What is autism - Symptoms and Causes - Autism or autism itself is a brain development disorder that can affect the sufferer in how to communicate and interact with other people. Until now, the exact cause of autism is still unknown.
Until now, the cause of children born with autism is still a mystery. Children who have suffered from autism will usually experience symptoms before they suffer from autism and get worse. However, you can actually do therapy. The reason is, if, after the age of 3 years, the development of these children will stop or retreat.
Quoted from Womenshealthmag in the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke, experts have stated that there is a combination of genetics and environment that plays a big role in children born with autism.
As a reference and knowledge material, here we have summarized for you some of the causes of autism that are often associated with the disease, as reported by Liputan6 and various sources.
Causes of Autism
1. Folic Acid Level
What is autism and why is it related to folic acid? Folic acid plays an important role in a baby's neurodevelopment, but recent research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows too much folic acid is just as bad as a deficiency.
Researchers found that if a pregnant mother had a high level of folic acid (four times the recommended intake) her child would have twice the risk of developing autism. The recommended dose for women of childbearing age is 400 mcg.
2. Eating Habits
What is autism and what does it have to do with diet. Many parents of autistic children adopt special diets such as gluten-free and casein-free but this does not mean that their child's autism is caused by parents eating wheat or dairy. Nicole Van Groningen, M.D., an internist at NYU Langone Medical Center, says that there is no definitive evidence to support a link between diet and autism.
3. Age
What are autism and its relationship with age? The longer you are likely to have children, there are men, having children in their 40s will have the higher risk of having autistic children. Meanwhile, women who gave birth over the age of 40 also increased the risk of having a child with autism compared to giving birth under the age of 25.
4. Genetic Factors
What is autism and how does it relate to genetic factors. Reporting from Liputan6, in a study the results showed that it was found that 2-4 percent of siblings also suffered from the same disease.
5. Premature Birth and Twins
Babies born at 26 weeks gestation or less are at risk of developing autism. In addition, children born are not identical also affects their twin also has autism. The influence of autism is getting bigger in children who are born with identical twins.
Symptoms of Autism
What is autism and what are its recognizable symptoms? After there are several explanations for the causes of autism that can be recognized, you certainly also need to learn exactly what are the symptoms of a person, especially often can be recognized at the age of children from the age of 3 years.
Reporting from Liputan6, there are several symptoms that can be noticed, including the absence of eye contact and no response to the environment. If therapy is not carried out, then after the age of 3 years the child's development will stop or decline.
Some experts reveal that there are three symptoms of autism in children that are very easy to recognize, such as:
- Disruption of social interaction
- Has difficulty in speech and non-speech communication (body language and gestures)
- Odd or very limited activities and interests
In addition, there are other symptoms of autism in children that are easy to detect. Here are the symptoms of autism in children that you can recognize:
- It's hard to get along with the other kids
- Laughing or giggling out of place
- Avoid eye contact or make little eye contact
- Shows insensitivity to pain
- Prefers to be alone or withdraw from society
- Likes to rotate objects or fixate on certain objects
- Highly dependent on objects that are already well known physically
- Active or not active at all
- Interested in similar things, unwilling to accept or experience change
- Not afraid of danger
- Get stuck on the odd game
- Likes to repeat words or syllables
- Don't want to be hugged
- Does not respond to words, acts as if deaf
- Has difficulty expressing his needs through words
- Likes to ask by hand signal or pointing
- Easily irritated or annoyed blindly
Thus the discussion about the definition of autism and the symptoms to watch out for, hopefully, the above review is useful for all readers.