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
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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:
Autism according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is defined as “a variable developmental disorder that appears by age three and is characterized by impairment of the ability to form normal social relationships, to commutate with others, and by stereotyped behavior patterns.” Autism was believed to be a psychiatric or emotional illness, and doctors told mothers that they were the cause. They were wrong. The cause for autism is still a mystery, however, the facts remain that autism in children is on the rise. Erin Allday of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, “Environmental factors play a more important role in causing autism than previously assumed and, surprisingly, an even larger role than genetic.” There are theories based on that
independently. Because there are so many forms of this disorder, it has been said that
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
There are three different strategies that can be used for behavior therapy. These are: Systematic Desensitization, Modeling, and Biofeedback.
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
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
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).
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.
Two to six people out one thousand are diagnosed with autism that, one in every two hundred (Robledo). Autism seems to be a very complex disorder; moreover symptoms are very unpretentious. Autism’s risk factors vary from the sex of the child to the parent’s age. In order to discover if someone has autism is difficult because there is not a rule book that a doctor uses; therefore diagnosing is difficult. As for the causes, there are many different types of theories over the years. As for the treatment for autism, it is very narrow at the moment. Throughout the years, researchers have been constantly coming up with new pieces on how to explain what and how autism works. Autism is a mind twisting disorder that is taking years to decrypt. Thanks
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.
Autism is a developmental disability that affects all areas of behavior and perception. Approximately 10 out of every 10,000 children are diagnosed with autism and four out of five are males. Autism is the third most common developmental disability, more common than Down Syndrome. Children with Autism are characterized by impairment in several areas of development such as: Cognitive, Language, Play/Socialization skills and exhibit many challenging behaviors. Behavior Patterns of Autism:
Autism is on the rise. Many researchers feel the reasons isn’t because there are more kids being afflicted with it, but the increased public awareness has allowed this disorder to be more easily recognized and diagnosed at a earlier age.
There are several reasons why I chose the topic of Autism. First, autism is intriguing
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.