Autism Blog | Autism News and Opinion | Helping Special Needs Children

20 Incredible Colleges for Special Needs Students

 

(http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/09/21/20-incredible-colleges-for-special-needs-students/)

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Having trouble finding what you need? Contact gabrielle@par.net and she will help you.

 

FEATURED ALERT

People Are Worth It! Protect Autism and ID Funding in the FY 11-12 Budget!

Click here to contact your Senator and Representative about the State Budget

Right now, Pennsylvania's legislators are trying to decide what the state budget should be for the next year. They have a lot of hard choices to make. We want them to know that services to people with intellectual disabilities and people with autism are important, and funding for them should not be reduced.

 

The budget that Governor Corbett proposed contains a proposed $27 million cut to funding for food and shelter for people with intellectual disabilities who live in group homes - that cut has the potential to affect almost 16,000 people's lives! And there may be additional cuts proposed as budget talks continue - remember, the Governor's proposed budget is just the first step in the budget process.

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50 Great Blogs & Links for Autism

 “50 Great Blogs & Links for Autism Teachers”

 http://www.doctoraldegrees.org/50-great-blogs-links-for-autism-teachers

Autism and links for jobs and supported employment

In this economy any resources for employment is helpfull specially trying to find a job for an adult with autism. 

jobs4autism.com

 
Transition to Adulthood Program – an Autism Resource
“To improve the lives of adults with autism by providing job skills training, and the supports needed to obtain and sustain meaningful employment.”
That’s the mission of the Transition to Adulthood Program, created thanks to a grant awarded to St. Michael’s Harbor, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, and funded by Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Autism Services.
According to the website,  the program “…is designed to bridge service gaps to aid individuals with ASD in finding meaningful paid employment. TAP works in partnership with local school districts, PA CareerLink, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, and SSA Ticket to Work program to offer integrated vocational services and transitional planning.”
The program “offers support and training for other involved counselors, agencies, or community resources” and “works in partnership with community services to support the full potential for independence in the individual including integration and collaboration with existing community support services, churches, schools, advocacy groups, civic and fraternal organizations to develop the means to solve barriers to independence.”
For more information, go to http://www.transitiontoadulthood.org and http://www.stmichaelsharbour.com

 

Autism children have Mitochondrial Dysfunction

 

 

Children With Autism Have Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Study Finds

(Nov. 30, 2010) — Children with autism are far more likely to have deficits in their ability to produce cellular energy than are typically developing children, a new study by researchers at UC Davis has found. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that cumulative damage and oxidative stress in mitochondria, the cell's energy producer, could influence both the onset and severity of autism, suggesting a strong link between autism and mitochondrial defects.

After the heart, the brain is the most voracious consumer of energy in the body. The authors propose that deficiencies in the ability to fuel brain neurons might lead to some of the cognitive impairments associated with autism. Mitochondria are the primary source of energy production in cells and carry their own set of genetic instructions, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), to carry out aerobic respiration. Dysfunction in mitochondria already is associated with a number of other neurological conditions, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

"Children with mitochondrial diseases may present exercise intolerance, seizures and cognitive decline, among other conditions. Some will manifest disease symptoms and some will appear as sporadic cases," said Cecilia Giulivi, the study's lead author and professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. "Many of these characteristics are shared by children with autism."

The researchers stress that these new findings, which may help physicians provide early diagnoses, do not identify the cause or the effects of autism, which affects as many as 1 in every 110 children in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While previous studies have revealed hints of a connection between autism and mitochondrial dysfunction, these reports have been either anecdotal or involved tissues that might not be representative of neural metabolism.

"It is remarkable that evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction and changes in mitochondrial DNA were detected in the blood of these young children with autism," said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of Autism Speaks, which provided funding for the study. "One of the challenges has been that it has been difficult to diagnose mitochondrial dysfunction because it usually requires a muscle biopsy. If we could screen for these metabolic problems with a blood test, it would be a big step forward."

