Autism Spectrum Disorder : A Genetic Disorder

The word autism meaning “living in self” in Greek was first utilized in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist, Eugene Bleuler. He used this word to describe a condition of self absorption caused by social relatedness (Gupta 2004). In 1943, Dr. Leo Kanner from the John Hopkins Hospital introduced the label early infantile autism when he reported 11 children exhibiting similar behaviors. Before his work, doctors labeled such children as mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed. About 75% have IQs below 70. At the same time, research is equivocal regarding the number of children with autism who are nonverbal,

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) that is very complex and involves many different and separate physical and mental disorders. Researchers have long been puzzled by autism, or childhood autism as it is often referred to. This severely disabling disorder affects approximately 80,000 children in the United States and is usually diagnosed by therapists and psychologists before the onset of two and a half years of age.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental disorder that affects the brain. Many children are affected by Autism. It limits a child’s ability to connect, socialize and relate to others.  Autism is a growing disorder and every year more children are born with autism. There is no cure for autism; there are no known facts about what causes autism in children at an early age, just possible causes. ASD is reported to occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups (CDC, 2016, p.1).

The term Autism has been used for over one century. Early 1900’s the term Autism was used to refer to children with some social or emotional symptoms that cause those children to be isolated from others. Since Bleuler, E. from Switzerland in 1911 [3] until present days researchers has done tremendous efforts in: diagnosing, treating, and recording their researches.

Autism is a neurological disorder that affects many people all around the world. This disorder can be either moderate or severe and affects the body in several ways. People who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have their expressive, receptive communication, social skills, and socialization disrupted. It has not been until the past several years in which this disorder has received more attention and awareness than it had ever before.

If you were to meet someone who off the top of their head could recite, “all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7057,” what would you think of them? I am sure you would be thinking, “WOW, this person is a genius”. The last thing you would probably think is that this person has a developmental disorder. This person however has the fastest growing developmental disorder in the world… Autism. People don’t realize that someone with Autism can be brilliant and have a lot to contribute to the world. Society views people with Autism as outsiders. This attitude needs to change. Autistic people are able to do some amazing things that the world will miss out on if we continue to have negative attitudes toward Autism.

Autism has been around for the past hundred years, however previous to the 1980's, psychiatrists and researchers associated the term autism with schizophrenia. Between 1960 and 1980, treatment for autism included electric shock, LSD, and pain/punishment. It wasn't until 1980 when intervention techniques like behavior therapy and learning through positive reinforcement was introduced and autism was recognized as a separate diagnosis from other syndromes and disorders. Autism is a larger disorder with autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder and Asperger syndrome falling under the general category of autism.

Autism is a form of “ASD,” Autism Spectrum disorder and is experienced all around the world. Autism is a developmental disorder that consists of many neurodevelopmental disorders of the brain. People with autistic disorder think and act in different ways than most people. There are many different forms of autism spectrum disorder that include the pervasive development disorder, Asperger syndrome, and autistic disorder. These disorders are called spectrum disorders because they affect people differently and on different degrees as well as a spectrum of different occurrences. These disorders are best diagnosed at early stages in life. Diagnosing earlier in life is very beneficial because early treatment has significantly improved outcomes of these patients. The cause of autism spectrum disorder is not a proven theory but has been researched and said to most likely occur because of abnormalities in brain structure as well as genetic predispositions. This disorder can be very costly to families and create a nuisance financially because healthcare does not cover many costs that occur with this disorder.Out of the three forms of autism spectrum disorder, autistic disorder is the most severe.

Autism Spectrum disorder is described as a disorder that will disable people for communication and social interaction. They will have repetitive behaviors and also will have difficultly learning, reacting to things or paying attention. If there is an early intervention of this disorder treatment can be manageable. Scientist believe that genetic is the major cause of autism and there is a high chance of children to get autism if their sibling is already suffering from autism.

Autism is a complex development disorder that can begin at any point in childhood, from early infancy onward, and which can last throughout a person’s lifetime. The term “autism” is used to designate a group of

Autism is a developmental disability that affects the way a child interacts with the rest of the world. It is the overall concept to a more complex disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder, also known as ASD, is the more in depth concept for this topic. ASD helps to detect a wide degree of variation in the way it affects people. Every child on the Autism Spectrum has unique abilities, symptoms, and challenges. Individuals with autism have social, communication and language problems. They have their own unique quirks; for example, they become fascinated with certain subjects or items like rocks or astronomy. Autism may be mild or severe. All individuals with autism don 't have the exact same problems.

Autism is a disorder characterized by significant problems in communication and social functioning. Autism is actually called Autism Spectrum Disorder and encompasses a broad range disabilities such as Asperger syndrome, Rett’s Syndrome, and Pervavasive Development Disorder (Dunlap & Fox, n.d.). There are also varying degrees of the disorder from low-functioning (no communication and no social interaction) to

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder that constitutes impairments in social reciprocity, behavioral development and verbal and nonverbal communication. It is often characterized by repetitive or restricted behavior. Autism being a spectrum disorder affects each child differently and they have different strengths, weaknesses and requirements. In 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental

Although autism has spread globally, scientists continue conducting research to identify the precise causes. More specifically, they are zeroing in on genetic mutations, brain chemistry abnormalities, and maternal factors. One possible cause that can lead to autism is genetic mutations. First of all, families studies indicate that children can affected by autism through heredity. It is true that children inherited some characteristics from their parents. This is because a chromosome of a child produced by one chromosome father and the other one from mother, which formed as DNA. As a matter of fact, if parents have some genetic disease, they can pass it to the offspring through DNA. In same way, because autism is a genetic disorder, it can pass down generation. In fact, according to Cowley (2000), the prevalence of having autistic child is 5% of family who already has this disorder, which means around 25 times the normal average. Clearly, inheriting autism through families result in increasing the number of autistic children in the population. Another evidence shows that autism can caused by inheriting genetic disorder is through conducting twins studies. There are two types of twins. First one is identical twins, which formed by splitting one fertilized egg and then developed in two babies. Therefore, they are sharing the same genetic codes. However, this different from fraternal twins who do not share the same genetic information because they are formed by two

autism was first described in the 1940s. Leo Kanner in the United States and Hans Asperger in Austria independently published papers describing children with severe social and communicative impairments. Both Kanner and Asperger used the term "autism" (meaning “alone”) to describe the syndromes they had identified. Kanner described children who had impoverished social relationships from early in life, employed deviant language, and were subject to behavioral stereotypies. Asperger’s description identified children with normal IQs and normal language development who suffered from social and some types of communicative impairments. (slaughter)