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Autism Spectrum Disorders
Overview
People with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) demonstrate deficits in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and often exhibit repetitive behaviors and intense interest in one subject. In addition, they can have exaggerated responses to sensory experiences, such as certain sounds or the way objects look.
Autism
Autism is a complex developmental disability that impacts the development of the brain in areas of social interaction and communication. Both children and adults with autism can have difficulty communicating verbally or non-verbally, and in social situations and interactions. Autism affects each individual differently and at varying degrees, but many experience similar limitations. Those can include: an insistence on sameness or resistance to change, difficulty expressing needs, difficulty in mixing with others, little or no eye contact, and/or apparent over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain or no real fears of danger.
Asperger's Syndrome
People with Asperger’s Syndrome, a milder form of autism, are most often characterized by varying degrees of functional impairment in communication skills, and social interactions; they sometimes also exhibit restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. People with Asperger’s often have difficulties with transitions or changes, they may have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular need or subject and they can have difficulty reading subtlety—in body language or verbal cues. Often overly sensitive to certain senses, a person with Asperger’s may have trouble being in large groups or in bright or caustic settings.
Stats
Research has shown that autism spectrum disorders are the third most common developmental disorder in the United States, affecting around 500,000 people. Research also suggests that three to six out of every 1,000 kids born in the US are affected by an autism spectrum disorder. In addition, researchers also believe that autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability, increasing 10-17% annually.
