Autism Spectrum Disorder Paper

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological disorder that impacts a person’s ability to communicate and form relationships. It is one of the fastest growing developmental disorders in the US. The diagnosis for autism is rising 10-17% each year with an estimated 2 million people diagnosed with the disorder. People who fall under the spectrum have pervasive deficits in social communications and social interactions across multiple contexts. They have repetitive and restrictive patterns of behaviors, activities or interest. The DSM-5 diagnoses this disorder under two different criteria’s: Social communications and social interaction deficits and repetitive behaviors. To meet the criteria an individual must demonstrate all of these

In some cases, babies with ASD may seem different very early in their development. Even before their first birthday, some babies become overly focused on certain objects, rarely make eye contact, and fail to engage in typical back-and-forth play and babbling with their parents. Other children may develop normally until the second or even third year of life, but then start to lose interest in others and become silent, withdrawn, or indifferent to social signals. Loss or reversal of normal development is called regression and occurs in some children with ASD. (National Institute of Mental Health, 2012).

With the prevalence of autism at an all-time high, there are many benefits to identifying a child as early as possible. Identification and intervention can dramatically improve outcomes for children with ASD. Children have increased neural plasticity at a very early age, making it easier for children to learn new skills such as communication, play, and overall skill development. Early intervention will improve children’s behaviors and remediate areas of weaknesses. Also, according to the New Jersey Early Intervention System program, early intervention makes the transition into preschool easier for children diagnosed with autism. In addition, parent-implemented intervention usually leads to better parent-child interaction, improved communication, behavior, and better maternal knowledge of autism.

Children with autism spectrum disorders life can be challenging. In the article “Practice Pathway Address Problems Behaviors for Children with ASD” (Haelle, Tara 2016). Practice Pathway “is to describe the expected practice in relation to children whose needs may fall within the autism spectrum disorder” (www.leics.gov.uk). It’s a program put in place for children with ASD. A treatment not a cure, but the right treatment for their problems. Two main issues for children with ASD is irritability and behavior. This study defined the behavior, assessed it, treated it and sees how effective treatment is.

There is a wide range and much controversy surrounding the study and overall effectiveness of different interventions for children and adolescents possessing a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, regardless of the method of intervention, every intervention shares the common goal which focuses on improving functioning in one or a combination of the following areas: social, communication, behavior, and academic. Social functioning includes interaction with peers and others, engagement and appropriate participation in activities, while communication refers to goals of “effectively signaling information to a social partner” i.e. utilizing and recognizing aspects of communication such as requesting, labeling, expressive language, speech, pragmatics, etc. (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). With respect to the behavioral domain of treatment, effective intervention seeks to result in an increase of individuals engaging in the positive, adaptive skills to respond to a situation, person, or environment. Finally academic refers to skills that are required for success with school activities (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). Focus in these areas of functioning assists in guiding treatment goals and provides a guideline of what to measure in order to gauge the effectiveness of treatment.

The American Psychiatric Association (2014) defines Autism Spectrum Disorder as “a range of complex developmental disorders that can cause problems with thinking, feeling, language, and the ability to relate to others”. The terms, “autism” and “Autism Spectrum Disorder” are known as “umbrella terms” because they encompass a group of disorders that affect the function of the brain. These disorders include: autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). Prior to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), all of these disorders were viewed as separate entities and one could be diagnosed with one of these conditions. Since the publishing of the DSM-5, anyone

Over the past years, the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders has increased rapidly and so have the development of strategies to help children with ASD to acquire milestones in classroom settings. The prevalence of children being diagnosed with ASD is 1 in 68 children in the United States. The causes of Autism are not well known, however, research studies suggest that causes of ASD may include neurological, heredity and genetic mutations, and environmental influences. Characteristics of children with ASD include lack of delay in spoken language, peer relationships and pretend play; fixation on objects and repetitive use of language are as well characteristics children with Autism may display. Professionally, ASD is characterized as

