What is ASD?

What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. People with ASDs handle information in their brain differently then others people. ASDs are  "spectrum disorders." That means ASDs affect each person in different ways, and can range from very mild to severe. People with ASDs share some similar symptoms, such as problems with social interaction. But there are differences in when the Symptoms start, how severe they are, and the exact nature of the symptoms.

A Few Autism Facts

• Autism now affects 1 in 88 childen and 1 in 54 boys
• Autism prevalence figures are growing
• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year then with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined
• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
• there is no medical detection or cure for autism 
• Autism is 4-5 times more prevalent in males then in females
• Autism is a life-long disorder

What are the Symptoms Of ASDs?

No 2 children with an ASD have exactly the same symptoms. There are standard criteria for the diagnosis of ASDs. However, the number and severity of symptoms can vary greatly. The following are exmaples of how a child with an ASD may act:

Social Differences

• Doesn't keep eye contact or makes very little eye contact
• Doesn't respond to a parent's smile or other facial expressions
• Doesn't look at objects or events and parent is looking at or pointing to
• Doesn't point to objects or events to get a parent to look at them
• Doesn't bring objects of personal interest to show to parent 
• Doesn't often have appropriate facial expressions
• Unable to perceive what others might be thinking or feeling by looking at there facial expressions
• Doesn't show concern (empathy) for Others
• Unable to make friends or uninterested in making friends

Communication Differences

• Doesn't point at the to indicate needs or share things with others
• Doesn't day single words by 16 months
• Repeats exactly what others say without understanding the meaning (often called parroting or echoing)
• Doesn't respond to name being called but does respond to others sounds (like car horn or a cat's meow)
• Refers to self as "you" and others as "I," and may mix up pronouns
• Often doesn't seem to want to communicate
• Doesn't use toys or other objects to represent people or real life in pretend play
• May have a good rote memory, especially for numbers, letters, songs, TV jingles, or a specific topic or phrase.
• May lose language or other social milestones, usually between the age of 15 and 24 months (often called regression)

Behavioral Differences (repetitive and obsessive behaviors)

• Rocks, spins, sways, twirls fingers, walks on toes for a long time , or flaps hands ( stereotypic behavior)
• Likes routines, order, and rituals; has difficulty with change
• Obsessed with a few or unusual activities, doing them repeatedly during the day
• Plays with parts of toys instead of the whole toy (for exmpale, spining the wheels of the toy truck)
• Doesn't seem to feel pain
• May be very sensitive or not sensitive at all to smells, sounds, lights, textures, and touch
• Unusual use of vision or gaze-looks at objects from unusual angles

What are the different types of ASDs?

Autistic disorder
Children with autistic disorder have a pattern of core problems with language and communication, problems relating to other socially, and unusual or repetitive behaviors, While social symptoms are usually present in the first year of life (although they may be subtle), language problems are more obvious in the second year, and repetitive behaviors may appear even later.

Many of these children will have intellectual deficits, others might appear to have deficits when, in fact scores on intelligence test and low because of lack of cooperation. Others may have normal scores on intelligence test, yet they may have trouble with the abstract and real-life reasoning. Children with autism are considered high functioning when their intelligence is in normal range

Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (also called Asperger disorder) is usually not diagnosed until preschool age or later. This is because early speech development, especially language and sentence structure, is relatively normal. Sometime children with Asperger syndrome speak in an odd way. Some children may speak in only one tone of voice (monotone) with out raising or decreasing the pitch of their voice. Other children may speak in language above what would be expected for their age like "little professors." They may make little eye contact while talking and may have trouble maintaining a back-and-forth conversation. They may focus on 1 or 2 topics and will talk about these topics whether or not the listener is interested., Children with Asperger syndrome often interpret language literally and may have particular trouble with humor, teasing, and figures of speech. Many may also have problems with motor coordination, Intelligence is normal. Some experts do not consider this a separate disorder from high-functioning autism.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified

Children with PDD-NOS (sometimes described as atypical autism) show some signs of autism or other PDD but do not have sufficient number of intensity of symptoms to be diagnosed with autistic disorder or Asperger syndrome. Though children with PDD-NOS may have ferwer overall symptoms can still be challenging

Rett Disorder
Rett syndrome is childhood neurodevelpment disorder that affects females almost exclusively. Loss of muscle tone is usually the first symptom. Other early symptoms may include problems crawling or walking and diminished eye contact. As the syndrome progresses, a child will lose purposeful use of her hands and the ability to speak. Compulsive hand movements such as wringing and washing follow the loss of functional use of the hands. The inability to perform motor functions is perhaps the most  severely disabling feature of Rett Syndrome, interfering with every body movement, including eye gaze and speech.  

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

Childhood disintegrative disorder is also known as Heller's syndrome. It's a very rare condition in which children develop normally until at least two years of age, but then demonstrate a severe loss of social, communication and other skills.

Childhood disintegrative disorder is part of a larger category called autism spectrum disorder. However, unlike autism, someone with childhood disintegrative disorder shows severe regression after several years of normal development and a more dramatic loss of skills than a child with autism does. In addition, childhood disintegrative disorder can develop later than autism does.

Treatment for childhood disintegrative disorder involves a combination of medications, behavior therapy and other approaches.

To Learn more please visit Autism Speaks , Information on Autism Speaks and or Autism Society and or Healthy Children. Org or International Rett Syndrome,  Cleaning Of the Fog About Autism Inc, Mayo Clinic






3 moms fighting autism and spd awareness