AUTISM, What do you think causes it, how has this touched your life(if applicable)?

Answer 1

Autism has touched my life in many ways. My brother had 4 kids, two with autism. The family moved into town two & a half years ago. My mother & I were going to autism conventions & converting her back room for working with the children.

Then, tragedy struck. Dominic, the youngest autistic child dies in a drowning accident. Here is a story I wrote about that day.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AipIOlp8j88JK.9_ltPGpe_sy6IX?qid=20060909173847AAkcuiB

We turned our grief into redoubling our efforts to work with Arianna, 8 1/2 & autistic. She has become an absolute joy in my life. She has only once ever said "I love you." to me, but many times I have walked into the room & she immediatly goes into her "happy tune." Every little improvement she makes fills my life with joy. I made "word books" with a talking photo album from Radio Shack. She punches buttons, hears my voice saying the words, & tries to say them herself. Every time I hear her learn a new word (or improve her pronounciation) I feel great pride! I love her so dearly! I talk about her all the time. People get tired of how much I talk about her.


As far as the cause of autism, genetics play a major part, but are not the whole cause. You can tell this by twin studies. The fact that the concordance rate (likelihood that if one is autistic, the other is too) for identical twins is somewhere between 60 to 80% and only 6% in fraternal twins indicates that genetics is a MAJOR factor - just not the ONLY factor.

Many professionals (such as Geraldien Dawson, PhD & S. Ozzonoff, PhD of the M.I.N.D. institute) believe more than one gene is involved. They believe at least 5 genes "collide" to create the vulnerability for autism.

Apparently one doesn't inherit autism as much as they inherit a vulnerability to autism. Something "triggers" autism in such children. Something which would not trigger autism in one without the genetic vulnerability.

What that trigger is, is still a mystery. Many suspected Thimerisol, a mercury-related preservative that used to be in vaccinations. But they stopped using that preservative a in 2001 & the older batches that still had Thimerisol expired in early 2003. Yet we have come to the end of 2006 & the autism rate continues to rise. So Thimerisol could not have been the cause in more than a minute percentage of cases of autism.

Answer 2

That would probably be a Nobel prize winning answer if anyone could tell you. I can tell you that I am 100% sure it is not caused by vaccines or by bad parenting. The best thing I can tell you is that for some reason, the part of the brain that handles personal communications simply does not develop correctly. I doubt it has a pathogenic origin or else we would probably see adult onset autism. Whatever it is, it happens early in life. I would bet that fMRI studies will be very helpful in studying autism in the future.

Answer 3

My six year old nephew is autistic. He has never spoken a word. He will not look at people. He has many issues that I cannot begin to list here.

What do I think causes it? Genetics. Plain and simple. Not a vaccine. Not something in the environment. The research has been promising, and they are getting the funding now that they need from the government to further the studies.

How has this touched my life? How can it not? My brother and his wife never have a moment of peace. Family gatherings are almost impossible now. I worry about the future - who will take care of my nephew should something happen to my brother and his wife? My nephew is not dumb, mind you, he is quite intelligent in his own way. But he cannot function on his own.

Answer 4

I think it is caused by a combination of genetics and environmental pollution. It has affected me immensely. I have fraternal twin 4 yr. old boys who both have autism.

Answer 5

http://www.healing-arts.org/children/educational.htm#motivate
http://www.pediatricneurology.com/autism.htm

It has given me a better understanding of life in general.... we are foster parents and have had 2 kids ( one at the moment) that were autistic.............. routine is something they need and the slightest change can make them very frustrated. Patience is a virtue and something the whole family needs with an autistic child/ adult.