Awareness Pins

Latest Pins and News on Awareness Causes
Breast Cancer Ribbon

Posts Tagged ‘Autistic’

12
Sep

Doctors and How to Diagnose Autism

When a doctor first suggests that your child has autism, your immediate reaction might be disbelief and the urge to seek a second, third, or even fourth opinion. Because autism is so different in every child, it is a tricky disorder to diagnose. However, there are a few key ways in which doctors can efficiently identify autism in children, and if your infant or toddler is showing any of these signs of autism, you should visit your pediatrician immediately to express your concerns. Autism occurs at a young age, rather than being a disorder an older child might develop. It is usually detected before the age of three, and many times much earlier. The first signs or autism are usually delays or regression in speech communication. Another early sign is abnormal behavior in group play situations and other social situations. The first step to diagnosing autism is a thorough physical examination as well as a review of family history by a specialist. Although your regular pediatrician will be able to spot unusual behavior, you’ll want your child to be examined by a professional who specializes in autism and other similar diseases to make sure your child is properly diagnosed. The next step includes hearing tests. Sine language and social skill delays could be due to inadequate auditory sensations. There are two types of auditory tests, one of which records the tones a child can hear and the other of which requires sedation and measures the brain response to certain tones. Of course, the first method is preferred, since it does not require any use of a sedative. After auditory testing, your doctor may encourage testing your child for Fragile X syndrome, which often times goes hand in hand with autism. Metabolism can also be evaluated. To do this, your doctor will need a blood or urine sample to analyze DNA. An MRI or CAT scan can also be helpful in diagnosing autism. The important thing is to work with doctors you trust. Second opinions can be very helpful, but when your child has been diagnosed, stick with one doctor so that treatment is uniform and so that your child will get used to this person. Autism is difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to treat, so remember that you should begin to learn as much as possible about the disorder as soon as your doctor identifies it. If you have yet to speak with your doctor about abnormal behavior in your child, do so immediately. By detecting autism early, you give your child a better chance at becoming a high-functioning individual with much more opportunities in life.

11
Sep

Autism – Finding The Cause and Source

Many parents hope that in finding a source of autism, this disorder can be cured or prevented.Unfortunately, scientists have yet to find one single reason why children develop autism. It is possible that someday autism will be linked to a specific gene abnormality, but the more likely source is not one thing, but a number of factors in a child’s world.Autism cannot be prevented or cured, so the best we can do to help autistic children and adults is be understanding and willing to compromise to make the world comfortable for them and ourselves.
First off, there are certain things that do not cause autism, and these myths should be laid to rest immediately. Most importantly, bad parenting does not cause autism.In the past, mothers were blamed for traumatizing their children with cold parenting techniques, which was thought to lead to autism.This is simple not true.Autism is also not caused by malnutrition, although food allergies occur in my autistic children and some autistic children do benefit from taking daily vitamins.
There are many links between autism and the brain. Most people with autism have larger brains and they are wired differently than a typical brain.Differences occur in many parts of the brain, so it cannot be targeted to one specific brain malfunction overall, but rather a brain malfunction in general.
Autistic children also show signs of an immune deficiency. Evidence in this study is not yet strong, but research is still being done. Many autistic individuals have other health problems related to immune deficiencies.
Overall, these things all seem to point to genetics. Although autism is not the parents fault, it is most likely that autism was found elsewhere on your family tree, and it is not uncommon for parents to raise more than one autistic child. Autism may also be linked to vaccinations, although this is still being highly studied.
The benefits of vaccinations greatly outweigh the risks of them causing autism, so you should not deprive your child simply because you are fearful. Talk to you doctor if you have concerns about vaccinations.
Nobody knows what causes autism.Therefore, we can do nothing to prevent and cure it, but rather we can simply treat the autistic people in our lives with the best of our ability. Becoming educated in autism is the key – the more you know about the disorder, the better you can help individuals who suffer from it.
Autism is a complex problem, and as researchers develop new understandings of the way it affects the body, better treatment options will become available, with the hope that someday we will be able to cure this disease.

