According to reports 1 in ever 68 kids in the US has an autism spectrum disorder.
When I first heard "Autism Spectrum". I was picturing a scale going from a little bit
autistic to extremely autistic, and I imagined us all having some sort of place on that scale.
Like if some one only eats M&M's in groups of two, they are a .0002 on the Autism Spectrum.
And that is totally wrong. And somewhat offensive. The spectrum isn't a scale from "not autistic"
to "has-all-the-dictionaries-memorized". It's a collection of 5 separate disorders with
similar symptoms. These disorders were put under the umbrella term Autism Spectrum Disorder,
to make it easier for Doctors to talk about them as a group.
The five disorders under the umbrella are, autism, Asperger Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative
Disorder, Retts Syndrome, and PPD-NOS, or Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise
specified, (like, duh)
They're all brain development disorder and each has a different mix of symptoms, a different
level of severity, and a different time in which they start affecting people. For example,
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder generally doesn't develop until the child is 3 years
old.
All of these disorders are serious and far too complicated to go in to here, but we did
include some links in the description below. If you are concerned about a loved one, please
seek out professional assistance for a diagnosis. And please, please stop throwing the term
autism and autism spectrum around all willy-nilly. Stop saying awkward people are a little "spectrum-y".
I've looked into these disorders and they're really not a laughing matter. So just show
compassion for others -- we're all in this together.