Autism Strong: What is Autism the technical side

According to the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of
complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments,
communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped
patterns of behavior.  Autistic disorder,
sometimes called autism or classical ASD, is the most severe form of ASD, while
other conditions along the spectrum include a milder form known as Asperger
syndrome, and childhood disintegrative disorder and pervasive developmental
disorder not otherwise specified (usually referred to as PDD-NOS).  Although ASD varies significantly in
character and severity, it occurs in all ethnic and socioeconomic groups and
affects every age group.  Males are four
times more likely to have an ASD than females.

First I am going to talk about autistic disorder or classic
ASD.

According to the dictionary Autism is a mental condition,
present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and
forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract
concepts.

So what does all this mean? Well let’s break it down shall
we. Autism is a mental condition so it affects the brain ok. It’s characterized
by difficulty in communicating. This can be anything from complete lack of
spoken language commonly called non-verbal to having problems starting and
maintaining a conversation with someone and many things in between. Difficulty
in forming relationships with others this can be when someone with autism does
not acknowledge the existence of anyone else but acts as if they are the only
person in the world or just not being able to approach and communicate with
others to build a relationship. Difficulty in using language and abstract
concept. This covers everything from not being able to read body language and
facial expressions to not understanding sarcasm and metaphors.

Now let’s get into Asperger’s syndrome.

According to the dictionary Asperger’s syndrome is a
developmental disorder related to autism and characterized by higher than
average intellectual ability coupled with impaired social skills and
restrictive, repetitive patterns of interest and activities.

So let’s break this one down. A developmental disorder well
that means it affects how someone develops again this is the brain.
Characterized by higher than average intellectual ability now this does not
mean they are all geniuses it simply means they have an above average IQ.
Impaired social skills this can be they simply have a hard time talking to
people to they can’t understand body language or other social ques. Restrictive,
repetitive patterns of interest now this means they have few interests this can
be a child focused on dinosaurs and only them doesn’t want to do or learn
anything other about dinosaurs or this could be someone focused on Japan and
it’s culture who really only wants to do read and watch things related to
Japanese culture they may do other things but they always end up back on their
topic. Repetitive activities now this can be hand flapping, spinning, jumping,
chewing really anything that they do repeatedly.

Next I will talk about childhood disintegrative disorder.

According to Wikipedia childhood disintegrative disorder
(CDD), also known as Heller's syndrome and disintegrative psychosis, is a rare
condition characterized by late onset of developmental delays in language,
social function, and motor skills.

Ok so what does that mean? Well it’s rare condition which
means it is not found often, late onset this means that they appear to develop
normally then when they get older usually around three (3) they lose abilities
they once had. Delays in language, social function, and motor skills since we
have covered language and social delays I’m not going to go over that again.
Motor skills is you movement broken down into two categories fine motor and
gross motor. Fine motor is your pencil grip, stringing beads, all those small
tasks whereas gross motor is your walking, jumping and all your big movements.

Finally let’s look at pervasive developmental disorder not
otherwise specified (usually referred to as PDD-NOS).

This is a diagnosis where someone has autistic signs and
symptoms enough to be on the autism spectrum but do not fully meet the criteria
for any of the other specific disorders listed above.

So there you have it. That is the technical break down of
what autism is. Next time I will get a little more personal and talk about what
autism is to me and my family.