Kathleen of Virginia submits another one!
There are so many great resources on this subject that I won’t bother reinventing the wheel and will provide you a few links to all the information you could ask for, but to summarize, autism is a neurological disorder that strikes an average of 3-6 children out of every thousand. Characteristics common to children and adults suffering from autism include poor social interaction skills, difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication, and repetitive or very limited activities or interests. Common indicators in diagnosis include:
- Impaired ability to make friends with peers
- Impaired ability to initiate or sustain a conversation
- Absence or impairment of imaginative and social play
- Stereotyped, repetitive, or unusual use of language
- Restricted patterns of interest that are abnormal in intensity or focus
- Preoccupation with certain objects or subjects
- Inflexible adherence to specific routines or rituals
Recent concerns of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been largely discredited as the result of two major studies. Though the subject is still very much under scrutiny, there are indicators that hereditary factors play a part in autistic development. For example, identical twins and fraternal twins are both likely to be exposed to the same environmental influences and follow the same vaccination schedules but incidents of autism in both children is more common with identical twins than with fraternal twins. This implies a genetic cause rather than a foreign substance, event or environmental source.
Another concern that autism cases appear on the rise is suspected to be linked to the adoption of a broader categorization of autism rather than an actual increase in cases. To clarify, where a child might once have been considered a little “odd” or “off” a few years ago, today their behavior might be more readily attributed to autism.
Two great resources I’ve found that discuss Autism in great detail (and served as sources for this post) are:
The Autism Fact Sheet provided by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke is a great resource. Don’t let the big title scare you off, the documentation is clear, concise and very approachable.
Also read the great write-up in the New York Times Health section - Autism.
For support, visit MDJunction. Their Autism Support Group brings together families coping with autism.
Update! 4/21/08 - An interesting article on MSNBC discusses recent successes with virtual reality and autistic children.