Health Blog

My husband and I have been the primary caregivers for our grandson for the last three years. Ever since he was diagnosed with autism, we’ve been doing a lot of research. We had a general idea about what autism was, and we’d definitely heard a lot about it in the news and in magazines. When it hit so close to home, we wanted to find out everything we could. Something that surprised us was the autistic disorder spectrum—we had no idea there were different kinds and levels of autism. There is so much to learn and consider—many leading and respected doctors have different treatments and methods, and it takes some time to read through them, consider them, and decide which are best for our grandson.

I first started learning about the autistic disorder spectrum. Children diagnosed with autism are placed on the spectrum from Low Functioning to High Functioning based on the extent and the severity of the autistic trait or behavior. When I tell people that our grandson is autistic, one of the first things people ask me is, “Where is he on the spectrum?”

Certain behavior characteristics (and the extent of the behavior) are used to place children on the autistic disorder spectrum. Individuals with Lower Functioning Autism often exhibit typical autistic traits to the extreme, such as lack of social interaction, routine preference, and lack of verbal communication. Conversely, individuals with High Functioning Autism may show autistic-related traits in just a few areas in varying severity. We learned that Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism, is on the High Functioning end of the autistic disorder spectrum. One of our neighbors’ sons has Asperger’s syndrome—again, we’d heard of it, but didn’t know it was related to autism. Individuals diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a High Functioning form of autism, display a lot of the traits associated with autism: repetitive behavior, peculiar speech, narrow interests—an inability to understand jokes, body language, and peculiar social behavior. Children who are diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome can improve over time, and often lead independent, successful lives.

I also learned that boys are diagnosed with autism on all parts of the autistic spectrum three times more than girls. Some experts claim it’s even higher than that. I’m planning on digging up more facts related to autism and gender soon. As soon as I think I’m done learning about autism or finished reading about new treatments, there’s another aspect of the disorder I need to find out about, or a revolutionary new treatment I’d like to research and try.

Learning all we can about the disease has helped us help our grandson. We already know so many techniques for dealing with autistic children and we have a lot more to try when he gets older. When we have a “breakthrough” using one of the new methods we’ve researched, it’s such an amazing and rewarding feeling. It’s hard (if not impossible!) to change an autistic child, but so easy to learn everything you can and change your approach to raising and interacting with them.

After reading many different books on autism, I’ve been able to narrow down a terrific resource that encompasses all of the fundamental facets of this disorder. Want to learn the ins and outs of Autism? Gain the knowledge that experts are sharing by Clicking Here!