Autism-Articles

In February of 2010, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hosted a professional, Nina Kraus, from Northwestern University speaking about cognitive-sensory connection between speech and music. During her presentation on the subject, Kraus said the following: "Indeed, musical experience can enhance the very auditory processes that are often deficient in clinical populations including developmental dyslexia and autism." This statement backs up what many parents with autistic children have experienced firsthand when registering their children in childhood musical programs. Parents have long reported children opening up in music lessons in ways that they do not open up at home. This has led many parents to incorporate music in their homes, since it seems to be something that their autistic children really respond to in a positive, productive manner. Quite a few studies have been done on the effects of music on ...

This is the most common question that parents ask whenever they notice odd behaviors from their children. A lot of people assume that if their child fails to talk at the age or 2 or 3, he is autistic. This is a big misconception. There are numerous reasons as to why speech might be delayed in toddlers, and a lot of other reasons why some children are not hitting their milestones, but sadly, autism is one of them. It is comforting to know though, that talking late in toddlers does not automatically mean that your child is autistic. Autism is a disorder that lasts a lifetime. It is referred to as a developmental disorder because symptoms normally manifest before a child reaches the age of 3 which is a critical period of development. It then causes concerns in the child's development, learning and growth. When a child has autism, the areas that are affected normally concerns delayed skills in the following: - Sensory - the way a child receives and process inform...

Echolalia is a repetition of some form of dialogue that the Autistic child has heard. It can be repeated immediately or in can be repeated per verbatim at a later stage. An example of immediate echolalia would be when someone asks the child "how are you?" and the child repeats "how are you?" This can include complete dialogues that the Autistic child has heard from a conversation or a movie or radio broadcast. It may not have a meaning to them at the time but they just repeat it. Echolalia can be a little confusing when the child uses it all the time and then gets frustrated when people don't understand what they are trying to communicate. An example of this would be if you asked the child what they wanted for lunch, a hamburger or a hotdog. An Autistic child with echolalia would say hotdog as it is the last thing they would have heard even if it was the hamburger they really wanted then they may get upset when presented with the hotdog. Echo...

Though relatively new to the medical world many in the field believe their may be a direct correlation between autism and genius level thinkers. Many of our greatest historical thinkers are thought to have suffered from autism or Asperger's, so perhaps the rewiring of the autistic mind is actually a form of evolution, a level of higher thought. Some of our greatest composers showed autistic traits and tendencies. These musical masterpieces were perhaps created by a mind more in tuned to music; after all, recent links have shown that music may help to minimize the effect of autism so perhaps some of its greatest creators were driven to do so in their focused minds in order to set things more right in their worlds. Beethoven, Hans Christian, and Mozart are amongst the worlds highest talented musical masterminds and all are thought to share one common ground, outside of music of course, and that is Asperger's. Some of our greatest intellectual thought provok...

When you are parents with autistic children, there are so many autism treatments that you need to consider. There are so many different possible therapies out there, from the traditional to the alternative to ones that seem just plain crazy. One therapy that has been getting attention of late for an autism treatment is music therapy. Music Therapy Music therapy may not be exactly what you think it is. It is not focused on learning to play instruments so much as it is focused on using music to engage the mind and emotions of the autistic person, and helping them to communicate. Music is a more primal, some would say more natural, more patterned way of communication. People with no abilities to communicate whatsoever have been shown to actually respond and connect to others with music therapy. Most people with autism like patterns, and music is full of patterns. Also, music has rhythm. It is something that people with autism can feel, rather than have to think abou...

A child or adult with Autism or a Communication disorder will have difficulties fitting into our extremely verbal world. These difficulties can create isolation from others and threatening walls of silence. However, there is a specific sub group of people diagnosed with these disorders who have a hyper-visual system. In these cases, when the visual system is harnessed, teaching communication becomes much easier. I Rode the Train, I Want to be an Engineer Hyper-visual people are experiencing visually when speaking. Their communications may appear to be almost nonsensical rambling but in fact they are following a very logical pattern. The difference is the pattern followed is visual rather than verbal. The exchange below illustrates this point. I asked Mark, a college student, "How did you get here today?" He replied, I took the train in from Long Island. My family went to the beach (Mark was seeing himself on the train but did not say this). Maybe I...

Memory is how we move thought from our fluid attention systems to our crystal knowledge. Visual memory is a very powerful and dynamic set of systems that equips the brain with enormous capabilities. How we organize memory determines how efficient we are at thinking, responding, communicating, and comprehending. The role of memory is critical to understand when you have a child diagnosed with a Pervasive Development Disorder such as PDD-NOS, Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Many children diagnosed with PDD-NOS may have symptoms in language processing and communication because their highly visual thinking is interfering with the development of verbal skills. A child that is a highly visual thinker and has highly visual "brains" in the family tree can show as many as 50 specific symptoms in communication, attention and memory. I call this group of children "Maverick Minds." Visual thinkers experience visually what they are thinking. They follow ...

