Diagnostic Criteria: For autism, there are many different indicators that one may have this developmental disorder. If a child has repetitive and restricted patterns of behavior, activities and interests, impairments in communication or social interaction, it could be a sign that they are experiencing this developmental delay. According to information from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, a child must meet at least six of the characteristics listed above. Autism is a “spectrum disorder” which means that a child could have symptoms that range from mild to severe. While the symptoms of autism can be detected as early as eighteen-months old, a more reliable diagnosis can be made once the …show more content…
The first recorded case of autism came later in 1943 when a child psychiatrist, Leo Kanner, “published a paper describing 11 children who were highly intelligent but displayed ‘a powerful desire for aloneness' and ‘an obsessive insistence on persistent sameness’. He later names their condition ‘early infantile autism’” (Source 2). (b) While autism was not created, however, the term was created when “Eugen Bleuler used it to describe a schizophrenic patient who had withdrawn into his own world [derived from the] Greek word ‘autós’, meaning self and the word ‘autism’. Bleuler came up with the term to mean morbid self-admiration and withdrawal within self” (Source 3 ). Autism is classified as one of the pervasive development disorders (PDD) which exhibit the same basic characteristics previously discussed. (c) Because the causes of autism are still being discussed, the one thing that is known is that it is a genetic disorder. And due to the fact that the causes are unknown, the cure for autism is also …show more content…
This is a drastic drop from the 1 in 150 seen just 14 years earlier in 2000. (a) Due to the fact that there is no cure for autism, most people live with the disorder for life. Approximately 16.8 out of 1000 children have seen and experienced how prevalent and widespread this disorder is. (b) There is also a vast difference in the number of females versus males diagnosed with autism. For every one female diagnosed with autism, 4 males are diagnosed. While it is unknown why so there is such a large difference between the number of men and women diagnosed, some believe it is because males are “more susceptible to organic damage than women” (Source 3). In a scholarly review article done by Hannah Furfaro, she found that the research showed: “White children are about 19 percent more likely than African American children and 65 percent more likely than Hispanic children to be diagnosed with autism” (Source 4). The author then goes on to mention that the higher percentage of Caucasian children diagnosed could be credited toward the higher levels of socioeconomic