WHAT IS CEREBRAL PALSY

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What Is Cerebral Palsy

The Nervous System

Human Brain Anatomy

Unique  CP Symptoms

Severe CP

 Aging with Cerebral Palsy

 Driving and Cerebral Palsy

Living With AutismTV Show

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Chest Physical Therapy For CP new

                           

       What is the definition of cerebral palsy? Cerebral palsy is a term used to describe a group of chronic conditions affecting body movements and muscle coordination. It is caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, usually occurring during fetal development or infancy. It also can occur before, during or shortly following birth.


"Cerebral" refers to the brain and "Palsy" to a disorder of movement or posture.  If someone has cerebral palsy it means that because of an injury to their brain (cerebral) they are not able to use some of the muscles in their body in the normal way (palsy). Children with cerebral palsy may not be able to walk, talk, eat or play in the same ways as most other children.


Cerebral palsy is neither progressive nor communicable. It is also not "curable" in the accepted sense, although education, therapy and applied technology can help persons with cerebral palsy lead productive lives. It is important to know that cerebral palsy is not a disease or illness. It isn't contagious and it doesn't get worse. Children who have cerebral palsy will have it all their lives.

                                                                                                                  

What Causes Cerebral Palsy?

Congenital cerebral palsy results from brain injury during a baby's development in the womb. It is present at birth, although it may not be detected for months. It is responsible for about 70% of children who have cerebral palsy. An additional 20% are diagnosed with congenital cerebral palsy due to a brain injury during the birthing process. In most cases, the cause of congenital cerebral palsy is unknown. Some other causes are

Infections during pregnancy

 that may damage a fetus' developing nervous system. These include rubella (German measles), cytomegalovirus (a herpes-type virus), and toxoplasmosis (an infection caused by a parasite that can be carried in cat feces or inadequately cooked meat). Other infections in pregnant women that may go undetected are being recognized now as an important cause of developmental brain damage of the fetus.  

Severe jaundice in the infant. 

Jaundice is caused by excessive bilirubin in the blood. Normally, bilirubin is filtered out by the liver. But often, newborns' livers need a few days to start doing this effectively, so it's not uncommon for infants to have jaundice for a few days after birth. In most cases, phototherapy (light therapy) clears up jaundice, and there are no lasting health effects. However, in rare cases, severe, untreated jaundice can damage brain cells.  
Rh incompatibility between mother and infant.
 In this blood condition, the mother's body produces antibodies that destroy the fetus's blood cells. This, in turn, leads to a form of jaundice in the newborn and may cause brain damage.  
The physical and metabolic trauma of being born. This can precipitate brain damage in a fetus whose health has been threatened during developmen

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Autism (ASD) HOME

Introduction

If you are the parent or caregiver of a school-age child who has

been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), this

booklet is written for you.

Receiving a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder can be an

overwhelming experience. You may have received other diagnoses

before the ASD diagnosis was made, or this may be the first

diagnosis given to your child. Either way, an ASD diagnosis can

explain some of the differences you have observed during your

child’s development and can also provide a direction for appropriate

interventions at home, in school, and in the community.

Included in this booklet are questions that parents frequently

ask when their school-age child receives an ASD diagnosis,

and brief answers containing links to resources with more

detailed information.

                 <-------------------------------///-

Important Topics

• 
  
• What is Autism
• What causes autism?
• Symptoms of Autism
• Challenges faced by ageing people with autism and their families
• Rights of ageing people with autism 

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Mentally Retarded Children

THE   MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN

The guidace about Mentally Retarded Children.

How does Mental Retardation affect the child? Developmental aspects .

 support in various aspects to cope with basic needs in daily life. 

Severe. Profound.

-------Important Topics-------

• What is Mental Retardation Child? 
• 
  
• What Causes Mental Retardation?
• What Are the Signs  of Mental Retardation?
• Questions  about the treatment of mental  illness in children 

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Chest Physical Therapy

Chest Physical Therapy

(CPT) For Cerebral palsy Child

What is CPT?

