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I intended to blog about this yesterday, but we have been having trouble with our internet connection at our house. It will go out for hours at a time, and then just come back on. We never know when this is going to happen so I will be “dripping” some blogs in, in case my internet should die again.
The “real” name for Autism is the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This is because Autism has a wide range of issues and how severely kids are affected by it. It can range from kids who are non-verbal an uncommunicative to kids on the very high functioning end or Asperger Syndrome.
The current statistics show that 1 in 150 children have ASD. This number has risen dramatically in the past few years. The reasons are highly debated.
What are the early signs or symptoms of Autism?
• No babbling by 12 months.
• No gesturing (pointing, waving goodbye, etc.) by 12 months.
• No single words by 16 months.
• No two-word spontaneous phrases by 24 months.
• Any loss of any language or social skills, at any age.
This does not mean that a child with Autism is “dumb” or “retarded”. Many children with Autism are very high functioning and work in a main stream class room with some extra services.
How is Asperger Syndrome different?
Asperger Syndrome is a form of Autism, but presents in different ways. These kids may show very high IQs, but have difficulty with social situations. They may not pick up on social cues that are normal for their peers or they may become easily over stimulated in a “normal” social situation. Kids with Asperger Syndrome do not have the same verbal and communicative disabilities as others in the Autism spectrum.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS
This may be another diagnosis for kids who show signs of Autism or Asperger, but don’t fit the criteria exactly. This can be a very scary diagnosis to some people at is sometimes thought of as meaning the child is mentally retarded, or may never live on their own. While that may be the case sometimes, it is not always true.
To fully blog about ASD and Asperger would take me days and days. Julie has written many good blogs on it, and hers come from the perspective of someone who lives with it every day.
Treatment for all these forms of Autism varies from speech and occupational therapy to the non-traditional therapy of diet and supplements along with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). You can read more about therapies here.
More blogs on Autism here and here.
Autism speaks
Wikipedia article on Autism
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Asperger’s (no b) is the actual spelling of this disorder.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/navigating/index.php
Thank you. I don’t know why I always want to put a B in there.
Autism isn’t normally found in TV shows.
America’s Next Top Model (strange/silly reality show) has a contestant named Heather who has Asperger’s and ADHD.
Here is a recap of a recent show where Heather describes Asperger’s. And the other 19-21 year old woman (contestants) make fun of Heather.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/portal/site/TelevisionWithoutPity/menuitem.766266d5c663f366b180b41045001d30/?vgnextoid=b1e249755e645110VgnVCM1000006dc1d240RCRD&vgnextfmt=default&ShowName=America’s%20Next%20Top%20Model
I watch reality shows like this with my 10 year old daughter. She is strongly visually driven. So we watch the shows to see the bad behavior. And then we discuss how she would act/deal with it.
My darling daughter Natasha has ADHD and some other labels and is very concrete minded. It helps her build social skills to see the bad/good behavior.
Forgot to mention that I was very angry after watching the show. I wish that I had been there to defend Heather.
Since the URL for the recap was so long, I went and made a tiny url.
You can access the TV show recap about Heather here:
http://tinyurl.com/25panx