Autism disorder

Definition of autism
• Autism is a disease affecting growth, and results from a structural or neurochemical change in the performance of the central nervous system.
• It’s a developmental disability usually appears during the first three years of life as a result of a neurological disorder of brain functions.
• Estimated incidence of autism and its associated behavior is 1 in every 5,000.
• Spreading of autism in males is four times the prevalence in females.
• There are no social or ethnic factors.
• Autism is not affected by factors such as family income, lifestyle or level of education. Symptoms of autism:
First: quantitative and qualitative deficiencies in social interaction.
Second: communication failure. Third: typical behaviors.
Fourth: the response to sensory stimuli.
first: quantitative and qualitative deficiencies in social interaction.
Deficiencies in social interaction is the most important behavioral aspect as an indicator of autism; but social behavior disorder is not confined to the social and behavioral ones, but it includes patterns and many aspects,
For example:
1 - To withdraw from social situations. Autistic child is introvert in his own life and refuses to play with peers.
2 – Doesn’t care about persons who are around him.
Doesn’t recognize important people in his life such as his parents; doesn’t seem to smile or to be happy when he is carried by his father or his mother and when he entered a room or a place; he totally ignores the present people, but pays attention to things.
Upon trying to play with him or trying to draw his attention, he deals with you as if you are an object and deals with human body parts as if they were separate parts.
For example:
If you extended your hand to him, he couldn’t ignore it but he plays with it as if it was a separate part of the person staying next to him.
3 - Unable to take the initiative to attract the attention of others.
Sometimes autistic children may respond to others who initiate to interact with them, especially if the interaction field is clear and simple, while in other situations he doesn’t respond.
They are not able to attract others to look at difficult something.
4 - Eye contact. Lacks the ability to communicate visually, he doesn’t respond when he is called by his name and he doesn’t look at his mother as she talks to him.
He also doesn’t keep looking at anything and not only in the eyes of others and the reason is that he does not know how to use eyesight to communicate with others without words.
Moreover, he is unable to understand gestures and hints appearing on the faces of others.
5 - Impaired ability to mimicry. Mimic movements or sounds.
6 -Emotional sense and relationship with others. Lots of autistic children are able to form an emotional relationship with their parents or with other people such as teachers, a relative or a friend; but that does not mean that they are able to form natural relationships.
For example:
autistic child may wonder why his favorite teacher leaves the school permanently; he may say that he is missing her and wishes if she returns back to school; but this could be due to the lack of the daily routine that he is used to do rather than the relationship with his teacher.
Feelings and emotions expressed by autistic children in social situations may be strange and unexpected.
For example:
they show feelings of fear, anger, happiness and sadness in positions not requiring that by normal children.
Second: communication failure. - Manifestations of poor non-verbal communication:
1 – use of gestures: do not raise his hand as he wants to be carried by others, he finds it difficult to point by his finger at things.
- Manifestations of poor non-verbal communication:
1 - Lack of Language:
Studies indicate that 25% to 50% of autistic children are described as being silent throughout their lives and some of them grow their ability to talk normally then they lose it.
2 - Echolalia: They repeat the words of others.
3 – Use of pronouns in reverse: where he refers to himself using these pronouns (is, are, you are), or using his name.
4 – Voice tone: Usually it’s of the same frequency.
Third: typical behaviors.
Recurrent behavior can be classified into four which are:  1 - repeating some of the activities that do not include the use certain things (shaking the head, draping the trunk and head forward and backward, spinning, flapping, jumping, repeated knock of the head, self-harm).
2 - Repeating some of the activities involving the use of something (arranging games or things in rows, collecting things, the integration of autistic child in a particular game lacks creativity or imagination or a figurative play).
3 - Repeating some of the verbal activities.
Fourth: the response to sensory stimuli (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste).
1 - Sight: may exaggerate looking at things, looking at a mirror or lights, or staring upwards most of the time.
2 - Hearing: may be interested in hearing fine voices as the beats of a clock .
3 - smell: might be interested in things by smelling them.
4 - Touch: excessive pain sensation or no pain at all.
5 - Taste: interested in recognizing things by mouth.