Autism In Children: A Case Study

Did you know that health officials are trying to implement a plan that will recommend all physicians look for signs of autism in children 18 to 24 months? This can be a great benefit for those families that have children with this disorder. Children with autism can show certain symptoms of the disorder very early in life. There are many different levels to this disorder that sometimes can be confused with slow development, but in fact are due to the disorder of autism. Parents and pediatricians need to be aware of the signs and symptoms of autism in order to get the earliest diagnosis possible. Children diagnosed with autism early in life, often have a better chance of coping with their disability, then those children diagnosed
later in life.
Autism has been around for a very long time but was not officially a diagnosis until the turn to the 20th century. There is evidence that suggests that autism has been around for thousands of years, but the people of that time associated disabilities with signs of evil or unholy beings, and many of the children were abandoned and left to die. These happened primarily because people did not understand the disorder, and were more apt to think that there was something religiously wrong with these small children so they were deemed evil. Later, in the 1820s there were schools for children with disabilities, but most focused on blind and deaf children. By the turn of the 20th century the word autism was used but was often associated with schizophrenia. By the middle of the century a doctor named Leo Kanner was the first physician to use the term autism as it known today (Encyclopedia of Global Health, Autism, pg 9). When autism was first brought to the attention of doctors, it was thought to be caused by the parent’s lack of love and neglect. These parents were often told by the doctors to seek professional help for their parenting skills, so most parents did not have their children checked out by physicians for fear that they
would be labeled bad parents. The result of this behavior was that many children were not properly diagnosed, and more than likely lived their lives as uneducated dependents of their parents. In the 1980s, only 10% of the parents who took their children in for help were given an immediate diagnosis of autism. One fourth of the parents were told that they had nothing to worry about, and another 10% were told to just wait and see how the child develops (Encyclopedia of Global Health, Autism, pg. 10). This was due mostly because medical personnel did not thoroughly understand the signs and correct diagnosis of this disorder. If the medical personnel knew some of the things that they know today, many more children would have been diagnosed and treatment started early on. One of the main reasons for the misdiagnosis or the neglect to diagnose was because autism was so often ruled out to be just slow development.
Since children each have different personalities and abilities, they can all develop at different ages, so misdiagnosis is possible, and is often missed due to the range of development stages. Doctors and specialists are still learning about this disorder, but there is a list of symptoms that help in determining a correct diagnosis of autism. Some of these symptoms include: lack of speech before age 2, hand flapping, body rocking, facial grimaces, and grunting or growling. One third of autistic children will never develop oral speech, while others begin speaking in preschool years. Autistic children are often thought to be deaf, because they are unusually quiet and don’t develop age appropriate speech. Some may throw tantrums and fits, because of the lack of ability to communicate their feelings and wants. Autism has other spectrums of the disorder which include aspergers. Aspergers is a form or autism that affects the motor skills and its prevalence is 1 in 300 children (Encyclopedia of Global Health, Autism, pg. 6). Although aspergers is a form or autism, children with aspergers develop normally with no language delays or any other kind of communication issues. They do, however, show signs of motor skill difficulties, often clumsy and not coordinated. A person with aspergers will tend to talk a lot, especially
about a subject they are very interested in, and sometimes can talk for hours at a time about this subject. Like others with autism, an individual with aspergers will seldom make eye contact, and at times can make inappropriate facial expressions. Individuals with aspergers don’t usually make or keep many friends, and they tend to primarily stick to people who share similar interests. One good trait of a person with aspergers is that they are not one to break rules, so they normally tend to be a good, upstanding person. They can normally live a long productive life, when taught to how to deal with their disability. Another type of autism is Rett Syndrome, which has a prevalence ratio of 1 in 15,000, and is a genetic disorder, but has similar behaviors to autism (Encyclopedia of Health, Autism, pg. 7). Although it has similar behaviors to autism, rett syndrome is distinctly different in that this disorder is genetic and is linked to a gene defect. The individual, like others with autism, start to develop normally, but by 6 to 8 months of age, they tend to lose all the acquired abilities. They lose the ability to talk, walk, and eventually they will lose all ambulatory ability. Most individuals with rett syndrome become mentally impaired and develop strong communication issues. A person that is diagnosed with autism or one of the other spectrums of the disorder early on in life, preferably at infancy, has a better chance of learning to live with their disorder. Everyday there are new details and developments on this disorder which is helping doctors know what they are dealing with, and how to help those individuals diagnosed with autism. In order to correctly diagnose a person with autism, there has to be an accurate developmental history done on the individual, to see if they demonstrate any of the behavior typical of autism. Health experts are advising all doctors to look for early signs of autism in all children they see (The Journal of the American Medical Association, December 2007, p. 2610). The most important suggestion is to screen all children 18 to 24 months of age. They are trying to make it a requirement and not just because a parent has a concern. The Academy of Pediatrics feels the new guidelines could help physicians diagnose these children early, so that treatment can be administered as quickly as possible. An adult that has been diagnosed and treatment administered to, can have a range of outcomes from very little speech and poor living skills to being able to excel in college and function individually in society.( Tuchman RF, Rapin, Pediatrics, 1997). Ongoing research shows that the earlier the treatment is started, the better. “The brain is the most plastic early in life,” said Andy Shih, PhD, Vice President of Scientific Affairs, at Autism Speaks. There is still a lot to learn about autism. Although there is no cure or miracle medication with intensive remedial education that addresses both behavioral and communication disorders, a person with autism may live a normal life. It is now known that having a child with the disorder of autism is not the fault of the parent, although parents are still encouraged to seek counseling to help with dealing with a child with this disorder. It is important that these parents watch for the signs and know that the earlier the disorder is detected and diagnosed the faster treatment can be started. This is not always easy because the signs of this disorder are sometimes confused with slow development, but if the medical personnel responsible for your child’s well being also checks for the signs the chances are better that the child will be diagnosed early and treatment started. Children diagnosed with autism early in life, often have a better chance of coping with their disability, then those children diagnosed later in life. Everyday children are living with the sad chance that they may have this disorder, but with the proper diagnosis, and getting that diagnosis early enough, the child can learn how to live with their disability and hopefully have a normal life.

References
1. Reports Help Identify and Manage Autism, The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 298(22), December 12, 2007, p. 2610, publication type(Medical News & Perspectives) Author: Tracy
Hampton, PhD
2. Autism, Author: Elizabeth R. Purdy, Purdy, E (2008) Autism. In Y. Zhang(Ed), Encyclopedia of Global Health, (pp. 187-193) Thousand Oaks, CA; Sage Publications Inc.
3. Autism by Isabelle Rapin, The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 337 Issue 2 pages 97-104 publication date July 10, 1997
4. Tuchman RF, Rapin I Regression in pervasive developmental disorders: seizures and epileptiform Electroencephalogram correlates. Pediatrics 1997; 99:560-566 5. Rogers SJ, Lewis H An effective day treatment model for young children with pervasive disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolescent Psychiatry 1989;28:207-214