Can autism be prevented? Unfortunately, no, it cannot be prevented or cured. Early diagnosis is critical and may help maximize an autistic child's ability to speak, learn and function. Regular visits to a pediatrician can help with early signs and detection. The earlier treatments can begin, the more effective they will be. Autism is a pervasive development disorder. It is actually a group of illnesses that cause delays in the development of many basic skills, such as, the ability to form relationships and socialize with others, the ability to communicate and use imagination. Many children with autism are confused in their thinking a have problems with the world around them. They usually have a limited range of interest and are unable to bond with their parents or siblings. Symptoms of autism will usually appear before age 3, but will last throughout life. Some of the symptoms are difficulty with communication, including using and understanding language, diff...

Autism, a neurological-based developmental disability, affects an estimated one in 166 people, according to a 2004 study by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention. Both children and adults with Autism typically show difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interactions and leisure or play activities, according to the Autism Society of America. Autism affects individuals differently and to varying degrees. Experts agree on the following advice upon detection of Autism: 1. Seek immediate treatment for your child. 2. If possible, find someone to work with the child at least 20 hours a week, i.e. a therapist, teacher, parent, grandparent or someone from your church or group. Look for progress after one month. 3. Do not allow the child to sit and watch TV all day. Get them engaged and play as many games as possible that require taking turns. 4. New parents learning they have an autistic child must recognize immediately that they cannot do it al...

Having an autistic child or dependent adult is very draining on both caregivers and relatives. Knowing how to advocate and care for you your loved ones, while increasing general awareness, and caring for yourself are essential day to day necessities that require your immediate attention. The best resource to help you cope with an autistic child or dependent adult is an autism support group. These groups bring together professionals that are experts in the field of autism and those who interact with autism on a day to day basis. Together they use this forum to swap ideas, and encourage, and educate each other. An autism support group to be effective must play five critical roles on a day to day basis. Partnership and Comprehensive Support An autism support group must help bring people together and aid in the formation of partnerships to encourage interaction and growth between all involved. This support will provide a foundation upon which the groups members wil...

Children with autism syndrome have a lack of effective communication skills, therefore inhibiting lifelong social skills. Parents who know what to look for at an early age can increase the chances for their child to live a somewhat normal life All children learn at their own pace, therefore making it difficult to diagnose at infancy. Infants a few months of age will typically start to babble, imitating the sounds it hears around him. While every baby develops speech at a different rate the following is a guide for the average child. At one year, can use negative phrases such as "No, want", can imitate animal sounds and noises, and says four to six simple words. At 18 months can say 10 to 15 words and can make two word sentences (i.e., "Daddy up") At 2 has a vocabulary of about 100 words and asks, "What is?" The autistic child on the other hand does not develop at this normal rate and has a difficult time building his/her vocabulary. ...

Autism is a neurologically-based disorder that affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction. Autism is different for every person. No two people with autism are exactly the same. Some people with autism have difficulty with their mobility such as controlling their arms, legs or mouth muscles. And, others have difficulty with cognitive skills-like reasoning, learning or memory. The problems may range in severity and may even change over time. Research shows that autism occurs four times more often in males than females. Autism is found in all racial, ethnic and social backgrounds and families. Early signs of autism can be seen by as early as age 12 months and diagnosis can be made as early as 24 months. Early identification and treatment of autism increases the chances for improving problem skills and improves quality of life. There are several different types of disorders in the autism "spectrum" also known as "autism sp...

I want to discuss the different types of probiotics and what are considered general probiotics and those that are considered treatment specific probiotics. The options on the market for probiotics are many and varied. Three major examples of all around, multi-floral probiotic products are Probiotic Support Formula from New Beginnings, Therbiotic Complete from Klaire Labs and Multi-Flora Spectrum from Kirkman labs. There are certainly other forms but these are three very good, multi-floral probiotics that have a number of good bacteria in them. And a good way to understand the benefits of these probiotics is to view them as a multi-vitamin for the overall health of your digestive tract. Probiotic Support Formula, Therbiotic Complete and Multi-Flora Spectrum are all very helpful for the overall health of the digestive system. Next we can discuss what I call the treatment specific probiotic options. Treatment specific probiotics are used to treat a specific disorder ...