For the study, Giulivi and her colleagues recruited 10 autistic children aged 2 to 5, and 10 age-matched typically developing children from similar backgrounds. The children were randomly selected from Northern California subjects who previously had participated in the 1,600-participant Childhood Autism Risk from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) Study and who also consented to return for a subsequent study known as CHARGE-BACK, conducted by the UC Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention.

The children with autism met stringent diagnostic criteria for autism as defined by the two most widely used and rigorous assessment tools. Though the total number of children studied was small, it is generally representative of the much larger CHARGE cohort, and that increases the significance of the study results, the authors said.

The researchers obtained blood samples from each child and analyzed the metabolic pathways of mitochondria in immune cells called lymphocytes. Previous studies sampled mitochondria obtained from muscle, but the mitochondrial dysfunction sometimes is not expressed in muscle. Muscle cells can generate much of their energy through anaerobic glycolysis, which does not involve mitochondria. By contrast, lymphocytes, and to a greater extent brain neurons, rely more heavily on the aerobic respiration conducted by mitochondria.

The researchers found that mitochondria from children with autism consumed far less oxygen than mitochondria from the group of control children, a sign of lowered mitochondrial activity. For example, the oxygen consumption of one critical mitochondrial enzyme complex, NADH oxidase, in autistic children was only a third of that found in control children.

"A 66 percent decrease is significant," Giulivi said. "When these levels are lower, you have less capability to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to pay for cellular work. Even if this decrease is considered moderate, deficits in mitochondrial energy output do not have to be dismissed, for they could be exacerbated or evidenced during the perinatal period but appear subclinical in the adult years."

Reduced mitochondrial enzyme function proved widespread among the autistic children. Eighty percent had lowered activity in NADH oxidase than did controls, while 60 percent, 40 percent and 30 percent had low activity in succinate oxidase, ATPase and cytochrome c oxidase, respectively. The researchers went on to isolate the origins of these defects by assessing the activity of each of the five enzyme complexes involved in mitochondrial respiration. Complex I was the site of the most common deficiency, found in 60 percent of autistic subjects, and occurred five out of six times in combination with Complex V. Other children had problems in Complexes III and IV.

Levels of pyruvate, the raw material mitochondria transform into cellular energy, also were elevated in the blood plasma of autistic children. This suggests the mitochondria of children with autism are unable to process pyruvate fast enough to keep up with the demand for energy, pointing to a novel deficiency at the level of an enzyme named pyruvate dehydrogenase.

Mitochondria also are the main intracellular source of oxygen free radicals. Free radicals are very reactive species that can harm cellular structures, including DNA. Cells are able to repair typical levels of such oxidative damage. Giulivi and her colleagues found that hydrogen peroxide levels in autistic children were twice as high as in normal children. As a result, the cells of children with autism were exposed to higher oxidative stress.

Mitochondria often respond to oxidative stress by making extra copies of their own DNA. The strategy helps ensure that some normal genes are present even if others have been damaged by oxidation. The researchers found higher mtDNA copy numbers in the lymphocytes of half of the children with autism. These children carried equally high numbers of mtDNA sets in their granulocytes, another type of immune cell, demonstrating that these effects were not limited to a specific cell type. Two of the five children also had deletions in their mtDNA genes, whereas none of the control children showed deletions.

Taken together, the various abnormalities, defects and levels of malfunction measured in the mitochondria of autistic children imply that oxidative stress in these organelles could be influencing autism's onset.

"The various dysfunctions we measured are probably even more extreme in brain cells, which rely exclusively on mitochondria for energy," said Isaac Pessah, director of the Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention, a UC Davis MIND Institute researcher and professor of molecular biosciences at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Giulivi cautions that these findings do not amount to establishing a cause for autism.

"We took a snapshot of the mitochondrial dysfunction when the children were 2-to-5 years old. Whether this happened before they were born or after, this study can't tell us," she said. "However, the research furthers the understanding of autism on several fronts and may, if replicated, be used to help physicians diagnose the problem earlier."

