Autism Awareness Education. April 2018

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Autism Awareness Education. April 2018"

Colleen Randall
5 years ago
Views:

1 Autism Awareess Educatio April 2018

2 What is Autism Autism is a wide-spectrum metal disorder that is talked about every day i health circles, but few really kow all the facts about it. Research cotiues to push forward about the possible causes of autism (which ca cause some patiets to be o-verbal), ad some are eve challegig whether it s eve somethig that should be cured at all.

3 April is Autism Awareess Moth April is Autism Awareess Moth, ad the Autism Society ad other related orgaizatios are helpig to spread the word about it through evets ad other efforts. I the spirit of awareess moth, here are seve facts that you may ot be aware of about autism

4 1. Autism is More Commo Amog Boys Boys are four times as likely to have autism tha girls, although there does t seem to be a solid explaatio as to why. That has t stopped some orgaizatio from puttig forth theories. For example, The Natioal Autistic Society (based i the U.K.) otes it simply may be harder to diagose autism i girls, as girls may be better at maskig their difficulties i order to fit i with their peers ad may have better social skills overall. The speculatio is that some girls with autism spectrum disorders ever get diagosed as a result.

5 2. Autism is Becomig More Prevalet The Autism Sciece Foudatio reports that as of 2014, 1 i 68 childre i the U.S. had a autismrelated disorder. The actual disorder itself may ot be becomig more commo, but i 2012 the estimate was 1 i 88 childre. That s a stark cotrast to reports i the 1980 s that claimed oly 1 i 10,000 childre had autism. The criteria for diagosis is chagig ad therefore so are the umbers. For example, Asperger s Sydrome is ow icluded i the autism spectrum, whereas it was t 30 years ago or so.

6 3. There s More tha Oe Form of Autism Followig that same lie of thought, there are ow differet diagoses that fit ito Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Asperger s Sydrome (characterized by restricted behavior, amely social iteractios); Pervasive Developmetal Disorder or PDD-NOS, for childre who are o the autism spectrum but do t meet all stadard criteria; ad autistic disorder. Because of this, childre with autism have a wide rage of symptoms, while others may ot seem autistic at all (ofte referred to as high-fuctioig autism). Some childre are ot as impacted by the disorder (with more ormal behaviors ad higher IQ), but still have eough of the symptoms to be icluded i the spectrum.

7 4. There s No Sigle Cause The Autism Society says there has t bee a cause pipoited (although some people, icludig celebrities, have offered omedical theories such as it s caused by vacciatios). What is kow, accordig to the society, is that there are oticeable differeces o brai scas o those with ASD. Some researchers are also pushig toward likig autism with geetic factors, adds the society.

8 5. Autism could be Neurodiversity Autism Speaks otes that eurodiversity is the idea that eurological differeces like autism ad ADHD are the result of ormal, atural variatio i the huma geome. What does this mea? It could suggest that those with autism just have a differet way of thikig tha those without the diagosis. This would also suggest that autism is ot the result of a disease or a brai ijury of some kid. I the realm of eurodiversity, autism is ot somethig that eeds to be cured, but rather that their eeds be accommodated to improve quality of life.

9 6. Autistic Patiets Excel Creatively While those with ASD may ot act or commuicate like the majority of people, research has show they ca have superior creative abilities, accordig to The Guardia (U.K.), which oted, Scietists foud that people with the developmetal coditio were far more likely to come up with uique aswers to creative problems. Despite the high level of creative thought, the disorder makes it difficult for those with autism to secure employmet (because of socially cripplig traits), oted the article, which also metios that propoets of this idea are lobbyig employers to cosider hirig those with learig disabilities.

10 7. There are Ofte Related Health Issues The Natioal Autism Associatio oted that those with ASD are ofte faced with other health problems such as commo allergies ad gastroitestial issues, to more serious coditios such as bipolar disorder, epilepsy, ad euroiflammatio. Other commo problems associated with ASD iclude Attetio Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autoimmue issues, dyslexia, Croh s Disease, hyperkietic disorder (excessive motor movemets), Tourette s Sydrome (vocal ad motor tics), ad may others accordig to this list from Research Autism.

Measures of Spread: Standard Deviation

Measures of Spread: Standard Deviation Measures of Spread: Stadard Deviatio So far i our study of umerical measures used to describe data sets, we have focused o the mea ad the media. These measures of ceter tell us the most typical value of