Understanding the Reality Behind Autism

Autism is defined as a complex neurobiological disorder of development that last throughout a person's life. The word development in the definition presents a great reason why the disorder is commonly referred to as a "developmental disability". The words "last throughout" without doubt answer the question of whether or not the disability could ever be cured. The answer is a definite no. By 18 months of age, autism can be detected through the developing of behavioral symptoms that include problems with eye contact, being unresponsive to one's name, attention problems, etc. Autism often includes a spectrum of different behaviors and for that reason is separated and classified onto different areas of that spectrum.

The major signs and symptoms of autism include communication, social interaction, and routine behavior. Communication involves both spoken and unspoken communication. Social interaction involve sharing emotions, the concept of being empathetic to others' thoughts and feelings, beginning and maintaining conversation, and time spent interacting with others. Routine behavior surprisingly does not seem as routine as it seems obsessive. Routine behaviors accommodate repeating words over and over again, following schedules obsessively, and being extremely specific about the way items have to be arranged.

Autistic people could have a problem with talking to you while maintaining eye contact. Autistic people may have to say sentences repetitively. Some autistic people may have never even learned how to talk at all. Autism affects individuals in different ways, which is where the spectrum mentioned earlier comes into play. Autism Spectrum Disorders, or ASDs, covers mild to more serious symptoms. The ASD category features the conditions Autistic Disorder, Asperger Syndrome, and Atypical Autism.

PDD, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder, is a term that defines autism more broadly. PDD can include the ASDs mentioned above, while also including Childhood dis-integrative disorder, and Rett Syndrome. Whether a person falls into the PDD category or the ASD category depends on specific symptoms. Sometimes however, the acronyms are used to mean the same thing because autism is a disorder that fits into both categories.

An estimated one child in every 1,000 children has an ASD. It is not limited to any specific ethnic group, racial group, or social class. However, studies show that boys are three to four times more likely to be autistic than girls. A family that has one child who has autism is two to eight percent more likely to have an occurrence of another autistic child. This is a higher likelihood than any other numbers out there in the nation's general population.

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Sensory Strategies in Autism Education

One of the challenges of educating students with autism spectrum disorders is accommodating their sensory needs. Balancing too little vs. too much input is sometimes beyond educators who do not have the experience of teaching children with autism. The need for this kind of specialized experience is why many parents prefer their children attend a specialized autism school in New York rather than public school.

Too Much Input

Children with autism can be overwhelmed by sensory input. They might be mesmerized by brightly colored objects, run from a room when it gets to loud, or refuse to eat foods with certain textures. An autism school classroom is set up to minimize the amount of extraneous inputs that will distract students.

Carpet and soft furniture absorb excess noise. If a loud noise is coming, teachers warn the students so they are not startled. Classrooms have fewer bright posters and use shades on the windows to regulate the amount of light. Quiet areas allow students to get away from things when they start to become overwhelmed. Teachers wear less perfume or cologne. These steps allow students to focus on the sensory input that is important without having to filter out irrelevant information.

Too Little Input

At the other end of the spectrum, students with autism may have muted senses so crave strong inputs. They may lick toys, particularly anything with a strong taste such as modeling clay. They constantly touch or even bite themselves. Fidgety students crave the inputs that come from movement.

Autism schools have a variety of strategies to provide inputs in a safe manner that won't interfere with other activities. Weighted vests or textured chairs help students who need strong tactile inputs. Rocking chairs allow a student to move while still paying attention to class. Brightly colored tape helps a student locate the boundaries of a desk or the carpet used for circle time. Through all of this, a structured schedule helps the child with autism function smoothly.

Finding Equilibrium

Balancing the needs of an individual student with the needs of the class is a critical element in creating a plan for educating an autistic child. If Child A needs strong auditory input but Child B is oversensitive to sound, the needs of both children must be met. A solution in this case could be to let Child A use an FM system and headphones so the teacher's voice is louder, being careful of course the student does not turn the volume so high it endangers hearing, while not interfering with Child B.

