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Autism

Autism is abrain development disordercharacterized by impairedsocial interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitivebehavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old.

[2]

Theautism spectrum disorders(ASD) also include related conditions withmilder signs and symptoms.

[3]

Autism has a strong genetic basis, although thegenetics of autismarecomplex and it is unclear whether ASD is explained more by multigeneinteractions or by raremutations.

[4]

In rare cases, autism is stronglyassociated withagents that cause birth defects.

[5]

Other proposedcauses, such as childhoodvaccines, arecontroversial, and the vaccine hypotheses lack any convincing scientific evidence.

[6]

Theprevalence of ASD is about 6 per 1,000 people, with about four times as manyboys as girls. The number of people known to have autism hasincreased dramatically since the 1980s, partly due to changes indiagnostic practice; the question of whether actual prevalence hasincreased is unresolved.

[7]

Autism affects many parts of thebrain; how this occurs is notunderstood. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of theirchild's life. Although early behavioral or cognitive intervention can helpchildren gain self-care, social, and communication skills, there is noknown cure.

[3]

Few children with autism live independently afterreaching adulthood, but some become successful,

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and anautisticculturehas developed, with some seeking a cure and others believingthat autism is a condition rather than a disorder.

[9]

Contents

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1 Characteristics

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1.1 Social development

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1.2 Communication

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1.3 Repetitive behavior

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1.4 Other symptoms

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2 Classification

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3 Causes

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4 Mechanism

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Characteristics

Autism is a highly variablebrain development disorder

[10]

that firstappears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steadycourse withoutremission.

[11]

Symptoms tend to continue throughadulthood, although often in more muted form.

[12]

It is distinguished notby a single symptom, but by a characteristic triad of symptoms:impairments in social interaction; impairments in communication; andrestricted interests and repetitive behavior. Other aspects, such asatypical eating, are also common but are not essential for diagnosis.

[13]

Autism is one of three relatedautism spectrum disorders(ASD; seeClassification). Its individual symptoms occur in the general populationand appear not to associate highly, without a sharp line separatingpathological severity from common traits.

[14]

Social development

Social deficits distinguish ASD from other developmental disorders.

[12]

People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuitionabout others that many people take for granted. Noted autistic TempleGrandindescribed her inability to understand the socialcommunication of neurotypicals, or people with normal neuraldevelopment, as leaving her feeling "like an anthropologist on Mars".

[15]

Social impairments become apparent early in childhood. Autisticinfants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at othersless often, and respond less to their own name. Autistic toddlers havemore striking social deviance; for example, they have lesseye contact and anticipatory postures and are more likely to communicate bymanipulating another person's hand.

[16]

Three- to five-year-old autisticchildren are less likely to exhibit social understanding, approach othersspontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, communicatenonverbally, and take turns with others. However, they do formattachmentsto their primary caregivers.

[17]

They display moderately

lessattachment securitythan usual, although this feature disappearsin children with higher mental development or less severe ASD.

[18]

Older children and adults with ASD perform worse on tests of face andemotion recognition.

[19]

Contrary to common belief, autistic children do not prefer to be alone.Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult forthose with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the numberof friends, predicts how lonely they feel.

[20]

There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. The limited datasuggest that, in children with mental retardation, autism is associatedwith aggression, destruction of property, and tantrums. A 2007 studyinterviewed parents of 67 children with ASD and reported that abouttwo-thirds of the children had periods of severe tantrums and aboutone-third had a history of aggression, with tantrums significantly morecommon than in children with a history of language impairment.

[21]

A2008 Swedish study found that, of individuals aged 15 or olderdischarged from hospital with a diagnosis of ASD, those whocommitted violent crimes were significantly more likely to have otherpsychopathological conditions such aspsychosis.

[22]

Communication

About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not developenough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs.

[23]

Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures,diminished responsiveness, and the desynchronization of vocalpatterns with the caregiver. In the second and third years, autisticchildren have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants,words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integratedwith words. Autistic children are less likely to make requests or shareexperiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others' words(echolalia)

[24][25]

orreverse pronouns.

[26]

Joint attentionseems to benecessary for functional speech, and deficits in joint attention seem todistinguish infants with ASD:

[1]

for example, they may look at a pointinghand instead of the pointed-at object,

[16][25]

and they consistently fail topoint at objects in order to comment on or share an experience.

[1]

Autistic children may have difficulty with imaginative play and withdeveloping symbols into language.

[24][25]

In a pair of studies, high-functioning autistic children aged 8–15performed equally well, and adults better than individually matchedcontrols at basic language tasks involving vocabulary and spelling.