What is autism and how does it impact a child's development?

Autism is a development disability that affects the way people communicate, interact with peers and people and their behavior. Kids who have autism may start showing signs around the age of 18 months, but these signs are usually seen between the age of 2 and 3. Autism is a life-long condition and it is a spectrum disorder. Spectrum disorder means that people can experience a wide range of symptoms and the level of severity. 1% of the world population is affected by these disorders. There are three common forms of autism which are Autistic Disorder or “Classic Autism”, Pervasive Development Disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome but now these are all known as Autism Spectrum Disorders or ASD. Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD-NOS) has symptoms that are more severe than Asperger’s Syndrome but not as intense as classic autism. Asperger’s Syndrome is on the mild side of the spectrum and people with this syndrome can be very intelligent and focused on topics that are interesting to them, but they have a harder time socializing. Autistic Disorder is more severe than Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder. There is another form of autism, but this is very rare and isn’t counted in the spectrum. It’s the Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, the most severe and the scariest. In this disorder the kids develop normally until the age 2-4 and then quickly lose many of their social, language, mental skills. They can also develop a seizure disorder. There are many therapies available to help with severity of autism and improve the skills and symptoms, but it cannot be fully cured. There are many ways that the development of kids with autism is impacted. Children with autism usually have difficulty with join attention which means difficulty using eye contact and gestures share experiences with others. This also makes it harder for kids to develop their communication, language and learning skills. This doesn’t allow them to be involved in situations where they learn how to take turns, interpret facial expressions etc. They find it harder to understand other people and their perspectives. Therefore, they can’t predict other people’s behaviour and how their behaviour and actions and affecting others. Typical developing kids develop these skills around the age of 3-5 years but kids with autism take longer. A child faces difficulty putting details together to see the whole picture. An example to help understand this better is that a child might remember the tiny little details form a story but forget the overall plot or meaning of the story. Other challenges that a child with autism faces are focus, attention, transitions, organisation, memory, time management, emotional control, frustration, repetitive behaviors etc. Theses are just such of the many challenges they face. In conclusion, autism does impact a child in many ways and we can only acknowledge and understand those factors if we are aware about autism and think like the child would.