Autism

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Autism is a problem with the brain. It is a neurological problem, which means that it is a problem with the brain's central nervous system. It is not a mental illness.

Some people with autism have social disorders, which means they can't talk to other people very well and probably do not like to talk to other people. They are also usually interested in strange things that people without autism would not be interested in, things like patterns, the weather, or history. They also sometimes have either a better than normal vocabulary, or are not very good at language and speaking at all.

Other people with autism, who are called autists or autistics, are not very good at math, or do "odd" things to entertain themselves.

1 History
2 Signs of autism
- 2.1 Childhood signs
- 2.2 Doing things over and over again
3 Types of Autism
4 External links

[edit] History

Although autism has been around for a very long time, it was only "discovered" in 1943. In 1943, Dr. Leo Kanner did a study of 11 children and found unusual things about them—he named these "problems" early infantile autism. Around the same time, another docter, Hans Asperger, did another study on the same thing and named his form of autism has come to be known as Asperger's syndrome and Leo Kanner's discovery Kanner's syndrome.

[edit] Signs of autism

These are some things that people with autism may do (or not do):

Does not try to talk, point, or otherwise try to get a message across by 1 year of age
Does not speak one word by 16 months
Is not good at talking with other people
Doesn't smile
Is not interested in making friends
Laughs and cries at the wrong times
Needs to keep the same routine and gets very upset when the routine is changed

[edit] Childhood signs

A normal baby without autism will usually look at people talking, look at other people's faces, smile, and be interested in other people. Autistic babies, though, may like objects more than faces and other people and will probably not like others.

During an autistic person's childhood, they will usually like to be by themselves, without other people around. They may also not react normally to hugging and other signs of love by their parents. This does not mean that they do not love their parents, they just do not know how to say it.

They may also not understand what expressions are; for example, they might not see any difference between whether a parent is smiling and saying "come here" or whether a parent is frowning and saying "come here."

It is also most common for children diagnosed with autism to be a bit choosy as to what they eat.

It is also common for autistic people to get frustrated.

[edit] Doing things over and over again

Some autistics spend a lot of time doing the same thing over and over again, or be interested in unusual things; some autistics might spend a lot of time waving their arms around, walking on their toes, or putting things in order (arranging them). An autist might spend a huge amount of time putting toys in lines or patterns and may get angry if someone bumps something out of place.

Some do not want any change, and will do exactly the same things every day without change—when they eat, getting dressed, brushing their teeth, going to school and etc.—and may even get upset if any change takes place to this. They may also be interested in strange things and may spend all of their time learning about their interest, which could be anything from vacuums and trains to lighthouses or science.

[edit] Types of Autism

Autism is put into two main groups: Low functioning autism, and high functioning autism. Low functioning autism is for people with autism who have an IQ of under 80, and high functioning for people with an IQ of over 80.