Final Assignment Autism - Research Paper Example

The knowledge of sources is secondary because whether autism has genetic, environmental, parental, or other causes is less important than the condition; but instructors need to know that autism seems to be such a fundamental learning and mental condition that it is not simply a matter of changing a child's attitude or getting them to open up a little. It is vital that, at the least, instructors understand the painful sensory barrage that autistics are often going through. Different types of autism mean different results.

For example, Asperger's and Rett's are totally different in terms of how they present, their prognosis, appropriate diagnostic tools, and appropriate treatment. Asperger's sufferers have an obsessive interest in individual topics: This makes it very hard to treat them, but also gives a lasso-point to grab onto and pull, away into their world by understanding what they obsess over. Meanwhile, Rett syndrome occurs suddenly after apparently normal development. Diagnosis and treatment are the most important.

In the case of Jack, past diagnosis helped shed light on the present, but we found that looking at the speech pathologists' report, it may have been time to ramp up his speech therapy. Diagnostic tools over time are particularly helpful, as they start to tell people what can be treated (indicated by large improvements), what is going to be a pernicious and slow-going problem (indicated by small or incremental improvements), and what is simply going to be a losing battle. With Jack, some areas had clearly improved, some areas had only slightly changed, and some areas stayed pretty consistent over time.

There is a myth that every autistic is Rain Man, that all have some kind of amazing gift to trade off but are socially impossible. In fact, both parts of this image are inaccurate. Many autistics can improve to the point where they seem very much normal to people, have deep and enduring friendships, and can direct their obsessive behaviors towards something productive. Many are also totally normal or even below average in various areas of functioning: Not everyone is an autistic savant; in fact, autistic savants are quite rare!