If your child is responding less to social stimuli, smiling very rarely, not recognizing others or hardly responding when you call by his name, then you should screen your child for autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder or autism, as we call it, is a combination of three disorders with distinct symptoms. These are - lack or complete absence of social interaction, not being able to communicate and repetitive behavior coupled with lack of interest in things.

Talk to the doctor if your child

  • Does not start pointing to things or uttering gibberish monosyllable words by the age of one year.
  • Develops an uncharacteristic eating habit.
  • Does not utter somewhat clear monosyllables by 16 months or two words by two years.
  • Does not respond to his name.
  • Does not develop any social skill.
  • Makes very poor eye contact.
  • Has serious lack of interest in toys or other objects.
  • Does not smile or respond socially.

As the disease progresses, the symptoms will exacerbate and the child will not be able to make friends, make and sustain conversations, play imaginary games seen in normal children or stick to some defined routine. You may find him using stereotyped language, having lack of interest in general, being preoccupied with certain things or subjects and so on.

Diagnosis

The first step is to screen the child for autistic behavior. Care providers will fill up a questionnaire by gathering information about your child’s behavior. They can gather information either solely from your observations or by combining their own observations and yours.

If the screening throws up a possibility of autism, the child needs a thorough investigation. A thorough investigation will include doctors from a number of disciplines, namely psychology, neurology, psychiatry, speech therapy etc. A comprehensive evaluation of cognitive skills, language abilities and neurological assessment is a prerequisite because sometimes children with hearing disability or delayed speech development may be mistaken to be suffering from autism. However, there are some children who have some pronounced symptoms of autism, while having good or normal language skills. These children can be classified to be suffering from Asparagus syndrome. There are some children who do not show any symptom of autism even up to the age of 3 years, but after that they start showing signs of abnormality consistent with autism.

Causes of Autism

Scientists are not yet clear about the factors that cause autism, and autism is still a subject of study throughout the world. However, they have pointed out some factors that may contribute to autism.

Gene Mutations

Researchers have indicated that mutations in gene may be responsible for the lack of cognitive and behavioral skills found in autistic children. The explanation given by the scientists states that gene mutations may cause disruptions in the synapses, the connections between neurons in the brain.  The disruption in connections causes abnormality in intellectual and behavioral skills. Scientists have found a link between abnormal development of synapse during the formative years of a child and cognitive deficiencies in later years.

Persistent fever during pregnancy

A study in Denmark has shown that some illnesses of the mother during her pregnancy such as influenza or persistent fever may raise the risk of autism in the child. Use of antibiotics during pregnancy can also cause autism in the child. However, it must be said that the risk in such cases is not high.

 Parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder 

If any of you have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder your child has a higher risk of suffering from autism.

Aged Father

Age of the father can be a cause of autism in his child. If the father is much more older than the mother their child has a greater risk of falling prey to autism.

Air Pollution

If the pregnant mother is exposed to air pollution, especially particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, her child is at a greater risk of suffering from autism. This has been reported by researchers in the University of Southern California and Children’s’ hospital in Los Angeles.

Familial links of autism

Studies have suggested that the genetic character of some children make them vulnerable to autism. It has been seen that if one twin is affected by autism, the other has a 90 percent chance of falling prey to autism. If one child in a family is affected by autism, the chance of another child suffering from autism is nearly 5 percent.

Treatment

Though there is no cure for autism, you can bring about substantial improvements in the specific symptoms of autism with interventions and educational therapies. Educational therapies include training sessions that stress on cognitive, language and social skills. The ideal way of treating such children is to have a coordinated approach with the different therapies and interventions being directed at improving specific problems faced by the child. Autism is a wide spectrum disease and each child or group of children may have a specific problem that is more pronounced in him than in others. Treat him accordingly, and he  will grow more like a normal child with autism, than an autistic child.


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