Autism By: Shayla Miles Symptoms Symptoms of autism may include the following: • • • • • • • • Avoiding eye contact or no eye contact Delay in learning to speak Flat or Monotonous speech Inappropriate social interaction Repeating words or phrases Social withdrawal Intense focus with one topic Defects in language comprehension Treatments? • There are no treatments for the disease but there are treatments/medication for side effects such as depression, seizures, insomnia, and trouble focusing. No cure • Sadly, there is no cure for Autism, but as said on the previous slide, there are cures for some of the side effects such as depression, seizures, insomnia, and trouble focusing. How is Autism inherited? • Autism is among the most heritable of all neuropsychiatric conditions. • These genes can be passed on through generations, but they are only seen if someone inherits two identical genes, one from each parent. • When Christopher A. Walsh conducted a study about the inheritance with autism, he found that the risk of autism could also be attributed to inherited mutations that resulted in only a partial loss of gene function. Is autism common? Most children get diagnosed around or after age 4, but it can be diagnosed reliably at the age of 2. In total, 1 in 59 children have gotten autism in 2018. Is it most common in a certain race or gender? 1 in 37 boy get diagnosed with autism while 1 in 151 girls get it. In terms of race, it is more common in Americans than other races. white/American children are 19% more likely to have autism than black children and 65% more likely than Hispanic children. This tells How long is the life span of people with autism? It is very sad, but people with autism do die younger than others. Some researchers found that adults with autism and learning disabilities die 16 years earlier at the average age of 54. It does depend on if you have learning disabilities, for example adults with autism but no learning disabilities die at the age of 58. How is the family of a person with this disease effected? It effects the family a lot because this person requires extra care and attention. There are complex needs of people with autism so meeting those needs can cause lots of stress on the family members helping. What I learned from this slide show • What is autism • How it effects people • Symptoms • Behavior Reference Slide • https://www.genome.gov/Genetic-Disorders/Autism • https://www.medicinenet.com/autism_symptoms_and_signs/symptoms.ht m • https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/4624 • https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-facts-and-figures • https://autismsciencefoundation.org/ • https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/race-class-contribute-disparitiesautism-diagnoses/ • https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20160318/autism-earlydeaths • https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/living.html