"Pediatricians need to be aware of this issue so that they can ask the right questions to determine whether children with autism have vision or hearing problems or myopathies," Giulivi said. Exercise intolerance in the form of muscle cramps during intensive physical activity is one of the characteristics of mitochondrial myopathies.

The chemical fingerprints of mitochondrial dysfunction also may hold potential as a diagnostic tool. Giulivi and colleagues are now examining the mitochondrial DNA of their subjects more closely to pinpoint more precise differences between autistic and non-autistic children.

"If we find some kind of blood marker that is consistent with and unique to children with autism, maybe we can change the way we diagnose this difficult-to-assess condition," she said.

The study also helps refine the search for autism's origins.

"The real challenge now is to try and understand the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in children with autism," Pessah said. "For instance, many environmental stressors can cause mitochondrial damage. Depending on when a child was exposed, maternally or neonatally, and how severe that exposure was, it might explain the range of the symptoms of autism."

"This important exploratory research addresses in a rigorous way an emerging hypothesis about potential mitochondrial dysfunction and autism," said Cindy Lawler, program director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which provided funding for the study. "Additional research in this area could ultimately lead to prevention or intervention efforts for this serious developmental disorder."

Other study authors include Yi-Fan Zhang, Alicja Omanska-Klusek, Catherine Ross-Inta, Sarah Wong, Irva Hertz-Picciotto and Flora Tassone of UC Davis.

Funding for the study was provided by a UC Davis MIND Institute Pilot Research Grant, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Autism Speaks, including an Environmental Innovator Award from Autism Speaks.

---

Journal Reference:

1. C. Giulivi, Y.-F. Zhang, A. Omanska-Klusek, C. Ross-Inta, S. Wong, I. Hertz-Picciotto, F. Tassone, I. N. Pessah. Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2010; 304 (21): 2389 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2010.1706

Autism and creativity play

 

Playing With Building Blocks of Creativity Help Children With Autism

 (Nov. 30, 2010) — In an attempt to help children with autism learn the building blocks of creativity, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) tapped a toy box staple for help -- legos. By building lego structures in new and unique ways, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) learned to use creativity, an important skill that they had seen as very challenging prior to the study.

"In every day life we need to be able to respond to new situations," said Deborah A. Napolitano, Ph.D., BCBA-D., the study's principal investigator and assistant professor of Pediatrics at URMC's Golisano Children's Hospital. "If a child has only a rote set of skills, it's hard to be successful."

Many children with ASD can become frustrated and uncomfortable when asked to break out of repetitive activities and create something new. Using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), the science of figuring out how to target and systematically change a specific behavior, the study's researchers succeeded in teaching all six children with ASD in the study to play with legos in a more creative way. The study's findings have been published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis. The children, who had wanted to create the same 24-block lego structure over and over again at the start of the study, began venturing out of their comfort zones to create new structures with different color patterns or that were shaped differently.

Snapping a yellow lego onto a blue one when only red blocks had touched blue blocks in the previous structure, for instance, was a big step in helping a study participant with ASD cope with new situations encountered in everyday life, such as learning to say hello when someone they know but were not expecting to see greets them.

"We really can teach kids just about anything as long as it's systematic," said Napolitano.

By the end of the study, all six participants succeeded in making changes to every lego structure they worked on. The study's participants were between the ages of 6 and 10 and five of the six had moderate problems with restricted or sameness behavior, according to a behavior scale assessment that each participants' parent or teacher completed. The one-on-one sessions with building blocks took place at the participants' schools in rooms with minimal distractions. Participants' names were changed in the study.

As each child began building with 24 legos, the instructor praised the child with a "good job" from time to time, to get baseline data and decide whether the child seemed inclined to change the color pattern of the legos or the structure of the legos. After acquiring baseline data about the children's preferences (like changing legos' color patterns versus legos' structural patterns) researchers began with the first intervention phase.

