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Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others.
Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is a "SPECTRUM DISORDER" that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees. There is no known single cause for autism, but increased awareness and right approach can help families today.
Autism is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than one single symptom. Every person with autism is an individual, and like all individuals, has a unique personality and combination of characteristics. Some individuals mildly affected may exhibit only slight delays in language and greater challenges with social interactions. People with autism also process and respond to information in unique ways. |
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| Signs and Symptoms of Autism |
Autism is a brain development disorder that first gives signs during infancy or childhood and generally follows a steady course without remission or relapse. Impairments result from maturation-related changes in various systems of the brain.
Autism is one of the fine pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, and severly restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior.
Of the 4 PDD forms, Asperger syndrome is closest to autism in signs and likely causes, Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder share several signs with autism, but may have unrelated causes.
The main characteristics of autism
1. impairments in social interaction,
2.impairments in communnication,
3.restricted interests and repetative behavior.
1.Social Development
- People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted.
- Social impairments becomes apparent early in childhood and continue through adulthood.
- Autistic individuals show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name.
- Autistic toddlers have more striking social deviance; for example, they have less eye contact and anticipatory postures and are more likely to communicate by manipulating another person's hand.
- 3 to 5 year old autistic children are less likely to exhibit social understanding, approach others spontaneously, initiate and respond to emotions, communicate non verbally, and take turns with others.
However, they do form attachments to their primary care givers. They display moderately less attachment security than usual, although this feature disappears in children with children with higher mental development.
- In children with mental retardation, autism is associated with aggression, destruction of property and tantrums.
2.Communication
- About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs.
- From the 1st year of life there may be delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and the desynchronization of vocal patterns with the caregiver.
- In the 2nd and 3rd years, autistic children have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combination; their gestures are less often integrated with words.
- An autistic child is less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others' words (echolalia) or reverse pronouns.
- Joint attention seems to be necessary for functional speech. For example, they may look at a pointing hand instead of the pointed-at object, and they consistently fail to point at objects in order to comment on or share an experience.
- Have difficulty with imaginative play and with developing symbols into language.
3.Repetitive Behavior
Autistic individuals display many forms of repetitive or restricted behavior, which the Repetitive Behavior Scale - Revised categorizes as:
- STEROTYPY is apparently purposeless movement, such as hand flapping, head rolling, or body rocking.
- COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOR is intended and appears to follow rule, such as arranging objects in a certain way.
- SAMENESS is resistance to change. For example, insisting that the furniture not to be moved or refusing to be interrupted.
- RITUALISTIC BEHAVIOR involves the performance of daily activities the same way each time, such as an unvarying menu or dressing rituals. This is closely associated with sameness and an independent validation has suggested combining the two factors.
- RESTRICTED BEHAVIOR is limited in focus, interest, or activity, such as peroccupation with a single television program.
- SELF INJURY includes movements that injure or can injure the person, such as biting oneself.
No single repetitive behavior seems to be specific to autism, but only autism appears to have elevated pattern of occurence and severity of these behavior.
Other Symptoms
Autistic individuals may have other symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis, but that can affect the individual or the family.
An estimated 0.5% to 10% of individuals with autism show unusual abilities, ranging from splinter skills such as the memorization of the trivia to the extraordinarily rare talents of prodigious Autistic Savant.
Unusual responses to sensory stimuli.
Poor muscle tone, poor motor planning, and toe walking; autism is not associated with severe motor disturbances.
Atypical eating behavior occurs in about three-quarters of children with autism.
Eating rituals and food refusal also occur; this does not appear to result in malnutrition.
Some have gastrointestinal troubles.
Sleep problems are more common in children with developmental disabilities; children may experience problems including difficulty in falling asleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, and early morning awakenings.
Parents of children with autism have higher levels of stress; siblings of children with autism report greater admiration of and less conflict with the affected sibling; siblings of individuals with autism have greater risk of negative well being and poorer sibling relationships as adults.
In the nutshell, child may have the following:
- Insistence on sameness; resistence to change.
- Difficulty in expressing needs; using gestures or pointing instead of words.
- Repeating words or phrases in place of normal, responsive language.
- Laughing for no apparent reason; showing distress for reasons not apparent to others.
- Preference to being alone; aloof manner.
- Tantrums.
- Difficulty in mixing with others.
- Not wanting to cuddle or be cuddled.
- Little or no eye contact.
