AN INDIVIDUAL WITH AUTISTIC DISORDER

An Individual with Autistic Disorder

Introduction

Autism is a complex developmental disorder that has the following three defining core features problems with social interactions; the patient has impaired verbal and nonverbal communication and tends to have a pattern of repetitive behavior with narrow, restricted interests. People with this condition are unaccepted by the society, which further makes them feel left out and they resort to a display of frustration (Lord, 1994).

Discussion

It is a disorder starts with in the first 36 months of the child's birth and does not have a cure. It tends to effect the development of the individual's social interactions and communicational skills which can have dire affects on the total mental development of the individual, which further makes them seen as a burden for the society. In the United States of America, this is a very common thing and almost every third child is affected with Autism. Some celebrities such as Jenny McCartney, Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta to name a few have their first born to be autistic (Lord, 1994).

These dysfunctions have symptoms which can be accessed through bodily movements, impairment of social interactions (some being hand flapping or rocking); it is exhibited in difficulty in interacting with other individuals in leisure or play activities and verbal or non-verbal communication. Since there five senses are highly sensitive, they are unable to see things eye to eye with their peers or make social interactions. Also, there are senses are highly sensitive and at times noise, temperature can trigger their senses, which result to sudden outbursts, which people commonly think that these people have severe behavioral problems, which can result to dire situations which can at times go out of control.

I was assigned to observe an autistic patient named Sherry Saunders aged 16. Usually, in children in their mid teens are victims of social pressure or they like to hang out with their friends go to movies and enjoy eating out. But one wonders autistic people have very low interaction as their senses are very sensitive and they are prone to sudden outburst which maybe a result of a sharp noise, or Loud sounds, lights, smells and sometimes touching which can overwhelm a patient with Autism (Mottron, 2001).

She scanned through the environment, the fluorescent lights in the vicinity seemed to bother her a lot, as personally speaking, there were bothering me as well. We went through the different aisle and she did not react to anything but I could sense, as she was developing a behavioral issue such as a tantrum. Mostly, people associate these tantrums to be a result of a poor upbringing, where there is no such control on the child's behavior, but what they fail to understand, that people of this condition have a difficult life to live, as there is no such cure, they have speech impairment and have difficulty having a social life (Mottron, 2001).

Communication

When I met sherry for the first time, she ...