Though autism is not a new disorder, only a few people fully understand it. So, we will discuss it in detail, including its types, causes, and symptoms. Autism is a brain disorder and doctors also call it ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder. It involves social interactions and communication issues. Those with ASD depict strange and stereotypical behaviors.
The disease has nothing to do with culture, race, or gender, as it can affect anyone. However, research shows that autism is more common among boys than girls, consisting of 4 to 1, boy to girl ratio.
Types Of ASD
According to the APA, American Psychiatric Association, there is a variety of autism disorders, such as
- Involving Intellectual impairment
- Involving language impairment
- Due to genetics or the environment
- Some other behavioral and mental disorders
- Autism with catatonia
A person with autism can have either one or more than one type. Sometimes the autistic patient has some other disorders, like Asperger’s syndrome, autistic, childhood disintegrative syndrome, or pervasive development disorder.
ASD Symptoms
Autism has certain symptoms that appear between 1 to 2 years of age. But, in some cases, these symptoms appear before one year or after two years of age. The symptoms of this disorder in a young child often include delayed social development or language learning issue. The symptoms fall into two types, such as;
Communication And Social Interactions Issues
- Inability to continue the conversion
- Inability to show interests and emotions
- Lack of eye contact
- Unable to understand the body language
- Unable to maintain relationships
Restricted And Repetitive Behavior Issues
- Restricted interests
- Speech or movement repetition
- Poor response to certain sounds
- Rigid behaviors
- Fixed routine
Experts evaluate autism patients according to the category and intensity of the symptoms. Doctors declare autism in a person having all symptoms from the first type and two symptoms from another type.
Reasons Behind Autism
Research shows that one cannot specify the cause of autism, and it could be anything as described below. Other than the above studies and paracetamol being a cause of autism, there are certain possible risk factors, such as;
- Family history or genetic mutation
- Disorders like fragile-X syndrome
- Older mom giving birth
- An underweight newborn baby
- Previous viral infections
- Metabolic disorders
- Environmental toxins or vulnerability to heavy metals
Environment and genetics can determine if the child would develop autism or not, according to the NINDS, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. These resources also found that vaccines don’t cause autism, as there was a controversial study that claimed that certain vaccines cause autism.