Autism is classified as a serious mental disorder and is widely attributed to be a genetic disorder.  A large amount of research has been carried out on Twins, in a study conducted over 61 pairs of twins, one of the twins in 40 pairs had a genetic response characterized by ‘a lack of response to what the people’ (Coleman, 1985).  Despite these results, autism is considered relatively rare amongst twins, this new finding  provides empirical evidence against the argument that autism is primarily a result of behavioural factors.  The onset of this disease starts at an infant’s age of two and half years.

Autism may be considered as in neurological disorder.  The disease has been increasing in Canada with a reported hundred 90,000 new cases each year.  It is considered that those people suffering with autism disorders also have mild to severe mental retardation.  Some people tend to function well, whilst in more  severe cases, they exist in a world of their own.  Left untreated symptoms will consolidate and become difficult to reverse.  There are a number of ways, patients can be treated in this.  From applied behavioural analysis.  (ABA) to that of intense behavioural intervention (IBI).  Both of these treatments have come in for a considerable amount of controversy and debate.  ABA is very expensive treatment with estimates in the range of $30-$80,000 per year (CBC News, 2009).

The Canada research Center in McGill University, Canada has studied the link between autism and that of early births.  The study found that in the research sample one quarter of babies born prematurely had signs of autism.  Weight also seem to be a factor limited with premature birth, hence a low birth weight of 3.3 pounds or lower seemed to increase the risk of autism.  Andy Shih , vice president of scientific affairs for autism in New York, argued that the findings were somewhat premature and needed to be replicated in a much larger prospective study.  The family of a child with autism also suffers financially and on average, suffers a loss of income of $6200 each year. Since the increase in autistic cases, particularly in the last decade, the public have not shown a great deal of sympathy.  Although you can never generalise, there have been a number of reported cases ” In the past two weeks, an autistic teen was banned from his church by his own priest, and an autistic kindergartner was voted out of his classroom by his peers with the encouragement of his teacher..”  (Lutz, 2008).  ‘ Angry Mom asked, “Why are you attacking those parents who want a good education for their children, undisturbed by the disruptions of a handicapped child? . . . Sure, you parents of handicapped children have the laws and greedy lawyers to insure your children get whatever they want, but at what cost to those of us with normal children?  Not everyone embraces this ‘feel-good,’ ‘love-one-another’ politically correct crap.”  An interesting observation and raises the argument that not everyone takes the charitable line, particularly when this might have a direct impact on the quality of their own Childs education.

Tolerance and sympathy tends to fade quickly when you become more directly involved and an integral part of the situation.  The key point made being ” Typical children in inclusion settings learn empathy, acceptance and perseverance from working and playing with their special-needs peers”  (Lutz, 2008).  This is an important point in terms of an additional learning point for children that because they are advantaged they equally need to learn and respect the disadvantaged members of our society.