Children with Autism

Children with Autism

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and the Effects of the Children and their Family

University of Phoenix

The topic that I have chosen to write about is Autism. Have you heard about it? I am sure you may know someone who suffers from this disease, but do you really know what it is, or its causes and effects? That is what I am going to explain to you. Autism is a disability that affect young children, and we need to understand the symptoms, treatments, and what it is like to live with this disorder. The symptoms of Autism. The behavior of children with this disorder has a wide range from mild to severe in nature. What we need to know is that there are three major categories of symptoms, social reaction, communication, and behavior. In the social reaction category you will see a narrow range of facial reactions. They will also have poor eye contact with the people that they are communicating with. They will have difficulty with relationships with their peers.

By not having relationships with their peers will result in a decreased quality of relationships, and this can lead to social avoidance altogether when they are severely affected. The next thing that will be noticed about a child with Autism is their communication problems. You will notice that they lack or have a delay of the spoken language. They will not have a very good conversation skills. They will have a lack of appropriate developmental play, and they will have diminished gestures. The behavior problems is repetitive including the motor mannerisms, like hand flapping, their interests is restricted, they must have the same routines, and the preoccupation for parts of objects. For an example a child with Autism may want to hold a toy fire engine and roll the wheels with his other hand instead of playing like he is driving it and putting fires out.

Another thing you can find that causes agitation and tantrums is their schedules, or routines disrupted, or their surrounding being unfamiliar. The treatment options of children with Autism. What we need to know first about this is that there is no cure for a child with Autism. What doctors have discovered is that to find the correct diagnosis depends on each child differently. Doctors will evaluate each child on their accurate developmental history in which is focused on types of behavior typical of autism and on their current functional skills. A child’s cognitive and behavioral evaluation should also include their assessment of their sociability.

The doctors will evaluate to see if they have interest in persons rather that objects and the ability to engage happily in an activity that is initiated by a person. They will also will evaluate to see if the child will use their imaginative play with toys. The doctors will evaluate the language of the child checking for their comprehension, production and conversational use of speech, and their voice quality. What researchers have found is that no drug or other treatment will cure autism, and that many of the patients will not require any medication. However researchers have found psychotropic drugs that target certain symptoms may help substantially.

They have that methylphenidate in improving attention capacity can be administered rapidly because of the very short half-life of the drug. With other types of drugs they have to be administered in initial small doses because of the increased sufficiently slowly to gauge the effectiveness before they can switch the child to a different drugs. The drug Serotonergic antidepressants also can be prescribe to help control stereotypies, perseveration, and mood swings in some patients that maybe having these problems, but doctors will be controlling these in controlled trials of the drugs in autism are needed. In the view of the potential need for their long-term use, especially to control aggression, these medications must not have sedative effects or produce irreversible side effects such as tardive dyskinesia. Children that have been diagnosed with autism is the most important intervention is early and intensive remedial education that addresses both the behavior and communication disorders.

What researchers has discovered is the most effective approaches is to use highly structured environment with intensive single instruction and a high teacher to student ratio. To address specific deficits occupational and physical therapy should be used. The parents need to learn to give specific instruction in how to deal with tantrums and destructive behavior and in useful techniques for keeping their children organized and occupied so as minimize the detrimental effects on the family members. The counseling and support for the parents with a child diagnosed with autism. What parents need to do is learn to be the best advocate that you can be for their child. You always need to be informed. Always take advantage of the services that are available to you in your community. By doing this your will meet with medical staffed professionals that can help educate you and there to help you. From doing this you will gather strength from the people you meet.

Most of all do not push your feelings away. You need to talk about them to someone. Most parents may feel both ambivalent and angry. This is to be expected emotions from a parent. Always try to and direct your anger to the disorder and not toward your family or loved ones. Try not to argue with your spouse over the autism related issues, always remember that the topic is painful to both parents, and be careful not to get mad at each other when it really is the autism that has you upset and angry.

Living with autism disability. When your child grows up into adulthood in some cases they will need help with care. Some of the patients are able to work successfully in the mainstream jobs. Many others with this disorder are capable of employment in sheltered workshops under supervision of managers trained in working with persons with disabilities. Fewer adults with this disorder will marry and have children or live in a metropolitan area. What researchers have found is that people with this disorder will attract to others with the disorder, because they share interests or importance of companionship in their lives as similar to those without autism disorder.

Some adults with this disorder are capable of independent living: either entirely on their own or semi-independently in their own home or apartment with assistance in solving major problems. The assistance can be provided by a family, or by a professional agency. Few adults with autism achieve great success. Many go through adulthood still struggling with sensory issues and communication deficits that interfere with their ability to function normally. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. There was a lady in 1950 that was diagnosed with autism. Her symptoms were severe enough that her doctor suggested she be put in an institution. However, instead of being institutionalized, here caregivers provided her with a structured environment and play activities throughout her youth. She just like most children with autism did not speak until she was nearly four years old. Also like most children with autism, she loved and was fascinated by animals.

This lady name is Temple Grandin, Ph.D. She ultimately was able to become educated, to complete a doctorate, and to become a college professor. Presently, Dr. Grandin teaches courses on livestock behavior at Colorado State University. She is the author of several books, some concerning autism and some about livestock. During this paper I hope that you now understand what the disability is, how it affects young children, understand the symptoms, treatments, and how it is like to live with this disorder.

Dermot Bowler (2009). Autism 2009 13:5 DOI: 10.1177/1362361308101921.

Dermot Bowler used data from several articles starting with Hubert and colleagues. They investigated adults with skin conductance responses (SCR) to adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The next article was a paper by Allen in which he took a group of adults were interviewed at length of music. The next article was a paper by Orsmond and colleagues where they explored the sibling relationships with their families. In Dermot Bowler conclusion used a letter from Cox and McDowell where they had some serious concerns about a paper that appeared in an issue of a journal.

Isabelle Rapin, M.D. (1997). Autism, The New England Journal of Medicine, ISN 0028-4793, 07/1997, Volume 337, Issue 2 pp. 97-104.

Isabelle Rapin, M.D. used data from articles from The New England Journal of Medicine which she did her research from. In her article that she wrote talking about Autism. She wrote about the symptoms of Autism from their behavior, communication, play, attention and activities, cognition, and sensorimotor symptoms. She also wrote about Epilepsy and Autistic Regression; where by adulthood about one-third of the persons with Autism will have at least two unprovoked epileptic seizures. She went on to write about prevalence, causes, The Neurologic Basis of Autism, course and prognosis, diagnosis, and intervention.

The Encyclopedia Britannica online, 01/2013. Autism, primary contributor: Gene Blatt.

Genn Blatt contributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica online to which gives the definition of Autism, also called classic autism or autistic disorder. The information given in this article talks about possible causes and risk factors; which included that it may have been maternal infection during pregnancy. It gave possible symptoms which is variable depending on the ranging from mild to severe in nature. It gave possible diagnosis and treatment from which is based on observations of their behavior and from their screenings.