Dealing with Autism in Adulthood

The apparently steep and sudden increase in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder has challenged many traditional parenting and schooling strategies. Now, as a generation of autistic children come of age, new strategies are needed to adequately serve their housing, transportation, employment and educational needs. That's the consensus of a draft report by California's Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism, according to the Pasadena Star-News.

About 1 in every 150 children are born with autism, a disease characterized by frustrating unknowns. Autism is characterized by its symptoms, and because the severity of those symptoms vary, the disease is thought of as a “spectrum disorder” -- one that affects one child differently or more severely than others. Symptoms emerge very early in life and last throughout. Children are unable to interact with people as others do: for instance, they may shun hugs, fail to understand facial cues that are an intuitive form of communication to others, maintain unusual focus on seemingly inconsequential things, and develop repetitive physical tics like rocking back and forth.

Because chemicals have been shown to interrupt or disrupt the normal development of the brain during fetal development in the womb and during early childhood development, environmental toxins have long been suspects in the search for a cause. In a variety of diseases, chemicals and other environmental cues are thought of as triggers that prompt genes to act, and a genetic pre-disposition to autism is also thought to be part of the equation. The challenges scientists face in determining the causes of autism are matched by society's challenge to treat autistic adults with respect and to afford them as much independence as possible.

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