Autism: A Difficult Developmental Disability

                

 

The expression 'developmental disability' stands for the kind of impairment that interferes with a person's ability to perform one or more vital functions of life. Since such disabilities are of extremely serious nature, they might adversely affect the affected person's ability to earn an independent living. Autism is one of such disabilities. In an autistic child, the symptoms are quite visible right from the time when he or she is three years old. In most of the cases, these kids have difficulty speaking and cannot speak clearly. An autistic child is much of loner and does not enjoy playing with other children. He prefers to stay alone and play all alone. They often confine themselves to a small corner and keep playing their very own games, which might look very strange to an outsider. They do not light bright light or loud noise, and if subjected to such disturbances, they might react rather violently.

Many a time, when you are speaking to them, they wouldn't even pay attention to what you are saying. You might take them for deaf. But they are not essentially deaf. Chances are that they would not pay any attention to what you are saying for a very long time and then suddenly react to your talk with a smile or even a hearty laugh, or by simply saying something in reply to what you said. They may not even respond to the sound of their own names at times. But then, on other occasion you might find them looking bang in your face if you called them by their names.

The basic reason for their not responding is not that they do not 'hear' but that they are too self-immersed to take note of what you said. At such occasions they cut the external inputs out and take no cognizance of what is being spoken.

Autistic children are difficult to manage because of their unpredictable behavior. They might be an impressive picture of tolerance on one occasion while on the other you might find them extremely irritable and short tempered.

The best way to get along with them is to be patient, receptive and willing. So, far there is no cure for autism. Therefore, all that we can do is wait. Wait, patiently.

To read more articles on disabilty, disability and health, disability services and disability access visit http://www.about-disability.com/

The author writes articles on different topics. To get more disability articles visit http://www.about-disability.com/

Understanding Autism

                

 

Autism, which is sometimes also referred to Childhood Autism, Early Infantile Autism, or Kanner's Autism, is caused by some neurological malfunction that causes marked delays in the development in the areas of communication and social interaction. Autism is a developmental disability that often occurs during the first three years of a child's life. Autism, generally, affects the perception, attention, and thought of a person, though, it normally occurs at a younger age.

Autism isn't an easy disorder to diagnose. Diagnosing autism is a very subjective process, though the DSM IV lists specific criteria that must be met for a formal diagnosis of autism.

Autism has been known as one of the most severe neurological disorders affecting children for about fifty years, but until recently, it was considered to be fairly rare, affecting less than one in 1000 people. According to figures published by the Department of Education, the incidence of autism and diagnoses of autism have risen a staggering 800% since 1993.

It would be easy if there was a standard treatment for all children with autism spectrum disorder, but unlike disorders like diabetes, there is no 'best' treatment for ASD. Since the mid-90s, there have been numerous anecdotal reports that treatment with secretin results in amazing and immediate improvements in many autistic children and adults. Amongst the commonly used treatments are behavioral interventions, medication, and lifestyle and dietary changes.

What causes autism? Autism is a brain disorder the etiology of which is not yet understood, which means, in basic langauge, the cause is not yet understood. There are lots of theories, and a lot of debate about the reasons for autism, and much of it is involved in the controversy surrounding exactly how common autism is, and whether or not there's been a noticeable rise in actual cases of autism in recent times.

For mothers and fathers, one of the most crucial pieces of information is that autism is not a psychological illness. Specialists quite specifically dismissed the worrying theory that autism is brought on by the absence of a nurturing mother, but the belief still exists in some circles. If your child suffers from autism, don't worry, it is not due to the fact that you were a inadequate parent

The gene connection There is a great deal of research that implies a gene-related cause for autism. For example, the rates of autism in the public is approximately 1.5 in 1000, but families with one autistic child have a 5 percent chance of having another autistic child. In fact, the majority of autism experts think that autism is the most likely to be inherited of all the neurobiological disorders. The most persuasive evidence is the studies completed involving twins. Studying twins can help to identify a genetic link for a condition by analyzing the differencein frequency rates of the complaint in identical (monozygotic) and fraternal (dizygotic) twins. If a disorder is genetic in origin, the frequency rate will be significantly elevated in monozygotic (identical) twins, since they share the very same chromosomes. In the majority of such studies researching autism, the frequency of autism is as much as 90% higher in monozygotic (identical) twins than in fraternal (dizygotic).

