RESEARCH PAPER

Research Paper



Autism

Introduction

The term autistic disorder was first coined in 1943 by psychiatrist Leo Kanner. He used it to describe how eleven disturbed children behaved in ways that were not similar to mental retardation or schizophrenia. He named the syndrome early infantile autism as he observed that “there is a from the start an extreme aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside”. He found that these eleven children had been unable to relate to people in the normal way from the beginning of life. They were limited in language and had an obsessive desire for everything to remain the same. Official acceptance of the disorder was delayed by general confusion in the classification of symptoms as children began having epileptic seizures. This being another sign that a neurological defect was involved in the disorder (Lewis, 2006). There is no cure for autistic disorder but a very significant improvement and adaptation is possible. Behavioral therapists have taught autistic children to talk, encouraged them to play with other children and helped them become more generally responsive to adults. Due to parents being parents being ever-present there is reason to believe that education provided by parents is more beneficial than treatment provided by hospitals.

Statement of the Issue

My research is on what exactly autism is and the facts on it, the symptoms and other social behavior in an autistic child.

Literature Review

Autism appears to result from developmental factors that affect many or all functional brain systems. Neuroanatomical studies and the associations with teratogens strongly suggest that autism's mechanism includes alteration of brain development soon after conception. This localized anomaly appears to start a cascade of pathological events in the brain that are significantly influenced by environmental factors. Many major structures of the human brain have been implicated. Consistent abnormalities have been found in the development of the cerebral cortex; and in the cerebellum and related inferior olive, which have a significant decrease in the number of Purkinje cells (Badcock, 2006). Brain weight and volume and head circumference tend to be greater in autistic children; the effects of these are unknown. It may be due to poorly regulated growth of neurons.

In general, children with autism have problems in three crucial areas of development social skills, language and behavior. The most severe autism is marked by a complete inability to communicate or interact with other people. Because the symptoms of autism vary widely, two children with the same diagnosis may act quite differently and have strikingly different skills. If a child has autism, he or she may develop normally for the first few months or years of life and then later become less responsive to other people, including family (Peters, 2004).

One of the most characteristic symptoms of autism is a dysfunction in social behavior. These individuals avoid virtually all forms of social interaction. The most common response is tantrumming and/or 'running away' when someone tries to interact with ...