Autism as a Disorder of Neural Development - Essay Example

Autism Autism is a disorder of neural development that manifest in the first three years of life of a child. Autism often affects the development of social interaction of the child and speech coordination. The children hat have the condition indicated restricted and repetitive behavior that is often deemed to be stereotyped. The nature of the disease causes some difficulties to arise when diagnosing it. The children that have the disorder are identified in the first stages of life. This means that the diagnostic criteria for the condition can be undertaken when the child is below three years old. The disorder affects the processing rate of the information in the brain by causing an alteration of the nerve cells and synapses. There is no understanding on the real way that the disorder occurs. The disorder belongs to the autism spectrum that is composed of autism, Asperger syndrome and pervasive development disorder, otherwise not specified. The diagnosis of the PDD-NOS follows an elimination process whereby the patient is tested for autism and Asperger syndrome. The cause of the disease is strongly linked to the genetics of the parent. The genetics is not explainable by use of one approach. On the other hand, the genetics of the autism are complex and may be emanating from one or more mutations. The mutations are often peculiar than the common mutations. It may also be accused from a rare combination of common genetically variants. In some of the undocumented studies, autism is linked to other agents in the environment that cause birth defects. The issue of the environmental elements such as pesticides and childhood vaccines as cause of autism is controversial since it lacks biological plausibility and the evidence provided is unconvincing. The trend in the diagnosis of the disorder indicates that there has been a steady rise in the number of children under 12 that are diagnosed with the condition. This could be partly attributed to the changes in the diagnostic approaches and the subsidization of the testing. Autism just like the other two conditions on the ASD has adverse effects on the development if some of the pointers in the child’s life. The failure of the synapse and the nerve cells to connect in the appropriate manner leads to the creation of dysfunctional nature of the child in speech and interactions. The child has difficulties in forming the right combination of words to communicate. This is mainly attributed to the unconventional alignment of the synapses and the nerve cells in the brain. The conveyance of information through the dysfunctional nerves means that the child may be generally slow. In the child interactions, there is a tendency of appreciation and accommodating the child that understands the others easily. The children with autism do not have the adept interactions skills acknowledged by the normal children. This makes the normal children to be generally unfriendly with the child with autism. The children to not wait for the child with autism to catch up with their games since naturally the children are not well developed to accommodate the child with the disorder. In most of the instances, the normal children indicate their unwillingness to interact with the child suffering from autism by pushing him away or avoiding any form of contact with him or her. Some of the children with this condition are capable of helping themselves. However, they are naturally slow and engage in repetitive behavior. This makes then natural loners and they find solace in their loneliness and company. The inability to help himself or herself calls for extra attention from an adult or caretaker. Autism is largely a condition that assumes a spectrum. The symptoms may affect the functionality of the child with the disorder in different manner. I most of the cases, children suffering from autism have major inability to converse in a comprehensible manner. The children that have autism ought to be taught language development in accordance to the range of the effect of autism. In the event that the children have the capacity to grasp just like the normal children, the approach to teaching them language ought to adopt similar methods used in the teaching of the normal children. In order for the teacher to foster the involvement of the child in the learning process, he or she must come up with a language learning program that focuses on the improvement of the development of expressive and receptive language. The assessment of the communication capabilities of the child ought to be undertaken in a comprehensive manner in order for the teacher to help the child in a better manner. The education approach should be used in differentiating the facial expressions from the verbal communication. The teacher can help the student with autism to develop the pragmatics in order for his or her to have improved rates of retention. Students that have the condition often find themselves dealing with difficulties when it comes to the interaction with other people. This is often the case in the event that the interaction calls for the involvement of the other people. The social activities that involve the discernment of other people are sources of challenges to the student with autism since this student lacks in what is commonly known as a theory of the mind. The student can engage in other social interaction activities as long as there is no involvement of the discernment by the other parties to the activity. In short, it means that the child is often left out in the social interaction. However, social interaction among the students is one of the core areas of development and as the other children are being taught the value and approaches of social interaction, the students suffering from autism ought to be included. The learning approaches that the teachers ought to use when imparting knowledge on social interaction ought to adopt participatory approaches. The learning process for the social interaction ought to put into consideration the fact that learning of social skills do not calls for the adoption of a hands off approach. The students with autism learn through interaction with the other children. The teacher should create an environment that fosters the interaction. He or she ought to work harder towards the attainment of a change in attitude harbored by the other students to the students suffering from autism. In the creation of an instruction approach that seeks to reduce the effect of cognitive mobility, the instructor ought to consider a multi variant approach. The student may be unable to eliminate all the repetitive behavior owing to his or her level of hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity. This means that there is no plausible manner that the instructor can come up with the approach to the increase of cognitive mobility and self-help. On the contrary, each student has a unique functionality and the entire process ought to take into consideration the individual factors of the student. Individual elements are not sufficient in the creation of an approach that will lead to the best results. Therefore, the teacher has to combine some element in order for him or her to come up with the best approach of increasing cognitive mobility. In the designing of the anticipated mix of the strength of the child, it is important to remember that the cognition aspect of the students is always varying even in the intelligent children. The teacher should also consider the functionality level of the student. The children that are at the lower levels of the functionality have less cognition mobility. These students need intense attention in the learning environment. The children that belong to this class are often deemed unable to help themselves. Therefore, the teacher should rule out the possibility of self-help in this class of students. On the other hand, the students that have high levels of intelligence have a better chance of self-help. The level of awkwardness is only limited to the interactions with the other students. They may still maintain their repetitive behavior. Therefore, the approaches used in one student may not be applicable in the other since the individual needs and attributes determine the ability of the student to come up with the right skills that will enable his survive in the competitive and less regulated environments. Read More