Autism is the result of a neurological disorder which affects the brain, affecting normal development of the brain – particularly in the areas of communication, imagination and social skills.

In addition to People with autism typically have problems understanding the world arround them.
Their autistic condition means they have difficulty interacting with other people, and struggle with communication.

Autism is catagorised as one of the “Pervasive Developmental Disorders” (sometimes abbreviated as PDD). The five PDDs are:

1. Autistic Disorder (Autism)
2. Asperger’s Disorder
3. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
4. Rett’s Disorder
5. PDD-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)

All of these involve impairment in social and communication skills, the exact diagnostic for each disorder being specified by the American Psychiatric Association.

Autism is often described as a spectrum disorder, this means that there is broad range of symptoms and behaviour. At one end of the scale, Autistic disorder can result in difficulties in everyday social interaction, repetitive actions and a fear of change,. In its extreme form, Autism can cause disruptive behaviour, and can include aggression and self harm. In some cases, the sufferer may never acquire language skills and may need 24 hour care.

Autism can cause extreme stress for the sufferers and their families. If you find yourself in this situation, there are Autism Support Groups which can help.

Common symptoms of autism include: “preservative” behavior (an insistence on routine and sameness – tantruming or catatonia may result when routines are changed), “self-stimulatory” behavior (repetitve actions such as rocking and hand flapping or wringing), sleeping and eating problems (refusal to sleep, extreme food sensitivites, other digestive problems), over-sensitivity to touch or sound, insensitivity to pain and lack of eye contact. These symptoms exist alongside severe disruption in social and communication skills. Many autistic individuals exhibit cognitive delays or difficulties, while others may have normal or near-normal mental ability (called “high functioning” autism).

In some cases, a child may begin to exhibit autism symptoms as an infant. Autistic infants may arch their back away from a caregiver’s touch, or be constantly agitated and difficult to comfort. On the other hand, the child may be very quiet and withdrawn, showing little or no response to adult interaction. In other cases a seemingly normal child may develop autism later, known as “regressive” autism, generally between the ages of 3 and 5. These children reach early developmental milestones normally, in some cases even showing advanced development for their age, and then suddenly begin to lose social and communication skills.

Autism symptoms vary so widely from one case to the next, many experts are encouraging the adoption of the term “autism spectrum disorder” to describe the condition, highlighting the fact that autistic individuals do not fit into a clear-cut diagnostic description.

Most experts agree some autism causes are genetic. Certain disorders, such as depression and dyslexia, are expecially common in families that later have autistic children. Other apparently genetic issues are common in autistic individuals, that may contribute to the onset of symptoms, such as impaired immune systems and food sensitivities.

In many cases, autism symptoms first appear shortly after a child receives their combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) or diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine. Many parents are working towards greater availability of individual vaccines as a result. In other cases, symptoms may appear after repeated childhood illness treated with antibiotics, leading to the theory that candida overgrowth toxicity resulting from impaired intestinal flora may be a trigger.

Other suspected causes or contributing factors for autism include food allergies, most commonly casein (milk protein) and wheat gluten, which aren’t completely digested by the autistic individual, and have drug-like effects on the patient’s system. In other cases, unusually high incidence of autism has been noted in communities with exposure to toxic manufacturing pollution.

In general, regressive autism’s potential causes seem to commonly point to individuals with particularly senstive immune, digestive or nervous systems being exposed to a substance that causes a severe adverse reaction. It is likely that a single cause for autism will never be discovered, but if symptoms of at-risk children can be identified, perhaps preventative measures can be taken in more cases.

Asperger individuals frequently exhibit a particularly strong fixation on a certain subject of interest or study, which may interfere with their school work in other areas. They also often show strong linguistic abilities, although it is accompanied by a classically autistic lack of abstract/imaginitive thought. Many Asperger individuals may show exceptional ability in mathematical or scientific subjects.

Asperger syndrome is often described as being the same disorder as high-functioning autism, but high-functioning autism is not officially recognized as a separate diagnosis from regular autism. Asperger individuals are often entirely able to live independently as adults, in spite of their social difficulties, and can attain high levels of professional accomplishment.

The most notable symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome are a lack of imaginitive ability, often characterized by an inability to comprehend metaphors and other abstract speech, and a lack of empathetic ability, often shown by insensitivity to facial expressions, gestures and emotional behavior. Outside of those marked behavioral issues, Asperger individuals are generally able to lead largely normal lives.

One may think that ‘minor’ or subclinical seizures must not be serious enough to warrant treatment, any untreated seizure activity can have serious, long-term effects on an autistic patient. Some autistic children who were defined as “high functioning” prior to puberty had degraded to low functioning status by their late teens, due to untreated subclinical seizures.

Signs of subclinical seizure activity may include sudden onset of tantruming, aggression or self-injury; unexplained losses of previous behavioral or cognitive gains; and reduction or loss of academic gains after good progress in the pre-teen years. If subclinical seizures are suspected, an EEG scan can confirm seizure activity in the brain, but if no seizure occurs during a regular test, arranging for the child to remain attached to the EEG machine for 24 hours may be needed to definitely rule out seizures as a cause of behavioral/developmental changes.

When a child is confirmed as suffering seizures, either convulsive or subclinical, there are prescription anti-spasmodic medications which may help reduce or eliminate the problem. Even in cases where traditional seizure drugs are ineffective, some individuals have shown improvement with vitamin B6 with magnesium or dimethylglycine (DMG).

