Hello, I'm Dr. Meg Stone-Heaberlin, a licensed
clinical psychologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
And you're probably wondering, what is autism?
Well, a quick explanation is that autism
spectrum disorder, or autism for short, is a term that describes
a variety of developmental differences in social interaction,
communication and behavior. The Autism Spectrum
represents a diverse group of people with various skills and interests.
For example, some people with autism can speak
fluently, while others may have difficulty communicating.
Some people with autism might communicate using pictures or
devices. Research suggests that autism develops from
a combination of genetic and environmental influences.
These influences increase the risk that a child may have autism.
factors that may increase a person's risk for autism include
family history of autism, advanced parental age, pregnancy
and birth complications, and pregnancy space less than one year apart.
However, keep in mind that risk is not the same
as known cause and there is no known cause for autism.
Diagnosis comes from a medical doctor or psychologist after
evaluating a child's developmental history, social interaction,
behavior, social communication skills, and
developmental or intellectual skills. Direct assessment and
caregiver report are both important components of
comprehensive autism evaluations. Autism can be detected as
young as 18 months of age. The American Academy of Pediatrics
recommends routine early screening by each child's
primary care doctor because early detection and intervention
lead to improved outcomes.
Autism symptoms can vary from one person to the next,
and may present as difficulties in the following areas,
speech and nonverbal communication, making eye contact,
understanding facial expressions or other people's feelings,
playing or engaging interactively with peers,
initiating pretend or imaginary play, sensory processing,
including sensitivities to sounds, touch or movement,
flexibility and adjusting to changes in routine.
For example, some individuals with autism show a strong
preference for routine or repetitive behaviors or a
tendency to hyper focus on topics of interest.
People with autism also have many strengths that are unique to each person,
but might include learning and remembering facts, events and
stories, visual problem solving, like doing math problems,
puzzles, and figuring out how things work following routines
and schedules, thinking about the world from a different
perspective, leading to innovative and creative ideas or
solutions to problems. The three most common myths about autism
are people with autism don't feel empathy or emotions.
This is not true. In fact, people with autism have empathy,
emotions and feelings, they may just have a harder time showing
their feelings or will demonstrate their emotions
differently. Another myth is that people with autism can't
handle change. That's not true either. The reality is
predictable routines and structure help all people feel
safe and comfortable. Change can cause anxiety for anyone.
People with autism may be more likely to perseverate or get stuck when
something unexpected happens. Preparation, planning ahead, and
time to adjust are three easy tools that can help people with
autism cope with change. And the last one is people with autism
are not interested in having friends. Nope, that's not right.
Children and adults with autism are often very interested in
interacting with their communities and making friends
just like everyone else. People with autism have a wide variety
of interests and talents and particularly enjoy connecting
with others with similar experiences and interests.
So, remember, autism affects the development of social
interaction, communication and behavior. No two individuals
with autism are alike. People with autism have different
strengths and challenges just like all people, this is why
it's called Autism Spectrum Disorder. Some factors that may
increase the risk of autism have been identified through research.
Just because a factor has been associated with an
increased risk of autism does not mean that it causes autism.
More research is needed to understand the causes of autism.
People with autism have many strengths and view the world
from a different perspective, adding rich diversity to our world.
For more information, go to Cincinnati Children's.org
and search for autism. A message from Cincinnati Children's