parents of autistic children
A worldwide network of parents and professionals who share their concerns can be found within The Autism Research Institute, or ARI, which was founded in the year 1967 and works to conduct research about autistic disorders and to find new ways to improve treatment and prevention. The ARI is a wealth of information. There are over 40,000 case histories that have been collected over the years about autistic children from 60 different countries. Information such as this is extremely important in the growing search for more details about symptoms of autism and the disorder itself.
The Autism Research Institute was founded by an international authority on autistic disorders; Doctor Bernard Rimland. He wrote a book called Infantile Autism, for which he became a prize winning author, based on his experiences with his autistic son. Doctor Rimland felt the need to let other individuals know about autistic disorders and how they affect children and their families, and he wanted to give hope to the parents of afflicted children. Doctor Rimland also was the chief technical advisor on the movie Rain Man, which was about an autistic individual.
The Institute publishes a quarterly newsletter that covers the different advances in the world of autistic disorders. These advances include those of a biomedical nature and those that refer to education. This Institute is a non-profit organization which relies on chartable contributions from those who understand and are concerned with the needs of individuals who have autism spectrum disorders. The ARI believes that its purpose is to help parents of autistic children who are overwhelmed by fear and grief and to motivate them to find help to cope with the situation.
The goal of the Autism Research Institute is to help those who are dealing with an individual with an autistic disorder and to allow them access to methods of helping their loved one. Dr. Rimland, whose own child was autistic, saw the need for families to be given quality information that could help both them and their afflicted child. While not everything is known about this disorder, research is working to improve upon what is known and to help improve the lifestyles of those who have these disorders. The ultimate goal is to find a cure, but for now increased awareness will help autistic individuals to grow to their full potential.
Tags: Autism Research Institute, Autism Society of America, autism spectrum disorders, autistic disorder, child with autism, parents of autistic children, symptoms of autism
high functioning autism
Those who suffer from Asperger syndrome are marked with impaired social behavior, motor milestones, limited patterns of repetitiveness and even clumsiness. It is also known as Asperger’s Syndrome or AS and is one of many disorders concerning autism. AS patients have a lot of the same symptoms as those individuals who have high functioning autism. This sometimes makes a diagnosis difficult because the two disorders are so similar. However, AS is different from any other type of autistic disorder in that there is no delay in their language skills or their cognitive development.
Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician, was the first to pinpoint the disorder in 1944, when he described his patients as failing to demonstrate empathy, as well as lacking nonverbal communication skills. It wasn’t until 50 years later that this syndrome was finally recognized and classified as an actual disorder. Today, there are still many questions about the autistic disorder-like impairment. There has long been doubt about the differences in high functioning autistic individuals and those that have AS.
Many physicians use individual treatment plans, depending on the age of the individual, to help manage the lives of those who have Asperger syndrome. The plans vary depending on the development and functioning of the person and can be changed as the person progresses in development. Treatments for AS are very similar to those used to treat highly functioning patients with autism.
There are many forms of disorders within the autism spectrum, and asperger syndrome is just one of them. Since it was first found, there have been many different studies to try to fully understand this disorder, yet there is still not enough information to allow physicians to understand it completely. It is understood that individuals with AS share some of the same symptoms as those who have high functioning autistic disorders. It will take much more research to try to fully understand why these disorders, even though they are part of the autism spectrum, so closely resemble each other.
Tags: asperger syndrome, autism spectrum, autistic, autistic disorder, high functioning autism
