Autism - The Range Of Function

                

 

Autism is a syndrome that comes from exhibiting certain combinations or patterns of behavior. Low functioning autism is the term used to describe autistic individuals that are not able to function or deal with every day life. Normal to high functioning autism is used to describe people that exhibit autistic behaviors that are in fact able to deal with real world activities and normal day to day life. Many people diagnosed with autism end up living in less then ideal conditions. Autism is a developmental disorder, that affects many areas of human function such as language, and the ability to communicate. It affects self-help skills, coordination, and the ability of an individual to learn.

Common Behaviors

There are several common traits that will aid in the diagnosis of autism. These traits include, the tendency to stay in isolation or be away from others. Autistic individuals will have a hard time making friends and will seem very awkward in social situations. An autistic person will very rarely look some else in the eye. They will be very naive and easily swayed or manipulated. They are often quite gullible. When an autistic person speaks they will often so so using very formal language. They may speak in a monotone and their use of body language may be very poor. (such as nodding "no" while saying "yes". Autistic people will generally prefer common routines, they may be very literal in their use of language and may remember and recite a lot of detail without having a lot of understanding. They may also exhibit hyper- or hypo- sensitivity of the senses, have odd tastes in food and clothing as well as very fine or very grossly exaggerated motor coordination. The more of the above traits an individual exhibits the more severe the case of autism is said to be. In some cases the above symptoms may become helpfully in certain disciplines like science, math, and engineering. These disciplines require a lot of memorization and many autistic's are quite proficient in these subjects as a result.

Autism and ADHD?

There has been some discussion on about a genetic as well as behavioral link between ADHD and autism. Some experts believe that ADHD should be put considered as a form of autistic spectrum disorder. It is quite common to have children diagnosed with both ADHD and autism together. In children, the two disorders seem very much alike. As the individuals age, the disorders grow and become more apparent. Children with ADHD will often develop normal social skills and be able to communicate with their peers and with others. Autistic children however will continue to show symptoms even as they age. there is still much to learn about the autism spectrum. Even with current advances in technology and medical science, a cure for this condition remains a mystery. The more we study the sooner we will understand the disorder and be able to help those who are diagnosed with this condition.

Kerry Ng is a successful Webmaster and publisher of The Autism Info Blog. Click here for more helpful information on Autism: http://www.autisminfoblog.com

Understanding The Autism And Diet Link

                

 

When the initial diagnosis of autism is made, parents often feel very scared, and incredibly lost. It is hard to know what to do next, and even where to begin. All parents want to help their children, but because there is no exact cause or cure known at the current time, finding and exploring options are often some of the first steps parents will take. One thing parents may come across in their research is the connection between autism and diet.

Though a change in eating habits and implementing a GFCF diet might not cure autism, there are many that believe this diet can help a child with this condition.

The initials GFCF stand for gluten free and casein free. Glutens are special proteins that are found in foods like grains or wheat, oats, and barley. Gluten can also be found in soy sauces, vinegar, some starches, and in many different types of food preservatives, artificial flavors and even dyes for colorings. Casein is also a protein, and is found in milk and almost every product made from milk. Think ice cream, cheese, and yogurts. Both of these proteins can be hidden in other types of food as well.

The link between the foods containing gluten and casein and autism is still being studied. It is believed that some autistic children struggle to digest these foods, and they are instead a toxin to the body.

This toxin then has an affect on personality and behaviors that are associated with autism. For someone with intolerance to foods containing gluten and casein, eating them could also create a huge disturbance in the digestive system causing bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and sometimes vomiting.

Though many parents hope that this diet will help with all of autism symptoms, some rely on it mostly to help with the physical problems associated with ingesting these foods and proteins.

Any parent that thinks autism and diet are related should talk with their doctor before trying such a diet. Eliminating milk might be one of the first steps, but it also means eliminating a major source of calcium.

Continue reading for more information about GFCF diets and to sign up to the newsletter for additional information on managing autism with dietary changes.

When many of the foods are eliminated in order to try the GFCF diet, there can be deficiencies in some of the important vitamins and minerals a child needs. A doctor can help decide what to eliminate from the diet and what might be added to make up any nutritional shortfall. A doctor will also help monitor the over-all health of the child as the diet progresses, something that is essential for good health.

Results and conclusions about the effectiveness of avoiding GFCF foods on autistic behavior are still debated. Some parents have noticed significant changes, while other parents have found that is has had no real benefit for their child.

While enforcing a GFCF regime, some parents? report marked improvement with not only the physical problems, but with social and emotional difficulties facing their children too. The frustrating part is as all children are different it is impossible to know what will happen until you put the GFCF diet to the test.

