There are many diseases and disorders that plague today’s society, but one of the most serious of those disorders is autism. Autism is not nearly as widely known as the familiar Down’s Syndrome, yet, surprisingly, autism is far more widespread. In fact, autism is the third most common developmental disability, affecting 400,000 people worldwide (Autism Society of America). As of yet there is no cure for this debilitating disorder, only a variety of treatments. Autism is a developmental disability, not a mental illness, that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects 15 of every 10,000 individuals. No one is certain why it occurs, but researchers have found that MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans of people with …show more content…
Some of the treatments include behavioral training, teaching of communication and social skills, auditory training, medications, and a change in diet. Behavioral training or modification, as it is also called, deals with changing or extinguishing inappropriate behaviors and increasing positive behaviors. A few methods are used to do this. One way is self-management where the individual monitors their behavior and receives self-reinforcement. Another method used is modeling. This is when the teacher or therapist demonstrates what is being done so the child can “model” the steps. Behavioral training is effective in stopping self-inflicted pain by shaping and distributing positive reinforcement. The teaching of communication and social skills is an integral part of treating autism. Speech therapy may include gaining language skills or learning sign language. Some devices are used frequently such as picture communication boards. Another device is used with a trained professional supporting the hand or arm of the person helping them to punch keys on a device. This technique, called facilitated communication, is highly controversial because it is sometimes thought that the facilitator is directing the person’s arm unknowingly. One of the main characteristics of autism is the lack of understanding of social cues (Autism Society of America). The person with autism may be taught how to communicate in social situations or respond to certain facial
Techniques behavior therapy uses in order to direct the group to behavior modification are including:
There are several reasons why I chose the topic of Autism. First, autism is intriguing
Autism has been considered the disease of the 21st century for its high rate of incidence in our infantile population. However, many people wonder if it is really a new disease or an old undisclosed illness misjudged until present by health.
First, autism is a mental disorder. According to the National Autism Association, autism is a bio-neurological development disability that generally appears before the age of 3. According to the Autism Society, about one percent of the world population has autism spectrum disorder. As said by the Autism Society, more than 3.5 million Americans live with autism spectrum disorder. The Autism
Autism is a special type of wide-spectrum disorder short for (ASD) Autism Spectrum Disorder. All people with autism are different they are all not the same. Autism is known as complex developmental disability. Experts believe that autism presents itself during the first three years of a person’s life. The condition is the result of a neurological disorder that has an effect on a normal brain function, affecting development of the person’s communication and social interaction skills (What Is Autism). In the united states, one in 98 boys are diagnosed with autism, and 24,000 people are diagnosed with autism for the first time every year (46 Random Facts About Autism.-- Posted September 21, 2009. Updated August 9, 2012).
AUTISM Autism is a life-long developmental disability that usually appears in the first three years of a child’s life. It interferes with normal development of the brain, preventing individuals with this rare disorder from understanding what they hear, sense, and observe. Although this severe disability is considered a child’s disability, autism is found in adults, interfering with normal social and emotional development. Anyone can acquire autism; it is put in place at birth. Boys, however, are more prone to it, as they are four times more affected.
Autism is a developmental disability of the brain, much like dyslexia, mental retardation, or attention deficit disorder. Autism is not a form of mental retardation, and though many autistic people appear to function as retarded, they are frequently quite intelligent. Approximately 15 of every 10,000 individuals and nearly 400,000 people in the United States today have some form of autism (Dowdy).
There are three different strategies that can be used for behavior therapy. These are: Systematic Desensitization, Modeling, and Biofeedback.
Previously other studies have failed to replicate the different performances between people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and controls that resulted in inconsistent findings. This study is primarily to assess the visual search abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders, tested through the flicker task. The researchers hypothesized children with ASD will be more compromised in the changes on emotion-laden than in typically developing children; which differed from previous hypothesis. Questions that exist due to previous studies such as, does visual search abilities assess attention functioning with controversial results, do people with ASD have enhanced performance on visual search tasks, and are there differences between
A recent study has found that a gene linked to autism caused mice in their experiments to have more seizures and anxiety. Dr. Jill Silverman is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis. She led a team of researchers to study a specific gene that might be linked to autism.
These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors”. Autism is a neurological disorder which involves the nervous, system and the nervous system is a system of nerves and nerve centers including the spinal cord and brain nerves (Robeldo; “Neurological”; “Nervous System”). Autism mostly affects males, four to five times more common in males, but if a girl does get diagnosed with autism it tends to be more severe (Robeldo; “IAN Research Report #2”). Although it is more common in males no further research has been made to completely explain why this is so (Powers, Micheal D Ed). Autism actually effects of three areas: social interactions, language and behaviors. For their social skills they seem to be unaware of the feeling of others, the person also lacks eye contact. They have poor eyes contact and facial expression (Robeldo, Ham; “Autism” MayoClinic). The autism that makes might include specific routines even if a routine is not necessary. Behaviorally the autistic child can be limited in interests or interested in various activities depending on the person, and cannot control their movements. As for language, they have delays; they seem to talk around the age of two, do not make eye contact when asking for something or cannot start a conversation or continue the conversation (Robeldo; “Autism” TeenHealth). Consequently diagnosis also has three areas of social, behavioral and
Behavior Therapy: The treatment with the drug combination, can significantly improve the therapeutic effect. The basic principle is to reward good behavior, ignore or punish bad behavior, and establish long-term goals. Child behavior incentive to timely and insisted, conditions permitting, the teacher can learn more specialized behavioral therapy; Or help parents record the behavior of children in school, through integration, tokens, etc., to assist in the completion of behavioral treatment programs.
In the search to find scholarly and empirical evidence related to therapeutic effects of pet therapy among autistic children, the La Salle University library catalog was used to search through the CINAHL database and select studies according to relevancy. The reference range used for the search was restricted to published articles from 2012-2017 and the use of selective keywords, such as: autism, pet therapy, animal-assisted, disability, children, and benefits of pet therapy. The abstracts of many scholarly journals were analyzed to determine if the criteria of the research question was met. As a result of the conducted research, 1 systematic review and 5 primary sources were chosen for the review of literature.
independently. Because there are so many forms of this disorder, it has been said that
Another type of therapy is behavior therapy. Behavior therapists contend that simply knowing that you’re afraid of dogs, for example, won’t help you from freaking out at the thought of a dog. Instead these therapists suggest that the problem behavior is the actual issue and the best way to get rid of unwanted automatic behavior is to substitute it with more functional behavior through new learning and conditioning. Simply, behavior therapy aims to modify e behavior in order to change emotions and moods. Behavior therapy is rooted in the experiments of Ivan Pavlov and his classically conditioned dogs and worked also on operant conditioning or changing behavior through positive or negative reinforcement. This kind of therapist would use counterconditioning