Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong, non-progressive disability that is the result of as yet unspecified impairments to normal brain development from potentially multiple and variably overlapping causes. Autism is a syndrome, known by a characteristic set of impairments in:
1. Social interaction;
2. Communication; and
3. The capacity for imaginative and symbolic thinking resulting in stilted and stero-typed interests, behaviour and activities.
Autism affects about 1 in 160 children. More than 350 Queensland children are diagnosed with autism every year.
There is no cure for autism though changes in ability and behaviour occur over time with intervention. The effects of autism may be mild, moderate or severe and not every characteristic is evident in every person.
There is strong evidence of a biological/neurological basis for autism. It appears that structural differences can occur in one, or several, parts of the brain. There is no single, known cause of autism. Some of the factors beleived to be potential causes are: gentic factors, exposure to viral diseases and infections, physical trauma (eg birth injury), and metabolic disorders.
Autism effects four times as many males as females.
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