Being on a flight for over 5 hours can remind you of just how small an airplane's space can be. Nevertheless, nothing can shrink an already small space faster than the uncontrollable ranting of a mini human being. Let's face it, we've all been there. If it wasn't in a plane, then in a restaurant, movie theater, or some other public space where one little person's frustration begged the attention of everybody in the place. Was the recent debate over children with disabilities fueled over one such incident? Possibly not, but one shock jock's on-air remarks caused waves of indigence and disgust to roll through the country like ripples on a calm lake. At the risk of refueling the ire over this subject, it does beg the question, was he wrong? Not about the insensitivity towards children with disabilities, but was he wrong about his belief that sometimes, what is labeled a disability is just a result of ineffective parenting? The fact remains tha...

Do you know that there are specific symptoms of autism spectrum disorder? Of course there are and this article gives you hints on what their specific symptoms are. You see, for example, when the patient suffers from difficulties in having social relationships with other people, strange kinds of behavior patterns, obvious concentration on certain details of objects, as well as a kind of heightened or increased ability to expertly memorize, without the sorts of communication problems of the autism, the patient is obviously suffering from Asperger's. When your patient has perhaps one or two other basic autism symptoms without enough for the autism diagnosis, what they have is Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Rett syndrome is a disease like autism, but one that affects only girls. The patient gets a lot of funny hand movements, loss of language and motor skills, and seizures in addition to the classic autism symptoms. But this i...

Many think that you can't see any autism symptoms in infants, but that is simply not true. It is certainly more difficult to see autism symptoms in infants, but research and science has developed to a point now where there are some markers, however faint, that can point in the direction of autism in infants. It should be understood, though, that this is not an exact science, and not all symptoms that might be autism necessarily are autism. In other words, be aware but try not to panic. How early can autism symptoms in infants be detected? It is possible to see signs of autism between 12 and 18 months. It may be possible to help rewire the brain through early treatment if the signs are caught early enough. You are not necessarily looking for abnormal behaviors this young, just the absence of normal ones . For example, many autistic infants will not respond to cuddling. They will seem to stiffen and shy away from your touch. They won't reach out to be picke...

Whereas an average toddler might play with several toys in rapid succession, an autistic child will often fixate on one toy for long periods of time or only play with one particular toy. Children with autism will often play with toys unpredictably. For example, three very common play-traits are lining up objects, fixating on a minor mechanism of a toy such as staring at a spinning wheel of a toy car and destructive play like peeling off decorative stickers. Most children with autism will not engage in play that is obviously imaginative. This can be hard to pick up on its own, because children with autism often do not have much speech and rarely seek out playmates (or you) to play with. Another autistic behavior that can look like play is waving hands and fingers in front of the eyes. Another recognizable sign of autism in young children is the way they move when playing. Some kids seem to transition from toddling to track star/gymnast. They run, jump, hang and sw...

When you are trying to figure out the autism symptoms of toddlers, it can often be confusing. How much is just normal toddler behavior, how much is a phase of some sort, and how much is cause for serious concern? One thing that you can use to look at to help you decide is the child's behavior. Routine Toddlers with autism will display many behavior related symptoms. They will have a marked need for routine, needing to do everything in the same way, every time. For example, if you always travel home from the grocery store the same way, your child might notice if you take a different route, and get very upset. Very likely, he will want to have the same things for breakfast and meals, and at the same time every day. Bed time should be kept consistent. This need for routine is a common autism symptom of toddlers and children. Lining up Toys A toddler might line up his toys repeatedly. This is a classic autistic symptoms that toddlers exhibit. He won't play wi...

Statistics in the United States show at least one child with autism in every 150 children born in the country. This is a clear indication that autism might be one of the most common disorders affecting our young ones. To get a clear and correct diagnostic on a child, it is extremely important for parents, who might be concerned with issues pertaining to this, to be able to recognize the different autism symptoms. A developmental disorder, autism results from an abnormality in one's neural development. Although there is the constant effort to determine the specific causes of this disorder, all that can be determined is the fact that it takes an interplay of various factors that is behind autism. Genetics, however, plays a very strong role in it. Recent studies show how synaptic dysfunctions can cause autism as well. Autism takes place during the developmental stage. Onset can be as early as during infancy. In fact, most cases of autism involved symptoms that w...

The symptoms of autism typically include - lack of eye contact, lack of interest in objects or things or even people, lack of communication skills, disinterest in relationships and social interaction, restricted interests in activities and play, mental retardation in several cases, and occasional savant skills. Autism is a disorder that affects the social, emotional, and behavioral development of children, marked by serious difficulties in interacting and communicating with other people; and with other symptoms like constantly repeating certain actions or behaviors, and having intense interests restricted to only particular things or topics. However, autism is one of a range of similar diseases that constitute the autism spectrum disorders. They are referred to, professionally, as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs), and they are about five in number, autism or classic autistic disorder being one of them. The others are Rett's syndrome, Pervasive Develop...