Accommodation of opposing needs one reason an autism school in New York is better suited for ASD students then public school. These institutions already know strategies that have worked in the past and don't have to experiment to find the right solution.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information about a therapy school New York, please visit http://www.rebeccaschool.org/admission.php.

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How to Understand the Anger and Rage in People With Autism

"I am very angry and filled with rage. I cannot express my anger, but I feel it. This anger permeates into every part of my being. It helps me to stay alive. It gives me energy to exist. It seems to be functioning to protect me. It is like a person standing over me and protecting me. It feels as if the rage has torn me apart and allows one part of myself to take care of the parts that cannot take care of themselves. My anger and rage are being put to work to function in a way that is helping me inside. This anger and rage is inside waiting to come out. It cannot come out now because it has an important job to do, but when it does it will fill a very large room."
What is this autistic boy telling us? We can break up his message into two parts:
1) The dissociation experienced by autistic individuals and
2) How emotions such as rage and anger function within the autistic individual.
He seems to be telling us that he can feel his anger and rage, but more importantly cannot express it. From his vantage point, these emotions seem to be functioning as an internal protective mode. They protect the weaker parts of him that cannot protect themselves. It is like they are "people" protecting him.
In some regards this can make sense. The autistic individual has not had a completed attachment and thus is left in a dissociated unconscious state (lowest functioning autistic child). This changes as the child develops. Thus he can become more conscious and less dissociated and then we would call him high functioning or with Asperger's. Eventually he may not be identified as being on the autism spectrum at all.
It is important to note that from the perspective of an Incomplete Attachment the child is functioning in a normal state of dissociation. Parts of the self are not conscious to or available to the person to use in their communications with others. It is the state that the ASD individual lives. Bromberg (1994)* believes all individuals begin life made up of multiple self-states. Our wholeness develops through a relationship with another person. Because the autistic person lacks an attachment, he remains in a non-whole state. Thus the individual has different parts of himself that have not integrated.
In this situation, this autistic boy not only is in a normal state of dissociation, but also as he lives in this state of dissociation and as he develops, he learns to adapt to the situation and parts of himself (in this case his rage and anger) become internal methods to handle and cope with his situation.
I believe that as he develops a significant relationship with a person who understands his predicament, together they can forge an attachment that will help him to become less dissociated. He will be able to communicate his rage and anger and other emotions as he becomes less dissociated. As this occurs, he will be able to communicate the feelings that up to this point have only been internalized.
It is important to note that some autistic individuals are filled with rage and anger and that as they do develop we see more of the explosive anger coming out. Some individuals seem to be filled with inordinate amounts of anger. I think of this from three perspectives:
1) the excessive anger might be due to his rage at not having had a direct outlet for these emotions. In other words, he had to live without access to his emotions so he is filled with anger that has never previously seen the light of day,
2) when anger is dissociated the child does not have control over his emotions. Until his angry feelings are understood, they will come out as intermittent explosive acts of rage and
3) he probably has lots of angry feelings towards others that may not have helped him to express his anger. This may not seem logical, but I would imagine the autistic child looks to the caregivers and others to know how to solve his dilemma and when this does not happen in a reasonable time, his anger may grow. When he finally has access to his emotions, there is what I think of as a lot of residual anger to deal with. Thus it would be important that when working with autistic individuals from a 'relational perspective', it would be important to expect this build up anger to come forward. This will be a positive move for the autistic individual, but caregivers and others may not know how to manage their own feelings when they are bombarded with these angry emotions.
* For more information see: Bromberg, P. M. (1994), "Speak! That I May See You" Some Reflections on Dissociation, Reality, and Psychoanalytic Listening. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 4 (4): 517-547.

Karen Savlov is a psychoanalyst and Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in West Los Angeles, California. My specialty is Autism Spectrum Disorders, anger, dissociation, depression, anxiety and relationships. For new and creative ways to think about autism read and follow my blog at http://www.wonderingaboutautism.blogspot.com. I can also be followed on Twitter at Autism Thoughts.