Chest Physical Therapy (CPT) is something you can do to help your child
breathe better.  Sometimes there is too much mucus, or it is too thick. It blocks
the air from moving in and out of your child’s lungs.  Mucus makes it hard for
your child to breathe.  Mucus that sits too long in the lungs can also grow germs
that can make your child sick.  CPT helps to loosen your child’s mucus, so your
child can cough it up.
Think about how you would take Jell-O
out of a mold.  You tilt the mold over,
then shake it and tap it to loosen the Jell-O
.  Mucus is like that Jell-O , and CPT
helps to get it out.

Airways   Air moves through these and into your lungs.  The airways of the nose
and throat lead to the big airways in the chest.  The big airways branch off into
smaller airways in the lungs.  The big airways are like a trunk of a tree, and the
small airways, like the branches.
Chest Physical Therapy (CPT)  is something you can do to loosen your child’s
mucus.  The three parts to CPT are postural drainage, percussion and deep
breathing and coughing.Percussion  is clapping  the chest.  Percuss
means to tap sharply.  A drum is a percussion  instrument.
 Percussion  in CPT can be done with  either a cupped hand  or an electric percussor.
The clapping shakes the  inside of the chest and  loosens mucus, so it is easier to cough out.
Postural Drainage  moves the mucus by changing the child’s position.  Mucus,
like water, moves from high places to low places.  Tilting the child helps move
the mucus from the small airways at the bottom of the lungs to the large airways
in the middle.  The most mucus moves into the large airways when you do
percussion and postural drainage together.
Deep breathing and coughing  helps to move the loosened mucus.
Lobe  is a section of the lung.  The left lung has two lobes, and the right lung
has three lobes.

• Before Doing CPT

• It is best to do CPT before meals or at least one to two hours after eating.  
  This will make it less likely that the child will feel sick to the stomach or
  throw up.
• The best times for CPT are early morning and at bed time.  Early morning
  CPT helps remove the mucus that built up over night.  Bed time CPT
  takes out the mucus of the day, and helps the child cough less at night.
    Your doctor may want you to do CPT more often.
• Your doctor may prescribe medicine to open the airways.  This may come as an
  SVN (small volume nebulizer) or an MDI (metered dose inhaler).  This
  medicine should be taken before CPT.  The medicine, positioning and
  percussion all work together to clear the mucus from the lungs.
• The person doing the CPT should take off all rings and jewelry on the hands or
  wrists.
• If the child’s clothing is tight or has thick seams, remove it.
• If the child is wearing clothes with buttons, remove it.
• Have the child wear a t-shirt or put a soft cloth over the spot that will be  
  percussed.

• What You Need:

• A place to do CPT.  You will need a bed, pillows, a couch, floor or a special
  table (slant board).
• Your hand or a percussor.
• A clock or a timer, to know how long to percuss.

• How to do:

• Always percuss over the ribs.  Never percuss below the ribs or on the stomach.
  The lungs are in the chest, protected by the ribs.  Never percuss on the
  backbone, breast bone, nipples or on any IV tubes or feeding tubes.
• Do CPT in each spot for
  p 2 minutes   p 3 minutes or  p ____ minutes.
    (Health Care Provider:  check one)
  Your doctor will tell you how long to percuss.
  One session of CPT should take 20 to 40 minutes.
• Usually, CPT is done in all the positions and percussion in all the spots.  
  Your doctor may have you do more in some areas, where the chest x-ray  shows more mucus.
• If your child’s mucus has bright red blood in it, stop the CPT and call your
  doctor.



 1 Top Upper Lobes

• Sit the child up.  Tilt the child half way between sitting up and laying flat.
• Percuss between the nipple and collarbone on the left side of the chest for
  2 minutes  3 minutes or minutes.
• Percuss between the nipple and collarbone on the right side of the chest for
   2 minutes   3 minutes or minutes.


2  Back Upper Lobes

• Sit the child up.  Tilt the child half way between sitting up and laying flat.
• Percuss over the shoulder blade on the left side of the back for
   2 minutes p 3 minutes  or  minutes.
• Percuss over the shoulder blade on the right side of the back for
   2 minutes   3 minutes  or  minutes.