While adolescent onset seizures occur in a small percentage of autistic children, the potential side effects of untreated seizure activity is severe enough to warrant taking any measure possible to properly diagnose and treat the problem.

Most autism awareness jewelry features the multi-colored autism jigsaw awareness ribbon. The autism ribbon designs are available as enameled lapel pins, pendants and charms, and keychain designs. Many autism support groups and charity organizations sell autism ribbon jewelry right on their websites, to help their fundraising activities. Buying directly from a charitable group is a great way to make sure your awarness jewelry is helping the cause in more ways than one!

More understated autism jewelry often features a single silver puzzle piece, as a charm or a pin. While the multi-colored autism ribbon designs are meant to symbolize the complexity and diversity of autism and the autistic community, the single puzzle piece is said to stand for the “missing piece” of the puzzle that researchers are still looking for in their search for an explanation or cure.

Either style of autism jewelry give the wearer a great opportunity to show support for autism research, and possibly even meet other people in the local autism community!

Many online jewelry stores carry beaded autism bracelets, usually with a variety of colored glass beads and puzzle piece or autism ribbon charms. The ‘jewelry’ autism bracelets come in many different styles, from understated silver designs with a single puzzle-piece charm to outrageous multi-charm bracelets in rainbow colors. Anyone who would like to raise autism awareness with a symbolic bracelet should be able to find one in a style they enjoy.

Regardless of which type of autism bracelet you would rather wear, you may want to make sure some of the proceeds go towards an autism organization or charity. Many autism groups have online stores on their own websites, offering bracelets and other autism awareness merchandise. By buying from a registered charity, you can be sure they will be benefiting from your purchase directly. However, other jewelers’ sites openly state that a certain percentage of sales from their autism jewelry is donated to one particular group or another. If you aren’t comfortable trusting what their website says, you could contact the charity group mentioned and ask if they have records of donations from that particular merchant.

Awareness bracelets can be great conversation starters, giving you many opportunities to talk about autism with people who may not know much about the disorder. Keep an eye out for other people’s bracelets, and you may even meet others involved in the autism community!

Early symptoms of autism can be detected during infancy in many cases. Some of the common early symptoms include:

• indifference to surroundings: does not turn towards sounds or movement -or-
• seems over sensitive to stimuli: moderately loud noises or bright lights may cause crying and avoidance behavior
• appears content to be alone: does not respond (cooing, nuzzling, etc.) to physical contact -or-
• arches back away from touch/actively avoids cuddling and ‘positive’ contact
• uninterested in toys, does not seem to ‘know’ how to play
• does not “show off” interesting or new things to caregivers
• Marked reduction or increase in activity level
• Resists cuddling

A child who displays these symptoms from early infancy is likely to be diagnosed with autism at a later age (perhaps when the child fails to develop ‘normal’ language skills, or displays inadequate social skills, etc.). Many autism specialists believe that the sooner an autistic child is diagnosed and started on appropriate therapy, the more chance the child will end up with high-functioning autism, and be able to lead a relatively normal life.

It may be worthwhile to try a gluten-casein free diet, to see if food intolerance may be agravating the child’s symptoms. Also, checking for candida overgrowth (and treating it, if found) can lessen autism symptoms in many cases. Certainly, it is critical for parents to educate themselves about autism, so they can offer their child the best options for future quality of life.

Autism Spectrum Disorders can include not only ‘classic’ autism, but also similar disorders like Aspergers Syndrom, Fragile X Syndrom, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Rett Syndrome and what is still known as “Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified” (PDD-NOS) in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychological Association). PDD-NOS is a diagnosis generally applied to individuals who display enough autistic characteristics to be functionally impaired, but who do not fit the standard autism criteria.

Currently, all disorders referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders share a core group of symptoms. ASD patients a) impaired social interaction – they may exhibit inappropriate emotional responses to others, or show very little interest in other people at all; b) deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication – affected infants may not babble or show normal facial expressions, and older children may have delayed language development or a near-complete lack of verbal & non-verbal communication; and c) repetitive behaviors or interests – often including ‘self-stimulating’ behavior like rocking, and extreme fixations on certain objects or subjects.

Clearly there is a huge variety in symptoms that fit into those basic categories, but while some affected individuals may have little or no ability to care for themselves, others (notable Aspergers patients and a few high-functioning autistic individuals) may be able to lead partially or completely independent adult lives. Autism Spectrum Disorder, as a diagnostic term, more accurately highlights this variability.

High functioning autism should not be confused with Asperger Syndrome, however. Even high functioning autistic patients generally still exhibit some level of cognitive and linguistic impairment, while Asperger Syndrome is characterized by the presence of autistic impairment in emotional/social skills but a lack of developmental and language delays.

In some cases, moderate-function patients have progressed to ‘high functioning’ status when certain dietary problems were corrected, such as gluten and casein intolerance or other food allergies. In other cases, an autistic child made sudden increases in function with the onset of puberty. On the other hand, an estimated 25% of autistic children experience an onset of seizures (often subclinical or ‘invisible’ to onlookers) at puberty which can actually dramatically reduce their functional abilities.

Because autism is so poorly understood and so complex, many environmental and developmental factors can alter a patient’s ‘functional level’ during their lifetime. It is worth the effort to explore many possible factors that might improve an autistic child’s functional abilities.