Effects of Autism on the Individual and the Family

Autism is a kind of development disorder that begins in the first three years of a person's life. It affects the brain's normal development of communication and social skills. These children have difficulty in understanding what is happening around them and an inability to predict what will happen. Children with autism cannot start or maintain a social conversation. They often communicate with gestures than words. They are mostly withdrawn, and doesn't make friends easily.

The effects of autism are many fold. Autism creates a considerable amount of anxiety and insecurity in a person on a daily basis. This situation would often be expressed through various stress reducing obsessive behaviors such as bunching, biting, kicking or full blown tantrums. Since autism is not a physically visible disease, the general public will tend to condemn such behavior. They assume a child with autism to be naughty or the parents are not controlling the child. This can lead to parents not taking their children to public places in fear of risking the behavioral difficulties of their children. This will cause not only the child suffering from autism, but their siblings too, to become housebound and isolated. This kind of situation can have a profound effect on their social and emotional well being. This is one of the major effects of autism that can affect the individual, as well as, the family.

A child suffering from autism will experience failure in school and social activities. This will lead to low self esteem and lack of confidence, which can lead to depression and other mental disorders in later life. These children are also vulnerable to abuse and being bullied in school. This also will be mentally unhealthy for the child and can create depression and panic disorders in their adulthood.

Adults with autism tend to be misunderstood by society. Due to their lack of social understanding or imagination, they can break the law and commit crimes more easily than normal people. Hence it is imperative that resources are made available by society to help these adults with autism. They should be taught life skills and social communication skills in order to cope in society and not go astray. If not, their behavior can have a damaging effect on the society and its individuals as a whole. This way the effects of autism can spread beyond the individual and family and seep into the society.

Some Interesting Facts about Autism

There are interesting facts about autism, and its prevalence in the United States and around the world. Autism appears to be on the rise, affecting one out of every 88 children, and out of that, one in every 54 boys. Today, autism continues to be the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States. On average, families dealing with an autistic child spend an average of $60,000 every year over and above families that do not have children with the condition.

The Cause
For unknown reasons, boys tend to be five times as likely to acquire autism compared to girls. To date there is no known cure or medical detection developed to identify or cure autism. Studies indicate that autism is likely a genetically-based condition. This is because scientific study indicates that an identical twin that has a twin sibling suffering from autism has an 80 percent to 90 percent chance of being diagnosed with the disorder.

Some scientists are attempting to determine if there are environmental triggers involving the onset of ASD (autism spectrum disorders). Over the last two decades, there was an increase in the belief that autism might have been caused by vaccinations. However, this belief has been disproven.

Diagnosing Autism

Some doctors are able to detect the beginning signs of autism in the very young, when infants are between six months and 18 months old. This is often because it is easy to detect that the baby is not fixating on objects, or responding to individuals. This exhibit is thought to be an early sign of ASD. Older children often failed to respond to a variety of conditions including making direct eye contact, not responding to their name, lacking joint attention, or engaging in repetitive movements including arm flapping or rocking.

The Treatment

One of the many interesting facts about autism involves the treatment. Scientists agree that the earlier intervention can be started with children suffering with ASD the better their prognosis. In fact, every child with autism can benefit significantly through early intervention. Some have the ability to attend mainstream educational facilities, when ABA (applied behavioral analysis) along with physical and speech therapy is blended into their learning model.

Another one of the many interesting facts about autism centers on its uniqueness. No two individuals suffering from ASD are alike. Fortunately, the condition is treatable, with many individuals experiencing greatly improved diverse symptoms caused by autistic spectrum disorder.