The first phase of the study consisted of a set of sessions that took place over several months. An instructor asked a child to build something new at the beginning of each session. If a child seemed confused about what he or she was being asked to do, the instructor modeled how to build something different and then prompted the child to build something different. If a child understood and succeeded in building something new, by experimenting with color patterns or lego structures, he or she was rewarded with a small prize, such as playing with a favored toy.

In the next phase, the instructor asked the children to build something new with wooden blocks, rather than the plastic lego blocks they had grown accustomed to, to see whether they could apply their new skills to a slightly different situation from the one they had learned in. Then the instructor gave the children legos again, but this time they didn't receive teaching sessions and were rewarded only with a "good job" and not a small prize, like in the first phase. The instructor wanted to see whether the children would still experiment with legos. In the last phase, the children were once again rewarded for varying their lego structures.

A few months later, researchers followed up with the children and found that they were all still able to create new structures in varying colors or shapes.

"The study's findings could pave the way for new studies testing interventions that attempt to improve a wide variety of social skills and behaviors among people with ASD," said Napolitano. "With positive reinforcement and teaching sessions, such tasks as engaging in novel conversations, posing new questions and creating new ways to play could be within reach for children with ASD."

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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University of Rochester Medical Center (2010, November 30). Playing with building blocks of creativity help children with autism.

Adult Autism Waiver Service Directory

Easy as pie to find providers for community integration, supported employment, job finding,

job assessment and much much more.

https://www.humanservices.state.pa.us/compass/EPProviderSearch/Pgm/EPWEL.aspx?prg=AAW

Autism, Asperger's and ADHD Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian

Co-opProvider is thrilled to welcome Jean Tomezsko,MPH, PhD, RD, LDN (Clinical/Research Nutritionist & Registered Dietitian)  to the team.

Dr. Tomezsko recently retired from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and brings her renowned clinical experience and research knowledge in Autism, Asperger's and ADHD.   

 

  Her research on nutrition submitted to  Muscular Dystrophy Association: "to investigate the hypothesis that patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in good nutritional status will have slower progression of muscle loss and function".

Download Co-op Jean publish article

Jean Tomezsko will be the first nutritionist with the Bureau of Autism in Pennsylvania.

 

Dr. Tomezsko, an experienced pediatric registered dietitian, will provide care to achieve the following:

•     Assessment of nutritional status (height, weight, body mass index)

•     Analysis of current intake compared to age requirements for nutrients
(calories, protein, vitamins, minerals)

•     Recommendation of ways to meet nutrient needs, such as beginning with adding low-
intake nutrients to current diet.

•    Monitor dietary changes; implement specific diets for autism if appropriate.

 Current research on effectiveness of specific diets for autism is still
incomplete. As the research evidence is being gathered, many families have chosen
special diets, such as gluten-free and/or casein-free diets and need nutritional
guidance.

 

 

The Autism Spectrum of Feeding Disorder Training, March 26, 2010

The Spectrum of Feeding Disorders:
Feeding Those on the Spectrum

The simple ability to consume food is one most of us take-for-granted. But for some children, getting adequate nourishment is far from simple. Feeding and swallowing problems are extremely complex and surprisingly

The Conference will be held on the First floor of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Pediatric Research Center located The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's'a main campus.

Download Co-op Nutrition feeding-disorders-2010

 

 

Asperger's, Autism & Pervasive developmental Disorders

I just read one of the better articles in a long time and want to share it!

10 Myths About Autism

Autism and its lesser-known relatives in the autism spectrum of disorders has found itself on the receiving end of a generous amount of attention lately. Affecting around 3.4 out of every 1,000 children between the ages of 3 and 10 every year, the controversies surrounding autism usually involve the mysteries behind the staggering rise of diagnoses over the past five years as well as its heavily disputed origins. Not surprisingly, a number of myths and misconceptions drown out the realities of individuals and families who confront autism on a daily basis. A proper understanding of what constitutes and how to work with and against autism and autism spectrum disorders allows patients to seek the necessary treatment and move on to live happy, productive, and stable existences.

