Gedrene wrote:
Tambourine-Man wrote:
Gedrene wrote:
myth wrote:
Gedrene, I said that this thread does NOT contain flaming and ELSEWHERE I (and I'm sure you) would have been visciously attacked. It was a compliment to you and the members of this forum. I'm not sure you even ever disagreed with me on here.
For all you crisize others for not reading what you said, I'd think you would have been more careful.
My apologies.
I admit to my mistake. Well I am thankful that I haven't actually flamed anyone at all. My apologies Myth; it's hard when people keep trying to play semantic games with you, and then another starts making these desultory impersonal swipes at you with these made up characteristics of autism.
Ok, if the characteristics I listed were ones that I "made up" myself, how would you characterize autism?
What is autism?
I can say what
other people officially call autism at its basic level: It is marked by repetitive behaviours and delays or even in very serious cases regression in verbal and non verbal communication.
All sorts of other 'behaviours' have been attributed to autism, mostly by people who want to try and shmooze their way through and sound intelligent or to fool themselves whereas they're usually presumtuous and/or have a hidden agenda.
From diehard ideologues hoping to smear people with various names to silence them to autistics themselves readily claiming that all sorts of important hisotrical figures were autistic on no evidence to satisfy their lack of pride in a hostile atmosphere, the only spectrum that's clear in evidence is the kind of people who make up things about autism.
What I do is talk about people like me, and they aren't all autistics.
You think you can say that you aren't talking about things that are integral or part and parcel, yet in the end you keep tripping over yourself at the same point.
Just for clarification on what the characteristics and symptoms that distinguish autism are from Wiki; The DSMIV does not go into this type of detail about the criteria.
Note the bolded items about problems with figurative language, (The concept formation aspect of abtract reasoning) shared by high functioning autistic individuals as well as Spelling and Vocabulary that are at times better than actual control groups outside of the autistic population (The concept identification aspect of abstract reasoning).
This quoted description from Wiki is based on the "triad of symptoms" that distinguish and characterize Autism. The other symptoms associated with autism are discussed further in the article, but not in this quote.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism
Characteristics
Autism is a highly variable neurodevelopmental disorder[17] that first appears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steady course without remission.[18] Overt symptoms gradually begin after the age of six months, become established by age two or three years,[19] and tend to continue through adulthood, although often in more muted form.[20]
It is distinguished not by a single symptom, but by a characteristic triad of symptoms: impairments in social interaction; impairments in communication; and restricted interests and repetitive behavior. Other aspects, such as atypical eating, are also common but are not essential for diagnosis.[21] Autism's individual symptoms occur in the general population and appear not to associate highly, without a sharp line separating pathologically severe from common traits.[22]
Social developmentSocial deficits distinguish autism and the related autism spectrum disorders
(ASD; see Classification) from other developmental disorders.[20] People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted. Noted autistic Temple Grandin described her inability to understand the social communication of neurotypicals, or people with normal neural development, as leaving her feeling "like an anthropologist on Mars".[23]
Unusual social development becomes apparent early in childhood. Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name. Autistic toddlers differ more strikingly from social norms; for example, they have less eye contact and turn taking, and do not have the ability to use simple movements to express themselves, such as the deficiency to point at things.[24]
Three- to five-year-old autistic children are less likely to exhibit social understanding, approach others spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, communicate nonverbally, and take turns with others. However, they do form attachments to their primary caregivers.[25]
Most autistic children display moderately less attachment security than non-autistic children, although this difference disappears in children with higher mental development or less severe ASD.[26] Older children and adults with ASD perform worse on tests of face and emotion recognition.[27]
Children with high-functioning autism suffer from more intense and frequent loneliness compared to non-autistic peers, despite the common belief that children with autism prefer to be alone.
Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the number of friends, predicts how lonely they feel. Functional friendships, such as those resulting in invitations to parties, may affect the quality of life more deeply.[28]
There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. The limited data suggest that, in children with mental retardation, autism is associated with aggression, destruction of property, and tantrums. A 2007 study interviewed parents of 67 children with ASD and reported that about two-thirds of the children had periods of severe tantrums and about one-third had a history of aggression, with tantrums significantly more common than in non-autistic children with language impairments.[29] A 2008 Swedish study found that, of individuals aged 15 or older discharged from hospital with a diagnosis of ASD, those who committed violent crimes were significantly more likely to have other psychopathological conditions such as psychosis.[30]
Communication
About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs.[31]
Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the caregiver.
In the second and third years, autistic children have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words.
Autistic children are less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others' words (echolalia)[32][33] or reverse pronouns.[34]
Joint attention seems to be necessary for functional speech, and deficits in joint attention seem to distinguish infants with ASD:[4] for example, they may look at a pointing hand instead of the pointed-at object,[24][33] and they consistently fail to point at objects in order to comment on or share an experience.[4]
Autistic children may have difficulty with imaginative play and with developing symbols into language.[32][33]
In a pair of studies, high-functioning autistic children aged 8–15 performed equally well as, and adults better than, individually matched controls at basic language tasks involving vocabulary and spelling.
Both autistic groups performed worse than controls at complex language tasks such as figurative language, comprehension and inference.
As people are often sized up initially from their basic language skills, these studies suggest that people speaking to autistic individuals are more likely to overestimate what their audience comprehends. [35]
Repetitive behavior
Autistic individuals display many forms of repetitive or restricted behavior, which the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R)[36] categorizes as follows.
A young boy with autism, and the precise line of toys he madeStereotypy is repetitive movement, such as hand flapping, making sounds, head rolling, or body rocking.
Compulsive behavior is intended and appears to follow rules, such as arranging objects in stacks or lines.
Sameness is resistance to change; for example, insisting that the furniture not be moved or refusing to be interrupted.
Ritualistic behavior involves an unvarying pattern of daily activities, such as an unchanging menu or a dressing ritual. This is closely associated with sameness and an independent validation has suggested combining the two factors.[36]
Restricted behavior is limited in focus, interest, or activity, such as preoccupation with a single television program, toy, or game.
Self-injury includes movements that injure or can injure the person, such as eye poking, skin picking, hand biting, and head banging.[4]
A 2007 study reported that self-injury at some point affected about 30% of children with ASD.[29]
No single repetitive or self-injurious behavior seems to be specific to autism, but only autism appears to have an elevated pattern of occurrence and severity of these behaviors.[37]
28 Oct 2011, 8:21 am
