Introduction

It is the primary concern of parents to provide the best possible care for their children. An important means of doing so is becoming familiar with some of the most common challenges that are faced by the youth today. One such challenge is a developmental disability referred to as autism. Autism is defined by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (2010) as “a developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, and affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills.” This definition is quite broad, and shows the widening development of the definition of autism over the years that have led to what is now known as Autism Spectrum Disorders or ASD’s. ASD’s encompass different conditions that are regarded as some form of autism, which included “unusual ways of learning, reacting to different sensations and paying attention” as well as repetitive behaviors and difficulty in coping with changes to routine activities (The Environmental Illness Resource, 2010). In this report, the details of this information are presented primarily for the information of parents, especially parents who have or believe that they have children who are suffering from this disability. The epidemiology of the disorder is discussed, followed by its causes, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. This report selected autism based on the position that autism is a complex developmental disability that affects a person from his or her early years in life up to adulthood, and so it is important for his or her parents to be properly guided about his or her condition in order to minimize the impact of the disability on his or her life.

2. Epidemiology

The number of children that are considered to be afflicted with Autism has soared in recent years. Some doctors claim that this is not because of an actual rise in incidences, but more on a widening of the definition of autism as a disorder, in which “a child who is diagnosed with high-functioning autism today may have been thought to simply be odd or strange 30 years ago” (Kaneshiro, 2010). Nevertheless, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007) showed that each day, about 50 children are found to have some form of autism. Among these incidences, it was found that boys are three to four times more likely to have autism than girls, while socioeconomic factors such as race, ethnicity, lifestyle and financial status were not found to affect the likelihood of incidence significantly (CDCP, 2007). In America, it was found that autism affects as many as 673,000 children, an alarming 1% or 1 out of every 91 children of the total number of children in the country (Ellis, 2009). Considering that the symptoms of the condition remain throughout adulthood, this means that there may currently be millions of people in the country who are suffering from autism. This trend is not limited to the United States, as a report from the British Medical Journal by Yazbak (2004) revealed that autism incidents are on the rise across the world.

3. Etiology

Over the years, there have been a several studies conducted that sought to determine the causes of autism. Some of the strongest evidences of causality come from genetics. According to NCBI (2010), there is far more risk for identical twins to have autism than fraternal twins or siblings. This is inferred to be because of the much closer genetic makeup of identical twins than the others mentioned. It has also been found that children with autism usually belong to families with a history of members suffering from language abnormalities, chromosomal abnormalities, or neurological problems, as well as autism itself (NCBI, 2010).

Aside from genetics, environmental conditions have also been pointed out as possible causes of autism. These include diet, mercury poisoning, and vaccine sensitivity (NCBI, 2010). However, no firm evidence has yet been found to support any of these supposed causes. One controversial concern was that concerning how multi-dose vaccines contain trace amounts of mercury as a preservative, and that this element may account for the development of autism in babies. However, empirical studies conducted to test this claim have failed to do so, and both the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Institute of Medicine (IOM) have issued statements “that no vaccine or component of any vaccine is responsible for the number of children who are currently being diagnosed with autism” (NCBI, 2010).