If you chose to go down the autism and diet treatment route, as long as your child is under a doctor?s care, and the foods being avoided are replaced with nutritional equivalents, there should be no harm in trying it.

By Rachel Evans. Sign up for a free newsletter about autism and diet and discover more on the signs and symptoms of autism.

Autism Understanding Furthered By International Genetic Study

                

 

Autism understanding begins when a person realizes that autism is a disorder that affects people differently. Although autism affects the normal functioning of a person?s perception, attention and thoughts, autism is not characterized by one type of perception, attention and thought. Instead, it covers a broad spectrum of disorders that may be mild or severe. Due to the fact that autism is such a complex disorder, medical research is still in the process of understanding how it develops and why it affects certain individuals.

One particular medical project with the aim to find better autism understanding by identifying the gene that causes autism, is the 5 year Autism Genome Project (AGP). So far, phase I of the AGP has identified a gene and parts of a chromosome to be linked with the occurrence of autism. The findings of this particular autism study was published online in the Nature Genetics February 18, 2007 issue.

The Autism Genome Project is a global research consortium that is funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institute of Health. Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to raising the awareness of autism and raising funds to help research it.

The AGP involves more than 120 scientists from 50 institutions in 19 countries around the world. The researchers who have collaborated on the project combined their autism expertise, and shared all of the data and samples they had to help identify autism-related genes.

As was mentioned, phase I of this project began 5 years ago in 2002, and it allowed the team of medical experts to gain autism understanding by identifying a single specific gene known as neurexil 1, and part of chromosome 11 which could likely be the cause of autism in children. These findings are based on the largest autism genome scan that has ever been done.

Scientists have known for many years that autism is a genetic disorder, but only until the AGP have they been able to use special ?gene chip? technology to search for genetic similarities in autistics. Genetic similarities were found in practically all of the autistic individuals within each of the twelve hundred families that that were made part of the project. The scientists also checked the DNA of each family to look for copy number variations that are believed might be connected to autism and similar disorders.

What the researches discovered in their study was that one particular gene known as neurexin 1 plays a significant role with glutamate; a neurotransmitter that has been formerly linked to autism. Researchers also uncovered an area of chromosome 11 that is suspected to contain a gene that may be involved in the occurrence of autism. However, this particular gene in chromosome 11 has yet to be identified which is required for further autism understanding.

Based on previous research, and the research that has been uncovered by the study so far, scientists speculate that there may be as many as 6 main genes and 30 additional genes linked to autism. However, these numbers are only theories, as scientists point out that the actual number of genes could exceed their theory. Nevertheless, despite the number of genes that may be involved, researchers admit that it is still far too early to dictate how these genes may be responsible for autism.

Currently, phase II of the Autism Genome Project has been announced. The promising discoveries found in phase I makes scientists hopeful that discovering the genes that cause autism will provide new steps toward autism understanding. With greater understanding, more effective methods of diagnosis, preventing and treating the disorder can be taken.

By Rachel Evans. Sign up for a free newsletter and discover more about understanding autism.

A Spiritual View Of Autism

                

 

The value of a spiritual view of autism is that it enables the pain of limitation and helplessness suffered by those who experience significant impairment and those who care for them to be held within a sense of purposefulness and meaning. This can support individuals and families with a sense of truth and love, even during times of greatest challenge.

To begin with, there are many layers of understanding that relate to the phenomenon of autism, and each has to be viewed in its own right.

Within one layer are the demonstrable expressions of impaired neurological functioning that are the basis for such things as seizures, aphasias, difficulty performing routine motor tasks, nervous gestures or tics, and other anomalies of nervous system functioning.

Within another layer are the problems of thought and speech that have to do with difficulties in communication, strange thought patterns related to non-ordinary perception, difficulty forming coherent thoughts or forming thoughts whose sequence is intelligible only to the person expressing them; also patterns of thought and speech that are perseverative that have to do with brain synapse functioning and the ways in which neural energy gets released. All of these aspects of autism are also within the layer defined by physical functioning.

Within a third layer are the social and emotional aspects of autism which are often considerable and which vary in degree from person to person.

Yet, there is still another layer within which lie the reasons that autistic functioning is more prevalent today and also more widely understood. It is this:

For a long time now, humanity's brain function has emphasized the left side of the brain, once the right-brain functions went into recession thousands and thousands of years ago. This left-brain functioning has overemphasized certain aspects of the brain's capacities and eliminated or significantly reduced other capacities associated with right-brain functioning. The need of the time we are in, however, is to bring into balance right and left-brain functioning, and for this purpose, heightened neural and brain activity is needed to connect the two hemispheres. This increased activity requires an adaptation by the human organism in order to tolerate the increased charge to the neural pathways, and sometimes, when this adaptation is incomplete or limited, it is possible for the system to become overcharged or overstimulated, with subsequent problems in releasing the excess energy that is taking place on a cortical level.

