Common Health Problems

Sensory Problems
Children with Autism are highly away and very sensitive to certain sounds, textures, tastes and smells.
Some find clothes touching their skin unbearable while others have to cover their ears and begin to scream at the sound of a vacuum cleaner or waves hitting a shore. Others can't sense pain at all meaning they can fall off the monkey bars, break their arm, and never cry in pain. This happens because the brain can't balance the senses appropriately allowing some to never feel extreme cold while others scream in alarm when lightly touched.


Mental Retardation
When tested with Autism, some children may show mental dysfunction, scoring high in some areas (such as visual skills) while scoring very low in others such as language skills. When tested, some areas will show up to be very strong while others show up very weak].


Seizures
1:4 children with Autism will suffer from seizures and they usually become start in the early childhood years or when the child becomes a teenager. Seizures are caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain and can result in unconsciousness, body convulsions, or staring spells. Seizures can be controlled by medicines caused "anticonvulsants" are are given in the lowest possible dose. Seizures can also be caused by high fever or lack of sleep.


Fragile X
Most common inherited form of mental retardation. One part of the X chromosome has a defected piece that appears pinched under a microscope. It affects about 5% of people diagnosed with Autism.


Tuberous Sclerosis
Rare Genetic disorder that causes benign tumors that grow on the brain as well as other important organs. Between 1-4% of people diagnosed with Autism also suffer from Tuberous Sclerosis.


http://www.mychildwithoutlimits.org/?page=autism-common-health-problems

How Autism is Diagnosed

A infant with Autism doesn't act like a normal infant. The child won't raise arms in anticipation of getting picked up, cries when help or picked up, and doesn't really mind having little or no human contact. The infant won't learn childhood games such as the common game of peek-a-boo and won't form any attachment to parents. Usually young children will show shyness and anxiety when being handled by strangers, children with Autism will just go along with it.
A child with Autism will become more noticeable around the age of 12-36 months when they are falling behind in development of children their age. Autism can range from mild to severe and affect all children differently. A child who can read well may have problems socializing while another child can't do either. Although Autism affects social, communication, and behavioral patterns; each child diagnosed with Autism will be affected in different areas but all individual patterns fit into the diagnosis.
Children may have unusual responses to sensory experiences and can also reject people and start to lose language and social skills they once had. The changes can be experienced over a short period of time and are noticeable by the parents. The earlier that Autism is detected, the sooner treatment can start resulting in improved outcomes of those children who are diagnosed.
In order to be diagnosed with Autism, the child must show problems with one of the following areas: communication, socialization, or restricted behavior before the age of 3. There are 2 stages to the diagnosis of Autism; 1. Developmental Screening and 2. A thorough evaluation.


http://www.mychildwithoutlimits.org/?page=how-is-autism-diagnosed

Symptoms of Autism

Symptoms of autism can effect three different aspects in life including communication, relationships, and intersts. The symptoms for each category includes:

Communication

• Lack of being able to, or delay in, learning to talk
• Trouble starting conversations and continuing them
• Repetitive questions
• Trouble understanding humor and sarcasm in conversations

Relationships

• Avoids eye contact
• Can't establish friendships with in same age group
• Trouble understanding others' emotion

Interests

• More interest in objects instead of people
• Fascinated by odd things (license plates)
• Difficult with change in daily routines and activities
• Repeated behaviors

http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/autism-symptoms

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