Free Essay On Autism

April 22nd, 2015

Introduction
Among different child psychiatric disorder, autism spectrum disorders are the most prolifically researched. Over the years, autism concept and definition have witnessed large change because of the changes in social and political beliefs regarding different methods and treatments provided to children with autism. Autism disorders are classified as developmental disabilities represented in the form of impairment in reciprocal social interactions with retardation in the capacity of using language accompanied by monotonously repetitive behaviors. By definition, autism is a neurodevelopment disorder represented by different aspects of impaired social interaction, restricted communication and repetitive behavior. Autism symptoms appear in early childhood; its aspects begin to exhibit with two years old children and after this age autism signs develop gradually. Autism is largely dependent on heritage; however, it can be caused by other environmental factors and genetic susceptibility. Autism is most likely associated with agents that cause birth defects.
Interesting facts about autism make it the best choice for any psychology scholar to go for studying it; for instance, according to recent statistics, autism affects one in 68 children all over the world because its prevalence figures are growing. Another interesting fact about autism is that it is considered the fastest-growing evolutional disorder in the United States and it costs governmental healthy entities about thousands of dollars everyday for prevention and curing procedures. According to clinical studies, identical twins are the most suffering groups of autism because when one of the twins is diagnosed with autism the chance for the other twin will be high to develop an autistic disorder. Nevertheless, researches claim that autism is more common among children with cancer, AIDS and diabetes; scholars believe that autism disorders result from genetic vulnerability triggered by some sort of toxic or social influences. Different other psychological disorders, such as anxiety, family stressors and other similar disorders can act as triggers for autism and may increase the vulnerability of some children to exhibit autism during the early years of their life.

Dealing with Anxiety in Children with Autism

One of the psychological disorders that are directly linked to autism is anxiety. The medical definition of anxiety is an unpleasant state of inner disturbance accompanied by deranged conducts and prolonged rumination. The former definition can highlight the strong relationship between autism and anxiety. Children with autism exhibit nervous expressions that may represent anxiety in the form of repetitive behaviors. However, they often express anxiety the very same ways as typically developing children of their age do. Lack of trust in the child parents can be a trigger for more anxiety and hence higher levels of autism. Strong internal feeling of tension is one of the indicators of anxiety, for instance, which can be represented by different aspects like a racing heat, sweating or stomachache. The more sever these aspects are the higher the possibility that the child can exhibit autism. Consequences of anxiety can severely affect verbal communication because the child loose the capability of giving clues about what is bothering him. Researches suggest the usage of cognitive behavioral therapy to break severe cycles of anxiety to help autism child to develop his verbal faculties.

Family Stressors and Autism

Some people who are familiar with stress never notice how far it can affect the behavior of their children and lead to sever consequences. Family stressors, such as parents conflict, caring for one children more than the others, and so forth, can act as autism triggers for children early in their life. Children with autism are not capable of expressing their basic needs and wants properly, hence, parents have to be careful in guessing what bothers their child and attempt to avoid stressful life situations in front of him. Children suffering from autism are more likely to experience typical stress response to different stimulus in the surrounding environment. Most of them, therefore, suffer from violent psychological conditions; they response to certain factors such as the challenges in interaction with others which sounds difficult for them regarding their retarded communication skills. Repetitive behaviors and unusual manifestation set them apart from friends and, sometimes, from family members who find it hard to deal with them. The more the stresses they face everyday, the deeper the isolation and social difficulties they face. Researchers tend to use self-reports and observation registers to track the behavior of children with autism in an attempt to identify different sources of stressors that can trigger their anger the most. Parents, however, can reduce family stressors to help their child advances by providing quiet home atmosphere and care for their child dietary system to help them deal with challenges associated with autism.

Autism and Sleeping Disorders

Most of us suffer from sleeping problems, especially for children. Researches suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder suffer from sleeping disorders which leads to insufficient sleep and can result in daytime sleepiness for most of them. Children with autism are poor sleepers because they are stressed and angry most of the time, besides they are not capable of expressing their anger which results in falling in prolonged hours of thinking, which in turns makes sleep difficult for them. Sleeping disorders of children with autism can be mostly exhausting for other family members, especially the child parents who find it difficult to ignore their child who refuses to sleep at night and try hard to figure out the potential reasons behind poor sleeping. There are different factors behind poor sleeping of children with autism; they include medical, nutritional, behavioral and neurological factors. Researchers claim that brain abnormalities can reduce children ability to sleep at night and, hence, increase the chances that the child may experience autism. Researchers advice parents to setting comfortable beds for their children surrounded with quiet atmosphere free of stress and disturbances in order to grant their children the chance to sleep continuously without interrupting intervals. Guidelines included setting dark, cool and quiet bedroom because autism children are sensitive to noise. Another tip is to arrange bedtime routine preceded with a relaxing period of reading a bedtime story to enhance tranquility. They should avoid video games and TV before bedtime as it can stimulate sleeping difficulties for children.

Autism, Anxiety, Stress and Sleep Disorders in Everyday Life

In general, psychological disturbances and disorders became part of our contemporary life. With the speeding race of life and the dependency on technology in every aspect of life, stress and anxiety are being experienced regularly by everyone even children, and specially those with autism and similar psychological disorders. Stress is an integral part of life and everyone experiences it at some stage. Children with autism experience stress when they fail to understand other people in their environment and find it difficult to communicate their feelings, wants and needs to their peers or even to their parents; they have trouble in handling anxiety and stressors they face everyday in life. When parents perform any action that can trigger their child anxiety they put them through additional suffer because they cannot communicate their fears and identify the reasons behind their fears, so they experience sleeping disorders and other similar psychological disorders that increase their retardation and tighten autism circles around them.
Autism, stress and similar disorders stem from all the worries that children face as part of contemporary life due to serious long-term conditions. Children can get over psychological disorder with the help of their peers and families who can enhance them with a quiet atmosphere free of fights, stressors, anxiety and similar factors that can place the child in deep depression status and eventually reduce his advancement in his life.

References

Aitken, K. (2012). Sleep difficulties and autism spectrum disorders. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Facts.randomhistory.com,. (2015). 46 Random Facts about Autism. Retrieved 22 April 2015, from http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/09/21_autism.html
Gallone, G. (2014). Autism Spectrum Disorders – A Mum’s Perspective. Autism-Open Access, 03(04). doi:10.4172/2165-7890.1000136
Kushki, A., Drumm, E., Pla Mobarak, M., Tanel, N., Dupuis, A., Chau, T., & Anagnostou, E. (2013). Investigating the Autonomic Nervous System Response to Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Plos ONE, 8(4), e59730. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059730