What is autism?

Creative Commons Image Marcobellucci via Flickr

Autism involves three characteristic areas of difficulty. People with autism find it hard to interact socially with others or to make friends, and quite frequently experience bullying.

They also have communication difficulties – some can’t speak at all; some develop speech later than usual, while others can speak fine, but have problems with the social aspects of communication. For example they don’t understand when a listener is getting bored by their stories; they may take language very literally or find it hard to get the point of a joke.

Lastly, people with autism tend to have narrow interests, such as reading everything about one type of dinosaur, and they often repeat the same activities over and over, ranging from constantly rocking in their chair, to repeatedly watching the same video.

Creative Commons Image purpcheese via Flickr

[Image: purpcheese under CC 2.0 Generic license]

Although all people with autism have these three areas of difficulty, there are also some striking differences. Because of this variation, researchers and practitioners often talk about the ‘autism spectrum’, and identify different groups on this spectrum.

People in the ‘classic autism’ group have substantial difficulties in all three areas, often including little or no speech. They may also have intellectual disabilities.

‘Asperger syndrome’ refers to the group of people who have no obvious language problems and are intellectually capable or even exceptionally bright, but are still inflexible, struggling to interact socially and communicate effectively.

The lengthy term for a third group on the spectrum, with a slightly less typical pattern of difficulties, is ‘pervasive developmental disorders – not otherwise specified’ (PDD-NOS for short). People diagnosed with PDD-NOS usually show some behavioural features of autistic disorder but do not meet the full criteria.

More common

Autism spectrum conditions are much more common than was previously thought. About one per cent (or one in a hundred) of people in the UK are thought to be on the autism spectrum. Perhaps you know someone with autism, or are on the autism spectrum yourself?

The exact causes of autism spectrum conditions are still unknown, but it’s clear that they are highly genetic. Autism tends to run in families. It is not uncommon for more than one person within a family to be on the autism spectrum. Scientists have not fully identified the genetic mechanisms involved but what they do know is that there is not one single gene for autism. Instead, numerous genes seem to be involved, and different genes may be involved in different families or individuals.

Find out more

Want to discover more about the subject of autism?

Why not study the Open University's Understanding the autism spectrum course which gives you an insight into the symptoms of conditions on the autism spectrum as well as how behaviour, mental functioning, family relationships and social adaptation is affected.

Weblinks

The National Autistic Society

The website of the National Autistic Society, which offers information on autism and Asperger syndrome, as well as links to relevant news and events. It also has a database of published material on autism with over 18,500 published research papers, books, articles, videos and other materials.

Research Autism
This charity is dedicated to research into the treatments, therapies and services that can be used to help people with autistic spectrum disorders. It gives an overview of their research plus studies and a list of interventions.

Autism NI

This charity seeks to support parents, professionals, and people on the autistic spectrum in Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Society of Autism

This society supports families in Scotland affected by autism, offering consultancy and training.

Autism and Asperger's Syndrome on bbc.co.uk

Useful overview of autism and Asperger's syndrome from medical journalist and broadcaster Dr Trisha Macnair.

From a counsellor with a copper's perspective to...

Article from OU community website, Platform, by OU graduate who exhibits traits of Asperger syndrome and is now counselling people with the same condition while continuing his career in the police force.