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Mental Disorders: An Overview Of Autism

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An Overview of Autism
As a future Speech Language Pathologist and educator, it is important to consider a vast variety of mental disorders when dealing with patients or students. The importance is evident because disorders affect how your clients respond to treatment or social interaction in general. It is imperative to be aware of a disorder’s affect on children, short term and long term. In terms of speech development, the effects of such a disorder are even more important to note. In this instance, I will examine autism, a developmental disability that takes place on a lifelong basis. It has an influence on how patients communicate or interact with others in their multitude of facets of life. First, I will look into a general overview …show more content…
The biggest characteristic of autism is an impairment in social communication and interaction with largely repeated behaviors or mannerisms. Generally speaking, boys have a higher chance at being born with autism. According to the author, the male population is four times as likely to have autism (usually the first born child of a family), however, females with autism are affected quite differently. As far as the detection of autism, it is mostly prevalent and noticeable in the first two to three years of life, even though it can be very difficult to pinpoint when the onset of autism and its symptoms (Fredericks …show more content…
There is actually much speculation even to this day about what causes autism and how it develops. Autism was once considered to be a rare disorder, however, in current times, the number of children who have been identified with autism is increasing exponentially (Ozonoff 3). With the increasing case load, it is extremely important for the research in the field to continue to grow as well. According to the author of Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Autism, the ‘research into the causes of autism has advanced greatly in the last several years and revealed new evidence of biomedical cases.” (Fredericks 9). One recent research study was conducted through Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and found that people with two versions of the MET gene were twice as likely to have autism. In the genes of autistic youth, there have been citations where small adjustments took place between their generation and their parent’s. Although these changes were very slight, they happen on a large scale (Fredericks). In addition to the genetic factor that causes autism, autistic behavior can also be due to other diseases in the patient or the patient’s mother. Such diseases include rubella in the patient’s mother, tuberous sclerosis, fragile X syndrome, encephalitis, phenylketonuria, and the list goes on (Fredericks

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