Learning about Autism
Unit 9 Project
Christie Peirce
Kaplan University
CM107-20
While watching certain movies like the Boy Who Could Fly or Dear John, audiences will start to slowly notice throughout these movies that some of the main characters in each of these movies start to show signs and symptoms of autism. In the Boy Who Could Fly, the main character Eric exhibited signs such as when he was removed from his home, he became frightened and violent towards others. Eric was guarded with others including his uncle. In Dear John, John’s father Bill Tyree, has an extreme attachment to coins, and has a daily routine and makes sure that if anything is out of place that it is put back as it was. Mr. Tyree also shows fear and panic when he agrees to go with his son to visit his son’s girlfriend’s family because it changed his routine, he makes them stop the car and turn around to go back home. Mr. Tyree showed difficulty communicating with everyone including his son, but opened up when talking about his coins. These are just a few examples of autistic behaviors.
Autism is a social and communication impairment that can show up in the first three years of life. It is a physical condition that has been linked to biological and chemistry in the brain. The exact causes of this disease remain unknown to this day. However, there has been a lot of head way in this area of research. Scientists and doctors have discovered that autism seems to start in the brain during very early child development. There are many different signs and early symptoms of autism, available treatment for children, and there are also different levels of autism. (A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia, 2011) We have noticed that our son Joey has shown some signs of early autism, for example he has not yet been able to make out his words very well, and also has a lot of trouble having any kind of conversation with anyone and he is now 3 years old.
Signs and symptoms of an Autistic child can range from being mildly affected to severely affected. Some parents may notice early developmental problems in the first 18 months of their child’s life. Different signs are typically, having problems with pretend play, social interactions, and having issues with communicating verbally as well as nonverbally. Many children appear to be normal before the ages of one or two years old, then start to slowly decline in social skills that they have previously learned which is called, regressive autism. Some of the signs of regression are being overly sensitive to all of the five normal human senses, being extremely distressed when any normal routine has changed, performing repetitive body movement and language, and showing an unusual attachment to certain objects. Symptoms of autism range from moderate to severe. Some of these symptoms may be communication problems, social interactions and irregular responses to sensory information, trouble playing correctly with others, and having behavioral problems. One of the most severe issues that an autistic child may have is the inability to use their emotions correctly. Some children may show no emotion at all, where others may get very angry about something that most people or children view as trivial. (A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia, 2011 and www.autismspeaks.org) Joey has shown problems with his anger, in a sometimes violent manner through temper tantrums and striking family members when he does not agree with them. He also seems to have an extreme sensitivity to light, and also gets caught up easily on one particular thing at a time and shuts out everything else that is going on around him.
Some people believe that autism is caused by different vaccines administered to children in the first 3 years of childhood. The main reason for this is because the vaccines given have up to 49% of mercury in them, and mercury is a deadly toxin. Mercury can cause brain hallucinations, brain damage, and death. It is believed that for
