Understanding Autism: Causes, Detection & Progress

Autism: Early Detection and Progress

Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is a genetic, developmental disorder that causes issues with social interaction and verbal communication. It can also influence the motor skills and early development of a child. Typically, this disease is noticeable early on in a human’s life. This disease can vary from one person to the next. It has not yet been discovered why autism occurs in the first place. It is known that it is a genetic disease, but unknown which genes may carry the effect of the disease. Back in 1998, a doctor by the name of Andrew Wakefield had a paper published by a man named Lancent about a study finding a connection between autism and vaccines.

This discovery was not supported by any type of statistics, and essentially, these became nothing more than just rumors, but it made people weary of giving their kids vaccinations when they may not be sure what the correct thing is to do. From that point on until 2012, studies were conducted to see if they could find a link between autism and vaccines. Millions of tests had been conducted on children, and not one study found a link between autism and vaccines. In 2012, they conducted a study that related vaccine refusals to a large outbreak of whooping cough in California.

Throughout the years, scientists have studied autism and have seen great improvements in the symptoms you see along with it, like being unsociable or having issues with verbal communication. They have discovered that “the average age at which children are diagnosed with autism is four when their brains aren’t as malleable, many children with the developmental disorder have missed the chance for early treatment” (Krisberg., 2018). They have discovered that the key to a better outcome when dealing with autism is to catch it within the first few years of a child’s life.

Usually, symptoms are discoverable around 18 months of age. If this is done, the child may have a better chance of being more socially interactive or contracting far superior motor skills when becoming older. Within the last year, a researcher from Yale University School of Medicine by the name of Chawarska has conducted an experiment with the involvement of “120 pregnant mothers who previously gave birth to a child with autism—and have a greater risk of doing so again—and 30 pregnant mothers who didn’t. Researchers will conduct brain imaging on the fetuses in late pregnancy and again shortly after birth. The babies will then be followed until they turn two” (Krisberg., 2018). It is said that children can display signs of inadequacies in social attention as young as six months.

Paying attention to the early stages of an autistic child is very important; this allows for the help to correct future habits that may occur while it is still early in the stages of this disease, as new research has shown. This allows the child’s brain to have the opportunity to be reconfigured and helps the child maintain necessary motor skills and correct other disabilities that may occur depending on the child. This disease can be effectively scary for parents who are having their first baby. Successfully scientists are starting to make a breakthrough in studying autism, and once more studies can be performed, many of us will have an even better understanding of this disease. Due to the first suggestions pertaining to autism being linked to vaccinations in young children, scientists had to waste many years to determine whether or not this allocation was correct or not.

References:

1. What is Autism? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.myautism.org/all-about-autism/what-is-autism
2. The Science Facts about Autism and Vaccines. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.healthcare-management-degree.net/autism-vaccines/
3. Scientists Closer Than Ever to Earlier Treatments for Autism. (2018, January 23). Retrieved from https://news.aamc.org/research/article/scientists-closer-ever-earlier-treatments-autism
4. What causes autism? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/causes