Autism is a chronic disorder characterized by impaired social relationships and communication, lack of imagination, and repetitive behaviors. It affects 4 in 10,000 infants and boys more often than girls. Symptoms include lack of social responsiveness, language and communication difficulties, need for sameness and routines, and repetitive behaviors. Brain studies show autistic individuals have larger than average brains reflecting abnormal growth, as well as abnormalities in the cerebellum, cortex, brain stem and other areas. While the specific causes are unknown, autism has a biological basis involving genetic and environmental factors that occur prenatally.

1. Presenter: Gregory Napier

2. Definition
 According to Carlson (2005) Autism is a chronic disorder
whose symptoms include failure to develop normal social
relationships with other people, impaired development of
communicative ability, lack of imaginative ability, and
repetitive, stereotyped movements.
 The syndrome was named and characterized by Kanner
(1943), who chose the term (auto, “self” ism, “condition”)
to refer to the person’s apparent self-absorption.

3.  The text indicates that 4 in every 10,000 infants are born
with this disorder and it afflicts boys three times more
often than girls.
 Can you imagine being a parent and your own blood does
not love, cherish or appreciate you?

4. Symptoms
 Lack of social responsiveness to others. Autistic
children do not reach out to or even make eye contact
with their parents.
 Language and communication difficulties. About half
of autistic people do not develop language. The
language that does develop is often strange, involving
repetition of words or phrases with little recognition of
meaning. Many engage in echolalia, the exact echoing
of phrases spoken by others.

5.  Sameness and routine. Autistic children become
extremely upset at even minute changes. The
movement of a piece of furniture or the change of one
word in a song may evoke a tantrum.
 Repetitive stereotyped behaviour. They may spend
their time spinning objects, flickering their finger or
rocking their bodies. Some engage in self-injurious
behaviours such as banging their heads.

6.  Some autistic individuals exhibit extraordinary savant
abilities. A common savant skill is calendar
calculation.

8. Brain Pathology
 It is widely accepted that Autism has a biological basis.
A single reason or reasons has yet to be determined.
However, many anomalies exist in the anatomy and
physiology of autistic brains. In addition a variety of
non-genetic pathological conditions especially those
that occur during prenatal development can produce
symptoms of autism.

10.  Brain-imaging studies show that the brains of autistic
children are larger than average, reflecting abnormal
brain growth during the first year of life. They also
reveal abnormal development in the cerebellum which
coordinates movement and is involve in shifting
attention.
 Autopsy of autistics also reveal abnormalities in the
cortex, brain stem and the cerebellum.
 Twin studies show that autism is highly
heritable, however, several genes are responsible for its
development.

11.  The drug, thalidomide, has been shown to increase the
likelihood of autism. During the 1960’s it was used to
alleviate the symptoms of morning sickness. Later it
was found to cause birth defects. Miller, Stromland
and colleagues (1994) studied 68 people whose
mothers had taken thalidomide during pregnancy and
found that 5 of them were autistic.
 Other causes during prenatal development include
rubella (German measles), encephalitis (caused by
herpes virus) and tuberous sclerosis.