Research paper on autism: The paper was to be on any field in psychology.

Essay by stacywilliamsCollege, Undergraduate October 2007

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AUTISMMy research is on what exactly autism is and the facts on it, the symptoms and other social behavior in an autistic child. http://www.mhsource.com/hy/autism.html (Dogpile-autism) gave facts on autism, stating it is not a disease, but a developmental disorder of the brain. Autism is a mental disorder that severely impairs a person's ability to communicate, interact with other people, and have normal contact with the outside world. It also told about the three categories, socially avoidant, socially indifferent, and socially awkward. Avoidant is as a child running away from any interaction. Socially indifferent is that an autistic child will not make any interaction with others unless they need something, they much rather be by themselves. It also touched very little on the sensory problems. In its simplest form, autism may seem like a learning disability. The more severe forms of autism involve strange behavior that can even cause injury to the person.

Most autistic people (75%) have mental retardation. One in 166 people are affected by autism. Also, autism is found in 4 times as many boys than girls.

The term autistic disorder was first coined in 1943 by psychiatrist Leo Kanner. He used it to describe how eleven disturbed children behaved in ways that were not similar to mental retardation or schizophrenia. He named the syndrome early infantile autism as he observed that "there is a from the start an extreme aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside". He found that these eleven children had been unable to relate to people in the normal way from the beginning of life. They were limited in language and had an obsessive desire for everything to remain the same. Official acceptance of the disorder was delayed by general confusion in the...