Autism is a developmental disorder diagnosed before age 4 that affects social skills, communication, and behavior. It is caused by abnormal brain development and chemistry. While its exact causes are unknown, genetics may play a role. Autism cannot be cured but therapies like ABA, speech, and music can help children develop skills. Autism impacts social skills, verbal/nonverbal communication, understanding others' perspectives, and can cause repetitive behaviors. It also affects families who grieve the future they imagined and feel isolated in supporting their child. However, autism does not define someone and some skills like art or music are strengths for some.

1. Autism
(AW tihz uhm)
By, Zoe Sullivan
“People with autism are
just dancing to a different
beat”
Health Issues Autism pg.6

2. What is Autism?
 Autism is a severe developmental disorder that is
usually diagnosed before the age of four.
 Autism is not something that you cannot just look
at someone and automatically know they have
autism.
 It affects how the individual experiences and
interacts with the world around them.
 It does not affect a person’s appearance.
(Health Issues Autism pg4)

3.  Autism is permanent.
 It does not go away and there is no cure.
 However, there are strategies and
therapies that help people with autism
cope with their problems.
(Health Issues Autism).

4.  Autism is linked to abnormal biology and
chemistry in the brain the abnormalities
remain unknown, but is very active in
research
 Twins can also have autism anyone can
have autism no matter what.
 However, identical twins are much likely
to both have autism then fraternal twins.
http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=5&hi
d=9&sid=1b04ef13-731d-45bb-b3fd-
5dd33b0e73a6%40sessionmgr12&bdata
=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d (Google health pg 2).

5. Autism affects
 Children suffering from autism suffer from a
delayed brain where a teacher says elephant a
child without autism would hear elephant and be
moving on to the next word, while the child with
autism would still be processing el-e–ph-ant by
the time they processed that whole word the
child will be behind.

6. What it affects?
 Autism affects the normal development of
the brain in areas of…
 social relationships
 verbal and nonverbal communication
 theory of the mind
 movement
 anxiety

7. Social Relationships
 With social relationships,  With social interaction
some people with autism  they do not make friends
find it harder to  would rather play alone
understand how other
people…  does not play interactive
games.
 think and feel
 To know when they are
being taken advantage of
 making friends
 playing games
 being a part of a team
(Google Health ).

8. Verbal and Nonverbal Communications
 People with autism find it difficult to…
-develop speech
-to understand changes in the meanings of words
depending on the context of the sentence
-to understand speech
-understand body language
-to take turns in conversations
-having eye contact with
other people
(Google Health)

9. Verbal and nonverbal
continued
Problems with communication
 cannot…
-start or maintain a social conversation
-communicates with gestures instead of words
-develops language slowly or not at all
-does not refer to self correctly (like saying “you
want water” when they actually mean I want
water)
-repeats words or memorized passages, such as
commercials or television shows
-uses nonsense rhyming
(Google Health)

10. Theory of the mind
 With the theory of the mind it affects…
 how they understand other peoples points of
view,
 understanding that people are people and not
toys
 develops imaginative play.
(Health Issues Autism).

11. Movement
 Displays certain types of movements like…
 rocking
 hand flapping
 jumping up and down
 making strange faces
 or dancing in one place.
(Health Issues Autism).

12. Anxiety
 With anxiety people with autism can be rude
sometimes by inappropriately laughing when
someone is hurt, they are not trying to be rude
they simply cannot put themselves in that
persons position to figure out how to respond
correctly.
(Health Issues Autism).

13. Therapies & Treatments
 There are Many different types of therapies and
treatments that will help autistic children (or
adults) communication skills and help them
understand things better.
(Health Issues Autism).

14. Therapies
 Therapies are most effective when started at an
early age
 There are therapies like diet and vitamins, this
may help because some children have a condition
called “leaky gut” what this means is that food
that usually inside the digestive tract until broken
down into harmless substances that can leak into
the blood stream.
(Health Issues Autism).

15. Therapies cont.
 There is also applied behavior analysis (ABA),
which is a method of teaching that helps children
with autistic spectrum disorder, this therapy
teaches them skills and then rewards them for
their achievements.
 There is also…
 speech therapy, this helps autistic children
understand what people are saying.
 music therapy this helps because autistic children
pay attention to music more then they would pay
attention to someone talking to them
(Health Issues Autism).

16. Medications
 There are medications that help treat the
behavior or emotional problems that people with
autism have like…
(Google Health pg3).

17. Signs
 There are also some behaviors helps identify
autism…
 “Acts up” with intense tantrums
 gets stuck on single topic or task
 has a short attention span
 has few interests
 shows aggression to others or self
 shows a strong need for sameness
 uses repetitive body movements

18. Signs cont…
 People who suffer from autism also often
suffer from physical problems like,
 Allergies
 asthma
 Epilepsy
 digestive disorders
 persistent viral infections
 feeding disorders
 sleeping disorders and more
(National Autism Association).

19. Affects on family
 Many parents with autism after their children is diagnosed
go through
 Loneliness, isolated feels like no one understands how you
feel or what you are going through
 Denial, refusing to believe that your child has autism by
treating the child like they are normal and that this is just a
stage that they are going through
 Anger, thinking it is your fault, or anger at the other
parent of the child.
 Sadness and grief, some parents mourn that the hopes and
dreams that they had for their child.
 Shock, how could this happen? Why did this have to
happen to my child I never did anything to deserve this?
(autismspeaks.org)

20. Autisms benefits?
 Autism is not always bad some children
have special skills like being good at
drawing and painting, or excellent
musicians or amazing engineers.

21. Benefits cont.
 Sometimes children that have autism understand
things a lot better then children without autism
would understand things. They sometimes
understand animals or are able to be kind and
help other people when they are sad by trying to
cheer them up. Sometimes children with autism
are fun to be around because they say funny
things or do funny things without knowing it is
funny to the people around them.

22. The End