What is autism?

Autism, also known as autism or autistic disorder (autistic disorder), etc., is a representative disorder of pervasive developmental disorders. Incidence The incidence of autistic individuals has been reported inconsistently. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Intellectual Disorders, Fourth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1994, there are 2 to 5 autistic individuals per 10,000 population; among them, boys are about 3 to 4 times more likely than girls. The effects of autism do not discriminate by geography, race or class, with one child diagnosed with autism every 20 minutes worldwide. The U.S. has been collecting data on autism since 1992, and by 2003, the number of children diagnosed with autism jumped 800 percent, with one in 150 children in the U.S. diagnosed with autism and one in 94 boys with autism, compared to one in 100,000 children in 1990. Researchers have identified genes associated with autism, but the underlying causes of autism are not yet known. one reason for the rise in the number of people with autism in the early 21st century is the intensification of diagnosis. Based on data collected in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, it is estimated that 35 million people worldwide have autism. Etiology Research on the etiology of autism has emerged from the 1960s with different theories, but by the beginning of the 21st century no unified theory had emerged. Among them, in terms of cognitive deficits, scholars mostly focus on the explanation of information processing deficits, but there are still divergent hypotheses, which can be divided into the following four main types: 1. Psychological theories Baron-Cohen et al. proposed in 1995 that autistic people are caused by a lack of understanding of their own and other people’s mental states, and therefore have the inability to recognize other people’s facial expressions, or difficulties in conveying emotions (but can understand favorite and simple They cannot express gestures, cannot understand that others have different messages, cannot distinguish between reality and appearance, cannot imagine or pretend, and cannot process old and new messages in a conversation. Hobson explained in 1989-1993 that autistic people do not have the necessary social experiences in infancy and early childhood to develop the cognitive ability to understand socially because of an intrinsic emotional deficit within the inability to accept or respond to the emotional expressions of others. This explains the deficits in mutual attention coordination and imitation in autistic individuals, but does not explain symptoms such as fragmented giftedness, visual dominance, and imitative speech. However, this statement echoes Kenner’s claim. In 1992, Ozonoff suggested that autistic individuals may have prefrontal impairment and therefore have symptoms such as stubborn and stereotypical homophily, limited interest expression, clumsy motor imitation, egocentric social interaction, lack of emotional response, and higher level abstract cognitive deficits. 4. The weak central coherence theory Sperber and Wilson argued in 1986 that autistic people have fragmented talents such as block arrangement and excellent mechanical memory because of their inability to transform external environmental stimuli into meaningful messages and to connect old and new messages. From the above hypotheses, it can be seen that no matter which hypothesis is adhered to, it still cannot satisfactorily explain all the symptoms of autism. Clinical manifestations (a) Social aspects (1) Lack of interest in the outside world and lack of awareness of the presence of others; (2) Lack of eye contact with others and failure to interact, share, or participate in activities; (3) Weak imitation and failure to master social skills and lack of cooperation in group situations; (4) Weak imagination and minimal symbolic play through toys; (5) Lack of awareness of certain sounds, colors, and colors; and (6) Lack of cooperation with others. 5.They have anxious or strong reactions to certain sounds, colors, food or light; 6.They have weak reactions to cold, heat and pain, so they lack alertness and appropriate responses to dangerous behaviors; 7.They constantly turn their bodies or explore objects in unusual ways, and indulge themselves in certain sensory stimuli. (About 30% of the children have normal intellectual development and 70% have delayed intellectual development or IQ of 70 or less. 2. (3) Communication 1. Delayed and impaired language development, abnormal speech content, speed, and intonation; 2. Different degrees of difficulty in understanding language and non-verbal communication; 3. (iv) Behavioral 1. Insists on certain ways and procedures in daily life, refuses to change habits and routines, and repeats actions constantly; 2. Has narrow interests, is extremely preoccupied with certain objects, or is particularly interested in certain parts of objects or certain specific shapes; 3. Resists certain tastes, colors, or foods that have not been eaten before, thus developing severe paranoid behavior; 4. difficulty in sleeping. (v) Strengths and interests 1. Some patients may have abnormal memory; 2.