1000s of Affordable Health,Medical,Fitness and Beauty Products here –
ChristianWorldPages.com,
WorldChristianPages.com,
WorldCancerPages.comand
WorldAutismPages.com
Best Smartphone Software

3
Sep

Why It Can Be So Difficult To Get An Autism Diagnosis

An autism diagnosis can still be difficult to obtain despite the studies that have helped people better understand autism. The reason is because there are many factors that need to be considered when making a diagnosis.
First of all, there is more than one type of autism disorder and there are other disabilities that are closely related to autism such as Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Second, autism is particularly difficult to diagnose in young children, due to the fact that they are still developing speech and reasoning skills.
Therefore, since an autism diagnosis can be a challenge, as a parent, it is essential that you have your child’s development, social and communication skills properly evaluated and accessed by a doctor.
How is autism diagnosed? Usually an autism diagnosis is made when a person shows signs of 6 or more of 12 specific symptoms characteristic of the disorder. The 12 main symptoms are focused in three primary areas -
1. Social interaction – Autistics generally have little interest in others and pay little or no attention to those who may be present in the room with them, regardless of their age. They do not seek comfort if they are troubled or hurt and prefer to be on their own. On the other hand, autistics that do show an interest in social interaction have difficulty initiating contact with others and developing friendships. It is also common for an autistic to avoid eye contact.
2. Behavior – Most autistics find change and new situations to be incredibly stressful. In addition, they tend to develop unusual rituals or routines and repetitious physical gestures such as rocking back and forth, flapping the hands, etc.
3. Communication – It is estimated that 50% of those diagnosed with autism are unable to develop speech, and those who do cannot engage in long conversations unless they are based on extremely specific topics insisted upon by the autistic. Autistics often tend to echo words or phrases and have difficulty with pitch and changing the inflection of their tone.
There should be at least 2 symptoms present from social interaction, and at least one symptom from both behavior and communication for an autism diagnosis to be made. Hence, if a person exhibits some of the symptoms, but does not meet the criteria for an autism disorder, they may then be diagnosed with another similar disability such as Asperger’s syndrome or PDD-NOS.
The following are 5 tips parents can keep in mind when talking with a health care provider to ensure their child receives a proper evaluation:
1. Find out everything there is to known about autism – In order to talk to doctors and receive the most effective evaluation of your child, you need to educate yourself about autism and know what to ask. You should never seek an autism diagnosis if you have no idea what the condition is all about. This will make it easier for a doctor to generate a wrong diagnosis.
2. Analyze your child’s behaviour – Based on the information regarding social interaction, behaviour and communication above, carefully analyze and make note of your child’s behaviour in a journal. Study how your child interacts with others and present your findings to the doctor.
3. Find a health care professional who is experienced with autism diagnosis – It is important to find someone who has had experience in autism diagnosis. You should not rely on the advice or diagnosis of a doctor who is not specialized in this field. The best way to find a doctor is to locate a local support group and find out what doctors other parents take their autistic children to.
4. Ask questions – Asking and answering questions is part of effective evaluation. The more information you obtain and the more detailed answers you can provide your doctor about your child’s behaviour helps assist in diagnosis.
5. Get a second opinion – If you don’t agree with a doctor’s opinion or want more assurance, don’t be afraid to question the doctor’s diagnosis or treatment recommendations, and seek the advice of another health care provider. Doctors are human beings, and can be wrong. Consulting with other doctors is not a bad idea.
Keep in mind that evaluation and assessment is not a fast process and is ongoing, even after an autism diagnosis is determined.

26
Aug

Is There A Difference Between Autism And An Autistic Disorder In Children Or Are They The Same?

Are ADHD children getting mis-diagnosed? Is there such a disorder called “autistic disorder” that mimics ADHD? Or is autism all the same at different levels of severity?

22
Aug
15
Aug

Find Out if your Child Could Have Autism

The topic of autism has been a major hot topic in the news lately, going from episodes of Oprah and also on the evening news. Some communities are even having autism awareness festivities to bring attention to autism.

Why all the hubbub? Autism has been discovered to affect about 1 in every 156 students, depending on which research report you read. This is an incredible statistic and you should be concerned about it. Do you know what the signs of autism are? Do you know what steps you should take if your child has autism?

