What is Autism?
Autism Spectrum Disorder, also known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder, is a complex group of brain development disorders that are congenital or appear in the first years of life. Typical Autism, Atypical Autism, Asperger Syndrome and Childhood Disorder Disorder can be grouped under this heading. Spectrum indicates the presence of different states within a certain range in the form of a fan. In other words, it means that the symptoms of autism appear in different forms and severity in each child. While some children with autism have mildly affected emotional and social skills, some live in their own world, completely disconnected from people. While some children's speech is close to normal, some cannot speak at all. Again, the variety and severity of repetitive and obsessive behaviors may vary from child to child. As a result of all evaluations, autism can be graded as mild or moderately severe.
What is the Cause of Autism?
Autism is the interaction of many causes. It is thought to arise as a result. In other words, it is not a problem that can be explained by a single reason.
Some diseases can be transmitted through a single gene, but Autism is not a disease transmitted through a single gene. In recent studies, it has been shown that many genes occur due to the interaction with each other and the influence of environmental factors. Therefore, even if no one in the family has Autism, autism can be seen in the child. However, scattered introversion, obsessions, strange behavior, and late speech may be observed in some family members. This is called the Extended Family Phenotype. Studies conducted in recent years have reported that there are approximately 1000 genes related to autism. But none of them is solely responsible. From here we can understand why treatment is so difficult.
The increase in autism, from being seen in one in 166 children in 2004 to one in 59 children in 2018, suggests that environmental factors also play a role in autism. Many researchers question factors such as environmental pollution, unhealthy nutrition, exhaust fumes, vaccines, pesticides, and premature birth. But most of the information on this subject is not clear. Becoming a father at a later age and premature birth increase the risk of autism, and it has nothing to do with vaccines. We can say that it is clear that it cannot be eliminated with diets.
The possibility of Autism in children exposed to neglect is a separate agenda issue. Especially in the first years of life, it is equally important to meet the spiritual, emotional and social needs of children, as well as their physical needs and care, such as feeding and cleaning. The child's spiritual need at this age is a continuous, sincere and trusting human relationship. It is essential that there be a mother or caregiver who recognizes the child's emotional needs, responds appropriately to him, talks to him, plays with him, sings lullabies to him, and holds him in her arms and touches him. Depriving the child of these activities in his early years, leaving him alone in front of the television and phone for long periods of time, and inadequate social relations due to urbanization may cause Autism-like symptoms to appear in the child.
In autism, there are structural and functional problems of the brain and there are differences in brain development compared to other children. It is thought that children with autism have increased brain volume, connection problems between nerve cells and problems with some functions between the ages of 6 and 36 months. These differences cannot be shown or diagnosed by MRI and Tomography. Since there is no major damage, development can be achieved with education.
Who gets autism?
There may be gender differences in autism. It is 3-4 times more common in boys than in girls. While this rate is 1/6 in people with normal intelligence, it is 1/2 in mentally disabled individuals. In other words, while it is more common in boys, it is more severe in girls and is more often accompanied by mental disability.
It is generally claimed that race is seen independently of region.
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