One of the most frightening disorders a parent can confront is the rare but devastating combination of retarded development and peculiar behavior known as devastating behavior known as infantile autism . the combination is illustrated by the case of Dana uana aged 11 years is flapping and rocking again . She sits alone in corner , rocking , back and forth , while flapping her hand in front of her face as tf waving good bye to some one beside her , She smiles , but not in response to what others to what others are doing ; the reason for the smile is locked some where inside dana . her parents now recall that even as an infant , dana was not responsive to people ; she did not keep eye contact , smile at faces , or cuddle when picked up . As she matured , her parents svonered whether she might be deaf , especially when she might be deaf , especially , when she failed to develop language Even now , Dana uses very immature grammar , she reverses pronouns , for example , saying ‘ you go store ?when she means ‘ can I go to the store ?’her speech also shows abnormal melody . with question like risesat the end of declarative statements . At school , Danas in a special class for the emotionally handicapped and even in that class she is clearly the most unusual child
Charecterstcics of autism , Dana shows the essential features of infantile autism 1] a general lack of tesponsiveness to other people 2] serious deficiencies in communication skills , especially language and 3]unusui repetitive responses to the environment , more over , all of these problems appeared with in the first 30 months of life . Austistic children seem to live in a world of their own . Even as infants , they may not rise their arms , when their parents when their picked up . they often failto show normal signs of attachment to their parents when their upset . As they mature , Autistic children have trouble perceiving , other children’s feelings and playing co-operative games . they generally do not form close friendships.they also have trouble with language they do develop is often peculiar . for example they may routinely echo the last phase they hear another person speak ; or they may reverse certain pronouns –saying ‘I’ when they mean you’and vice versa , as in the case of Dana Especially noticeable are the unusual ways in which austic youngsters interact with the objects environment . For example instead of playing with toy cars up in rows or twirl them round and round them .Autistic youngsters may also twirl their hands .or show other repetitive body movements time and again Even when they mature into adolescents and adults , people with autism tend to have poorly developed and peculiar language and social behavior . A few succeed at conventional jobs but; many must must work in sheltered settings such as group homes for most of their adult lives
Family , physiological and genetic factors in autism;. What causes autism ? up until trie late 1960’s the most popular answers to this question empecially cold and rejecting behavior by parents . such parents behavior was thought to be especially common the middleclass , and some early
To understand what does causes autism , many investigators are now focusing on physiological factors . several studies suggest that autisrc children may have abnormally high or low , levels of physiological arousal . overousal might explain why autistic children avoid looking at faces but share intently at less stimulating objects , like room fixtures . This behaviour may be a wuy of preventing increased arousal . under arosal , on the other hand , might explain behavior like the flapping and rocking by Dana ; these might be ways of increasing arousal
Some researchers have studied cerebral lateralization in autistic youngsters . the left cerebral , hemi sphere is the area that usually specialization may not happen for many autistic children , instead their language functions may be centered in the right hemi sphere , an area not as well suited to language suited to language abnormal pattern , might help explain why autistic children show language deficits . A study by black stock illustrates this line of research.
In this study , autistic and normal children , listened to stones , using special devises that allowed them to control (1)whether the storia . I were spoken or sung and (2)whether they heard the stories through their left or right ears . music listening and left ear listening than did the others . This suggests that for reasons as yet unknown , autistic children may not develop the normal left hemisphere specialization for language ; instead some of their key language functions may be handled – and not even successfully – by the right cerebral hemisphere Although several studies point to a left –hemisphere deficit in autissdt children , others do not , we may eventually find that the left hemi-sphere deficit hypothesis is correct . but only for one sub group of autistic people . for others different causes may be involved . Whatever physiological factors may be involved in autism abnoc –mal arousal unusual , cerebral dominance patterns , or others as yet identified – we need to understand why these factors operate in sornt children and not in others . To tackle this question , some researchers haw studied the role of genetic factors . T ve is growing evidence that hereditary transmission plays a role . however what gets inherited is probably txx autism , as such , but rather a susceptibility to various cognitive and language problems . in some especially ‘ unlucky children , these problem ma combine in a way that leads to autism .
BULMIA;AN EATING DISORDER
Anorexia nervosa , a behavior pattern involving self starvation that often arises in adolescence and is especially prevalent among girls . anorexia is one of the several eating disorders listed in DSM-111 Another closely related to anorexia is bulimia
Sue wood aged 18 , has been trying to keep a secret from her family and friends ; she is a binge eater.the medicines are arsenicum album,hephar sulphur, belladonna and others
