Autism Spectrum Disorder: Key Facts

Learn the main Empirical and Scientific Facts about Autism.

Overview

in this review, we are going to discuss the following:

• What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
• When can you say a child is autistic?
• What are the signs and symptoms of ASD?
• Complications associated with Autism.
• Characteristics of ASD and developmental stages.
• Who is concerned with ASD?
• What causes ASD?
• How can ASD be treated?
• Alternative Treatments: Dieting and Music.
• Bottles of Pills: Medication Options for Autistic Patients
• Conclusion

What Is Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition that has to do with some behavioral and communication difficulties in some individuals. It is a neurological disorder. The word spectrum relates to the fact that there is a range of symptoms that characterize the condition. Some of these symptoms will be discussed below.

ASD patients have difficulties in speech and relating with other people. The condition starts at birth and can be noticed before 2 years of age.

The condition is not a fatality. When the diagnosis has been done early enough, and the affected child has been followed properly, he can go on to lead a prosperous and fulfilled life.

Autistic children can learn, communicate, and do other things that can be helpful for themselves and for society. The information in this article is to help large society understand this deformity in children and help particularly parents with autistic children to cope with the challenge.

When can you say a child is autistic?

As stated earlier, autism has a spectrum ( meaning a range of characteristics), so there are many types of autism. We can broadly classify the types as follow:

• Autistic Disorder
• Asperger’s syndrome
• Pervasive Development Disorder
• Childhood disintegrative disorder

Autistic disorder is the more severe form of autism. It is the oldest term used to characterize ASD.

Asperger’s syndrome has to do with children with a high level of intelligence. Individuals with this type of autism are sometimes genius. However, they still have a challenge in communicating.

Pervasive Development disorder is a form of Asperger’s syndrome. It is a more severe version of Asperger’s syndrome.

Childhood disintegrative disorder this type of autism is very severe. Children who develop this type of autism start their lives normally. The symptoms of this type of autism come only later on.

Sings and Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The general signs and symptoms of autism have to do with difficulties in communication and relating with other people. Autistic children are affected at the social, academic, and emotional level.

A child with ASD can present the following signs and symptoms include:

• Avoidance of eye contact
• Lack of focus and concentration on activities
• Lack of emotional sensitivity
• repeat the same words or/and actions
• sensible to some sounds or smells
• isolate themselves from others
• have the challenge to express his needs.
• love routine activities and adapt difficultly to changes.

Complications associated with Autism.

There are 5 main complications associated with Autism.

Sensory problems

The sensory input that might be harmful to autistic children is loud noises, smells, extreme heat, cold, or very bright light. You should keep the child away from such sources.

Seizures

This can happen at any time during a child's growth.

Mental health issues

Having ASD puts you at risk of depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior, and mood swings.

Mental impairment

This is common with children having fragile X syndrome. This syndrome comes from a defect on a section of the X chromosome.

Tumors

Tuberous sclerosis is a rare disorder that causes benign tumors to grow in your organs, including your brain. It is observed that ASD patients can have tumors, but the reason is not very clear.

who are Concerned with Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Who is Affected

Any race or group of people can be affected by autism. However, boys seem to be more affected than girls. Below are the stats of people affected by autism worldwide.

For over a decade Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network has been estimating people affected with autism across the world.

Development stages of Autism in children.

There are broadly two stages of development of ASD in children.

Stage 1: General Developmental Screening During Well-Child Checkups

A well-child check-up with a pediatrician is necessary to detect if a child is autistic or not. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a well-child check for children from 9 months to 24 months. This check-up is particularly necessary if the child presents one or two symptoms of ASD or/and a developmental problem.

Since ASD is also genetic, when a family member has had his before, the early child checkup is expedient.

After this first stage of evaluation, there is a second stage that the child must undergo.

Stage 2: Additional Evaluation

This second evaluation is to be made to confirm if a child is autistic or not. This is carried out by a team of experts including:

• A Pediatrician;
• A Children Psychologist or Psychiatric;
• A speech-language pathologist;
• And a Neurologist

The purpose of this second evaluation aims to assess the language abilities, social skills, and cognitive level of the child. The specialist can choose to carry out a blood test and hearing tests.

It is only after this second evaluation that specific treatment can be recommended for the child. It is necessary to have all the specialists mentioned above because each child has its own specificities and there is no such thing as ‘general treatment’ for ASD.

What causes of ASD?

No one can state all the risk factors of ASD. However, there are some generally accepted causes of ASD that we will review here.

• The genetic factor. Most researchers think that ASD is linked with a person's genes.4, 19
• Individuals with tuberous sclerosis or fragile X syndrome are at risk of having ASD. 11–14, 20
• Drugs such as valproic acid and thalidomide can expose a child in the womb of a pregnant woman to ASD.15–16. So pregnant women out to avoid such drugs.
• Many facts provide that the critical period for developing ASD occurs before, during, and immediately after birth.
• Environmental factors. Scientists think that the environment might also be a cause of ASD. This area is still under research. Pregnant women should avoid polluted air-mainly environment with heavy metals dust.