These are all good questions and they require an answer. First of all, you need to do your homework, do your due diligence, and find out exactly what autism is. Even if your child if affected with autism, it may not be severe enough for you to even notice, but it is something that could grow more pronounced over time, and you need to be prepared to take action and get it diagnosed early enough to make a difference.

One of the problems with autism is that the diagnosis of it is not an exact science. In other words, it is easy to diagnose a broken arm. You can see it, the xrays confirm it, and the doctor or physician knows exactly how to treat it. But on the other hand, autism is not nearly so well defined, and the diagnosis of it often depends on the number of signs of autism that the child represents, and even then can be a subjective call.

One of the primary signs of autism is lack of social interaction. That does not mean that the child is a computer nerd, but that the child clearly has problems, real problems, in social interactions. The verbal speech patterns are also affected, and an unreasonable delay in when your child starts to speak coherent words and phrases could also be a sign of autism. Children with autism have a very difficult time meeting your eyes or looking you in the eyes when you are speaking to them. In the more severe cases of autism, you may see intense concentration on a particular object, even something as simple as a puppet or a ball. This concentration is to the exclusion of all else in the autistic child. Although the signs of autism vary from child to child, it is well known that boys are much more frequently affected by autism than girls, where some studies indicate that the ratio is as high as 4 to 1.

Autism is thought to be a neurological disorder, where the messages coming into the brain in certain areas get scrambled or are not delivered properly. Studies have shown that this is not a hereditary thing, so there is not a need to feel guilty if your natural family tendency is to lean away from social interactions. Yes, you will probably feel guilty if your child is diagnosed with autism, but now is not the time for guilt, now is the time to make plans and arrangements to make things easier for your child and to put them into an environment that will accommodate their affliction.

Do your homework and understand what autism is. If you have reason to suspect that your child has autism, then get them checked out by a trained professional. Like most diseases, early diagnosis will provide your best opportunities to deal with it effectively.

Jon is a computer engineer who maintain a variety of web sites based on his knowledge and experience. For more information about Autism, please visit his web site at Understanding Autism.
anti-virus

10
Aug

How to Look for Autism Signs in Infants

With the incidents of autism up 172% since the 1990s, parents are anxious to find out if their baby has a chance to acquire autism. Seven out of every ten thousand infants will develop autism within the first three years of life. The sad thing about the diagnosis of autism is that the symptoms are subtle to about one and half years of age and most doctors and even parents are hard pressed to find what symptoms they should worry about and what symptoms they should ignore. Since the baby is developing so fast, the symptoms do not usually manifest themselves until you see the baby regressing from the speech and social skills they have learned so far. Remember that not one single behavior will point to autism, though a single symptom should not be ignored. The diagnosis of autism is still largely undefined because the autistic child can acquire various degrees of the disorder. The first thing a parent should be aware of is loss of some speech or behavior that has been learned and is now not demonstrated. For example is the words Daddy or Mommy was in the vocabulary and for some reason they are used less and less, the child may be loosing the brain function for memory and communication. If the words are dropped from the vocabulary all together and no new words replace, it is time for concern. Another subtle symptom that could or could not be autism is the formation of two sentence words by the second year of age. If a child cannot for simple sentences like ‘Daddy go’ or ‘Mommy love’ it come be that your child is suffering from the onslaught of autism. This is not always the case though. Your child may have another disability that deals with speech and language or a learning disability and autism should not be considered the object of the speech process, but is something to look at if you have concerns that your infant has the ability to obtain autism. At an even younger age, around the first year, if your child does not say any words or even babble, then your concerns might be warranted for autism. Remember there are other disorders out there that manifest themselves in the same way, but the autistic aware parent should count this as one of the major symptoms and should be concerned. If your child displays one or any of these characteristics, than you should take them to a medical professional. Remember from the previous articless that doctors who are unfamiliar with autism will be hesitant to diagnose the disorder. If you are not happy with the diagnoses of your doctor, take your child to a few more so you will have a clear conscious and a satisfied mind. Another thing is to watch your baby’s body language and expression of emotion. If you are warm and cuddly with your baby and your baby does not react the way you have seen other babies, this could be a red flag for autism. Observe other reactions such as severe stress over loud noises or sudden moves. If you are talking to your baby and you get no response or you wave your hands in front of your baby and there is no eye contact or reaction, there is probably something wrong. Even if it is just a feeling that you have, you need to seek medical attention so you can find out if your baby has autism or another disorder. There is no cure for autism, but an early diagnosis can not only add to the base of knowledge about autism but at the same time can help get your baby treatment as soon as possible. An early detection can also set the parents up with consoling that they need to learn how to raise an autistic child.

