Characteristics of Autism - Research Paper

Introduction

An autism spectrum disorder is a brain disorder that affects the development of a person from childhood to adulthood. Autism causes impairments in communication, sensory sensitivities, impaired social interaction, restricted interaction and repetitive patterns of behavioral activities. People who have autism face many challenges in their everyday activities like in school, workplace, hospital, and at home with their families. The factors that cause autism disorder include genetic factors, mutations, and deletions (Kroncke, Willard, & Huckabee, 2016). The researchers have not been able to come up with the drug to effectively cure the symptoms experienced by autistic people. The features of autism vary in different individuals depending on the harshness of the disorder. The purpose of the research paper is to identify the different characteristics of autism spectrum disorder.

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Impaired Social Interaction

Autistic individuals have problems with developing and maintaining connections with other people. Children with autism regularly fail to respond to their name and avoid non-verbal communication such as direct eye contact, physical gestures, and facial languages from their families or other individuals. This is because the autistic children have problems in interpretation of the thoughts of people and they cannot get the meaning of their feelings. Autistic children are not sympathetic towards the people in need because they cannot understand the requirements the same way that they are not able to interpret and show their obligations to other people (Dilly, & Hall, 2018). This feeling makes them distance themselves from the people. The repetitive behavior caused by delayed speech and the effort of making sense of the non-verbal methods of communication, subject the autistic people to avoiding interaction with other people. Social interaction challenges may lead to a poor interpretation of non-verbal communication, development and maintenance of friends' problems, social and emotional responsiveness challenges, and lack joy in sharing the interests and activities of other people.

Many people with autism are incapable of realizing that other individuals have their specific reasoning with different views, ideas and opinions than their own. A particular percentage of people with autism have savant and remarkable skills like unique talents in music, art, analytical capabilities of multiplying large numbers in their heads in a short period, and other individuals can identify the day of the week after providing them with a particular date in the history. Some autistic individuals can even memorize entire airline programs (Dilly, & Hall, 2018).

Many people with autism have stimulus over selectivity. This is because they tend to focus on only one irrelevant objects. For instance, they pay attention to the color of utensils and ignore some other features like the shape. In that case, the child is unable to distinguish between a spoon and a fork because they are of the same color (Mukherjee, 2015). Infant babies with autism tend to behave indifferently towards people or focus with a lot of attention on one item excluding every other thing from its attention for a long time. Because attention is the first step of processing information, failing to attend to the essential features of an object or an individual may limit a person's capability of learning about objects and individuals in the same environment.

Impaired Sensory Organs

Autistic people have problems communicating with other people. Some of the autistic individuals may speak well; others have a certain degree of communication impairment while others are unable to speak. The way the autistic people speak might comprise a repeat of words and asking similar questions repeatedly. Autistic individuals commonly talk about the topics concerning their preferences that makes them have communication problems. People with autism have challenges in the interpretation of non-verbal languages such as facial and body languages. The features of impaired communication include; delayed communication development, problems of starting and maintaining a conversation and repeating certain words or phrases that they hear from other people or the TV.

The impairment in people with autism can affect smell, taste and visual sensory organs. The senses may be hypersensitive, hypersensitive, or lead to the individual feeling a disturbance like a non-stopping ringing in the ears. This makes it hard for an autistic person to process incoming sensory information in a proper way (Jordan, 2017). Sensory impairment can make it hard for autistic people to withstand regular stimulation. For instance, some people with autism usually evade all forms of body contact and are incredibly defensive. Whereas, others may act differently by having little or no pain sensitivity. Additionally, autistic individuals like having deep pressure cravings and are uncomfortable after being exposed to a particular type of sounds or frequencies making them cover their ears when they hear sound like the sound of a crying baby or a moving motor vehicle.

Physical Abnormalities

Autistic people have various brain defects that can be grouped into the brain's abnormal biochemistry and brain's dysfunctions in the neural structure. People with autism have larger than normal vermis lobules VI and VII which control attention. Referring to biochemistry, people with autism have higher or deficient levels of serotonin within their blood and cerebral spinal fluid. People with problems in paying attention, hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome, and unipolar depression are known to have abnormal serotonin levels. Besides, autistic people have high levels of beta-endorphins inside their bodies because people who tolerate a lot of pain have high levels of beta-endorphins. Autistic people have a dysfunctional immune system that is caused by a toxin or viral infection that damages the immune system. Most people with autism have low numbers of helper t-cells that assist the immune system in fighting diseases. Also, autistic people have impaired gut or intestinal tract due to yeast overgrowths, decreased levels of phenyl sulfurtransferase, and measles virus (Suckling, 2015).

Causes of Autism

Autism can be caused by genes inherited from an autistic person. For instance, identical twins have a high chance of having autism than fraternal twins because the overlapping of genes in identical twins is 100% while the overlapping of genes in fraternal twins is 50%. Research shows that genetic connected to autism might be a damaged or compromised immune system. Another cause of autism is rubella virus that comes to contact with a child within the first trimester of pregnancy (Kroncke, Willard, & Huckabee, 2016). Viruses related to vaccinations like pertussis constituent of the DTP shot, and measles element of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine may lead to autism. Additionally, pollution and toxins in the environment may cause autism. Research has shown that high cases of autistic people are found in the population of people living near manufacturing industries, and industries' smokestacks (Kroncke, Willard, & Huckabee, 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, autism spectrum disorder is a complex disorder, and the requirements of people with autism vary greatly. The characteristics of autism are Impaired Social Interaction, Impaired Sensory Organs, and Physical Abnormalities. Autism is caused by genes overlap, toxins or pollution in the environment, and viruses. It is vital to mention that caregivers and professionals who help autistic people now realize that treatment of autism symptoms are available and various interventions can make a significant change.

References

Dilly, L. J., & Hall, C. M. (2018). History and Core Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism Spectrum Disorder Assessment in Schools, 3-23. doi:10.4324/9781351242455-1

Jordan, R. (2017). Sensory Impairment in Autism. Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders, 1-11. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_413-3

Kroncke, A. P., Willard, M., & Huckabee, H. (2016). The Causes of Autism. Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder, 11-21. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-25504-0_2

Mukherjee, S. (2015). Chapter-03 Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Overview. Developmental Pediatrics, 8-12. doi:10.5005/jp/books/12480_4

Suckling, J. (2015). Structural Abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Mapping, 1031-1036. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-397025-1.00129-9