1. Autism is a form of mental retardation.

Individuals with autism and autism spectrum disorders actually harbor average to above average intelligence. The conditions are considered neurodevelopmental in origin, and diagnostic criteria include communication issues, difficulty in social situations, and repetitive behavior patterns. At no point does mental retardation ever factor into an autism diagnosis – any possible cases where both conditions are present have nothing to do with one another. Some patients with autism perform excellently in some academic areas and very poorly in others, which some mistake as full mental retardation.

However, between 2% and 5% of autism patients do simultaneously display some degree of mental retardation via the genetic disorder Fragile X. It gets its name from a defect on the X chromosome where it appears pinched when placed beneath a microscope. Mental retardation, or other severe intellectual impairment, results from a repetition of the CGG codon on the FMR1 allele, with between 230 and 4000 repeats. A normal FMR1 gene contains between 6 and 55 repetitions. Because of this, the FMR1 protein becomes silenced and impedes the development of synapses, axons, and neural circuits. It also places blocks in memory and learning capabilities as well. Even though the staggering majority of individuals with ASD do not also contend with Fragile X, 50% of males with Fragile X display the diagnostic criteria for autism or a related disorder. So while it is entirely possible for autism and mental retardation to exist in one individual, autism itself is actually classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder and not an intellectual impairment.

2. The autistic cannot forge healthy relationships.

One of the main factors in a diagnosis of autism or an autism spectrum disorder such as Asperger’s or Rett’s involve a difficulty in forming social connections. Some of the earliest indicators of autism or an ASD come in the first few months of life. The individual tends to avoid interaction and eye contact and appear apathetic towards others, occasionally preferring solitude and rejecting physical contact such as hugs or kisses from parents and other loved ones. In addition, the autistic struggle with understanding nonverbal cues such as gestures and facial expressions. Because of this, they face a much harder time connecting socially than those without autism or related disorders.

But just because they face down difficulty in forging relationships does not mean the autistic are entirely incapable of involvement in healthy connections. It takes patience and understanding, but it is not impossible for the autistic to enjoy productive, loving friendships by any stretch of the imagination. Friends and family alike need to make the effort to understand how autism operates and how those with the diagnosis function. It is important to realize that an apparent disinterest does not necessarily indicate actual disinterest. Many autistics genuinely desire to connect with those around them but grapple against their difficulties in social situations. Sadly, though, some individuals cannot get past the apparent detachment and do not want to enter into a friendship with an autistic. This does not mean that those with autism or an ASD are incapable of engaging in healthy, productive relationships with others.

3. Most people with autism are not very verbal.

Because autism exists as a spectrum disorder, the severity of the symptoms varies from case to case. One of the main characteristics of autism involves a difficulty interpreting and expressing language verbally. Many rarely, if ever, make regular noise as infants, and the ones that do quit soon afterwards. Later on in life, they may develop erratic verbal tics such as extended echolalia, repetition of the same phrases, or an obsession with single words. Others mimic the speech and vocabulary of adults with little to no affectation in their voice, having missed out on verbal and nonverbal nuances of speech. Only the most severe cases remain mute the rest of their lives. The reality is that those with autism and autism spectrum disorders range from extremely competent to poorly developed or nonexistent verbal skills. So while all individuals with autism struggle with verbal development to some extent, not every case involves limited or nonexistent speech or communication.

In fact, Asperger’s, an autism spectrum disorder with symptoms very similar to those of obsessive-compulsives, completely overturns this myth altogether. Though subjected to many of the same development and communication delays as other autistics, one of the more defining characteristics of Asperger’s involves a generous vocabulary and enthusiastic discussions about their areas of interest. They may exhibit a lack of nonverbal and gestural signifiers or speech impediments – indicators of disrupted development, certainly, but stand as a sterling example that autism does not always involve limited or nonexistent verbal communication.

