Autism
Characteristics of Autism
Autism is on the autistic spectrum. It is usually diagnosed around the age of 2 – 4 when the child begins to miss developmental norms but is thought to be present from birth.
People with autism find the following difficult:
- Social communication – autistic children can find it hard to understand facial expression, tone of voice, jokes, and phrases.
- Social interaction e.g. do not understand turn taking, may seem insensitive as do not understand others emotions, act inappropriately
- Social imagination – unable to see things from others perspectives, find it hard to predict what will happen next, find imaginative play difficult, find new situations difficult to cope with.
Effects on development:
Bauminger and Shaulman compared friendship of autistic and non autistic children – similarities were both had friends of same gender and age; the differences were the number of friends, how often they met and the activities they did.
Bauminger and Karari reported that autistic children lonelier than other children but understood loneliness less. Studied high functioning autistic children aged 8-14. ALL children said they had at least one friend BUT quality of friendships not as good, providing less companionship and security.
2. Problems in communication
Autistic children tend to have difficulty with the meaning of words and sentences.
Some autistic children cannot speak, however others speak fluently so hard to generalise.
It is using language where autistic children have the greatest difficulties – they tend to use it without meaning e.g. counting without reference to objects, repeating sentences, speaking in depth about a topic that interest them but not in conversation.
Explanations for Autism
Explanation 1: Extreme Male Brain (Biological explanation)
Brain structure –
Weight - In people with autism the brain is even heavier than males, whose brain is heavier than females;
Growth - Male brains grow more quickly than females during early development - In people with autism this growth is even faster
Sections of brain- Males have a smaller corpus callosum than females - In people with autism this is even smaller; amygdala is larger in males - toddlers with autism show their amygdala to be abnormally large in comparison to toddlers without autism
Hormones- males have greater exposure to testosterone than females – this could account for it being predominantly a male disorder
Brain Function -
Males are generally better at spatial tasks such as map reading than females - people with autism seem to be even better than normal males at spatial tasks; Males develop language more slowly than females - people with autism develop language very slowly.
Males are better systematisers, females better empathisers – autism fits into this – low empathisers; high systematisers
Girls more verbal, boys more spatial in play – same as aggression – girls more verbal – maybe this is because they can understand how the victim will feel by their verbal aggression. – links in with difference between male and female brains.
Explanation 2: Theory of Mind
Children with autism suffer ‘mindblindness’ – they are unable to understand the intention of others which can explain the problems they experience when interacting with others
Sally Anne Task – child is shown two dolls – Sally has a ball which she puts in a basket. She goes off to play. While she is gone, Anne takes the ball and puts into a box. The child is asked where Sally will look for her ball when she returns.
In order to pass the child needs to understand that Sally will be unaware of what has happened and that she will look in the basket, where she left it.
The 3 key questions are: Where is Sally’s ball? (reality question) Where was the ball to begin with? (memory question) Where will Sally look for her ball? (belief question)
Baron-Cohen & Frith studied 21 autistic children, 11 downs syndrome children and 27 children with no developmental abnormality – only the autistic children had no theory of mind (failed the Sally-Anne task)
Low empathisers – people who are not good at understanding emotions of others, these people find it difficult to understand external events as they cannot understand the thoughts of others
High systematisers – people with good ability to use internal rules to organise internal events
Autistic people fit into this – they are unable to understand external events which explains why they fail the Sally-Anne test
Characteristics of Autism
Autism is on the autistic spectrum. It is usually diagnosed around the age of 2 – 4 when the child begins to miss developmental norms but is thought to be present from birth.
People with autism find the following difficult:
- Social communication – autistic children can find it hard to understand facial expression, tone of voice, jokes, and phrases.
- Social interaction e.g. do not understand turn taking, may seem insensitive as do not understand others emotions, act inappropriately
- Social imagination – unable to see things from others perspectives, find it hard to predict what will happen next, find imaginative play difficult, find new situations difficult to cope with.
Effects on development:
- Difficulties in making friends
Bauminger and Shaulman compared friendship of autistic and non autistic children – similarities were both had friends of same gender and age; the differences were the number of friends, how often they met and the activities they did.
Bauminger and Karari reported that autistic children lonelier than other children but understood loneliness less. Studied high functioning autistic children aged 8-14. ALL children said they had at least one friend BUT quality of friendships not as good, providing less companionship and security.
2. Problems in communication
Autistic children tend to have difficulty with the meaning of words and sentences.
Some autistic children cannot speak, however others speak fluently so hard to generalise.
It is using language where autistic children have the greatest difficulties – they tend to use it without meaning e.g. counting without reference to objects, repeating sentences, speaking in depth about a topic that interest them but not in conversation.
Explanations for Autism
Explanation 1: Extreme Male Brain (Biological explanation)
Brain structure –
Weight - In people with autism the brain is even heavier than males, whose brain is heavier than females;
Growth - Male brains grow more quickly than females during early development - In people with autism this growth is even faster
Sections of brain- Males have a smaller corpus callosum than females - In people with autism this is even smaller; amygdala is larger in males - toddlers with autism show their amygdala to be abnormally large in comparison to toddlers without autism
Hormones- males have greater exposure to testosterone than females – this could account for it being predominantly a male disorder
Brain Function -
Males are generally better at spatial tasks such as map reading than females - people with autism seem to be even better than normal males at spatial tasks; Males develop language more slowly than females - people with autism develop language very slowly.
Males are better systematisers, females better empathisers – autism fits into this – low empathisers; high systematisers
Girls more verbal, boys more spatial in play – same as aggression – girls more verbal – maybe this is because they can understand how the victim will feel by their verbal aggression. – links in with difference between male and female brains.
Explanation 2: Theory of Mind
Children with autism suffer ‘mindblindness’ – they are unable to understand the intention of others which can explain the problems they experience when interacting with others
Sally Anne Task – child is shown two dolls – Sally has a ball which she puts in a basket. She goes off to play. While she is gone, Anne takes the ball and puts into a box. The child is asked where Sally will look for her ball when she returns.
In order to pass the child needs to understand that Sally will be unaware of what has happened and that she will look in the basket, where she left it.
The 3 key questions are: Where is Sally’s ball? (reality question) Where was the ball to begin with? (memory question) Where will Sally look for her ball? (belief question)
Baron-Cohen & Frith studied 21 autistic children, 11 downs syndrome children and 27 children with no developmental abnormality – only the autistic children had no theory of mind (failed the Sally-Anne task)
Low empathisers – people who are not good at understanding emotions of others, these people find it difficult to understand external events as they cannot understand the thoughts of others
High systematisers – people with good ability to use internal rules to organise internal events
Autistic people fit into this – they are unable to understand external events which explains why they fail the Sally-Anne test