- Unresponsive to normal teaching methods.
- Sustained odd play.
- Spinning objects.
- Obsessive attachment to objects.
- Apparent over sensitivity or under sensitivity to pain.
- No real fears of danger.
- Noticeable physical over activity or extreme under activity.
- Uneven gross fine motor skills.
- Non-responsive to verbal cues; acts as if deaf, although hearing tests in normal range.
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| Autism is associated with several other conditions: |
Genetic Disorders.
Mental retardation : A wide variation illustrating the difficulty of assessing autistic intelligence.
Maleness : Boys are at higher risks for autism than girls. The autism sex ration averages 4.5:1 and is greately modified by cognitive impairment; it may be close to 2:1 with mental retardation and more than 5.5:1 without.
Epilepsy : With variations in risk of epilepsy due to age, cognitive level, and type of language disorder.
Severe metabolic defects, such as phenylketonuria.
Minor physical anomalies are significantly increased in the autistic population. |
| Causes of Autism |
There is no single known cause for autism, but it is generally accepted that it is caused by abnormalities in brain structure or function. Brain scan shows differences in the shape and structure of the brain in children with autism versus neuro typical children. In many families, there appears to be a pattern of autism or related disabilities further supporting a genetic basis to the disorder. It also appears that some children are born with a susceptibility to autism.
Genetic vulnerability.
Environmental factors : All known teratogens (agents that cause birth defects) related to the risk of autism appear to act during the first eight weeks from conception, and though this does not exclude the possibility that autism can be initiated or affected later, it is strong evidence that autism arises very early in development. Environmental factors that have been claimed to contribute to or exacerbate autism, include certain foods, infectious disease, heavy metals, solvents, diesel exhaust, PCBs, phthalates and phenols used in plastic products, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs, vaccines and prenatal stress. |
| Diagnosis of Autism |
About half of parents of children with autism notice their child's unusual behaviors by age 18 months, and about 4-5th notice by age 24 months. As postponing treatment may affect long-term outcome, any of the following signs is reason to have a child evaluated by a specialist without delay :
No babbling by 12 months.
No gesturing by 12 months.
No single words by 16 months.
No two-word spontaneous phrases by 24 months.
Any less of any language or social skills at any age.
Diagnosis is based on behavior, not cause or mechanism. Autism is defined in the DSM-IV-TR as exhibiting at least six symptoms total, including at least two symptoms of qualitative impairment in social interaction, at least one symptom of qualitative impairment in communication, and at least one symptom of restricted and repetitive behavior. Sample symptoms include lack of social or emotional reciprocity, stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language, and persistent preoccupation with parts of objects. Onset must be prior to age three years, with delays or abnormal functioning in either social interaction, language as used in social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play.
Homeopathic Treatment of Autism
The main goals of treatment are to lessen associated deficits and family distress, and to increase quality of life and functional independence.
Available approaches include applied behavior analysis (ABA), developmental models, structured teachings, speech and language therapy, social skills therapy, and occupational therapy.
In allopathy, many medications are prescribed to treat problems associated with autism. More than half of United States children diagnosed with autism are given psychoactive drugs or anticonvulsants, antidepressants, stimulants and antipsychotics.
A patient with autism may respond atypically to the above medications which are not backed by reliable research about their effectiveness or safety. These medicines have adverse effects, and no known medication relieves autism's core symptoms of social and communication impairments.
Althogh many alternative therapies and interventions are available, few are supported by scientific studies. Treatment approaches have little empirical support in quality-of-life contexts, and many programs focus on success measures that lack predictive validity and real-world relevance.
Homeopathic medicines are safe, natural, non-toxic substances without side effects. It is a safe effective alternative to drugs like Ritalin, Clonidine, Dexedrine, Presdnisolone which all have lasting side effects.
The positive effects seen with homeopathic treatment are lasting and not for a few hours after the dose as with allopathic medicines. |
| With homeopathy treatment healing takes place at : |
Physical level : Increased immunity, improved digestion, regulation of sleep, appetite, bowel habits.
Mental and emotional level : Calmer happier children, reduced aggression, reduction in self-injurious behavior and in harming others.
Homeopathy results in growth spurts in children and does not alter or suppress normal development of the child.
The children come with many names for this spectrum of problems : Autism, Asperger's syndrome, PDD-NOS, ADD, ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder. Homeopathy does not treat a disease or its name. Homeopathy merely aids the body's own vital healing forces to eliminate whatever is causing the problems, no matter what the name.
