Thread by @donkaloli

Autism Spectrum Disorders
ASD is a range of mental disorders characterised with difficulties in social interaction and communication and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour. They include; Autistic disorder or classic autism, Child Disintegrative Disorder

High functioning Austism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
Most parents report that symptoms are typically recorgnised between 1 and 2 years of age.
Long term problems may include difficulties in performing daily tasks, creating and keeping

relationships, and maintaining a job. (If you have watched the movie The Good doctor, you can't have missed the doctor with autism)

ASD individuals have deficits in three social skills:
-Social emotional reciprocity
-Non-verbal communication
-Developing and sustaining rlnships

Symptoms of social reciprocity include:
-Lack of mutual sharing of interests. These kids prefer not to play with others (Isolation).
-Lack of awareness or understanding of other people's thoughts or feelings. A child may get too close to peers without noticing that this makes

them uncomfartable.
-Atypical behaviours for attention. A child may push a peer to gain attention before starting a conversation.

People with ASD usually display atypical non verbal behaviours:
🌠Poor eye contact. A child with autism may fail to make eye contact when called by

name, or they may avoid making eye contact with an obsever.
🌠Facial expression, they often do not know how to recorgnise emotions from others' facial expression or they may not respond with the appropriate facial expressions.
🌠Unusual speech: at least half of children with

autism speak in a flat, monotone voice or they may not recorgnise the need to control the volume of their voice in different social settings. eg they may speak loudly in libraries or movie theaters.🙄

🌠Some of the linguistic behaviours in individuals with autism include:

rigid language, and restricted interests in conversations, eg. a child may repeat words or insist on always talking about the same subject.
🌠ASD can present with difficulty in initiating a conversation or failure to consider the interests of the listener to sustain a conversatn

In some cases, individuals remain completely non verbal throughout their lives, although the accompanying levels of literacy and nonverbal communication skills may vary.

Risk factors
-Advanced parental age
-Exposure to valproate(drug) during pregnancy
-Low birth weight. Etc

Treatment efforts are generally individualised and can include behavioural therapy and the teaching of copying skills.

Males are diagnosed 4 times more than females. In the US, 1 child among 68 kids is usually diagnised with ASD. Let's learn to live with people of this kind, this way we shall make them appreciated and not disappointed with the life God granted them.

The writer is a student of Medicine at Kampala International University
Kirenga Emmanuel MBChB IV

@UnrollHelper