Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by three key features:

Inability to interact socially;

Difficulty in the field of language to communicate or deal with symbolic games;

Standard restrictive and repetitive behavior.

The degree of impairment is of variable intensity: ranges from milder cases such as Asperger's syndrome (in which there is impairment of speech and intelligence), to severe forms in which the patient is unable to maintain any kind of interpersonal contact and carries aggressive behavior and mental retardation (Marshall, Noor, Vincent, Lionel, Feuk, Skaug, & Scherer, 2008).

Initial studies considered the disorder result of troubled family dynamics and psychological conditions changed something which proved unfounded. The current trend is to admit the existence of multiple causes for autism, including genetic and biological factors.

Symptoms

Among the main signs of autism is the fact that the child does not point, do not speak single words at 16 months and phrases or words to two years. Importantly, in many cases, the child develops normally until 1 or 2 years, begins to speak the first words, and suddenly begins to regress.

There are several other possible symptoms such as not responding when called by name; do little or no contact with the eye, repeat movements (rocking body and hands) and do not play with dolls as symbols / dolls and houses; show little interest in make friends, have difficulty maintaining attention; having bouts of intense tantrum; having fixation on certain objects like fans running; having resistance to changes in routine and hypersensitivity to certain sounds, textures and smells.

Research makes clear that there even today, questions about what causes autism - every day brings new discoveries. Studies show mainly for genetic determinants, probably by the presence of a wide range of susceptibility genes and complex, and also to some environmental factors.

Research glaringly points to the fact that autism is a psychiatric disease with greater genetic uniqueness. It can be transmitted by parents or spontaneous mutations, which occur at the time of cell division (Faras, Al Ateeqi, & Tidmarsh, 2010).

Autism affects people of all social classes and ethnic groups, more boys than girls. Symptoms may appear early in life but are rarely identified early. The most common is the signs are evident before the child's third birthday. According to the clinical picture, they can be divided into 3 groups:

Complete absence of any interpersonal contact, inability to learn to speak, incidence of stereotyped and repetitive movements, ...