3 Front Upper Lobes

• Lie child on his or her back.
• Percuss between the nipple and the collarbone on the left side for 2 minutes  3 minutes or  minutes.
• Percuss between the nipple and the collarbone on the right side for  2 minutes 3 minutes or minutes.




4 Front Right Middle Lobe

• Lie child down on his or her left side, feet higher than head.
• Percuss below the right arm, but above the bottom edge of the ribs, for
 2 minutes  3 minutes  or  minutes.





5  Side of Right Lung

• Lie child on his or her back, feet higher than head.
• Turn the child to his or her left, half way between back and side.
• Percuss between the child’s right nipple and underarm for
   2 minutes   3 minutes  or  minutes.







6  Front Left Lower Lobe•

 Lie child on his or her back, feet higher than head.
• Turn the child to his or her right, half way between back and side.
• Percuss between the child’s left nipple and underarm for  2 minutes   3 minutes
  or minutes.





7  Side of Left Lung

• Lie child down on his or her right side, feet higher than head.
• Percuss below the left arm but above the bottom edge of the ribs for
  2 minutes  3 minutes  or   minutes.




8  Back Lower Lobes

• Lie child on his or her stomach, feet higher than head.
• Percuss over the middle of the right ribs, above the bottom edge of the ribs for
   2 minutes  3 minutes or  minutes.
• Percuss over the middle of the left ribs above the bottom edge of the ribs for
   2 minutes   3 minutes
  or   minutes.

• After the treatment:

• Your child may cough more during or after CPT.  Coughing helps your child
  get rid of the loosened mucus.
• Your child may cough up to one or two hours after CPT.  Even if no mucus
  comes up, the CPT is working.
• After swallowing a lot of mucus, your child may feel sick to the stomach or  
  throw up.  As soon as your child is old enough to learn to spit, teach him
  or her how to spit the mucus into a tissue.
• If your child does not stop throwing up, call your doctor.

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Rights of Ageing People with Autism

In recent years, the European Union has undertaken remarkable steps to enforce equal 

rights for citizens with disabilities. The  EU has ratifed the United Nations Convention on the 

Rights of Persons with Disabilities in December 2010, and to date most of its Member States 

have also ratifed  it. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

is an international human rights instrument intended to protect the rights and dignity of 

people with disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect, and 

ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by people with disabilities on an equal basis with 

others.

 There are eight guiding principles that underlie the Convention and each one of its 

specifc articles:

1.  Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s 

own choices, and independence of persons; 

2.  Non-discrimination; 

3.  Full and efective participation and inclusion in society;

4.  Respect  for diference  and acceptance of persons with disabilities  as part of  human

diversity and humanity; 

5.  Equality of opportunity; 

6.  Accessibility; 

7.  Equality between men and women; 

8.  Respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabilities and respect for the right 

of children with disabilities to preserve their identities.

In this context, the rights of ageing people with disabilities should not be forgotten. People 

with autism, their families or representatives, and relevant organisations must gain a strong 

understanding of  their  rights and  governments must fulfl  their  obligations under  the

UNCRPD.

The intersection of age and disability has not yet been taken into account by the European 

Union and its Member States’ legislators and policy makers in the context of implementing 

the UNCRPD. Across Europe, people with disabilities currently face a gap between policy and 

practice, for example, in France – a country  which has ratifed the UNCRPD – a person over

the age of 60 years is no longer considered a person with a disability in relation to welfare 

payments. Instead, a person aged over 60 years is simply considered an older person, 

regardless of their disability and individual needs. In this case, government allowances are 

signifcantly lower and the individual may be required to pay up to 90 percent of their long-

term care costs. Therefore, in France, older people have an interest in becoming incapacitated 

before the age of 60 years.

 This gap in understanding and addressing the needs of older 

people with disabilities must be addressed as part of the implementation of the UNCRPD. 

