Questions, answers, facts and details about autism
Written by Olga Kharif, Oregonian Newspaper

Autism, affecting one in 100 to 200 people, is one of the most severe developmental disorders. More than 285,000 American children between the age of 3 and 21, including 2,470 in Oregon, are affected.

Gene Stubbs, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Oregon Health Sciences University and a leading autism specialist, answered some questions about the disorder.

Q: What is autism?

A: Autism is a processing disorder characterized by impaired interpersonal relationships, impaired communication, repetitive, stereotyped activities and unusual responses to sensory stimuli.

Q: What are its characteristics?

A: Impaired nonverbal communication, such as gestures, pointing, eye contact; peer relationships that are lacking or limited; failure to share activities; poor social-emotional reciprocity, such as not recognizing distres in others or failing to comfort someone in distress; delayed or abnormal language development; not initiating and carrying on a conversation.

Autistic people do not have "pretend" or symbolic play. They engage in repetitive activites such as playing with string. they might flap their hands. They have difficulty with changing a routine. They focus on parts of objects instead of whole thing, like spinning wheels of a toy car. They are hypersensitive to sound and other sensory stimuli.

Q: Are people with autism antisocial, as they sometimes appear to be?

A: Many persons with autism desire contact with people, but don't know how to gain it. They are also overshelmed by the sonsory stimuli of groups (like the noise of talking), so they avoid them. Some prefer to interact with computers over people: Computers are more predictable.

Q: What causes autism?

A: The cause of autism is unknown at this time; the disorder is lekely to have many causes. the leading hypothesis at this time is that it is genetic. Some think there may be as many as 30 genes involved, none of whiuch is dominant, although they may be interactive. this has not been proven, though.

Another probable cause is infections, like congenital rubella, congenital cytomegalovirus. It is hypothesized that there may be an autoimmune contribution. Some researchers believe damage occurs after birth. Another hypothesis is that vaccinations may contribute -- but again, that is not proven.

Q: What are the ways of treating autism?

A: There are many current ways of treating autism: Some are proven, most are not. The most well-substantiated way of treating autism is through applied behavioral analysis. Structured Teaching has also been effective. Other treatments include speech therapy, sensory motor integration, diets, medications, relaxation training, vitamin B6 plus magnesium, auditory integration, social stories methods.

Q: What can be achieved by taking the children out into the community?

A: Children who are taken out into the community can generalize what they are learning in the classroom. Generalization is very difficult for children with autism. They do not learn very wellby observing others, so they have to be taught specfically. Then, they have to be taught in many different settings for it to work. also, they get real-life experiences. In addition, they can do more activities liek swimming, riding buses, going to the zoo.

- Olga Kharif, Oregonian Newspaper, August 15, 1999 Section L8

Excerpts from the main article "Something ventured, something gained"

Socially different

For autistic children, stepping into the mainstream is full of fear and pain.

They struggle with relating to others. Some of their behavior is bizarre. Some children, for example, repeatedly flap their hands or walk on their toes.

"People with autism are not socially damaged, they are socially different," said Sharone Lee, a volunteer with the Autism Society of Oregon. "In a way, they have their own culture."

Autistic people might have abnormal eating a sleeping habits. They might sleep as little as an hour a day or eat just one kind of food, like chocolate chip cookies. Some of the children might be self_abusive at times -- biting or scratching their hands.

Usually autistic children's intellectual skills are in the retarded range - about 75 percent have an IQ between 35 adn 50, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Few children function on the level dustin Hoffman portrayed in the movie "Rain Man."

Cause remains unclear

More interpreting will be needed. Experts say the number of children known to have autism, an estimated 1 in every 100 to 200 people in Oregon, is on the rise.

In the state, the number of autistic children on record nearly doubled int he past four years, according to the Oregon Department of Educaiton. The increase, mirrored across the country, is mostly due to earlier detection and broder criteria for diagnosing the disorder.

Meanwhile, the cause of autism, usually detected around age 3, remains as puzzling to researchers as ever. Some researchers link it to genetics. But its cause is unknown, according to the Autism Society of America.

Life expectancy for people with autism is normal. And education and training is the only proven method of treatment. With proper help and some luck, some children end up going to college and getting married.

Many unmet needs

Rsources for families with autistic children are still int he early stages.

"This is the first generation of children living in their community" and the first generation of parents raising their autistic children at home, said Karen London, president and co-founder of the National Alliance for Autism Research, the first U.S. organization to start funding autism research.

Until a study in the mid-1960s proved autism was a biological condition, the disorder was blamed on bad parenting. Autistic childrenusually were taken away from their families and institutionalized.

"There's a huge amount of unmet nees," London said.

Many parents of autistic children worry about what will happen to their children if they die while their kids lack basic skills, said Timothy Edwards, program coordinator for the Foundation for Autistic Children's Education and Socialization, which helps families find resources.

And parents can't do it all. "Even the best pareent is going to struggle," said Lee, the Autsim Society of Oregon volunteer and a parent of an autistic child.