Early Diagnosis in the Child - Essay Example

The paper will compare a given article on how cry acoustics in infants determine the risk of autism and a textbook titled Psychology.  The article and the textbook discuss the importance of early diagnosis in the child to determine any signs of autism (Sheinkopf et al., 2012).

The article and the text use similar concepts explaining how to determine the risk of autism in infants and young children (Sheinkopf et.al, 2012). However, the article does not duplicate the textbook as it discusses a specific issue: how cry acoustics determine the risk of autism in children. The textbook book on the other hand discusses different determinants of autism like the inability to engage in pretend play, inability to regulate their state of arousal, poor physical coordination, perception, and movement among many other determinants of the risk of autism (Pastorino &Portillo, 2005). Both the article and the textbook writings are based on research that has been done on the determinants of autism for children below 6 months of age. Both the article and the textbook describe the measures used to determine the risk of autism in young children and infants.

The article adds to the textbook as it brings on board another key factor or determinant that should be used to determine the risk of autism in children (Sheinkopf et al., 2012). In simple terms, the article emphasizes what has been discussed in the textbook as it continues to explain how infants who are at risk of autism produce a cry which is compared to the cries of low-risk infants and how risk infants produce a pain-related cry. The textbook also adds to the article that cry acoustics in infants as a risk determinant has been deduced from the writings of the textbook. The textbook states that a child’s response to certain stimuli like pain can determine the risk of autism in a child (Pastorino &Portillo, 2005). It is through the child’s perception of and reaction to pain that a pain-related cry is brought about. If a child produces a pain-related cry in the absence of pain then this becomes a risk of autism, and this makes the textbook add value to the article.

The article does not in any way appear to conflict with the textbook rather it emphasizes what has been discussed in the text. According to the textbook, during the early stages of life, children should learn how to regulate their physical coordination including crying and crying when in pain as part of their developmental milestones (Pastorino &Portillo, 2005). Crying when in pain and the normal cry for a normal baby should be quite distinct. The article states that infants at high risk always produce pain-related cry which comes at an increased frequency (Sheinkopf et al., 2012). Therefore, the article emphasizes the writing of the textbook on developmental milestones about crying and how producing pain-related cries throughout is a risk of autism.

The article goes beyond the textbook as it goes ahead to single out one key developmental milestone in infants and explains how the lack of this milestone is an indication of autism (Sheinkopf et al., 2012). That is, the article is quite specific on a particular determinant of the risk of autism. On the other hand, one can say that the textbook goes beyond the article as it discusses all the determinants of the risk of autism which a parent should look at when the child is growing and at early stages of the life of the child. The textbook discusses how children with autism lack normal social interaction skills and how they usually engage in unusual behaviors like repetitive movements while the article only singles out cry acoustics as a repetitive behavior that determines the risk of autism.  All the same, both the article and the textbook emphasize each other’s content (Pastorino &Portillo, 2005).