Defining Autistic Spectrum Disorders - Literature review Example

It is difficult to understand some of the symptoms of autism. For many parents, it is a feeling that the reactions of their infant are not quite what they should be about other experiences they have observed in other babies. Their child may lose developmental gains, may cry inconsolably, or may refuse their affections. There may be a pervasive feeling of rejection that taints their interactions with their child. Some of the symptoms seem more like stubborn behaviour than symptoms of a disorder.

There is an insistence on sameness, social isolation, language difficulties, and an absence of the expected posture, which anticipates being lifted into the arms of their mother or father. There is a disconnection that the parent may not definable in their relationship to their child (Acquarone 2007). Autism is a disease of emotion as much as of the body. The child does not have the capacity to form emotional bonds, their minds locked into an indefinable and unreachable space. Comfort is not found in relationship to touch or interaction but the repetition and consistency of their environment.

Autism often has comorbidity with OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There is a belief that there is a common serotonin dysfunction with medications for OCD often having value for patients with autism. This link may someday be beneficial in discovering a way to alleviate the patient from the syndrome (Ghaziuddin 2005). This course of study provides some hope in clarifying the nature of the syndrome and how to find a workable treatment, as for the time being; nothing has been found to directly confront the disorder (Bock, Stauth, & Fink 2007) Those who display symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome will have difficulty in their social environment, displaying a resistance to change, elements of OCD and stereotyped behaviours that are consistent with the syndrome (American Psychiatric Association 2000).

When providing for pupils with Asperser’s Syndrome (AS), diagnosis of such pupils does not often occur until second level schooling. The Task Force states that professionals dealing with such pupils should be trained to develop expertise in this area.