Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

Autism is the most complex and confusing disorder to diagnose. No other disorder has more myths and misconceptions surrounding it than autism.  It manifests itself right after a child is born. Autism symptoms have different difficulty levels and may range from mild forms to severe cases. There are also quite a number of autism symptoms and they are really hard to determine and recognize.  As of the moment, there is no known cause and cure for autism, and the treatments are less effective as the child suffering from it ages. 

Parents are most often than not the first to notice their child’s uncommon behaviors.  There are some cases where a baby already seems “special” from birth, unresponsive or just happily fixated on one thing for unusually long periods of time.  Early autism symptoms can also manifest in children who appear to be normally developing.  When out of the blue a very responsive, playful, and talkative child becomes very silent, reserved, and suddenly doesn’t want to interact with anybody, something is not right.

Yes, it’s not only children that suffer from autism. There are lots of adults with the condition; most of them grew from childhood with the disease into adulthood. This article looks closely at it and offers some highly effective tips for handling adult autism.

First things first, if you have a loved one that has grown into adulthood with the autism, it’s very important that you continue to show them as much love as possible. I know it’s very difficult, but it has to be done. They are your loved ones and will continue to be - with or without autism.

Who knows, something could just develop from the love you give them that will turn things around for good. No doubts, as I said earlier, it can be rather hard caring for an autistic adult, but it can also be rewarding. You will only know it if you take the journey.

There are also adults who suffer more severely from autism and who cannot live on their own. Such adults may have to be remanded to foster care, or have need of considerable communal sustenance in a suburban neighborhood. When the adult has limited speech patterns, close supervision will have to be kept over them, whether they are in your home, or in a group residence, or some other residential location.

There are many different types of treatments that parents can try when they have a child with autism, however some can be controversial. Autism B12 vitamin therapy seems simple and safe enough, but it is important to be aware that problems may arise if it is administered improperly.

Perhaps the biggest danger in utilizing B12 vitamin therapy for the treatment of autism is the possibility of an overdose.

We all need vitamins, but is wrong to assume that these vitamins are safe no matter how they are used. Though vitamins are indeed good for us, with many being essential for optimum health, they can be dangerous too; particularly when someone takes too many.

The majority of the vitamins and minerals we need are obtained from a healthy varied diet. However when there is a deficiency in certain minerals or vitamins it is possible to supplement them.

The risk of taking supplements is that too much of a good thing can actually be harmful to health. When the body has an oversupply of vitamins that it can not use it excretes the excess via the liver. When excess vitamin consumption occurs on a regular basis, the liver may not keep up and the excess vitamin may then become a toxin that the body is unable to expel.

It is difficult for autistic children at any age, but the teenage years can be especially challenging. Autism is a disorder that manifests itself with the individual having trouble communicating and managing a variety of social situations. Coupled with this, there are the repetitive behaviors and difficulty with emotional control. The teen years are perhaps the most social time of our lives. It is a time where teenagers are learning about themselves, and are moving rapidly toward adulthood. This is an incredibly social time where what you say and how you act are very important in the eyes of your peers. This is also precisely the time where autistic teens face some of the most stressful situations of their young lives.

Like any teenager, they need help in dealing with their increasing sexuality. Some people find that as they reach their teenage years their behaviors improve. However, for others their behavior can worsen as a direct result of the tension and confusion associated with this difficult time

There have been several types of autism noted along the spectrum.  Each differs by severity.  Some types are classic autism, autistic disorder or Kanner’s syndrome, Rett’s Syndrome, and Asperger’s Disorder.

Kanner’s syndrome was named for psychiatrist Leo Kanner who is credited with discovering this syndrome based off of research done on 11 child patients between 1932 and 1943. This is the most severe form of autism. All the children studied demonstrated the same characteristics.  There was a lack of emotional contact with others, a desire for sameness and routine, abnormality in speech or muteness, fascination with manipulating objects, and learning difficulties despite an intelligent appearance. Certain sounds or colors can upset people with classic autism.

Hans Asperger of Vienna discovered Asperger’s disorder in 1944, around the same time as Kanner.  However, many until the 1980s  when his work was translated to English did not know his studies. Asperger’s studies concluded some similar findings as Kanner, with one major distinguishing feature, the subjects of Asperger’s studies were vocal. People with Asperger’s are not found to have language delays. Nor do they have delays in cognition.