Under federal law, any child presenting one of the ASD symptoms mentioned earlier can get a free evaluation. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be screened for developmental disorders before age 3.

How can Autism Spectrum Disorder be Treated?

Finding what works: Dealing with Autism.

There many treatments available for you. You trial orthodoxal or alternative treatments. The array of treatment include:

• The educational
• The behavioral
• The biomedical
• The nutritional
• And the sensory form of treatment.

In this section, we are going to discuss some of the possible treatments. The purpose is for you to be aware of the possible options before you decide.

Most of these treatments are costly for poor parents. One of the best things you should do is to get some material at home and be personally involved in the treatment of your child.

You must know the strengths and weaknesses of your child before consulting a practitioner. Some organization is careful enough to provide you with a checklist of evaluation points that focus on the conditions that come with autism.

In this section, we have presented therapy in relation to the vaccine myth, Medication in relation to ASD, educational and psychological therapy, and music therapy and dieting. You should not try all the therapy at the same time.

Always remember, no all children are the same. Autism treatment is empirical. This means there is no clear scientific base to work will work or not. You have to prayerfully try each method. Wen a method gives you positive results, continue with that method.

Remember that you do not always have to wait two months to make choices about whether to continue or discontinue a treatment method. If the side effects of a medication, for example, are interfering with the patient’s life in an unbearable way, then you should discontinue the treatment.

ASD is not a conventional clinical disease so there is no conventional treatment for this condition. It is a neurological disorder. Some people can try an intervention on a child base on its specificity and it works while another child may not respond to the same treatment.

Besides the known types of interventions that can be ministered to a child, there are also alternative treatments such as dieting or music therapy.

The interventions might associate with parents, schools, or special centers.

<< if you are in USA, Australia, Canada, or Europe, visit here for practical resources about autism>>

Vaccines and ASD.

Many have argued that there is a link between ASD and the vaccines that a baby took in his early days. This claim led to deeper study so as to determine if there is a possible link between vaccines and ASD.

Many research has been carried out, but no one confirms that there is a link between vaccines and ASD. Today, all debates or postulate linking ASD and vaccines have been retracted.

So, there is no need to deprive your child of some childhood vaccinations. This can even expose your child to some serious diseases such as measles or pertussis.

Medications and ASD.

As stated previously, Autism is not a conventional disease, so there are no conventional medicines for ASD. Doctors treat symptoms rather than the root cause of this condition. Because the condition is more psychological than a pathology, autistic children need to be accepted before anything else.

The side effect of medication may include hyperactivity, irritability, aggression, anxiety, depression, etc.

Bottles of Pills: Medication Options for Autistic Patients

One of the things that interest caregivers or pârents with autistic children are to know whether there are pills or tablets for their loved ones.

For sure, there are pills that can only help in treating the symptoms of ASD. You should remember that the treatment of this condition is always case-specific. This means that what may work for one child may not work for another.

Before administrating any drug to a patient, you should take counsel with the doctor and weigh the side effects and the benefits. In any case, if there are complicated side effects, you should stop the treatment immediately.

Possible medications are pills, liquids, or been injections. You choose the method that seems convenient to you.

In all cases, it is preferable to work more on the psychology of the child using tools such as computer software, books with images, videos, etc. at modelmekid.net, you can find the following tools:

<<You can click here to check resources designed to help autistic children age 2 to 21.>>

Educational and Psychological therapy.

Some doctors dedicated themselves, especially to autistic children. They are involved in intervention programs aiming at improving social skills ( such as communication) and the learning ability of children with autism.

Those intervention programs are designed to:

• Help the children to be independent in life.
• To stabilize their behavior.
• Increase their strengths or strengthen their gifting.
• Develop social, communication, and language skills

Musical Therapy

This is one of the last-borns in the array of possible treatments. It is still overlooked by many caregivers, but it is very powerful.

Patients who receive this kind of therapy tend to get better than those who have not received it. It is so because music connects to the non-verbal part of our brains, making it a perfect therapy for disorders in which the patient has trouble communicating, such as autism.

We do advise caregivers to try this therapy. This therapy is especially important because it can be used in conjunction with learning social skills.

When the subconscious part of the brain of a child with autism register some part of pleasantly soft and non-threatening music, the child will try to mimic or even pronounce the same words. Some autistic children can even develop the gift of singing or playing musical instruments. Check the link in my profile ( about me) for resources that can help in this direction.

By using all of these techniques in conjunction with one another, musical therapy can work wonders with people who are autistic. Trained professionals use music to work wonders!

Research on music therapy is still underway.

Dietary Concerns: Glutton and Casein

Dieting is one of the alternative treatments for autism. Some parents, caregivers, and doctors have reported by controlling the diet of an autistic child, they have seen some noticeable improvement. Two of the main dietary concerns are glutton and casein.

Glutton is a substance found in rice, wheat, oaks, etc while casein is found in dairy products such as eggs, cheeses, or bread. You should watch over the volume of such foods that the child takes. You should reduce it maximally.

