Hans Asperger

“Who decides what a meaningful life is?” Ron Suskind asks this insightful question while talking about his son, Owen, who has autism. He is saying that just because someone has autism, that doesn’t mean they can’t live a meaningful life. Some people think that autism means that the people who have it can’t have normal lives, but who decides what’s normal? Owen shares his story in the documentary Life Animated, a touching and eye-opening documentary that allows viewers to enhance their…

This definition describes CP as a heterogeneous condition in terms of type and severity of impairment. As a disorder of development, this implies the motor impairment that is manifest very early in development. The core features of CP include, abnormal patterns of movement, posture and regulation of muscle tone. Neurodevelopmental impairments affect adaptive and sensory functioning, learning, communication, behavior and even seizures. (Martin Bax, 2005) Cerebral Palsy is the most common…

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), also known as developmental apraxia of speech (DAS), is a childhood speech sound disorder caused by the impairment of the motor movements of the articulators related to speech production. This impairment impacts the coordination and accuracy of the muscles used to coordinate the speech production (Vinson, 2001). This disease differs from dysarthria, which impacts the execution of the utterance instead of the planning and programming of the speech movement. The…

There are a lot of people who have experienced what it is like to live with someone who has a disability. Being around someone who has a disability makes a person realize some of their behavior patterns or how they can communicate in other ways. Some people may face everyday obstacles and struggle when someone they know has a disability. Down syndrome and autism are two types of disabilities that are becoming more and more common in today’s society. There have been test done that says, “……

Parents are increasingly becoming more aware of ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. ASD symptoms can range from gifted to severely challenged (CDC). With ASD rates rising, it has become necessary for nurses in acute care setting to get a better understanding of ASD patients. In this article, Caring For The Child With An Autism Spectrum Disorder In The Acute Care Setting,…

The DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is used to help clinicians and other health care professionals with their line of work and diagnosis. In 2013 the DSM-IV has changed over to the DSM-5. With this there have been changes in the groupings of disorders, new disorders added, and some completely different. With these changes has come a lot controversy. An area that has seen drastic changes is within the Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Within the DSM-IV…

WHAT IS DYSPRAXIA? Dyspraxia is a complex disorder in which individuals lack coordination of their motor activities, speech, judgment, body balance and movements. In these individuals, the various cognitive skills such as memory, perception, thought processes are usually impaired, although the intelligence remains unaffected. Furthermore, the nervous system and the body's immune system suffer major setbacks. Dyspraxia is widely known as Developmental Coordination Disorder. Diagnosis is carried…

Autism Encountered with this term, society immediately yearns to associate the condition with being different, difficult, antisocial and perhaps even abnormal. Admittedly, before I investigated further into the topic of Autism, I may have also habitually tried to fit autistic people under a label. Essentially, none of these words justly describe the true nature of autism. For the most part, the public generally believes that autistic people have trouble communicating effectively and…

Did you ever think that maybe people with autism were not actually the one’s that were different. Studies show that in fact, we are the one’s who are “different.” People with autism have brains that are more symmetrical than others. However, in this instance symmetry means something entirely different from what you may typically infer autism and the brain. Recent imaging has revealed that children within the autism spectrum disorder have less asymmetries in their brains compared to their…

Infants demonstrate an other-race effect. This is when people show facial recognition errors when a target face is from an unfamiliar racial group, rather than their own racial group. This is known as the other-race effect (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). The question is: is the other race effect present from birth or does it develop based on experience? It has been demonstrated that selectivity based on ethnic facial differences emerges very early in life. However, researchers have…