Information on autism symptoms can be found at the Autism Diagnosis site.
Meditation for beginners

3
Aug

History Of Autism Pioneers

Autism does not have a long history, and this is due to the fact that the history of autism really didn’t begin until the first decade of the 20th century. Although, autism as a condition was around prior to this time, it was not a recognized condition and most people would have been regarded as insane. In fact, it wasn’t even until the Swiss psychiatrist, Eugene Bleuler, coined the term “autism” in the 1912 issue of the American Journal of Insanity, did the term even exist.
However, despite being the first person to use the term, Bleuler considered autism to be another form of schizophrenia in which schizophrenic’s lacked social skills with others, and were more absorbed in themselves. Bleuler’s study was the beginning of the history of autism.
Although Bleuler may have been the first to recognize one of the most common traits of autistics, there were three other pioneers of autism who really set the wheels of autism research in motion. These three doctors had a huge impact on what people believed autism was in the mid 1900′s, as well as how the disorder is recognized today.
Dr. Leo Kanner – (1894 – 1981) – Dr. Leo Kanner was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, who was one of the first to specialize in child psychology. Kanner, a doctor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, is credited with recognizing autism as its own unique mental disorder. According to the history of autism, Kanner created the label early infantile autism, which he wrote about in 1943 in the journal “The Nervous Child”.
In his report, Kanner discussed his research based on a group of eleven children who all closely displayed the following traits:
• Social interaction difficulties
• Difficulty processing and adapting to changes
• Particularly good memory
• Belated echolalia (repeating speech made by others)
• Exceedingly sensitive to sounds, and other stimulants
• Food issues
• Good intellectual potential
He used the term autism to describe the main characteristic all the children he studied displayed – little to no interest in socializing with other people.
Dr. Hans Asperger (1906-1980) – Dr. Hans Asperger, was a scientist and pediatrician. He is best known in the history of autism for defining Asperger Syndrome – a specific type of high functioning autism. The first time he defined Asperger syndrome was in 1944, when he studied 4 young boys and, like Kanner, found that each child displayed similar characteristics. He identified these characteristic behaviors as autistic psychopathy.
Although Asperger identified most of the same traits as Kanner, he didn’t note his group having delayed echolalia. Alternatively, he said that the children had clumsy movements and irregular motor skills compared to regular children, and also that they talked much like grown ups. Asperger referred to them as “little professors”.
Unfortunately, the findings of Dr. Hans Asperger regarding autism were not widely discovered until the late 1980′s even though his reports occurred much earlier in the history of autism. It is believed that there were two main reasons why Asperger did not receive the recognition he deserved until much later than his original observations. The first reason was his findings were delayed due to World War II. The second was that his work wasn’t written in English and was not translated until almost 50 years later.
Dr. Bruno Bettelhiem (1903-1990) – Bruno Bettelheim was an Austrian-American writer and child psychologist. Bettelheim developed his own theories on autism and is best known for his theory of the “refrigerator mother”. In his work “The Empty Fortress”(1967), Bettelheim wrote about three therapy sessions with children who had infantile autism. He claimed that their disorder was caused by having emotionally cold mothers. His theory was widely accepted, and for many years, parents (particularly mothers) were considered the problem behind autism.
For information on recognizing and treating autism sign up for the free Autism newsletter below.
Today, Bettelhiem’s theory has been disregarded by most. However, the characteristics described by Kanner and Asperger are still used to define the basic behavioral patterns of autistics. Nevertheless, all of these men have made a serious mark on the history of autism.