Taking due account of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with 

Disabilities, the Council of Europe has adopted the Recommendation on ageing and disability 

in the 21st

 century35

 in 2009. In its recommendation, the Council of Europe indicates that the 

ageing of people with disabilities, particularly of those requiring more intensive support, 

compels Member States to adopt innovative approaches. In this regard, the Council of 

Europe notes that “the quantity and quality of community-based and residential support 

services in this feld have been unsatisfactory, especially for people with learning disabilities.

Older people with disabilities have sufered a double disadvantage, as seen in their relatively

low priority in health- and social-care policies and provision.”

With due regard for their own national, regional or local structures and respective 

responsibilities, the Council of Europe Member States should contribute to the creation of 

sustainable frameworks to enable greater quality of life in an inclusive society for ageing 

people with disabilities.

The following recommendations formulated by Autism-Europe take into account the United 

Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the articles 25 and 26 of the 

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (on the rights of the elderly and 

people with disabilities), as well as the Recommendation of the Council of Europe on ageing 

and disability in the 21st century. They are also based on Autism-Europe’s position paper on 

ageing that was published in 2003. These recommendations are addressed to policy makers 

as guidance in fulflling their obligations to older people with autism.

The right to an independent life and self-determination (art. 19 of the UNCRPD) 

People with autism and other types of disabilities requiring a high level of support have 

the right to make decisions for their own future, and to ask for  the provisions of the UN 

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to be respected.

The right to maintain or improve the quality of health (art. 25 of the UNCRPD)

People with autism should be provided with the necessary means to ensure:

•  Prevention of health problems related to ageing, notably through regular check-ups and 
screenings;
•  Accurate diagnosis and accurate information on their specifc health condition;
• Prevention of problems related  to  their  specifc health conditions  (e.g. osteoarthritis due to stereotypy); 
•Treatment of individual health conditions.

• 
  

The right to maintain and improve communication and social interaction (art 9 and art 26 of the UNCRPD)

Older people with autism should be provided with access to adapted/alternative means of 

communication and visual information. 

Where possible,  inter-generational dialogue involving older people with autism should be 

fostered by:

•  Participation in cultural events and other leisure or sports activities with younger people 

in the broader community; 

• Facilitatation of contact between schools, youth organisations and structures for older 

people with autism. 

The right to appropriate intervention (art 26 of the UNCRPD)

Multidisciplinary assessment and co-ordination of interventions should be provided for 

people with autism throughout their lifespan, including during old age, while taking into 

account:

• The functional abilities of the older person;

•The interests and wishes of the older person and his/her family.

Individualised support plans for people with autism should be designed and put into practice 

with the main objectives of:

• Improving and maintaining skills for autonomy in the home or residence;

• Improving and maintaining social skills in community activities

The right to have services to provide a good quality of life (art 26 of the UNCRPD)

Older people with autism should be fully and directly involved throughout the process of 

designing, implementing and evaluating services that aim to meet their needs. Families, care 

providers and friends should also be involved in these processes, as appropriate services 

should be the result of a dialogue between relevant stakeholders. A diversity of accredited 

services must also be available. 

Service users with autism and their families/representatives must have permanent contact 

and dialogue with the staf, the opportunity to express  their needs, priorities, hopes and

desires, and to participate fully in the development, monitoring and review of individual 

support plans.

In order to achieve these goals, services should provide specifc,  qualifed interventions

consequent to contemporary knowledge in the feld of autism. Services should also have

a stable and reliable structure that adopts quality standards related to the quality of life 

of the users and is based on a set of rules defning responsibilities, day-to-day routines and procedures. 

These measures will enable  family and staf members  to identify the  individual needs of

people with autism. These measures will also provide a way of reducing the risk of isolation 

and exclusion.

The right to education and lifelong learning (art 24 of the UNCRPD)

Relevant services must provide a learning environment and education facilities adapted 

to older people with autism. For people with autism, throughout their lifespan, education 

represents a lot more than a basic right. Lifelong education is necessary to compensate 

for the great  difculties that people with autism have in extracting meaning  from simple

experiences (something most other people are capable of without specifc educational

support) and to attain the highest possible degree of self-sufciency.