4. “Autistic” is just another word for “savant.”

Many individuals with autism excel in one creative or academic area yet perform poorly in others, leading people unfamiliar with the condition to label them as “savants.” This is an incorrect conjecture on two levels. For one, savant syndrome is not recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, or DSM-IVTR – the official diagnostic handbook of the psychological community. Because of this, its mainstream presence clashes with the interests of mental and developmental health care professionals. One cannot receive an official diagnosis of savant syndrome because of this, rendering it an inadequate comparison to autism and its related disorders.

Second, savant syndrome only describes one possible element of autism. The two terms cannot be used interchangeably as, if anything, savant syndrome can be perceived as merely a possible symptom of the much broader autism more than anything else. Traditionally, savants display genius or near-genius levels of proficiency in one area – usually a creative or scientific pursuit – and extremely lackluster performances in all others. Occasionally, they perform so poorly in some areas that tests may register them as mentally retarded in spite of their brilliance in a different field. This discrepancy led to the archaic and highly politically incorrect term “idiot savant” to highlight their seemingly dual intellectual levels. The traditional definition of savant does factor into autism in some instances, although the gap manifests itself in a considerably more narrowed manner. Autistics may excel in one or two academic specialties at the expense of others, but the divide is generally more comparable to an average student who passes several related classes with A’s but receives D’s in those they struggle against – usually not the expansive, extreme gulf between genius and mental retardation. As always, depending on the severity of the case this statement may not apply. However, even if an autistic individual did straddle the divide more commonly attributed to those with savant syndrome, a number of other factors must be present in order to acquire a diagnosis. The two conditions are not synonymous with one another, though they share the occasional overlap.

5. All autistic people are alike.

As with all developmental disorders, considerable shifts in severity are always present from case to case. Because of these differences, developmental psychologists consider autism as a spectrum disorder. Patients fall on the scale from needing constant assistance when it comes to daily life to being able to perfectly function in mainstream society with only the bare minimum of treatment. Some autistics may experience some symptoms with more intensity than others, and some may be lacking one or two altogether.

The DSM-IVTR lists Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Rett’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Pervasive Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (or PDDNOS as related pervasive development disorders. This stratification proves the vast differences that still remain in disorders with very similar symptoms. Autism and Asperger’s stand as the two most common diagnoses, and have already been discussed and contrasted earlier in this article. Rett’s only effects females, as males carrying the gene either pass on in the womb or within two years of birth – a very striking difference in other autism spectrum disorders which are generally diagnosed in boys much more frequently than girls. It is a very serious condition characterized by normal development followed by a period of regression within 6-18 months, autistic behavior, and physical traits such as decelerated head growth and repetitive hand gestures. The very rare Childhood Disintegrative Disorder operates as a sort of infantile dementia, with infants developing normally until a very sudden and unexpected decline in almost every major functional skill – social, emotional, mental, and physical alike. Many children seem to regress while under the influence of auditory or visual hallucinations. PDD-NOS encompasses a number of symptoms that match one of the previous disorders, but lack some of their more obvious and defining elements or genetic requirements. The fact that so many varying conditions comprise the autism spectrum should underscore the true diversity of the disorder.

6. The autistic lack empathy and other feelings.

One of the greatest obstacles that stands in the way of the autistic forming healthy, meaningful relationships is the myth that they somehow cannot feel compassion, empathy, and other emotions necessary for real connections. While one of the requirements for a diagnosis of autism or an ASD involves a difficulty in reading and interpreting emotions based on nonverbal expressions, this does not indicate an inability to feel and process them. Individuals with autism and other related disorders are perfectly capable of forming empathic connections with friends and family, but face down difficulty in being able to express them fully or in a manner easily readable by loved ones. The disconnect lay in finding methods of externalizing the internal, and many autistic become frustrated and anxious when others cannot pick up on their moods. Actual lack of empathy and compassion is categorized as narcissistic personality disorder and factors into the diagnosis of sociopathic behavior – neither of which have anything really to do with autism and ASD.