29
Jul

Trying to Find the Causes for Autism

Many parents hope that in finding a source of autism, this disorder can be cured or prevented. Unfortunately, scientists have yet to find one single reason why children develop autism. It is possible that someday autism will be linked to a specific gene abnormality, but the more likely source is not one thing, but a number of factors in a child’s world. Autism cannot be prevented or cured, so the best we can do to help autistic children and adults is be understanding and willing to compromise to make the world comfortable for them and ourselves. First off, there are certain things that do not cause autism, and these myths should be laid to rest immediately. Most importantly, bad parenting does not cause autism. In the past, mothers were blamed for traumatizing their children with cold parenting techniques, which was thought to lead to autism. This is simple not true. Autism is also not caused by malnutrition, although food allergies occur in my autistic children and some autistic children do benefit from taking daily vitamins. There are many links between autism and the brain. Most people with autism have larger brains and they are “wired” differently than a typical brain. Differences occur in many parts of the brain, so it cannot be targeted to one specific brain malfunction overall, but rather a brain malfunction in general. Autistic children also show signs of an immune deficiency. Evidence in this study is not yet strong, but research is still being done. Many autistic individuals have other health problems related to immune deficiencies. Overall, these things all seem to point to genetics. Although autism is not the parents’ fault, it is most likely that autism was found elsewhere on your family tree, and it is not uncommon for parents to raise more than one autistic child. Autism may also be linked to vaccinations, although this is still being highly studied. The benefits of vaccinations greatly outweigh the risks of them causing autism, so you should not deprive your child simply because you are fearful. Talk to you doctor if you have concerns about vaccinations.  Nobody knows what causes autism. Therefore, we can do nothing to prevent and cure it, but rather we can simply treat the autistic people in our lives with the best of our ability. Becoming educated in autism is the key-the more you know about the disorder, the better you can help individuals who suffer from it. Autism is a complex problem, and as researchers develop new understandings of the way it affects the body, better treatment options will become available, with the hope that someday we will be able to cure this disease.

28
Jul

Autism – Causes and Treatments

Autism is one condition that requires speech therapy treatment. However, autism is often misunderstood and thought of to be something that can be left untreated. However, that should not be how things work. Autism presents a lot of problems, but the intensity of these problems could be decreased if given the correct treatment.
A lot of terms are commonly heard in relation to autism, such as: classic autism, infantile autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Atypical PDD, Autistic like, PDD-NOS, Asperger’s Syndrome and high functioning Autistic.
What Is Autism
Basically, Autism is a neurological disorder. It is classified to be a Pervasive Developmental Disorder. The main characteristic of Autism is that it affects three major areas in relation to speech and language. This triad is the impairment of the child’s: social interaction, communication and imaginative play.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder is actually an umbrella term for Autistic Spectrum Disorders. With the use of the term pervasive, it is emphasized that the disability’s range of deficits is beyond psychological development. On the other hand, the term developmental puts emphasis that the occurrence of the condition is during the child’s development rather than later in life.
Autism is actually only one condition under this umbrella. Other conditions include Rett’s Disorder, which is a neurodevelopmental disorder that begins to show its symptoms during early childhood or infancy.
Another is Childhood Disintegrative Disorder; it somewhat resembles Autism but the difference is the first two to four years of the child’s life is rather normal, then the symptoms start to show.
Asperger’s syndrome is also in this umbrella. It is sometimes called high functioning autism. Lastly, PDD-NOS or Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not otherwise specified is also related to Autism. These are children that present symptoms similar to but don’t quite match the other conditions.
What Causes Autism
Even though a lot of research has been done, there is no identified single factor that causes Autism. Several factors are said to play a part in the occurrence of Autism. One of these is brain disorder. Recent studies show that there is a difference in the brains of people with Autism. Their cerebellum seems to be smaller than normal, and their limbic system is impaired.
Chemical imbalances are also said to play a part here. It was found that in some cases, symptoms came from food allergies, chemical deficiencies, hormonal imbalances or elevated brain chemical levels.
Heredity is also an important factor. A lot of genetic disorders have Autism as a symptom. An example would be the fragile-X syndrome. Other factors include pre-, peri-, post-natal trauma, brain damage complications and MMR immunization.
Whatever the cause may be, the child with Autism should be given the same structured training in able to stimulate his learning, language and social skills.
Diagnosis
For a child to be diagnosed of having Autism, he should first qualify for the Diagnostic Criteria for Autistic Disorders according to the DSM-IV.
Treatment
Due to the triad of Autism effects on the child, speech therapy becomes a vital part of Autism management. However, other members of the team are also needed such as pediatrician, pediatric neurologist, child psychiatrist, psychologist, occupational therapist, behavior therapist, and educators like schoolteachers or Special Education teachers.
Role Of Speech Therapist In Autism Rehabilitation
The Speech Therapist assesses hearing. He also evaluates whether the speech and language difficulties of the child is really due to Autism or another disorder. This can be taken from analyzing the child’s expressive language, receptive language, oral-motor functions, voice quality, articulation and fluency, auditory processing and pragmatic skills.