The right to housing facilities (art 19 and 23 of UNCRPD)

People with autism must be supported to remain in their own homes as long as they can, 

like other ageing people, or live in places where they were accustomed to spending time 

before retiring from ’active life’. Preparation for the changes in living arrangements must be 

carefully planned. New environments must be adapted to the specifc needs of each person with autism.

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Challenges faced by ageing people with autism and their families

It  is important to refect on the defnition of  elderly’ or  ‘old age’ when applied to people

with autism. General chronological and biological age do not always coincide when people 

age, thus it is difcult to defne old age’ by a specifc age range. The health status,capacities,

level of social interaction, etc., of people with autism can vary widely, even within the same 

age group. Thus, the heterogeneity of older people should be taken into account when 

determining the age-specifc  care that should be available and some people with 

autism may

need specifc attention in relation to ageing at an earlier stage than the general population.

While the overall life expectancy of people with autism remains lower than for other 

individuals, their life expectancy is increasing along with the general population.

 According 

to various surveys, individuals with learning disabilities have a reduced life expectancy, 

however, as for the general population, the life expectancy for this group is increasing.

These studies are also indicative of increased life expectancy for people with autism, who 

can have diferent degrees’ of learning disability.

• Who will care? 

Most older adults with disabilities no longer have their parents to take care of them and 

support them to voice their needs. This raises an essential question: what will happen to 

3.3 million older people who have autism when their parents are no longer able to care for 

them or have passed away?

One of the biggest concerns for the families of adults with autism is who will care for them 

when their parents are no longer able to do so. The results of a survey conducted by the 

National Autistic Society in 2012 showed that 96 percent of parents who responded are 

worried about their son/daughter’s future when they are no longer able to support them. 

Of these, 68 percent described themselves as ‘very worried’, and 28 percent said they are 

quite worried’.30

Among the survey respondents, 35 percent had made some plans for what will happen if 

they are no longer able to support their son/daughter, but only 4 percent said they had 

planned a lot. This leaves a large number of people worried about what will happen to their 

son or daughter when they are unable to support them, but very few who have made plans 

for them.  

Recently in France, a 49 year-old man with a mental disability (who had been left without  support after the death of his mother last year) died alone in their apartment. The man’s 

body was found, months later, mummifed. This case involving a man with a mental disability

illustrates the same problem that people who have autism face: a severe lack of services 

that leave people alone and vulnerable.  

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Symptoms of Autism

Autism affects the way an individual perceives the 
world and makes communication and social interac-
tion diffcult. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are 
characterized by social-interaction diffculties, 
communication challenges and a tendency to engage 
in repetitive behaviors. However, symptoms and their 
severity vary widely across these three core areas. 
Taken together, they may result in relatively mild 
challenges for someone on the high functioning end 
of the autism spectrum. For others, symptoms may 
be more severe, as when repetitive behaviors and 
lack of spoken language interfere with everyday life.
While autism is usually a life long condition, all 
children and adults beneft from interventions, or 
therapies, that can reduce symptoms and increase 
skills and abilities. Although it is best to begin inter-
vention as soon as possible, the benefts of therapy 
can continue throughout life. The long term outcome 
is highly variable. A small percentage of children 
lose their diagnosis over time, while others remain 
severely affected.  Many have normal cognitive 
skills, despite challenges in social and language 
abilities. Many individuals with autism develop 
speech and learn to communicate with others. 
Early intervention can make extraordinary differ-
ences in your child’s development. How your child 
is functioning now may be very different from how 
he or she will function later on in life.

