing from the surrounding situations in their adulthood.

[tags]Autism, Autism Symptoms[/tags]

With an additional 25,000 new cases of autism getting reported every year, the number of autism affected children is also increasing and a study says that 1 in every 150 children is affected by autism.

Further, autism while affecting children, doesn’t restrict with any particular ethnic group and is known to affect all people from all walks of life. Today due to increase in the autism cases, there is an urgent need for autism awareness also for better management of autism affects children and grown-ups.

Persons affected by autism will have impaired speech and other social interaction and might behave abnormally or might show inappropriate responses. In case of severity many persons will have severe impairment in their speech and will not be able to take care of themselves.

For the purpose of inculcating autism awareness amongst the general public the National Autism Society in the year 1972 declared the month of April every year as National Autism Awareness month.

Diagnosing Autism in its Early Stage

Efforts to increase autism awareness make pediatricians and the parents alike in understanding or finding the otherwise elusive symptoms in small children. During the month of April every year, there will be television shows and information in magazines about autism news and the matter will be discussed thread bare to inculcate a better understanding of symptoms of autism in children.

One can find the earlier symptoms of autism even in an age of three and hence it is very difficult to diagnose the symptoms of autism, as almost all the symptoms are of behavioural in nature. Further, autism being considered as a spectrum disorder, the symptoms also vary in the scale of severity and with other people.

What could be done towards Treating Autism

Best results can be achieved if the autism is diagnosed earlier and treatments are started without any delay. Autism awareness plays a very vital role in early diagnosis and helps people and family members to coordinate in treatment schedules and for better understanding the cause and effect of autism. Spread of the awareness can also help the society at large in devising meaningful and helpful communities for dealing with autism.

The interests or the behaviour meted out by the society or the community towards the autism-affected persons also plays an effective role during the treatment. Persons who come under high spectrum autism, despite their efficiency in doing all the schoolwork, get bullied due to their odd behaviour.

Increasing autism awareness can make such situation less burdensome for the autistic persons as the persons around them understand about the situation and help and take the strange behaviours as normal.

Sorting out the Issues

Any increase in autism awareness will certainly broaden the scope for studying or including all the related issues. An autism-affected person will exhibit various disorders covering the entire body and are prone to many other related problems.

Besides the conspicuous impairment in speech and other behavioural maladies, researches are being conducted to study the issues relating to dietary habits, role of any toxic materials like mercury, and other environmental issues so as to understand better about autism. Only a better autism awareness can bring in a better support and in understanding autism to its fullest possible level.

There are many agencies other than the National Autism Society that help in inculcating autism awareness among the general public. One such agency is the Center for Disease Control, Department of Education, and it should be your endeavour to increase your knowledge base about autism and create greater autism awareness.

[tags]Autism, Autism Awareness[/tags]