They hypothesized that the behavioral treatment group would have better outcomes after one year when compared to those in an equally intensive, eclectic special education treatment group. The study consisted of 25 children age four to seven who had a diagnosis of childhood autism from both the Autism Diagnostic Interview and an independent child clinical psychologist within six months of the start of the study. All participants had an IQ at or above 50 on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Revised (WPPSI-R) and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Revised (BSID-R). A person in the field of ASD research, who was independent of the study, then assigned the children to either the behavioral treatment or eclectic treatment. Both groups received treatment in public elementary schools and were assigned to a special education teacher and at least one aide. The groups averaged 28.52 hours per week of treatment at school. The children assigned to the behavioral treatment had an emphasis on the “implementation of experimentally validated teaching approaches based on operant conditioning principles such as shaping, chaining, discrimination training, and contingency management,” (Eikeseth et al., 2002). In the eclectic treatment, children received individualized intervention that utilized

There are multiple different programs and interventions a child with autism can go through to help them succeed in life as best as they can as well as programs and interventions the children’s parents can participate in with the child. One intervention is applied behavior analysis (ABA). The treatments that are in applied behavior analysis include Pivotal

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a very difficult genetic disorder to live with. People with ASD have troubles socializing or verbalizing with other people. Women can avoid there child having autism by taking vitamins or eating food that has folic acid in it. In some cases the person could have strokes on and off. Some major causes are environmental stress, or genetic mutations in their genes. In chromosomes there are pairs, and those pairs can become mixed up and create a mutation. Repetitions of certain behaviors, social Impairment, and communication difficulties are some major symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Some odd behaviors might be refusing to meet everybody, not just certain people. Social impairment is when the victim is not wanting to communicate with or welcome other people. Clearly, ASD is a difficult disorder to live with.

Researchers have found that parents of children with autism experience greater stress than parents with typical developing children and children with other disabilities, including intellectual disabilities and Down syndrome. Research has also found that mothers of children with autism have significantly higher ratings of parental stress and negative psychological functioning than mothers of children without autism. When comparing a mother’s role to the fathers, mothers are reported to have higher levels of stress and depression, while fathers report more difficulty interacting with their child with autism. Mothers are more likely to be involved with their child’s everyday life activities and are more often affected by their child’s inability

Revisions have been made to the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) between DSM- IV and DSM- V. Many of those who met the different benchmarks for the DSM IV didn’t meet it when the DSM-V was published. In the DSM-IV there were three different areas that can be diagnosed within the ASD spectrum; Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Gibbs et al., 2012). Certain symptoms were to be diagnosed the minimum features were at least 6 in the 3 distinct areas two being from social interaction, one in communication area, the other being abnormality (Gibbs et al., 2012)

Just imagine your child was diagnosed of having autism. The realization of your child perhaps being autistic may be lurid. You now know that your child will be found with many challenges, and may have a severe difficulty making sense of the world. Autism is an illness that can affect your communication, socialization, intelligence, and you may act in many unusual behaviors. To try to help an autistic child is being very courageous. Having a child will who is autistic will be a struggle throughout both of your lives.

One of the most effective ones is called the behavioural treatment adopting that principles of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA). This treatment seems focuses on the modification of behaviours and seem to be effective. There are many studies investigating whether behavioural treatment is effective, among which the one conducted by Lovaas in 1998. Lovaas’ experiment focused on children with ASD that is younger than four. This group of children were chosen due to two reasons. Firstly, young children were believed acquire the skills faster and generalise it better to different environment. Second, it was assumed to be easier to transit a child with ASD to a pre-school than to transit an older child to primary school, as younger children settle into the new environment easier. Each of the child in the experimental group had trained therapists working with them in different settings for 40 hours weekly, for 2 years in total. Parents were also trained and involved in the treatment, thus, the treatment hour is in fact more than 40 hours per week. Participants in this experiments received a very intensive behavioural treatment, which took place in almost all the time while the participants are

Diagnose autism has changed substantially since the diagnosis was first introduced nearly 75 years ago. In 1943, Leo Kanner first coined to describe children who seemed socially isolated and withdrawn. In 1966, researchers estimated that about 1 in 2,500 children had autism, according to criteria derived from Kanner’s description. This and other early estimates of prevalence probably focused on children at the severe end of the spectrum and missed those with subtler features. Autism didn’t make its debut in the DSM until 1980. In 1987, a new edition expanded the criteria by allowing a diagnosis even if symptoms became apparent after 30 months of age. To garner a diagnosis, a child needed to meet 8 of 16 criteria, rather than all 6 of the previous