What is Autism?

There are certain children, and even adults, who are experiencing or seeing their environment, and the whole world for that matter, quite differently from what most normal children do. These children find it hard to talk to people and have great difficulty in expressing themselves in words. Such children suffer a severe developmental disorder, which is called Autism and this usually begins or manifested from birth and the first two and a half years of a child’s life. These children react to the world around them in unusual ways and would have difficulty linking several words with what they mean.

There are several types of developmental disorders, which forms a group called autism spectrum disorder or ASD. Autism is the most common among this group and exhibits the most extreme of these disorders. Some cases which are less severe in nature can be categorized as Asperger’s Syndrome or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Other ASDs include Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder. Cases of autism spectrum disorder are not rare, and in fact statistics show that from a thousand children, three to six will most likely have autism.

Children or adults, with autism are characterized with deficient social interaction skills aside from their difficulties in communicating verbally or non-verbally. These people exhibit unusual and usually repetitive activities and focus of interests. Autistic people are usually bothered by certain sounds, which seems normal for others but intolerably irritating for them that they usually cover their ears. Sometimes, they would also feel very uncomfortable even with the slightest or gentlest touch.

People with ASD appear normal in physical attributes, until you talk to them or see them in action. Children diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder or Asperger’s Syndrome usually have normal speech; however they would have behavioral or social patterns or problems that are considered autistic.

On the other hand, children with fully diagnosed autism not only have speech or communications problems, but would also act in very unusual ways. These acts include tantrums, saying a particular word or set of words over and over again, flapping of hands, holding their ears or playing with the same toy all the time. Changes in routines would be a big issue with them as they always stick to a certain schedule. They would arrange toys or items is a certain way and would fall into a tantrum if this arrangement is disturbed in any way.

People would autism have difficulty in making sense of what is happening in the world around them. They could be mildly or severely affected by this disorder and would need a lot of help. There are no known cures for these disorders, although treatments of symptoms and behavioral and social management can be done to help them cope up with the world.