Maybe you have seen people in your school who found it difficult to make friends and engage in social interactions. While this can also happen to normal children, this is one of the symptoms of autistic spectrum disorder. According to the British Medical Association, 1 in 100 children in the UK has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. But what exactly is Autism Spectrum Disorder? And how does it manifest?
- This explanation will offer an introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder.
- Then the autism symptoms will be reviewed, which the meaning of autism will be presented.
- Moving on from this, the autism spectrum disorder tests will be explored.
- Last, the different causes of autism spectrum disorder are presented.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that negatively influences individuals’ ability to communicate and interact with other people. Other ways in which the disorder is manifested is through the presence of repetitive behaviours and developmentally slow learning.
Autism Symptoms
The typical autism symptoms are:
Having difficulties with social interactions, talking to others and empathy.
Engaging in repetitive behaviour.
Having difficulties with Attention and being overwhelmed by stimuli.
Having a delayed development of language and motor skills.
Sleep difficulties.
As the name suggests, autism spectrum disorder comes in a spectrum. People with the disorder can range from having little to severe autism symptoms.
Autism Meaning
Given the variability of ASD symptoms, it is difficult to establish what it means to be diagnosed. Since it is a spectrum disorder, the way it is manifested varies greatly.
Although the abilities of people diagnosed with ASD vary, these individuals tend to behave, talk, learn and communicate differently to people with no developmental disorder. Some autism symptoms can cause severe difficulties with problem-solving, thinking and learning skills. There are also fully functioning individuals who, despite being diagnosed with ASD, have learned to communicate efficiently and develop empathy.
While some individuals with ASD develop conversational skills, others are non-verbal. Similarly, some individuals present learning difficulties, while others do not. Even more, the diagnosis age can vary. Some children show symptoms as young as 12 months, while others show symptoms later in childhood.
Autism Spectrum Disorder Tests
Trained clinicians are required to diagnose people with autism disorders. Usually, clinicians use the ICD and DSM to identify if individuals’ symptoms match the criteria. In addition, autism tests have been developed to help with ASD diagnosis. Autism tests are needed so that people with autism can get the support they need.
Examples of autism tests used for diagnosis are:
- Functional behaviour assessment assesses behaviour to see if the individual’s behaviour is similar to the features of autism. This assessment is done via:
- Observations
- Information from family and schools, such as questionnaires and interviews, school reports
- Functional analysis – a trained professional manipulates a situation to see how the individual reacts.
- Tests that measure intelligence, such as
- IQ – intellectual intelligence
- EQ – emotional intelligence
- Scales for parents that measure developmental milestones in infancy
The purpose of these developmental scales is for parents to identify and learn how to support their infants. Infants with ASD may develop differently or at different rates than neurotypical infants.
Although not used for diagnosis today, one of the tools that have been used to assess ASD is the Sally-Anne Task. Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith developed this task in 1985. Their study compared the presence of Theory of Mind (ToM) in normal children, children with Down’s Syndrome and children with ASD.
Theory of Mind or ToM refers to the ability to understand that same as oneself does; others also know, want and believe things.
The Sally-Anne tasks involve presenting a story with two puppets to the child to be assessed. The story suggests that Anne has a box while Sally has a basket. Both puppets are displayed one next to another. Then Sally puts a marvel in her basket and leaves the room to play. While Sally is away, Anne takes the marvel from the basket and puts it in her box.
When Sally returns from playing outdoors, the children are asked: Where will Sally look for her marvel? Children with ToM will know that Sally does not know that Anne changed the marvel’s position and, therefore, would give the correct answer: Sally will look in the basket. Children lacking LoM will not know that Sally and themselves can have different knowledge about the situation; therefore, these children will reply what they know: Sally will look in the box.
Baron-Cohen et al.’s (1985) study found that while most Down Syndrome and normal children gave the right answer, only 20% of those with ASD demonstrated a ToM.
Autism Causes
The Biological Approach links autism causes due to genetics and neurological dysfunctions. The biological explanation also states autism symptoms result from dysfunction in associated brain regions.
Chloride ions present at birth
One theory scientists proposed is that abnormally high concentrations of chloride present at birth may affect Brain Development. Specifically, it causes issues associated with autism, suggesting a potential cause behind the disorder.
Genetics
Some research evidence points to autism being a hereditary illness, meaning that parents can pass along mutations of genes thought to cause autism.
A twin study by Taniai et al. (2008) researched 45 twin pairs aged 3–6. The results found a 95% concordance rate between monozygotic twins and 31% in dizygotic twins.
- Monozygotic twins are identical twins, i.e. they share the same genetic makeup.
- Dizygotic twins are non-identical. Dizygotic twins share 50% of the identical genetic makeup.
This finding shows genetics is a major contributor to the onset of autism. However, it is unlikely to be the only cause of autism.
It is essential to consider that Tainai et al. (2008) used a relatively small sample in Japan. Thus, the results may not be representative (ethnocentric) and generalisable.
Ethnocentric research means that the study’s design does not consider that results may differ across cultures.
Brain dysfunction
Networks associated with ASD can explain the causes of ASD. Psychology research has established brain regions need to work together to function correctly. Problems with the networks, such as the attentional network, can explain autism's causes.
Attentional dysfunction is a common autism symptom. Fan et al. (2012) used a Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) technique to measure the Correlation between brain activity in regions associated with the attentional network and test performance. The study compared the results of ‘healthy’ controls versus high-functioning adults diagnosed with ASD. The results found participants with ASD made more errors. They had lower activity in brain regions associated with Attention and executive control, showing lower activity in the mid-frontal gyrus and the caudate nucleus for alerting.
The Amygdala Theory of Autism
The amygdala (dysfunction) has also been highlighted as a brain area associated with autism. The amygdala is vital in social understanding. Its dysfunction can be why some people with ASD tend to exhibit abnormal Eye Contact, facial processing abilities, and struggle with empathy.
Psychologists have identified differences in the neurochemistry of people diagnosed with ASD and neurotypical people.
Neurotypical refers to people who do not have a neurological disorder.
Examples of autism symptoms linked to the imbalance of specific Neurotransmitters include:
| Dysregulated Neurotransmitters identified in ASD | Associated autism symptoms |
| Gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) | Processing information and social behaviour dysfunction |
| Glutamate | Intellectual disability |
| Serotonin | Memory, learning, sleep, regulating mood |
| Dopamine | Motor control (repetitive behaviours) and social Cognition |
| Melatonin | People with ASD tend to have sleep disorders; melatonin plays a role in the sleep/wake cycle. |
The biological explanation cannot solely explain autism causes. We need other theories to understand autism causes. The disorder affects cognitive and social functions too. Therefore, these approaches should be considered when investigating the causes of autism.
Social psychological explanations of autism
The theory of mind (ToM) suggests that people with ASD have an impaired ToM, which refers to the ability to understand other people’s mental states, i.e. predicting how someone will feel based on the situation they have just experienced. This cognitive skill is important for developing social skills.
An example of how a person with ASD and poor ToM may think is that they do not understand that someone is sad because they failed a test.
People with ASD and poor ToM may understand that someone is sad but do not know why.
Weak central coherence theory – Frith (1989) proposed that weakened abilities to process central coherence can explain some aspects of autism. Central coherence is understanding the context of something or seeing the big picture of something.
A person not diagnosed with ASD may see a family, whereas someone with ASD may see many people standing together.
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