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Submitted by gregrobitaille on December 8, 2005
Category: Social Issues
Words: 2923 | Pages: 12
Views: 286
Popularity Rank: 40,236
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Autism is a very poorly understood and extremely misrepresented disorder. Over one half million people in the U.S. today, children and adults, have autism or some form of pervasive developmental disorder (Vaccines and Autism Theory, 2001). It starts to affect the child at a very early age. Autism is a behavioral disorder that controls the mind and it impairs communication and social skills. Many professionals feel that it “encompasses a broad spectrum of disorders that range from mild to severe” (Autisminfo.com). This disorder can occur in as many as twenty-two of every ten thousand births, and is four times more common in boys than girls (Edelson, 1999). Autism is a “severely incapacitating lifelong developmental disability” that typically appears during the first three years of life (Facts About Autism, 2001). Autism has been found throughout the world in families of all racial, ethnic and social backgrounds. No known factors of the environment of a child have been shown to cause autism. This disorder is not a genetic disorder, which means it is cannot be passed down from generation to generation (Mehl-Madrona, 2000). Autism often occurs by itself or in association with other disorders that affect the function of the brain, such as viral infections, metabolic disturbances, and epilepsy (Autisminfo.com). In very severe forms of the autism, they may include extreme self-injurious, repetitive, highly unusual and aggressive behavior.
Dr. Leo Kanner, a child psychologist at John Hopkins Medical School, first diagnosed autism in 1934 (Bettelheim, 2000). Dr. Kanner watched the behavior of eleven children between the years of 1938 and 1944. He observed characteristics of isolation, withdrawal from human contact, and social and communication abilities towards one another (Bettelheim, 2000). Most early theories about of causes of autism focused on the family environment. However, through studies of emotional tension within the family indicated extreme...
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