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Autism is Treatable and in Some Cases Reversible

For over a decade now I have been a physician who has been working with thousands of children and families across the United States as well as all over the world, helping them implement a biomedical approach for the treatment of Autism. I feel that it is important to point out a few key points to give you even more information about how to proceed and where to go. The internet is home to an overwhelming amount of information, some of the information is good, and some of the information is not good. When researching biomedical Autism treatments, you may get some contradictory information concerning diet, you may get contradictory information with regards to supplements and you may get contradictory information in regards to testing.

This may not be news to you, you may have already had conflict working with your pediatrician, you may have had conflict with your neurologist, you may have even had conflict with your psychologist or psychiatrist. Each person is looking at the situation from their standpoint, has their own level of expertise and has their own opinion on biomedical interventions for Autism. However, what I want you to know is that Autism CAN be treated and in many case, Autism can be reversed. Some children who are considered recovered from Autism have lost their diagnosis of Autism and are fully mainstreamed in school. That does not mean that every child will be recovered. There is no guarantee of what will work for each child.

Some kids are going to have a certain level of improvement and then there will also be a certain level of non-improvement that occurs, this happens with any patient regardless of what type of health condition you are working with. If someone has heart disease, if someone has cancer, if someone has diabetes, if someone has chronic fatigue and of course, if someone has Autism, you will see these levels of improvement and also of non-improvement. But it was important for me to let you know that Autism can be treated and even reversed in many cases. The first step is to take the first step and become informed, open your mind, seek information like the information that I have on this website and also other resources. There is hope, there is much you can do for your child, there is certainly much to learn but that also means there is a lot to implement for your child.

Autism really is treatable! Biomedical Autism treatments and therapies have resulted in many, many children improving, or even even losing their autism-spectrum disorder diagnosis. For lots more free biomedical autism intervention information and videos from Dr. Woeller, go to http://www.AutismRecoveryTreatment.com.

Dr. Kurt Woeller is an biomedical autism Intervention specialist, with a private practice in Southern California for over 10 years. He has helped children recover from autism, ADD, ADHD, and other disorders, and has the information you need to help your child. Download his free ebook at http://www.AutismActionPlan.org.

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Diagnosing Autism - Tests and Challenges

The earlier you diagnose, the faster you can start the specific line of treatment - is a universal thought process adhered to by the medical faculty around the globe. For an ailment like autism spectrum disorders [ASD], coming to a confirmatory diagnosis poses many problems and challenges that it at times becomes too difficult to diagnose it in time. Here, we will discuss the various aspects of diagnosing autism spectrum disorders.

The first challenge that we face in doing so is the lack of any kind of medical test to confirm the autistic disorder. You just can't pull blood from all children at birth and test them genetically. The diagnosis is predominantly based on the observations about the development and behavioral traits of a child, thus it becomes impossible to detect such ailment before the child attains a specific age that is more than 18 years. The reason being there has been a lot of physiological variation that one can expect in the usual or normal development of a child. Developmental delay has been a common occurrence, and is not known to cause any major obstacle in the overall growth of the child - mentally, physically or otherwise. Thus, just because a child does not start communicating till 1 year of age, may not be autism in making.

Yet another problem faced by the pediatricians is the lack of awareness in the parental community about autistic disorders - especially regarding the various forms of it. Autism is still considered an equivalent or just another form of mental retardation by most of the people. Thus if a child fails to communicate, or keep an eye contact, it will not be reported to the pediatrician immediately, thinking it just a part of slow speech development. When the child does not take interest in social interactions, it can be mis-understood as a moodiness or shyness, instead of looking at it as a possible autistic trait. Denial also plays a significant role, thus rejecting the possibility, even if the awareness about autistic traits is made.

To avoid this, every child should be screened for developmental delays and disabilities at regular intervals of 9 months, 18 months and 24-30 months of their age. Additional visits can be arranged if the child shows some traits other than the normal ones. The children who give a history of preterm birth, or low birth weight, or having a sibling with an ASD should be screened more thoroughly and frequently, including an educational session with the parents or guardians or care-takers to understand what to expect, and what not.

The child can be further directed to comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, if shows positive signs of any traits characterizing ASDs. It can be done by developmental pediatricians, child neurologists and finally child psychologists, for refined problem definition and management planning.

