The mother interviewed narrates of how she remembers her son growing up like any other normal kid with no signs or symptoms of autism disorder. Moreover, there was no family member from either the maternal home or paternal home with the disease. There was no single clue that the child could be infected with the disease until he reached five years old. This was when changes began to be seen. He could get seizures for about two to three times a day. When asked about the disease, the mother clearly describes it a physical disorder that attacks the brain and more so it has no cure. According to the doctors she visited, the child developed the disease because of the chemicals found in his head. When the MRI was carried out, the test proved that he had autism disorder.
The mother was first in denial when her son was diagnosed with the disorder and it took her quite some time to come to terms with the news. She had a very hard time adjusting to the child’s condition leave alone being hurt and upset. However, she came to understand Autism through research and exchanging ideas with other mothers. Some of the characteristics demonstrated by her son include flapping of hands, temper tantrums, movement of the whole body, banging of the head against the wall, biting himself and other people, constant passing of urine on himself, and being very aggressive towards other people. Considering that autism is a spectrum disorder, its symptoms vary from mild to severe. For instance, verbal communication develop slowly, lack of social skills and unresponsive to pain.
According to the mother, symptoms demonstrated by the son include mental retardation, tourette syndrome, observe-compulsive disorder, and keeping strange relationships with events and objects. Treatment of the disorder is done through medication and educational and behavioral interventions. Some of the developmental and consideration suggested by the mother include conducting more behavioral approached aimed at encouraging play with Autistic Kids, predicting of verbal disorder among children with Autism disorder, teaching children with the disability play school and conducting more classroom base interventions amongst children with Autism.
INTERACTION AND INFLUENCE OF GENETICS, HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTISM DISORDER
Prenatal development starts at the fusion level when the ovum joins with the sperm cell to create a zygote. The base genetic prototype is carried by the zygote and it is from this that all the cells that form the fetus will develop from. Although scientists are not a hundred percent sure on what causes Autism disorder, there is a high possibility that environmental and genetic factors play a role in this. According to Slikker (1998), there are a number of genes that researchers associate with the disorder. Several studies conducted on people with the disorder indicate irregularities in various parts of the brain. Some are of the idea that brains of individuals with the disorder have abnormal amounts of serotonin or other kinds of neurotransmitters.
The existence of these abnormalities is enough reason to suggest that Autism disorder could be a result of some kind of disruption of the correct or normal development of the brain during prenatal development. This disruption might be caused by genes that control the growth of the brain and the communication of brain cells. This could be as a result of environmental factors on the function of the genes. Exposure to drugs such as vaccines and pesticides are some of the environmental factors could also result in the development of Autism disorder (Cicchetti 2006). Inflammation of astroglia and microglia in individuals with the disorder during prenatal development is also another risk factor for individuals with autism disorder.
Studies on families and twins strongly suggest that there are some individuals with a genetic predisposition to this disorder. Studies on identical twins suggest that if one of the twins is affected, the other twin has a 90% possibility of being affected too. In families where there is only one child with the disorder, there is a 5% chance that one child among 20 will also be affected (Whiteman, 2004). Evidence also has it that there are some emotional disorders like manic depression, are witnessed more frequently in families that have individuals with Autism disorder.
