Autism and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)

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autism

Autism is a term that refers to a marked impairment in several areas of development, most notably in the areas of communication, cognitive development, and social skills. Autism falls under a broader "umbrella" spectrum called Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Symptoms can be mild to profound. The rate of Autism when I first started working with it was 5 cases per 10,000 children with boys having a higher incidence of developing Autism than girls (back in the 70s). It is now estimated that 1:150 have some form of autism, pervasive development disorder, or related disorder.

Social Skills

Children with Autism tend to have difficulty making eye contact, they have little interest in developing social relationships, and typically do not understand, or "read" social cues such as body language, gestures, facial expressions, or tone of voice.

Typically, children with Autism are very "literal" in that, they do not get humorous jokes, puns, or the "meaning behind words." They may lack spontaneous play or make believe, may actually be oblivious to others around them and prefer to stay in their own isolated world.

Often, children with Autism develop stereotypical body movements such as arm flapping, rocking, finger clicking, or walking on tip toe. They may also develop a fascination for odd movements of objects, such as the spinning of wheels, the opening and closing of doors, twirling a piece of string, or lining their face and eye contact up with a straight line of a wall or rug.

Cognitive Development

In most cases of Autism, the child also has Mental Retardation, with symptoms ranging from mild to profound. The development of cognitive skills tends to be uneven, with the child developing some areas of understanding, but not others. Often, information does not generalize. For example, a young child might be shown a cat and learns that the cat is "furry," "white," and has "short hair." Then, the child might be shown another cat that is "black" or "smaller," and the concept of cat does not generalize (the child does not understand that both are cats).

Communication Skills

Many children with Autism never develop oral language. They may use sounds, high pitched screeching, or other sound to both self-stimulate or get their needs or wants known.

Approximately 20% of parents report that their child with Autism developed language normally for the first year or so, then lost the few words they had acquired.

Many children with Autism will repeat words and sounds (echolalia), without those words having meaning. Some children will develop functional language for every day, repetitive activities but will not develop language for abstract ideas or thoughts.

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