What Causes Autism

There is this group of illnesses which are characterized by serious development problems which occur in early childhood, generally before age 3. The group is known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These developmental problems are basically the inability to socialize, build relationships with others, communicate, and form imagination. It is known that about 10 to 20 out of every 10,000 people fall prey to this disorder. Also, boys seem to be more susceptible to develop autism, than girls, by 4 times. It is unfortunate to learn that this severe disorder has no cure. However, most cases have proved the point that early and intensive medical intervention do make a significant degree of difference in improving the quality of life of many children with this disorder.

Autism Symptoms

It is important to know that the symptoms may vary by a wide degree from child to child, even though it affects the ability to interact and communicate with other people. Some may exhibit mild symptoms, while in some, there might be disabling signs. Also, some children may be affected by this disease in their infancy, while some may suddenly exhibit symptoms after a few years of their birth. The most common autism symptoms in infants and children may include:

• One early sign of autism may be the child's inability to talk before the age of 2, and have other development problems before a span of 30 months.
• Another important symptom is an unresponsive nature, such as, failing to respond upon being called, poor eye contact, and having an uncaring attitude for others feeling.
• Children suffering from autism prefer playing or staying alone more often than not.
• Social gestures like cuddling, hugging, kissing, and the like, are some things that the affected children tend not to get involved in.
• The child may face a great deal of challenge in continuing a conversation, even if he/she knows how to speak.
• Even if the child has been able to learn certain words or sentences, he/she tend to lose their knowledge with time.
• One of the classic autism signs is a repetitive behavior of the child like rocking, hand-flapping, arranging toys in the same way over and over, repeating words or phrases without understanding them, etc.
• One severe symptom that has been seen in some autistic children is a lack of sensation to pain.
• Other symptoms may include lack of imagination or impaired creativity, following a routine-based living, becoming preoccupied by strange things, may be over sensitive to light or sound, and speaking with an abnormal tone.

Causal Factors of Autism

Given the very complex nature of autism, experts have not been able to come up with a solid theory regarding its specific causes. For this reason, autism is also regarded as an idiopathic disorder. However, scientists have assumed that genetic problems, and several kinds of environmental factors may have a major part to contribute in the onset of this disorder in a person.

In mainstream medical science, autism is a subject of great controversy. The reason behind this is an assumption which advocates a link between autism and vaccinations that are given to a child in its early years of life. There have been many cases wherein, parents have purported the fact that the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine has something to do with the development of this condition in their children. This vaccine is usually given to a child at 12-15 months of age. So what might have happened in some cases is, the symptoms of autism might have surfaced within a few weeks after this vaccination. This according to most experts is regarded as an unrelated chance of occurrence. So this might specify the fact that, even if such children wouldn't have taken the vaccination, they would have developed the disorder in any case. So it is important to know that till date, there has been no substantial evidence which could prove the fact that vaccinations could be a possible cause of autism.

As mention, as of now there has been no major breakthrough that can help cure autism, probably because, its causes are still unknown. But it is also true that if parents are aware enough to detect symptoms such as the ones mentioned above, and start a hasty, intensive, and highly structured treatment program (which includes special education, behavior modification, and therapy for improving speech, physical and occupational aspects), then results may be commendable and satisfying.