Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a relatively new term that includes all of the subgroups of autism. Autism is a problem people grow up with, affecting how they interact with the world around them and other people. The term ASD is used because some people are more severely disabled than others.
ASDs cause difficulties with the ability to communicate and to interact socially with other people, and also restrict the way people lead their lives. Unlike some disabilities, you can’t tell that a person has an ASD just by looking at them. Some people feel that because an ASD is 'invisible', it’s harder for others to understand or empathise with them. Although it’s not thought of as a learning disability itself, a large number of people who have ASDs have some level of learning disability as well.
Most people with ASDs receive services and support from learning disability organisations.
ASDs are hard to diagnose because, superficially, they resemble a number of other difficulties, including severe learning disabilities and impaired hearing. Experts estimate that there are many undiagnosed cases, and there is no central register for people with ASDs. It's currently estimated that between one and five people in every thousand could be affected. Of these, about 50 per cent may also have severe learning disabilities, while about 20 per cent have average or above average intelligence. Boys are three times more likely to be affected than girls, but we don't yet understand why. ASDs seem to be more common nowadays, but this is probably because more people are aware of the condition and health professionals are getting better at detecting it.
Autism and asbergers are the two that fall into the category that people know about, however it is possible to be on the spectrum of these disorders, this means the severity of the disability is much less. For instance someone on the autistic spectrum may feel like they never fit in or that they have difficulties communicating. Picking this up is a lot harder than aspergers and autism and so people may go undiagnosed until adulthood, it might even never be picked up.
Causes:
It is still not known what causes ASDs, at one time, some doctors believed childhood autism to be the result of ‘refrigerator parenting’ meaning a lack of emotional warmth, which caused the child to withdraw. Experts now strongly disagree with this idea, and its very important parents don’t consider themselves to blame. Most specialists now believe that ASDs are due to physical causes in the brain, and not by upbringing. Some research shows that genetic factors play a part, and its likely that a number of different conditions affect the brain development before, during or just after birth.
Treatment:
There is no cure for ASDs, they are lifelong conditions. There are however many treatments and interventions which can greatly improve their quality of life, whatever level of disability.
For more detailed information see information on Aspergers and Autism.