What is the reason of Autism spectrum Disorder in childhood? Is it curable?
Answers
There is no clear-cut cause of ASD. Some causes that are supported by research include genetic and some environmental factors. Specific genetic causes can only be identified in 10% to 20% of cases.
Risk factors include older parental age, low birth weight, prematurity and maternal use of valproic acid or thalidomide during pregnancy, among others. This field of study is an active one for reasearch genetics do play a role in autism. When one child is diagnosed with ASD, the next child to come along has about a 20% greater risk of developing autism than normal. When the first two children in a family have both been diagnosed with ASD, the third child has about a 32% greater risk of developing ASD.
The signs include the following:
Your child doesn’t respond to their name being called at all or responds inconsistently.
Your child doesn’t smile widely or make warm, joyful expressions by the age of 6 months.
Your child doesn’t engage in smiling, making sounds and making faces with you or other people by the age of 9 months.
Your child doesn’t babble by 12 months.
No back-and-forth gestures such as showing, pointing, reaching or waving by 12 months.
No words by 16 months.
No meaningful, two-word phrases (not including imitating or repeating) by 24 months.
Any loss of speech, babbling or social skills at any age.
Autism spectrum disorder can't be cured, many parents seek alternative or complementary therapies, but these treatments have little or no research to show that they're effective. You could, unintentionally, reinforce negative behaviors. And some alternative treatments are potentially dangerous.