Jordan 6 VI Autism Jordan 6 VI

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George is a quiet, studious and overall a rather introvert 8-year old. His mum, my dear friend and a single parent, who diligently juggles house chores with a demanding job as an interior designer, has recently been told by doctors that her son has autism. My friend wasn’t as much surprised as she was devastated, but most of all scared as she whispered in a broken voice: “I am terrified. I am terrified of this terrible illness and what it is going to do to George.”
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Review
One of the most distinctive features of ASD is limited ability to comprehend emotions, intentions and beliefs of others. It is typical for patients with autism to fail to differentiate between their own knowledge and the knowledge of other people. This can be demonstrated on the following example: a teacher asks a child “Go and ask Mr X whether he would like a cup of tea”. The child goes to Mr X and asks him: “Mr X, would you like a cup of tea?” but leaves the room without waiting for Mr X’s answer.
In general, the symptoms in ASD involve reciprocal social interaction, reciprocal communication, and range of particular activities and interests. Other typical features of ASDs include difficulty recognising self and others as separate entities, abnormal relationship with carers/parents and trouble with both identifying and experiencing emotions.
A considerable material has been written about the autistic condition, yet the presence of presumptions and stereotypes surrounding autism is overwhelming. Whilst for some it is a life sentence, others - after the initial shock and rejection - learn to see it as a special gift. So what is autism, where does it come from and how can we treat it?
Males are four times more prone to classic autism then females and are 10 times more affected by milder conditions of the spectrum. An epidemiological study conducted by Wing and Gould in 1979 showed that five in 10 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 children were affected by classic autism and 21 in 10,000 by milder forms of the spectrum. Most recent studies show that between 0.6% and 1% of children are affected and there are more than 500,000 people with ASD in the UK.
In 1943, psychiatrist Leo Kanner used the word “autism” to describe some of his patients, who seemed unusually withdrawn and reserved in social interaction. The word itself derives from autos, which is Greek for self. Kanner’s findings have been since elaborated on and the condition he had originally described is currently known as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). As the severity of symptoms varies per child [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], three main types of ASD have been described: Classic autism, Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder – not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which is also known as 'atypical autism'.
What causes autistic spectrum disorder?
Symptoms of ASD
Statistics
Although it had been suggested by researchers such as Kanner himself that autism can be caused by child’s social or family environment, modern research implies otherwise. Causes of autism are to this day not entirely explicit. In 1978, Fostein and Rutter proclaimed ASD a genetic disorder, where an initial genetic fault causes abnormalities in the development of the brain and nervous system. It is apparent that in families where autism is already present, there is a 10% chance that siblings will be autistic as well and the highest probability of autism of both children is in the case of identical twins, the lowest in non-identical twins.