Understanding the spectrum of autism

Even with the gift of articulate speech and understanding, some of us frequently misunderstand each other. Sometimes, we’re at odds with the other person’s thinking or simply unable to bridge a communication gap. But amongst us are individuals who have it even harder: those who don’t recognise certain ways of human communication like facial expressions, gestures, touch or eye contact. They suffer from a condition that makes social interaction a challenge. One in every 80 people in the world is born with autism. Yet, hardly any of us know much about the condition. Many even mistake it to be a personality disorder. The truth is, autism spectrum disorder is a complex condition to understand, let alone manage or live with. It varies widely from individual to individual, making it hard–even for experts–to describe it definitively.

According to the official website of the Autism Society: “Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability; signs typically appear during early childhood and affect a person’s ability to communicate, and interact with others. ASD is defined by a certain set of behaviours and is a “spectrum condition” that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees.”

The key point here is that autism is not just a condition, but a spectrum of issues. According to neuropsychologist Akila Sadasivan, some of the ways in which the condition manifests are deficits in social interaction, deficits or delay in speech and language, and a restricted range of behaviours and interests. Given its spectrum, it’s easy to confuse autism with social anxiety, hearing disability and the like, depending on how the condition manifests in the individual. However, most autistic individuals simply have perceptual problems. For instance, they might have great speech and auditory perception but lack tactile perception. Some may be more tactile and visual, but not good with auditory perception.

Autism is certainly not an easy condition to manage and many probably ask their doctors this one question: “Why me?” “Just as autism is a spectrum, there’s a spectrum of etiologies, a spectrum of causes,” says geneticist Wendy Chung in her Ted Talk Autism–What We Know (and what we don’t know yet). Through her research, she’s found that advanced paternal age at the time of conception is one of the causes of autism in a child. Another cause, she points out, is the use of valproic acid in medication by mothers who suffer from epilepsy. Chung’s research shows that this particular medication affects the critical stage of brain development in the baby, increasing its chances of being born autistic.