The Effects Of Autism On Brain Development

One out of every sixty-eight children are born with Autism Disorder each year, which majorly affects brain development. This paper will help those who read have a better understanding of this disorder and everything that goes along with it. Autism is a general term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized by, in varying degrees, by difficulties of social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors (Autism Speaks, 2016, p. 1). The commonality of Autism has increased in the last forty years due to increased awareness, improved diagnosis, and just a better general understanding of the disorder. Autism was first identified in 1887, when Dr. John Landon Down, the doctor
From 1910-1940, the term Autism was used to describe those with schizophrenia, and those with schizophrenic tendencies. In the 1940’s Leo Kanner in the United States and Hans Aspergers in Germany conducted research involving individuals with social, and emotional limitations that also demonstrated withdrawn behavior, soon thereafter Kanner created Kanner's Syndrome, now known as Early Infantile Autism, whereas Aspergers created his syndrome and named it after himself. They were both very similar, yet distinct because those who suffered with Aspergers had low social skills but there was little to none language barriers. From 1949-1960, the Refrigerator Mother Theory was developed by Leo Kanner, doing a study on children from privileged families saying that children with autism develop from those families because they had faced neglect from their mother. Then in 1964, Bernard Rimland, a father who had a son who was autistic, claimed that it was more of a biological issue, rather than maternal issue and then created the Autism Society of America for parents to retaliate against the Refrigerator Mother Theory. In the 1970’s, Eric Schopler studied showed that parent involvement
Back in the 1970’s, a child who lacked communication skills, poor social interaction and wasn't developing like the other child were thought to be the result of poor mother-child relationship in infancy. (Izenberg & Dowshen, 2008). Researchers have come to believe that just maybe the link to autism have stemmed from abnormal brain development before birth, although like stated above, the exact nature is still unknown. Over the last five years, scientists have done studies and narrowed down rare genes mutations or changes associated with autism. There are over a hundred autism risk genes, and in about 15 percent of cases the genetic cause of a person's autism can be identified. However, most cases involve a complex and variable combination of genetic risks and environmental factors that influence brain development(Autism Speaks 2016). Risk factors also come into play when dealing with causes of autism- the parental age at the time of conception (both mom and dad), maternal illness during pregnancy, extreme prematurity of the child, and even a low birth weight. Identical twins are also more at risk for one of the twins to be autistic and twins who are fraternal. Families who also have one child with autism, the chance of having a second is one in every five children, that is five percent, four times more likely than the general population (Narins,