There has been a lot of debate about the nature of Asperger’s syndrome and where it fits within the Autism spectrum. The one thing that is known for sure is that Asperger’s IS a type of autism, but without many of the debilitating symptoms. There are many differences between what most people think of when they imagine an autistic child and one that suffers from Asperger’s syndrome. Let’s take a look at some of the basic differences.

1. A child who is typically autistic will show severe lapses in the development of language. A high percentage of autistic children may never develop language skills at all. With a child or an adolescent who has Asperger’s syndrome, language skills are usually not affected at all and in fact can be above average. A child with Asperger’s syndrome can show impaired social development that may lead to a lack of language usage, but the actual development of the language itself is on par with other children of the same age.

Many forms of attention problems interfere with the learning of those suffering from autism and similar types of problems. No doubts about it - autism is one very prominent disorder that extends well beyond just the capacity of the child to learn and into their capacity to understand or even feel.

Students with attention deficits have more trouble concentrating on anything than most people around them. Some have trouble deciding what to focus upon while listening to a teacher, reading a text, or looking over a mathematics problem. But patients suffering from autism have serious difficulties in interacting and communicating with other people, making them that much harder to deal with.

The fact that autism patients demonstrate impulsive behavior, which causes them to perform poorly in most learning environments, often requires that special concessions be made for them so they can learn also. For a fact, no single teaching approach is right for every child with autism, which has necessitated that Federal law obligate public schools to assess each child’s individual needs and provide the appropriate instructive setting to meet the specific needs of the child.

Autism and aggression unfortunately often co-exist. For a parent this can make autism even more volatile to cope with. When dealing with a high needs child it takes patience and understanding but when they become aggressive it can make it all the more difficult to cope with. No matter how the aggression manifests in your child it can be both upsetting and dangerous. Overcoming this aggression is something you need to focus on as a parent to assist your child in coping in their autistic world. So what can you do as a parent to assist in curbing this behaviour?

Medication. This is the first recommendation given by medical professionals. If the child cannot control the anger on their own, the medication will help control it for them. Therapy. Sometimes the use of therapy is a positive alternative for the parent looking to seek help without medicating or further medicating their child. Triggers. It can also help as a parent to determine your child’s trigger points of aggression. By avoiding these potentially explosive situations you can circumvent having to cope with the aggression at all. Food Sources. Just like everything in their autistic world. Changes in behaviours and mannerisms can be triggered by things such as food sensitivities and allergies. Eliminating the food from their diet can help alleviate their aggression and make living with them easier.

It is quite well known that at this point in time there is no actual cure for autism, yet an earlier diagnosis of the disorder will help in selecting a treatment that will help the individual better cope with day to day life. Therapy may be in two different forms, depending on the degree of autism exhibited by the patient. In examining the autism statistics, the earlier the therapy is started, the more positive will be the results. in general terms it appears that treatment administered to a child between two to three years old, has the most chance of success. Waiting until the later ages can decrease this result by as much as 36 percent.

Steady Rise Over Two Decades

According to the latest autism statistics, the number of children diagnosed with autism is rising steadily. It appears that since the 80’s the number of people afflicted with this condition has increase by 600%. These children can only hope that their therapy will start before they are three years old and even then the chance of a total recovery is less then 40%. Doctors say that the autistic child’s nervous system is not set up properly and that therapy will prevent further damage and partially repair the problem. Every year that delays the therapy appears to allow the nervous system to solidify and stabilize its condition making it harder and harder to effect proper repairs.

Many think that a diagnosis of autism means a child is doomed to a lonely life devoid of any accomplishments. History has proven this theory to be false, and many people with the higher-functioning forms of autism have gone on to do great things. There are some autistic famous people who though may have struggled initially can be an inspiration to children with autism, or their parents.

Autism does not have to be a dark and lonely existence. Some autistic children are very bright, and they have a personality to match. No one with a disability should be underestimated, and this goes for those with autism as much as for anyone with any other condition.

Though it has not been proven, some speculate that Albert Einstein may have had a high functioning form of autism. Because he is no longer alive, there is no way he can be diagnosed. However, these theories are popular, and they are attributed to some behaviors that he demonstrated, and that he was, in his own words, very much a loner and did not feel particularly connected to anyone, even his immediate family members. He was brilliant with math, but by some accounts, did not begin to speak until the age of two or three. He would often become so involved in his work that he would forget to eat meals and if a lecture he was giving drew no observers, he would lecture anyway. Again, this is just a theory, but it would appear that this assumption could be valid.