Madison Malcolm

Ms.Kenly

British Lit/2B

29 April 2019

“ How does society view people with autism?”

Living in the world we do today, many disorders, disabilities and diseases have

came into existence. But, the disorder that is popular out of all of them is Autism. The

identification of autism has experienced a drastic evolution since its original definition in

the early 20th century. It is characterized by impaired development in social interactions

and communication, both verbal and non-verbal. Autism affects the the ability to learn, to

work, to communicate with their own kind, to take care of themselves, to participate in

society, to have spiritual interests and to engage in creative work. Its caused by

abnormalities in the brain structure appearing within the first three years of life.

Although the detailed causal mechanism(s) are not known, autism is likely to have

multiple etiologies including genetic factors. It is one of the most fastest growing
 imbalances with a good amount of research being put behind it. It has a numerous amount

of different signs and symptoms, different forms, how its treated and arguments about

how it came about. Autism is one of the most confusing researched imbalances there is.

It is categorized as a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism

share certain difficulties, their conditions will affect them in different ways. No two

people with autism behave and appear the same. It can be described as being trapped in a

bubble, wanting to interact but you don’t know how. It may be weird how those with

autism communicate and people may look at those with autism strange or funny when

they are trying to communicate. Autistic people lack personality, a person endowed with

a number of important social functions. The reactions autistic people receive from those

without it puts an impact on them. The impact can be either positive or negative. Even

though society may not know, what a person with autism goes through they still have

their way of how they treat them. Partial of the society shows lack of acceptance, treat

them as an abnormal person, doesn’t take the time to help out and put stereotypes on their

title. But, the other parts of society helps by developing programs , getting an education

to teach them, and donate money to charities for programs, cures etc.

The number of diagnosed cases of autism and related disorders has dramatically

increased over the past decade. The most recent studies report that ASD occurs in approximately

one in every 59 births. Autism can be diagnosed as early as 18 months, when signs can be

detected. For example if a baby fixates on objects or does not respond to people, he or she may

be exhibiting early signs of an Autism spectrum.Getting diagnosed at an early age opens doors to

therapies and medications that can be proven to be effective. Children with autism can get into

an evidence- based early intervention program starting at the age of 3-5 that can get them back
on track. Getting them back on track, means catching their mind up with their age. Autism tends

to set the brain back by a couple of years. An autistic child may be 6 in age but their mind is 3. A

program is an excellent way to help those with autism, this is one way the society helps those on

the autism spectrum. Even though a child may be 6 in age and 3 in the mind, one thing about

children with autism is that they tend to be very smart. It’s just their social and communication

skills can lead to frustration and temperamental behaviour. Children with autism spectrum

disorder (ASD) develop differently from other children. They a have challenges with interacting

and communicating with others. These challenges can affect their development and learning.

The way that people with autism learn, think problem-solve can range from highly skilled to

developing to severely challenged. Some people with ASD may require help in their everyday

lives others may not; they can do things on their own and be independent. Autism differs in

every person that has it. This is because there is a great range of abilities and characteristics of

people with ASD. Society mostly needs to learn how to treat children with autism, they tend to

be the outcast in school and their families. Dealing with children with autism, you’re less likely

to know what will cause the behavioral and emotional meltdowns. But there is a difference

between autism tantrums and autism meltdowns. These two are not the same and cannot be

addressed the same way. Autism tantrums are more of a regular child temper tantrums. It’s

mostly when the child doesn’t get what they want or can’t do what they want. Tantrums is just a

way how a child can gain your attention for his/her behavior. The best way to solve tantrums is

to ignore the the child when they have one. On the other hand, autism meltdowns or autism

outburst come from being overwhelmed or overstimulated. Meltdowns can only be calmed down

by a parent or when the point of exhaustion is reached.

 A person diagnosed with Autism will also show a limited range of activities and

interests, as well as forming and maintain peer relationships. The individuals will display limited

interests, which are often very focused and repetitive. He or she is likely to be very routine

oriented and may show behavioral symptoms such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggressiveness,

and self-injurious behavior. They can experience behavioral, developmental, cognitive and

psychological signs. Someone who is experiencing behavioral symptoms experiences;

inappropriate social interaction, poor eye contact, compulsive behavior, impulsivity, repetitive

movements, self-harm, or persistent repetition of words or actions. To start, inappropriate social

interaction can range from mild, periodic vocal outburst to sexual touching. These actions can

prevent positive interactions with other people. An autistic person with poor eye contact doesn’t

want to make it because it is an overwhelming experience for them. It is said by Judy Endow that

“too much bright, bold painful sensory information was received when directly looking into

someone's eyes for a period of time.” compulsive behavior is basically repetitive behavior

characterized by obsessions and/or compulsions. These repetitive behaviors can be movements,

objects, and repeated body movements such as rocking and hand flipping. Sometimes a

repetitive behavior could be watching the same show over and over again. With autism spectrum

it can lead to impulsivity or impulsiveness which is someone acting suddenly and without

thinking about the consequences. Most of these things are just dealing with behavior and

actions. Starting at an early age a person with ASD will not respond to their name until they are

one or hey might not point at objects they want instead they’ll stay quiet about it. sOmeone with

autism will have trouble understanding others people feelings or they don’t like talking about

their own. Their certain emotions can be triggered by minor changes or things not going their

way which will make them upset. This imbalance can make you sensitive to light and sound;
cover ears from music and cover eyes outside. Food is also a symptom of autism. A person

might want to eat nothing but scratches and is picky about what food they want. The list of

symptoms can go on forever and ever.

