In Rain Man, Raymond's area of phenomenal skill is his memory: He can remember specific details to a degree that seems supernatural. This combination of autism and specialized skill can exist but it is not at all typical of those with autism.
The cause (or causes) or autism are not yet known, although there is clear genetic component. Scientists do not even know if autism is in fact a single (or small number) of disorders or actually a large number of disorders with a variety of different causes (Geschwind 391).
Currently the gold standard of treatment for autism is a combination of special education interventions and behavioral modification therapy. Neither of these (alone or in combination) is highly effective (Myers and Johnson 1164). Certainly standard treatments for autism will not create the kind of person we see in the character of Raymond. Most autistic people will never have the kind of skills that Raymond has, and this movie might therefore raise a false sense of hope in families who have a member with autism.
Autism is an essentially isolating disorder...
Autism is a disorder that starts early in the childhood and stays until adulthood. It has now been known that many conditions are considered co morbid to autism spectrum disorders. These conditions are variable but some of the most common ones include fragile X syndrome and epilepsy. Furthermore, it is noted that autism most likely affects areas such as communication, social interaction and behavior of the person. Therefore, there is
Autism has reached epidemic proportions between American children with cases increasing amongst adults and children worldwide. Treatments initially began with helping children improve their social and communication skills. With medications like risperidone and aripiprazole to treat irritability, children with autism were managed short-term. However, these medications only present a temporary fix with symptoms continuing after stopping of medication and symptoms recurring even with higher doses. For there to be a
Autism and Operant Conditioning Before taking this class, I was dismissive of operant conditioning as a tool for learning and education in human beings. Instead, I thought of operant conditioning as something that people did with pets, teaching them to associate a particular behavior with a treat or a punishment, and I felt as if this type of learning was below the capabilities of most human beings. My own perceptions about
In some students, autism is more severe than it is in others, and teachers must learn to anticipate this if they are to be successful in the classroom. The severity of the autism can make the difference between whether students with autism should be included or whether they should be taught separately (Shattuck, et al., 2009). Students cannot make that decision, of course, but the parents and teachers can work
Autism is a developmental disorder as it is marked with pervasive and severe impairment revolving around areas of development such as communication, imagination, reciprocal interaction and behavior. The diagnostic criteria for autism as incorporated by the DSM IV TR includes symptoms such as impairment in the use of nonverbal behaviors like eye contact, gestures, bodily postures during the normal routine social interaction, the inability to form good peer relationships, delay
Autistic Spectrum Disorders and the Family Unit Autistic Spectrum Disorders are a group of related disorders or developmental disabilities that have been caused by some sort of problem within the brain. The necessity to understand the reasons for autism and the basic underlying pathophysiology has become more severe because the amount of diagnosed cases has increased dramatically in recent years. (White, 2003) Researchers and scientists have not been able to discover,
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