What is Infantile Autism?

[qtxncm...@yahoo.com]

The autistic disorder is a life lasting neurological disorder
involving also the childhood disintegrative disorder, Asperger
disorder, Rett disorder and the pervasive development disorder. Autism
is registered as one of the five pervasive development disorders and
is usually diagnosed around the age of three.
The most important pathological changes caused by autism are
communication difficulties, impaired social interaction and
restrictive activities; children with autism have generally repetitive
activities and interests and most of the other actions specific to
children their age represent no real interest to them.
Children suffering from autism are more susceptive to developing
epilepsy; they have different degrees of mental retardation and show
abnormal responses to different sensor stimulations like light or
sound. Some of these patients show an aggressive behavior especially
with self-injuring tendencies such as beating themselves or head
banging.
One third of the autistic children have proven an almost normal IQ
level for their age and many of them are even able to respond with own
actions to the environment. Some of the patients can show their own
emotions and affection towards persons around them; some of the sick
persons can only be measured as autistic like, with autistic
tendencies or with an autism spectrum. The disease is normally
cataloged as a high-functioning or a low-functioning autism....

http://groups.google.com/group/autismnvc