Paul Hata is active in various community and social programs aimed at providing access to health,education and jobs to all.Access 1000s of affordable Health,Fitness and Beauty Products here – EarlyPlanet.com and TradePlanets.com
character education

25
Jul

How Do Parents Who Have Children Without Autism Deal With Raising An Autistic Child?

As in, they already had children without autism, then they have a child with autism. How do the parenting skills change?

21
Jul

Autism Understanding Furthered By International Genetic Study

Autism understanding begins when a person realizes that autism is a disorder that affects people differently. Although autism affects the normal functioning of a person’s perception, attention and thoughts, autism is not characterized by one type of perception, attention and thought. Instead, it covers a broad spectrum of disorders that may be mild or severe. Due to the fact that autism is such a complex disorder, medical research is still in the process of understanding how it develops and why it affects certain individuals.
One particular medical project with the aim to find better autism understanding by identifying the gene that causes autism, is the 5 year Autism Genome Project (AGP). So far, phase I of the AGP has identified a gene and parts of a chromosome to be linked with the occurrence of autism. The findings of this particular autism study was published online in the Nature Genetics February 18, 2007 issue.
The Autism Genome Project is a global research consortium that is funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institute of Health. Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to raising the awareness of autism and raising funds to help research it.
The AGP involves more than 120 scientists from 50 institutions in 19 countries around the world. The researchers who have collaborated on the project combined their autism expertise, and shared all of the data and samples they had to help identify autism-related genes.
As was mentioned, phase I of this project began 5 years ago in 2002, and it allowed the team of medical experts to gain autism understanding by identifying a single specific gene known as neurexil 1, and part of chromosome 11 which could likely be the cause of autism in children. These findings are based on the largest autism genome scan that has ever been done.
Scientists have known for many years that autism is a genetic disorder, but only until the AGP have they been able to use special “gene chip” technology to search for genetic similarities in autistics. Genetic similarities were found in practically all of the autistic individuals within each of the twelve hundred families that that were made part of the project. The scientists also checked the DNA of each family to look for copy number variations that are believed might be connected to autism and similar disorders.
What the researches discovered in their study was that one particular gene known as neurexin 1 plays a significant role with glutamate; a neurotransmitter that has been formerly linked to autism. Researchers also uncovered an area of chromosome 11 that is suspected to contain a gene that may be involved in the occurrence of autism. However, this particular gene in chromosome 11 has yet to be identified which is required for further autism understanding.
Based on previous research, and the research that has been uncovered by the study so far, scientists speculate that there may be as many as 6 main genes and 30 additional genes linked to autism. However, these numbers are only theories, as scientists point out that the actual number of genes could exceed their theory. Nevertheless, despite the number of genes that may be involved, researchers admit that it is still far too early to dictate how these genes may be responsible for autism.
Currently, phase II of the Autism Genome Project has been announced. The promising discoveries found in phase I makes scientists hopeful that discovering the genes that cause autism will provide new steps toward autism understanding. With greater understanding, more effective methods of diagnosis, preventing and treating the disorder can be taken.

Newer Entries »