Speech and language delays are mostly common in children. Children with autism

spectrum disorder (ASD) develop at a different rate and don’t necessarily develop skills in the

same order as typically developing children. For example, a child with ASD might start to use a

few single words around 12 months of age. He/she might not have the explosion of language that

other children have, perhaps learning only a couple of new words each month. It might take him

until he’s three years old, or older, to start combining these words together into short

phrases.Another child with ASD might be able to label his/her own body parts but might not be

able to label body parts in a picture. Or he/she might be able to identify colours but not be able to

sort according to colour. Everyone with autism is different. A child with autism won’t learn if

you don’t teach them. Children need the skill of joint attention for developing communication

and language skills. For example, if a dad is pointing to a picture of a dog, but the child is

looking somewhere else, it will be more difficult for the child to learn the link between the

picture of a dog and the word ’dog’. Difficulty with joint attention can also make it hard for

children with ASD to learn skills like taking turns, interpreting facial expressions or keeping to

the topic of a conversation.

People with autism receive certain benefits from government and programs because of

their condition. There are a range of benefits available to families with children with autism, and

some benefits which are paid for children with disabilities in particular. Since children with

autism can develop other disabilities, so a program called DLA comes in place, Disability

Living Allowance (DLA) can be claimed for children who have additional care needs or
difficulty with walking which are caused by a disability or health condition. It is a non-diagnosis

specific benefit, so having a diagnosis of autism will not automatically lead to you gaining a

benefit from them, but many children on the autism spectrum don’t qualify for the benefit. This

is because your income and savings aren't taken in account for this benefit. The question is “why,

what I make is the reason my child can’t receive the benefits?”. People who say they’re for

autism really dont show it, this is where society is messed up at. Certain states in the United

States say they support autism, but do you think they really. States have specific or limited

coverage generally cover speech language services through habilitative( learning a new process),

rehabilitative (relearning a once known process) or therapeutic (treating through remedial

methods) care. 46 out 50 states require certain insurers to provide coverage for autism spectrum

disorder. 2 out of 50 have limited autism mandates. 2 out of 50 states do not have insurance

coverage mandates for ASD.

Now knowing some information there is about autism, you can connect society and

autism. `The answers to the research topic on “how society view people with autism” varies as

such; you have those in society that don’t know about autism, who don’t care about it, ones that

support and those with children with autism. Autism also have benefits given to them,

stereotypes applied against them and things that are said wrongly about them.

Since autism was first introduced to the world 75 years ago its has changed substantially.

Leo Kanner was the first one to find out what autism really meant. In 1943, Manner first coined

the term ‘infantile autism’ to describe a person who seemed socially isolated and withdrawn

from society. When autism first came about society a Swiss psychiatrist, Eugen Bleuler, related

autism with schizophrenia because it's what he saw in the adults he was a therapist to. But, he

wasn’t wrong about relating the two to each other because the description of schizophrenia
mirrored the description of ASD. He put this information in a journal, the American Journal of

Insanity.Later, come Kanner clearing up the misconception about autism. Kanner remade an

edition to the journal called ‘ The Nervous Child’. He also wrote a paper entitled “ Autistic

Disturbances of Affective Contact” that studied the difference showed in eleven different

children. One year later, Asperger came out with his theory of autism.

The scientific evolution of ASD have been paired with a simultaneous evolution in social

perception and stigmatization. Stigmatized people is defined by ‘ those who possess a quality

that others perceived as negative, unfavorable or unacceptable in some way’. Those who have

developmental disabilities have been stigmatized with negative judgement because of their

condition. Society stigmatize people with disabilities all the time because of how they look, act

and how their mentality is set up. It just so happens that autism is the disability that is

stigmatized the most. Since ASD first came about, those on the spectrum and families have been

challenged by stereotypes. This is because of the syndrome, he related speech and actions, the

lack of understanding their physical abilities. While studying autism in the United States, you

can see that there is a dramatic evolution change in social perception. There do exist a thread of

social challenges that autistic individuals have experienced in society and reported them. The

autistic individuals reported their feelings on how they were treated by society. The experience

that was mostly reported waas that ‘ they felt extreme feelings of isolation from childhood to

adulthood’. Most of the autistic people realize when they reached adulthood that they were being

isolated because their sense of awareness increased. According to Eve Muller, those who felt the

isolation took it two ways. They either accepted the feelings of loneliness or they tried to

improve their relationship with peers. The feeling of isolation is connected to the amount of
stigmatization that an autistic person receives in the environment. Studies have shown that being

stigmatized against plays a role with self- esteem in an autistic person.

Autistic people have many problems however, the main ones are connected with verbal

and nonverbal communication, interpreting facial expression of other people which disturbs the

process of interpreting emotions. Those with autism have reported additional personal challenges

that they came across in society. Their challenges includes difficulty initiating and maintaining

communication, issues building relationships and dealing with the preconceived notions of peers.

Communication means sharing knowledge, thoughts and observations with another human.

Communication is an aspect of daily life that many individuals take for granted; however those

with ASD lack. ASD people have difficult times initiating conversations; One they lack

understanding how to initiate conversation or two they're not confident enough to approach a

communicative situation. The feelings of isolation crete intense communication barriers.

Autistic individuals long for intimacy, but it is hard to build and maintain. Autistic people wish

to become more emotionally and physically connected with another with other individuals . Dr.

E. Muller found out through her research that ‘ the basic limits of his/her own tolerance for

emotional probing and physical touch become a fundamental problem. Because of the difficulty

in emotional connection, autistic people have severe loneliness and a struggle with dealing with

emotions. In most cases people with autism cannot take part of social interactions alternately,

they show difficulties in relations based on emotions like expressing emotions. A person with

autism needs support and help from their parents, society and first of all he/she needs competent

specialists who could take on speech therapy and therapeutic work.