-
Step 1
Accept that autism causes lifelong developmental disabilities, and is a physical disorder of the brain, most probably an abnormality in the limbic region of the cortex (which controls emotions) and an underdevelopment in the cerebellum. You did not cause your child's autism.
-
Step 2
Know that the symptoms of autism can occur alone or in combination with other conditions, like mental retardation, epilepsy, deafness, ADHD and blindness.
-
Step 3
Understand that scientists do not know what causes autism. There is speculation that autism can be inherited through a gene. If you have an autistic child, you have a 2-3% chance of having a second autistic child.
-
Step 4
Recognize that autism is a severe form of multiple developmental disorders that include impairments in communication skills, stereotypies (rituals) and poor play skills.
-
Step 5
Differentiate autism from other childhood developmental disorders through professional evaluation. Autism is different from mental retardation because autistic children shun social interaction, whereas the mentally retarded child enjoys social interaction. Autism is different from childhood schizophrenia because the autistic child does not have hallucinations and delusions.
-
Step 6
Understand that signs of autism are apparent by the time a child is three years old. However, some parents do not seek professional evaluation for their child until he is older. Usually, the more severe the symptoms, the earlier a diagnosis is made.
Comments
russmediagroup said
on 3/28/2009 Great article. I think kinah85 must be in denial about her son's autism if she thought this was depressing, no it was just truthful. good job.Joe
todayidream said
on 3/13/2009 Not only are your statistics wrong here, you are totally miscategorizing autism and autistic people.
paulthebigfinn said
on 2/17/2009 Autism occurs in 1 out of every 150 live births. It is a silent epidemic and your caution that "Autism occurs in 1 out of every 10,000 live births" is off by a factor of 100 and questions your understandign of the topic.
paulthebigfinn said
on 2/17/2009 Autism occurs in 1 out of every 150 live births. It is a silent epidemic and your caution that "Autism occurs in 1 out of every 10,000 live births" is off by a factor of 100 and questions your understandign of the topic.
kinah85 said
on 1/9/2008 Although I found this article interesting, I found the wording to be very depressing and not uplifting. My son has been diagnosed with Autism. And if I had read this to learn more (earlier when I did not understand it yet) I would have been pretty frustrated. Autism can be wonderful, and in my case that is my son. And we have lots of help. So did not like this overall.