• Social symptoms

Typically developing infants are social by nature. 
They gaze at faces, turn toward voices, grasp a 
fnger and even smile by 2 to 3 months of age. By 
contrast, most children who develop autism have 
diffculty engaging in the give-and-take of everyday 
human interactions. By 8 to 10 months of age, many 
infants who go on to develop autism are showing 
some symptoms such as failure to respond to their 
names, reduced interest in people and delayed 
babbling. By toddlerhood, many children with autism 
have diffculty playing social games, don’t imitate the 
actions of others and prefer to play alone. They may 
fail to seek comfort or respond to parents’ displays 
of anger or affection in typical ways.
Research suggests that children with autism are 
attached to their parents. However, the way they 
express this attachment can be unusual. To parents, 
it may seem as if their child is disconnected. Both 
children and adults with autism also tend to have diff-
culty interpreting what others are thinking and feeling. 
Subtle social cues such as a smile, wave or grimace 
may convey little meaning. To a person who misses 
these social cues, a statement like “Come here!” 
may mean the same thing, regardless of whether the 
speaker is smiling and extending her arms for a hug or frowning and planting her fsts on her hips. 
Without the ability to interpret gestures and facial 
expressions, the social world can seem bewildering.
Many people with autism have similar diffculty 
seeing things from another person’s perspective. 
Most fve-year-olds understand that other people 
have different thoughts, feelings and goals than they 
have. A person with autism may lack such under-
standing. This, in turn, can interfere with the ability to 
predict or understand another person’s actions.
It is common – but not universal – for those with 
autism to have diffculty regulating emotions. This 
can take the form of seemingly “immature” behavior 
such as crying or having outbursts in inappropriate 
situations. It can also lead to disruptive and physically 
aggressive behavior. The tendency to “lose control” 
may be particularly pronounced in unfamiliar, over-
whelming or frustrating situations. Frustration can 
also result in self-injurious behaviors such as head 
banging, hair pulling or self-biting.
Fortunately, children with autism can be taught how 
to socially interact, use gestures and recognize facial 
expressions. Also, there are many strategies that 
can be used to help the child with autism deal with 
frustration so that he or she doesn’t have to resort 
to challenging behaviors. We will discuss this later.

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What causes autism?

Not long ago, the answer to this question would have 

been “we have no idea.” Research is now delivering 

the answers. First and foremost, we now know that 

there is no one cause of autism, just as there is no 

one type of autism. Over the last fve years, scien-

tists have identifed a number of rare gene changes 

or mutations associated with autism. Research has 

identifed more than 100 autism risk genes. In around 

15% of cases, a specifc genetic cause of a person’s 

autism can be identifed. However, most cases in-

volve a complex and variable combination of genetic 

risk and environmental factors that infuence early 

brain development.

In other words, in the presence of a genetic pre-

disposition to autism, a number of non-genetic or 

environmental infuences further increase a child’s 

risk. The clearest evidence of these environmental 

risk factors involves events before and during birth. 

They include advanced parental age at time of con-

ception (both mom and dad), maternal illness during 

pregnancy, extreme prematurity, very low birth weight 

and certain diffculties during birth, particularly those 

involving periods of oxygen deprivation to the baby’s 

brain. Mothers exposed to high levels of pesticides 

and air pollution may also be at higher risk of having 

a child with ASD. It is important to keep in mind that 

these factors, by themselves, do not cause autism. 

Rather, in combination with genetic risk factors, they 

appear to modestly increase risk.

A small but growing body of research suggests that 

autism risk is lower among children whose mothers 

took prenatal vitamins (containing folic acid) in the 

months before and after conception.

Increasingly, researchers are looking at the role of 

the immune system in autism. Autism Speaks is 

working to increase awareness and investigation of 

these and other issues where further research has 

the potential to improve the lives of those who 

struggle with autism.

While the causes of autism are complex, it is abun-

dantly clear that it is not caused by bad parenting. 

Dr. Leo Kanner, the psychiatrist who frst described 

autism as a unique condition in 1943, believed that 

it was caused by cold, unloving mothers. Bruno 

Bettelheim, a renowned professor of child develop-

ment, perpetuated this misinterpretation of autism. 

Their promotion of the idea that unloving mothers 

caused their children’s autism created a generation of 

parents who carried the tremendous burden of guilt 

for their child’s disability. In the 1960s and 70s, 

Dr. Bernard Rimland, the father of a son with autism 

who later founded the Autism Society of America and 

the Autism Research Institute, helped the medical 

community understand that autism is a biological 

disorder and is not caused by cold parents.