On the other hand, the studies raise other questions. The fact that not one of the studies showed 100% concordance in monozygotic twins suggests that there are other factors at play in the causes of autism, for instance. And other familial studies have noted common characteristics, for instance, that autism is more common in families of physicists and engineers, giving rise to the term 'the geek syndrome' to identify autism.

Lifestyle factors A number of doctors suspect that there could be an environmental factor in the progression of autism. Dr. Bernard Rimland, for instance, proposed in 1967 that autism may be a result of mercury and heavy metal toxicity to which a few youngsters have a genetic sensitivity. His treatment of autistic kids with a gluten-free, casein-free diet and mercury chelation therapy (removal of mercury from the system) has shown many success with most children.

Other lifestyle factors that have been suggested to play roles are viral or bacterial infections, vaccines and thalidomide.

The Supermale Brain Theory One particularly interesting recent theory about the etiology of autism is that it's brought on by high levels of testosterone during progression. A study in England measured the testosterone level of the amniotic fluid in mothers, then followed up with testing of youngsters after birth and at four years. It was found that the babies with the highest levels of testosterone pre-birth had a smaller vocabulary and made eye contact less usually at a year old, and were less socially developed at age four. The theory holds that elevated testosterone levels in the brain support the indicence of 'male skills' such as analysis of systems and seeing patterns, but repress the progression of 'female skills' such as communication and empathy

Roger Wakefield is a staff writer at: Information About Autism ... a site dedicated to helping those with family members suffering from Autism

Dan! (defeat Autism Now)

                

 

In 1995, a group of thirty scientists and physicians were selected to try to get together and defeat autism. These forward thinking researchers were chosen due to their experience working with autism and hailed from the United States and Europe. Not satisfied with the available treatments for autism, this meeting of the minds was created to embark on a new pathway to understanding autism and finding different ways to treat it. Today the group still meets to share what they have discovered and further our understanding of autism.

It took them a year but the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conference produced some sterling results. What they were able to come up with was a 244-page manual entitled Biomedical Assessment Options for Children with Autism and Related Problems. This manual was a progressive and cutting-edge approach to the treatment of autism and did not rely on using various drugs to treat autism. It was a more holistic approach that involved various components including diet, intestinal function, vitamin deficiencies, excess proteins, viruses, vaccinations, antibiotics, probiotics, amino acids, and more. Nearly every possible angle was researched in order to come up with the answers that had been obscured by conventional treatment for so long.

Autism is not a well-understood condition. According to research it is a biological disorder that affects the brain. However, the causes of the disorder are not fully understood. There appears to be a variety of causes that are in someway related. Autism usually has a strong effect on social functioning. Cases can range from mild to severe and over the years more and more autistic people, children especially, have been able to attend school in regular classes and thrive in such environments.

DAN! was created in order to address the limitations of available treatments and the understanding of the disorder. The participants wanted to move away from traditional thinking and invent their own paradigm. It seems to have worked! If this approach to the treatment of autism interests you, then you can find out information about how to contact a DAN! practitioner quite easily. The first step is to visit www.autismwebsite for information on DAN! and access to scientifically-researched information on autism. Within the website you will find tons of resources that will give you a better understanding on the mechanizations of autism. There are also a variety of scientific papers and studies that you can review. In addition, there are helpful links to detailed lists of DAN! practitioners in the United States and around the world. There are not just thirty anymore! Since the revelations from the DAN! conference have become public more and more medical professionals around the world have adopted the suggestions the original doctors and scientists discovered.

Not every DAN! practitioner is a medical doctor, although the lion?s share are physicians. However, since the treatments are fairly new there is no information about the competency of the DAN! practitioners. In the future this may become a reality, but the best way to go about finding a DAN! practitioner near you is to do your own research. Ask around. Read up on the topic. This is an important step in helping a loved one with autism and your own education on the topic should come first and foremost. The list of DAN! practitioners can be found at https://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/dan/dan.htm.

