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Understand The Causes Of Autism Essay

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Autism is a Pervasive Development Disorder, a neurological disorder that has varying levels of severity, and can affect an individual in all aspects of everyday life. Individuals with high functioning forms of autism may be able to live independently in their adult life, but those who have moderate forms of autism may need significant help to live semi-independently, and those with severe autism may need full time care for their entire lives. Autism affects the ability of an individual to relate to other people, and the world around them, including difficulties with sensory information, social interaction, communication, and ability to adapt to changes, which often leads to erratic or unusual behaviour. In young children, these symptoms are …show more content…

Many high functioning autistic individuals are aware that they are “different” from others, and, as a result, often develop depression and anxiety due to constant social rejection, and the inability to fit in with their peers at school or work. Autism can be seen as trivial, and simply a different personality type, or a way to view the world, but their difficulties are shown in the fact that only around 16% of autistic adults are in full time employment in the UK2. Currently, autism is usually diagnosed by a series of questionnaires, observations, information from parents, carers, or relatives, since there is no medical test for autism currently available, however, there are some new methods being researched that are shown to be quite effective at detecting autism in infants from 14 months old, such as “eye gaze tracking”3. There are also various studies on genetic tests for autism, as some individuals with autism have genetic “risk factors” that can be screened

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