This feature is often associated with a particular genetic picture or predisposition and so it is. However, it is also associated with the wider spiritual phenomenon that is occurring today which involves humanity's movement into the next level of its spiritual expression - one in which right and left-brain functioning will be more in balance and in which new capacities will emerge that will enable a wider range of mental and perceptual activities than are present today.

Many of those who are presently diagnosed as 'autistic', today, are the forerunners of this transition into a new level of brain functioning. They do not appear as such because of the limitation that autism brings to their lives on so many levels. But they have chosen to experience this limitation in order that further on in their development, they may express as more evolved and balanced beings and ones for whom more will be possible. The reason for this choice is hidden within the inner motivational pattern of each soul according to its own Divine essence and its need to manifest the truth of who it is. It is not something that can be seen from an outer perspective, or understood within any other frame of reference other than the drive of a soul to seek its own self-realization.

There are, of course, other reasons that are karmic that a soul chooses to experience limitation in this as well as in other areas of life, but the karmic purpose of limitation can also be employed in service to the larger spiritual purpose of evolving brain function and capacity.

To see those who are diagnosed as 'autistic' as forerunners of a new generation of capable souls who will emerge from these very limitations is a perception that requires a deep understanding of the sequence of lifetimes and how they contribute to and enhance one another. Without such a perspective, this context for viewing autism makes no sense. Within such a perspective, however, it may be seen that what has limitation on one side, may have advantage on the other, and that souls may have chosen to experience both the limitation and the advantage because of their desire to quicken their own spiritual development.

The problem of autism is indeed a problem for individuals, for families, and for society as a whole, with much hardship involved on a personal and familial level where the emotional and physical challenges are very great. However, as with any other physically manifesting problem, it can be considered to be an avenue of growth as well as of difficulty.

One way of looking at the problem in its present context is to find ways of supporting the positive qualities of functioning and of life that are present within autistic individuals, and to know that these are always there, no matter what outer behaviors may suggest. Such support can go a long way toward affirming the value of a lifetime in which great limitation is present. It can also acknowledge the soul within that has chosen the limitation and can accord to that soul equal dignity and equal opportunity to live to the limits of their capacity, rather than seeing the diagnosis as a detriment to life. Such a view is optimistic and supportive, and allows families and society as a whole to view the sacred life within the limitation, rather than viewing the person as the limitation, thus enabling that person to live a fuller and more fulfilled life.

For other writings by Julie Redstone see Pathways of Light ? http://lightomega.org/PathwaysofLight.html. For additional views of the soul's choice in relation to limitation, see "A Spiritual View of Depression" and other articles in the Light Omega Reader, http://lightomega.org/Articles/Ezine.html.

How We Talk to Children with Autism

                

 

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

I'd like to discuss how we talk to children with autism. One of the things that strikes me is the wide range of what is considered acceptable. I'm not talking about teaching methods. Specifically, I'm talking about the tone and volume in which we speak to these children. I know that they're often difficult to reach and may require multiple attempts to get them to attend or to understand what is being said to them. I also understand that this can be frustrating and confusing at times, but it's everyone's job to stay calm and talk to them in a reasonable manner.

There are many teachers and therapists in special education that would never speak harshly to any child. However, I've heard many speak to children with autism in ways that no regular education program would tolerate, and it seems that this practice is still widespread. My theory is that this habit of loud, cruel voices has been accepted for so long that no one questions it. It's left over from the days when persons with autism were yelled at, slapped and cattle-prodded to get them to comply.

Everyone knows that being spoken to harshly and punitively can break a person's heart, spirit and self-esteem over time. Our children are no different. They need to feel loved, accepted and cared for. Cruel and abusive tones alone can be harmful, even without negative words attached.

My suggestion is that we ask our teachers to speak to our children with kindness and respect. At times when firmness is called for, everyone can still speak kindly while staying firm. It's all in the choice of tone and language.

We want our children to grow into their full potential. It can't happen if they're feeling anxious or depressed or if their self-esteem has been damaged. We need to lay the foundation first- love, trust, respect, acceptance and kindness. Then we can build instruction over that foundation, taking care not to displace it. If you think about it, it's all relatively common sense. We all learn and become our best in this kind of supportive and accepting atmosphere. Our children do too.

Sandra Sinclair, www.autismvoice.com

Sandra Sinclair is a parent of a child with PDD-NOS. Sandra assists parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. 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