The commenest question asked by the parents on the onset of homeopathic treatment is : "How long does it take to see changes in my child with homeopathy?"
The parents should be patient for six months to one year in the homeopathy treatment of autism. In some cases changes are seen within weeks, sometimes within days.
Usually parents ask, "Can my child be given homeopathic treatment when he is already on allopathic medication?"
YES. If the allopathic medication given has not shown any improvement in the child or severe side effects have resulted from the same such as aggression, diarrhea, weight loss then it is best to stop it completely at the onset of homeopathy medicines.
On the other hand in cases where there is some benefit to the child with the allopathic medication and the parents are looking for a safer and more effective alternative to life long allopathic medicines, the homeopathy doctor slowly weans the child of the allopathic medication as the homeopathic medicine begins to show its positive effects.
Homeopathy is compatible with other therapies such as AIT, SIT, speech therapy, occupational therapy. In fact the beneficial effects of homeopathy on the child will be a blessing to all his therapists and care givers who will find the child more compliant to learning.
As said before improvement takes place in the child as a whole - at the physical, emotional and mental levels.
At the physical level parents in the very early part of treatment talk of :
Improved sleep pattern. Child has restful sleep.
Improved digestion.
Regulation of bowel habits : Constipation becomes a past worry and children with regular bouts of diarrhea begin to have healthy regulated bowel movements.
With constitutional homeopathic treatment the immunity of the body imporves. Therefore, a child prone to recurrent illnesses such as respiratory tract infections will be healthier and not have regular attacks of infection.
Concentration improves. The child begins to concentrate more on the task given and is less distracted. This improvement has far reaching changes in all aspects of the child's life.
All parents make a statement saying, "My child's understanding has improved. The response to a request is faster. The child is more compliant." This can be attributed to increased auditory comprehension and focusing.
There is a sense of calmness. The child becomes more aware of what is going on around him or her. Example, a child previously withdrawn into his own little world may begin to notice his grandfather reading the newspaper in the same room.
Improved eye contact. The child starts giving eye contact more readily. It is easier to ellicit and maintain eye contact.
Tracking i.e. visually following an object around a path improves. Scanning i.e. to look for a particular object in a book improves.
Sitting tolerance improves. This helps during teaching sessions and also parents find it easier to travel with the child.
There is a marked reduction in self-stimulatory behavior, example hand flapping.
Dependence on stimulation such as violent swinging and running in circles reduces, example a child addicted to the swing for hours during the day will not depend on it as before.
Obsessive compulsive behavior also reduces.
As constitutional homeopathic treatment brings harmony and a move towards equilibrium in the overactive nervous system of the autistic individual, dependence on fixation and monotonous repetitive behavior reduces.
Hyperactivity also reduces. The child who would rush from one toy to another without proper focus will spend more constructive time on one task before going to the next. With homeopathic control of hyperactivity the child will remain happy, active and responsive; it will not make him a 'Zombie' as with other form of medicines.
Dysfunction in sensory integration, which is the bane of most autistic individuals, comes under control with homeopathy.
In children with visual hypersensitivity we have seen that the child does not blink as much in the presense of bright light.
Reduction of tactile hypersensitivity improves the child reaction to being touched. He does not flinch at touch and is braver at social interactions.
Reduction in auditory hypersensitivity is seen in the child. He is more comfortable in a noisy environment such as a restaurant or a party.
More harmony in the senses results in many positive changes in the child's life. The child is more comfortable in social interactions. Children learn to eat new foods. |
| Improvement in Communication Skills : |
In a non-verbal child the child makes more effort to communicate his needs. Communication becomes more spontaneous.
In children with verbal communication skills the child progresses at a faster rate from 1 word to 2 word pharses and so forth. Speech is more spontaneous and clear.
Overall most of the children learn to adapt better to change. A child who earlier was terrified of going to the beach or visiting people is more comfortable at the experience and also begins to enjoy it. They begin to develop social relationships.
Homeopathy can not only help the child the rest of the way to recovery by address the underlying susceptibility to autism to help prevent a reccurence of symptoms in the future.
Recovery is a long journey, but the right remedy will bring results more timely than any biological treatment can. While there are many means to an end, homeopathy can speed the recovery dramatically and perhaps save thousands of dollors. |
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