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What is Autism?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are 

both general terms for a group of complex disorders 

of brain development. These disorders are charac-

terized, in varying degrees, by diffculties in social 

interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and 

repetitive behaviors. With the May 2013 publication 

of the ffth edition of the American Psychiatric 

Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 

of Mental Disorders (commonly referred to as the 

DSM-5), all autism disorders were merged into 

one umbrella diagnosis of ASD. Previously, they 

were recognized as distinct subtypes, including 

autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative 

disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not 

otherwise specifed (PDD-NOS) and Asperger 

Syndrome. The DSM is the main diagnostic 

reference used by mental health professionals and 

insurance providers in the United States.

You may also hear the terms Classic Autism or 

Kanner’s Autism (named after the frst psychiatrist to 

describe autism) used to describe the most severe 

form of the disorder. Under the current DSM-5, the 

diagnosis of autism requires that at least six develop-

mental and behavioral characteristics are observed, 

that problems are present before the age of three and 

that there is no evidence of certain other conditions 

that are similar.  

• What is Common is Autism?

Autism statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC) released in March 

2014 identify around 1 in 68 American children as on 

the autism spectrum – a ten-fold increase in preva-

lence in 40 years. Careful research shows that this 

increase is only partly explained by improved diag-

nosis and awareness. Studies also show that autism 

is four to fve times more common among boys than 

girls. An estimated 1 out of 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls 

are diagnosed with autism in the United States.

ASD affects over 2 million individuals in the U.S. 

and tens of millions worldwide. Moreover, govern-

ment autism statistics suggest that prevalence rates 

have increased 10% to 17% annually in recent 

years. There is no established explanation for this 

continuing increase, although improved diagnosis 

and environmental infuences are two reasons 

often considered.

• Behaviour

Children with autism often engage in a restricted range of behaviours, interests and activities 

in a repetitive and stereotypic way. For example, they may concentrate intensively on an activ-

ity such as spinning the wheels on a toy car or lining up toys time and time again, but much 

more seldom engage in spontaneous and varying games of pretend and role playing. Fixations 

on different objects are common, as well as fxations on very complicated habits and routines 

that must be repeated in exactly the same way each time. A departure from such a routine or 

ritual can cause an outburst of despair or rage. Any sort of change, such as something being in 

a different place or something being done in a different order than usual, can also be hard to 

tolerate for a person with autism. Slightly older, more well-gifted children may especially have 

periods of one-sided and narrow interests such as time tables, others’ birth dates, the popula-

tion of all Swedish towns, etc. It is also common for children with autism to continuously wave 

their hands, rock back and forth and walk on tiptoe. 

In addition to the diagnosed-based behaviours in the three areas named above, other symp-

toms are also common with autism: over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity for certain sounds, 

touches, odours etc; periods of hyperactivity; sleeping and eating disorders, etc. None of these 

are required for a diagnosis of autism.

• What can be done?

Autism is a life-long disability. There is currently no known cure for autism. On the other hand,
many children with autism can develop signifcantly with early, well-planned and individu-
ally tailored educational efforts in specially adapted settings. One of the primary objectives is
to help the child develop functional communication. The educational approaches must focus
on knowledge about the unique ways that children with autism learn. Various ABA strategies
(Applied behaviour analysis) as well as the structured teaching method in the TEACCH-model
(Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children) are
examples of such specially-tailored educational strategies for persons with autism.
Early identifcation, assessment and diagnosis are the frst step. The next step is to provide ac-
curate information for, and education of, parents and other concerned persons as soon as pos-
sible. These, together with promptly applied supportive measures that are both well-planned
and individually tailored, are the long-term basis for being able to help the child to develop. A
specially adapted nursery school and subsequent schooling are important prerequisites for the
child; similarly an adapted home environment and daily activities are equally important for the
adults. Adolescents and adults may need continued access to educational measures to further
develop skills that aim to increase independence and participation, even if these measures had been introduced early. High-functioning persons may require different types of assistance in
organizing their studies and access to various forms of tailored daily activities.
As adults, and for the rest of their lives, most persons with autism are in need of extensive as-
sistance and support. However, some persons may become relatively independent.

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