Autistic children have a difficult time digesting such foods. It is so because those foods are not broken down as in a normal body, these extra peptides are absorbed into the bloodstream. This can lead to some viral diseases or complications. The doctor can conduct a urine test to check the number of such peptides in the bold stream.

If the level of those peptides is high, do not stop giving the child dairy foods or glutton substances in an abrupt man. Cut down the volume of those substances you take slowly.

If you want to try dieting as a way of tackling autism, speak to a nutritionist.

Advice to Parents with Autistic Children

My Child is Autistic-and I don’t know what to Do…

First of all, don’t be dismay. Autism is not a disease. It is simply a psychological distortion. Your child can still live a healthy life if you follow some of the instructions in this article.

You ain't concern now is not to lament but to take action. Reading this post had taken you years ahead of the average person. Be confident of what you have learned already. Most of the advice in this article will help to alleviate the struggle.

Join a support group for parents with autism. You can find these by contacting the national Autism Society of America. From there you can find local branches, many of which offer support groups for parents and families with an autistic child. Being in contact with other parents in a similar situation can not only help you feel less alone, but it can provide you with a myriad of resources.

Autism can also affect your marriage relationship negatively. You can become seriously distressed with this condition. Seeking the help of a marriage counselor might be helpful.

Most importantly, start on the path to becoming an expert. Many times pediatricians or psychiatrists are not experts on autism, which can lead to improper diagnoses or incorrect treatment options. For the sake of your child, you must learn as much as possible. Being on this block is a good step. Join my email list or follow this blog.

Below is some advice to parents having children with ASD.

• First of all, confirm with the doctors that the child is autistic. You may need to go through the first and second stage ( where many specialists will be involved) confirmation as described above.
• Call your state’s public early childhood system to request a free evaluation to find out if your child qualifies for intervention services.
• Learn as much about autism as possible. The more you know the ready you will be to help your child and your family. You can bookmark a blog such as this one to get fresher information about autism.
• Make friendships with other parents of children with autism. this will ease up your pains. Having an autistic child can put a lot of pressure on the entire family.
• If you need some help, call the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) at 919–962–2001.

Do you need more resources ( Blanket, Tools, Books) to help that Autistic Child? Watch these videos.

Conclusion.

Let us recap the main things we have discussed in this Review.

First, we have defined Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is essential for a neurological disorder that has to do with behavioral unbalance and communication.

Secondly, we have reviewed the signs and symptoms of this mental disorder as well as the types of ASD.

Thirdly we discussed the signs and symptoms of ASD and the 5 possible complications.

Fourthly we discussed the different types of treatment as well as alternative treatments.

We ended this discourse by providing some practical advice to parents having a child with Autistic Disorder.

We hope that this material has gone a long way in fixing some taught about ASD. If that is the case, we are happy we helped.

References

1. Lord C, Risi S, DiLavore PS, Shulman C, Thurm A, Pickles A.external icon Autism from 2 to 9 years of age. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Jun;63(6):694–701.
2. Bai D, Yip BHK, Windham GC, Sourander A, Francis R, Yoffe R, Glasson E, Mahjani B, Suominen A, Leonard H, Gissler M, Buxbaum JD, Wong K, Schendel D, Kodesh A, Breshnahan M, Levine SZ, Parner ET, Hansen SN, Hultman C, Reichenberg A, Sandin S. Association of Genetic and Environmental Factors With Autism in a 5-Country Cohort.external icon JAMA Psychiatry. 2019 Jul 17. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.1411. [Epub ahead of print]
3. Sztainberg Y, Zoghbi HY. Lessons learned from studying syndromic autism spectrum disorders.external icon Nat Neurosci. 2016 Oct 26;19(11):1408–1417. doi: 10.1038/nn.4420. Review.

Research

The links below provide information about the National Institue of Health(NIH ) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) support for ASD research:

• NIH Joins Public-Private Partnership to Fund Research on Autism Biomarkers
• NIMH Has Awarded a Number of Grants for Services Research
• NIH awards nearly $100 million for the Autism Centers of Excellence program
• National Database for Autism Research (NDAR) (an NIH-funded data bank that is helping to speed progress in ASD research)

Statistics

For more information about ASD statistics, visit:

• The NIMH autism spectrum disorder statistics page
• The CDC autism spectrum disorder data and statistics page
• The CDC Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network

Federal resources

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• NIH Autism Listserv
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee
• MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine
• MedlinePlus, en Español, Biblioteca Nacional de Medicina

Related Articles

Bursting The Autism Stereotypes.

Autistic Persons-When Lying isn’t a problem.

Autism with Children.

Autistic Kids: 10 major challenges.

How to deal with Autism in Toddlers.

How to deal with Aspergic Syndrom

Help for Autistic children

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Key Facts.

Dealing with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Kids.

Ultimate Guide for Teaching Students with Autism.

Copyright 2020. Autism Expertise.

Disclaimer.

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