An Overview of Autism: Behaviors and Treatment

When a baby of around two to three years does not talk like other babies of the same age group, the mother feels very much bothered. She seeks the assistance of a Developmental Pediatrician. The Developmental Pediatrician restricts his diagnosis to two problems. 

• Hard of hearing
• Autism

Among these two, Autism is a more serious disorder. It is a developmental disorder of brain and it is categorized under ‘Pervasive Developmental Disorders’. The incidence of Autism world over is about 2 per 1000 population. It is 4 times more common in boys than girls. Though many researches are done on this and so many societies are there to take care of them, the cause of this mysterious disorder is yet to be found out. A recent controversy is that administration of MMR vaccine results in Autism. But there is no concrete evidence for this.

What happens in Autism?
A baby diagnosed to have Autism is normal at birth. The development also proceeds normally for the next couple of months. Before the baby attains 30 months of age the mental development falters. What causes it, nothing is known about it. Many changes are seen in the activities of the baby. The baby differs completely from other babies of same age group. 

Poor Social interaction: 

• The Autistic babies never interact with other persons.
• They always like to play alone.
• They never look in to the eyes of other persons. For them every one in the world including parents is like a stranger.
Language Impairment and communication problems:
• The Autistic babies hardly utter any word. Whatever they utter is usually in mono syllables.
• They have poor verbal and non verbal communication skills
• They have impaired ability to sustain a conversation 

Stereotypic movements: