Autism Spectrum Disorder Essay

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an intricate brain disorder that can cause difficulties in social skills, communications, and abnormal behavior. Looking at children with ASD, researchers began investigating how to lessen the affects that ASD had on children using animals. More specifically, it was discovered that dogs could be helpful to children. “Man’s best friend” may be valuable in a way doctors and trained therapeutic professionals are not. How does interacting with a dog affect children with autism spectrum disorder?

Autism is a form of neurodevelopment disorder in the autism spectrum disorders. It is characterized by impaired development in social interactions and communication, both verbal and non-verbal. There is an observed lack of spontaneous acts of communication; both receptive and expressed, as well as speech impairments. A person diagnosed with Autism will also show a limited range of activities and interests, as well as forming and maintain peer relationships. The individuals will display limited interests, which are often very focused and repetitive. He or she is likely to be very routine oriented and may show behavioral symptoms such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggressiveness, and self-injurious behaviors.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be portrayed toward critical impairments in social interaction. It also includes restricted repeated behaviors, interests and activities. (Mayo Clinic staff, 2014)

Both the fusiform gyrus and the inferior temporal gyrus are used in recognizing emotions made by faces. They help figure out what people are thinking just by looking at facial reactions. In people who have autism, these parts of the brain do not function normally so they are often unresponsive to the emotion written on people’s

Autism Spectrum Disorder affects various aspects of an autistic child’s life. Many children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder every year, while others go undiagnosed for an extended time, or even for their whole life. A child exhibiting delays in language benchmarks or showing little interest in the surroundings should be examined for possible ASD. Language is often impaired and although the level of impairment can range from severe too unnoticeable in each child, a child is likely to have a delay in another area, like coordination of motor skills, if not in language. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that causes impairments in various aspects of language development.

Park, H. R., Lee, J. M., Moon, H. E., Lee, D. S., Kim, B.-N., Kim, J., … Paek, S. H. (2016). A Short Review on the Current Understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Experimental Neurobiology, 25(1), 1–13. http://doi.org/10.5607/en.2016.25.1.1

Neurological disorders are complex in nature and often the least understood. Given the recent boom in imaging technology and other diagnostic methods, it is now possible to see more clearly into the scope of neurological development and accurately determine the etiology of these diseases. One of such disorders is Autism; a multifactorial condition impairing normal brain development. It affects many aspects of development, including social behavior, cognitive ability and communication skills1 and is commonly diagnosed in children before the age of three1. The symptoms of this condition can vary greatly between individuals; hence its classification as a spectrum disorder. Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome and pervasive

While RF meets the criteria for Autism, other children display the same symptoms of ASD, only not as severe, which leads to the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. Although one feature that differentiates Autism and Asperger’s is communication impairment (Thede & Coolidge, 2007), Kozlowski, Matson, and Sipes (2012) tested the differences between the two disorders with respect to verbal communication impairments. In both Autism and Asperger’s, verbal communication impairments are prevalent, and correlated with challenging behavior, however, in Asperger’s these symptoms are less intense. Children diagnosed with Asperger’s and Autism also share the symptoms of lack of communication, and repetitive behavior; however, they differ in their cognitive ability. Due to these shared traits, Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are placed under the same disorder (ASD), with differing levels of severity.

One out of every sixty-eight children are born with Autism Disorder each year, which majorly affects brain development. This paper will help those who read have a better understanding of this disorder and everything that goes along with it. Autism is a general term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized by, in varying degrees, by difficulties of social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors (Autism Speaks, 2016, p. 1). The commonality of Autism has increased in the last forty years due to increased awareness, improved diagnosis, and just a better general understanding of the disorder.

Of the various symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), social deficits are among the most salient. Individuals on the autism spectrum are usually impaired in social skills such as maintaining eye contact or initiating conversations (c.f. Levy, 2007). Although ASD may be comorbid with intellectual disability, some high-functioning individuals with ASD exhibit characteristic social impairments while possessing typical intelligence. However, high-functioning autistic individuals tend to rely more on lower-level neural networks than typical controls do when completing the same cognitive task (Koshino et al., 2004; Liu et al., 2011). Autistic individuals also display lower functional connectivity between anterior and posterior

The amygdala in the brain is used to decode social cues. There is much evidence that supports an amygdala defect in autism. A neuroanatomical study of autism at post-mortem found increased cell density in the amygdala, although its volume was normal(Baron-Cohen). The amygdala is not the only place where abnormalities have been found. Functioning in the cerebellum, hippocampal formation, medial frontal cortex, and fronto-limbic connections are also effected in Autism. Research is also focusing on the role of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin, in the autistic

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (IASD) are one group of people thought to ‘see the world differently.’ Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed when behavior is characterized by persistent difficulties with social communication and social interaction, in addition to restricted, and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests (RRBIs; DSM-V, American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Although it is not currently included in the diagnostic criteria, atypical visual processing has also been indicated as part of the ASD phenotype (Brundson & Happe, 2014). A large number of studies have investigated local and global processing in ASD; however, the literature is marked with inconsistent findings.While it is generally agreed upon that global-local processing is atypical in ASD, the precise

His outcome of an absenteeism of this left eye inclination in ASD kids is consequently steady with the possibility of an unusual right hemispheric specialization for face handling in ASD, as proposed by EEG considers [49–51].

Functional resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive procedure done by researchers and physicians in order to view the image of the brain to identify the structures involved in specific mental functions. According to the changes in the oxygen level of the blood which go on to corresponding to the changes in neural activity, fMRI maps the activities of specific neural regions. fMRI can be used to improve the understanding of language in the brain by studying children in with autism spectrum disorder, and their difficulties in the social aspect of communication. By looking into the linguistic context of integration, a team of scientist from the Netherlands, sought to determine whether there is a neural base for this particular difficulty. With

Provides a focused study of three experiments directly relating to the recognition of standardized facial expressions of emotions as it relates to Autism. The study investigates its findings using six basic emotions, fear, happiness, surprise, anger, disgust and sadness to process its findings against autistics children and normally developing children by using laminated photographed index cards and by asking participant verbally how they felt. In previous studies data revealed that participants with amygdala damage pass basic emotion test, however, they failed to distinguish from emotions such as fear or surprise. In the current study, the children with autism made the same types of errors as the normal develop children with all children having the same difficulty level with the emotions surprise and fear the most difficult on a perpetual