To conclude, I would repeat the motto - earlier we define the problem, healthier we can resolve it.

Dr Amit Karkare is practicing Homeopathy and Bach Flower Therapy since a decade. He is the first Indian to get accreditation as a 'Bach Flower Practitioner' from British Institute of Homoeopathy. He is also a semi-professional singer & musician. You can know more about him and his professional services at: http://www.dramitkarkare.com

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Toys For Autistic Children Can Help With the Learning Process

One of the issues common for autistic children is the inability to maintain a level of self control. Typically, this is seen as an aggressive behavior towards oneself or others. This can be especially stressful for parents, as a child that cannot maintain a level of self control must be constantly monitored. This is especially concerning as parents attempt to empower their autistic child to be able to handle daily life. One of the methods commonly used by teachers and parents when working with autistic children is through the use of toys. Toys for autistic children can help the child understand that they are in control of the reaction they will get from the toy. In this way, a child can get the result they want from the toy if they are able to maintain a level of control over the toy. Over time, the child will learn that a desired reaction from the toy can be achieved through the use of not only controlling the toy, but also controlling oneself.

This same concept can eventually be learned in other aspects as well. For example, if a person with autism would like to achieve the goal of getting to another location using public transportation, then they must control certain things. In this example, a person would need to have power over the process of purchasing a ticket, getting to the bus station on time, and maintaining self control while on the bus.

There are several factors that must be taken into account for this learning process to work smoothly. Toys for autistic children must demonstrate a predictable reaction when the child with autism interacts with the toy. For example, if a lever is pulled, the toy must make a consistent noise or have some other for of predictable behavior. Secondly, the teacher or parent working with the child must be extremely patient with this process. It is recommended to start off slow with this process. For example, you may want to allow the child to play with the toy and receive predictable results for 10-15 minutes. Once this is done, it is time to communicate with the child that it was their self control over themselves and the toy that provided the desired results.

Children with autism introduce an especially challenging task fro therapists, teachers, and parents. Even the most dedicated people may have a problem overcoming the daily challenge of teaching an autistic child the concept of self control. Hopefully, with a few tips and a lot of patience, you can help a child with autism to interact appropriately with their surroundings and to maintain a level of self control.

Richard Dederly has been teaching for over a decade and has compiled information on using Autistic Children Toys to help with the learning process for children with autism. If you would like to learn more, please be sure to visit our website.

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Discover the Benefits of Fish Oil For Children and How to Select Quality Omega 3 Supplements

There are numerous benefits of fish oil for children and some of them are as follows:
1. Immune System - One of the most important benefits of fish oil for children is that it enhances their immune system, thereby offering them protection against diseases and infections such as colds, flu and allergies.
2. Concentration and learning - It also helps to boost their brain functions such as cognition, concentration and learning ability; in other words, if you want to enhance your kids' IQ, make sure that you give them quality omega3 supplements regularly.
3. ADHD - The DHA omega 3 fatty acid found in fish helps to treat attention deficiency syndrome in children; studies show that regular consumption of omega 3 helps to alleviate the symptoms of ADHD.
4. Autism - Fish oil for children also helps to improve learning, communication and language skills in kids with autism.
5. Eyes - DHA omega3 also helps to improve vision in children; it improves focus, perception and clarity of.
Now that we have seen some of the health benefits of fish oil for children, the question is, is it really safe for kids to take fish oil supplements?
The answer to that question is yes; however, you need to select a pure and effective brand. To choose safe supplement for your children, you need to look for a brand that is well purified by molecular distillation. This method ensures that impurities are removed from the oil, thereby making it safe for your kids' consumption.
A quality supplement should also be high in DHA because that is where the power and benefits of omega 3 are derived. You would be short changing yourself and your kids if you buy any brand that contains less than 250mg of DHA in a 1000mg capsule.
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Discover the best fish oil for children today.

If you are serious about staying healthy, happy and vibrant, visit my website www.amazing-omega-3.com to learn about the omega 3 fish oil supplement that will help keep your mind and body active and young.
Didi Dyke is a dedicated health researcher who enjoys sharing information about her research findings.

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