7. Autism and related disorders are mental illnesses.

In spite of their inclusion in the DSM-IVTR, the autism spectrum disorders are not categorized as mental illnesses. Rather, doctors label them as neurodevelopment disorders due to their disruption of normal cognitive behavior and growth. However, psychotherapy assists greatly in helping the autistic overcome their obstacles and better connect with the people around them. It may not be considered a mental illness, but autism benefits significantly from the efforts of dedicated professional counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists who guide patients to learn how to work with the social and emotional difficulties associated with their disorder.

Although autism in and of itself is not a mental illness, it is not uncommon for psychological disorders to accompany it – which may have initially led to the myth in the first place. Depression, panic, and anxiety issues frequently crop up when autistics become overwhelmed by their struggles in forming relationships with their loved ones and frequent feelings of being misunderstood and marginalized. Individuals with Asperger’s sometimes grapple with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which shares many of the same diagnostic criteria. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder may also present itself in individuals with autism as well

8. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders lack social skills and a desire to interact with others.

Much like the myth that the autistic fail to comprehend and express basic emotions, compassion, and empathy, the belief that they amble through life completely without social skills and saddled with antisocial preferences interprets the external without considering the internal. Individuals with autism and ASD do not voluntarily reject social interaction, nor do they inherently lack the desire to connect with friends and family. As with their struggles against expressing emotions, autistics do face extreme difficulty in processing and functioning in social situations – it is one of the main diagnostic criteria, after all. However, this does not indicate an inherent absence of social capabilities. Many of them harbor a yearning to form meaningful and healthy connections on the inside but face extreme difficulty in externalizing it. With proper therapy, it is entirely possible for them to learn how to work with these setbacks and live a happy, healthy life with their friends and family.

9. Poor parenting leads to autism.

Because of autism’s status as a neurodevelopmental disorder, many wrongfully assume that inadequate parenting skills are to blame for their child’s disruptive growth. While developmental psychologists and others in the medical community continue to debate the true origins of autism, at no point does parental involvement factor into the equation. The most likely cause of autism and related disorders is biological and genetic in nature – elements that the parents have absolutely no control over. Studies of the autistic brain have revealed implications in the structure of the brain stem, cerebellum, basal ganglia, cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, and limbic system, suggesting that the developmental setbacks result from compensating from these compromises by utilizing different areas of the brain for basic functions than the usual. Current studies are under way to track any possible correlations between autism and brain chemistry, specifically dopamine, serotonin, and epinephrine levels. Still other research posits that vaccines with the mercury-based preservative thimerosal may be responsible for the rise of autism in recent years. No matter what science eventually reveals as the real root cause – or causes – of autism and autism spectrum disorders, the possibility of poor involvement on the part of the parents never even comes into play.

10. Autism and related disorders just get worse over time.

With proper medication and therapy, children and adults with autism can actually improve their functionality and ability to communicate and form meaningful connections with friends and family. Though some of the autism spectrum disorders – such as childhood disintegrative disorder especially – involve a period of regression, at some point the decline levels off instead as opposed to growing progressively worse until the patient ends up in a vegetative state. On the whole, though, autism and autism spectrum disorders are not inherently degenerative conditions. In fact, some patients have been known to slough off the symptoms of autism altogether with the right combination of medications and psychological guidance. Usually this “cure” occurs in the transition from childhood to adulthood, though many still carry the disorder throughout the span of their lives.

Although many of the realities behind autism remain obscured, enough scientific research exists to dispute the misunderstandings or outright falsehoods that prevail regarding the disorder. With straight facts and compelling evidence, humanity can further delve into the condition’s depths and learn about what it is by educating itself on what it is not. If society continues to stick by its misconceptions, then thousands of children and adults may not receive the proper medication and therapy regimen they need in order to remain content and capable of forming healthy, happy, productive, and – most importantly – loving relationships with their family and friends.