If you want to find out more information about DAN! don?t fret. There are a ton of resources on the web that discuss the effectiveness of DAN! and how to go about finding someone who understands the group?s findings and can help you apply it to your loved one. You can find personal stories and testimonials, journalistic articles, and many other resources that stand as a testament to DAN!

Rachel Evans has an interest in Autism. For further information on Autism please visit http://www.essential-guide-to-autism.com/autism.html or http://www.essential-guide-to-autism.com/blog/2006/09/05/dan-defeat-autism-now/ .

Managing Tantrums In Autism Spectrum Disorders When Consistency

                

 

When dealing with tantrums and difficult behaviors in autism spectrum disorders, using behavioral approaches alone can sometimes fail. What is the missing piece to managing these behaviors that a behavioral approach alone may not address?

To start, we need to look at the reasons for behavior. According to behavioral approaches, most of the behavior we see results from one of three reasons: a request, seeking attention, or a sensory reason. Let's look deeper at these three reasons for behavior and the ways we currently handle them.

Handling a request is fairly straightforward. To put it very simply, a request is usually something externally controlled by both reinforcing appropriate requests and not reinforcing inappropriate ones, such as a tantrum.

For negative attention-seeking behaviors, we can eliminate the behavior by not giving the negative behavior attention and give attention for desired behavior - very straightforward, and again, usually externally controlled.

The sensory reasons arise from both the external and internal events that a child experiences through the five senses, and may or may not be externally controlled. In all of these situations, our internal responses - our feelings and thoughts about events fire us into action. In stressful situations, the resulting "knee jerk" reactions are often difficult to manage with a purely behavioral approach for a few reasons:

1. Thoughts and feelings are often lightning-fast, internally-controlled events, therefore difficult to manage through external behavioral modifications.

2. Thoughts and feelings can't be measured, and as a result, behavioral approaches simply don't address them. It doesn't mean that these things don t exist or aren't important. It just means that they're left out of the equation.

3. Behavioral approaches address the cause and consequence of behaviors the beginning and the end. But internal responses (i.e. thoughts and feelings) happen in the moments between the cause and the consequence. By not dealing with thoughts, feelings and solutions at these moments, we leave a child to figure out solutions on his or her own.

4. Children on the autism spectrum have a limited ability to adapt to new or changing situations, solve problems, compare past to present, or see possibilities. Because of this, if a child never learns how to think through a challenging situation during the emotional moments, when faced with it again, the same behavior will probably repeat itself, no matter what the consequence, or how many times they've been through it before.

This situation calls for tools to deal with overwhelming thoughts, feelings and strategies in the moment before the tantrum, not just consequences after.

In the book The Explosive Child, Ross Greene talks about this situation. This book applies to any disorders that have limitations in problem solving and executive thought, including all PDDs, such as Asperger's Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and all autism spectrum disorders. ADD, ADHD, and various other developmental disabilities also share these problem-solving / executive thought issues and can benefit from using this approach, according to Dr. Greene.

In the book, first we pick our battles carefully, and then talk through our thought process out loud. This way our children can hear us think through situations before tantrums. This also creates a memory of how they triumphed in the situation without resorting to negative behaviors.

Progress is made in small increments, but as time goes on, tantrums should decrease, and you can even start to ask your child to contribute ideas about solving problems during those emotional moments. In doing this, you help your child learn how to solve problems and become confident about handling new, changing, or challenging situations. You'll combine the best of all worlds, to the benefit of your child.
 Sandra Sinclair is a parent of a child with PDD-NOS. Sandra assists parents of children with autism spectrum disorders to create a life that they love - life by design, not demands - through her 6-step program. She is also author of Newly Diagnosed Autism Spectrum - A free mini-course with 7 clear steps you can take to help your child with Aspergers, Autism, PDD-NOS, and other autism spectrum disorders. http://www.autismvoice.com/blog/7StepstoHelpChildrenwithAutism