Autism

Introduction “Autism is a complex neurobehavioral disorder that includes impairments in social interaction and developmental language and communication skills, and rigid, repetitive behaviors” (WebMD, 2012a). In another words, autism is a lifelong disability that blocks the learning, language communication, emotional and social development of a child. Another way to define autism is that it is a developmental disorder that appears during the first 3 years of life, and affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills (PubMed, 2010). It is a form of disorder with a wide range of symptoms which are so mild that a child can function in a regular classroom setting with special services or at other times it is so severe that a child is mute and institutionalized (NASOM, 2012). It ranges in severity from a handicap that limits an otherwise a normal life to a devastating disability that may require institutional care. Autism is considered to have a physical condition which is linked to abnormal activities of the biology and chemistry in the brain (Smith, Segal & Hutman, 2012). But, the real or exact causes of these unspecified abnormalities are still remained a mystery which prompts youngsters to be interested and turns out as a very active area of research. There are probably combinations of factors that lead to autism.
Chronological flow of autism research Back in 1938, an American psychiatrist, Leo Kanner had observed 11 children (subjects) which he believed have autism’s symptoms. After 10 years observation, he was the first who described autism as a disorder and published a paper about it with the title, “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact” to describe the symptoms that he found on behaviors of his subjects. He described autism as an early form of schizophrenia. “The combination of extreme autism, obsessiveness, stereotypy, and echolalia brings the total picture into relationship with some of the basic schizophrenia