What Is the Connection Between Autism and Dyslexia?

The etiology is unknown at present, and the etiology and pathogenesis of autism cannot be elucidated, but at least it is regarded as a broad developmental disorder caused by a variety of biological causes.

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The etiology is unknown at present, and the etiology and pathogenesis of autism cannot be elucidated, but at least it is regarded as a broad developmental disorder caused by a variety of biological causes.

After Kanner first proposed the diagnosis of autism in 1943, he also proposed that the cause of autism was caused by parents' emotional indifference and excessive formalization. After decades of extensive research, it has now been confirmed that autism and the Parental parenting styles are irrelevant, and the indifference and formalization of so-called autistic parents suggests that parents may have similar, mild obstacles. Although the etiology of autism is still unknown, related scholars have carried out extremely extensive research on the etiology of autism. More and more evidence shows that biological factors (mainly genetic factors) and fetal intrauterine environmental factors play important roles in autism. It plays an important role in the pathogenesis and has become a hot spot in the etiology research. Other factors include immune factors, nutrition factors, etc. Based on comprehensive research, it is currently believed that autism causes neurological developmental disorders caused by external environmental factors (infection, intrauterine or perinatal damage, etc.) on individuals with genetic susceptibility to autism. Sexually transmitted diseases.

1. Genetic factors In 1991, Folstein and Piven reported that the morbidity rate of autistic twins was 82%, and the morbidity rate of twins was 10%. Epidemiological investigations also confirmed that the prevalence of autistic siblings was 3%. , Far higher than the general population, there is a family aggregation phenomenon. Even if there are no same patients in the family, similar cognitive dysfunctions can be found, such as language retardation, mental retardation, learning disabilities, mental disorders, and significant introversion, which indicate that there is a genetic basis for the onset of autism. . Further research has found that symptoms of genetic diseases such as fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, phenylketonuria, and Rett syndrome are related to autism.

However, most children with autism do not have the above-mentioned genetic diseases. Therefore, in recent years, a large number of related researches have focused on finding other related chromosomal and genetic abnormalities, including abnormalities in the long arm of chromosome 15, X chromosome, and long arm of chromosome 7. It is considered to be related to autism. Among them, the long arm of chromosome 15 is considered to be related to dyslexia, and dyslexia is also one of the manifestations of autism, so it has been valued. Using molecular biology techniques, some so-called Candidate Genes, such as Serotonintransportergene and c-Harvey-rasoncogene, have also been found that may be related to autism. It should be noted that the results of chromosomal and genetic abnormalities in children with autism are not consistent. . Most scholars believe that autism is probably not a single-gene hereditary disease, and the possibility of multi-gene heredity is greater.

2. Infection and Immune Factors Some scholars have studied the role of immune and infectious factors in the cause of autism. In terms of infection, congenital rubella virus infection and cytomegalovirus infection may be considered to be related to the onset of autism. Twin studies have found that The incidence of congenital minor abnormalities in autistic twins is higher than that of non-autistic twins, and these abnormalities are related to congenital infections. Due to the high incidence of autoimmune diseases in children with autism, the T lymphocyte subsets are also different from the normal population, suggesting that autism is associated with abnormal immune systems. But the results are mixed, and their significance in the etiology of autism is unknown.

(1) Lonely and outlier, will not establish normal contact with people

That is, lack of communication with people. The tendency to communicate, and some children show this characteristic from infancy. For example, they have not been close to their parents since childhood, and they don't like to be held by others. , Do not take the initiative to find a child to play, others dodge when they play with him, do not respond to calls, always like to be alone and play alone. Although some children show that they do not reject others, they do not interact with the children, that is, they lack social communication skills. For example, when they are looking for a child, they either slap someone suddenly, slap people or suddenly slap people, and then leave. It seems that shooting people and slap people is not just an action in order to find someone to contact, or there is only a form of contact, but no content and purpose of contact.

Their loneliness is also manifested by their indifference to the surroundings. It seems to be oblivious, blind, and do what they want to do. There is no scruples. If there is no one, what happens around them seems to have nothing to do with him. Note that eyes often change, and it is not easy to stay on the things that others ask him to pay attention to. They seem to live in their own little world. In addition, their eyes do not look at each other or even avoid each other's eyes. They usually move their eyes when they are active. They often squint, squint, or afterglow. They rarely face and rarely smile, and never say hello.

(2) Speech disorders are very prominent

Most children have very little speech, severe cases do not speak for life, limited vocabulary they can speak, and even if some children can speak, they are often reluctant to speak and prefer gestures instead. Some can talk, but the voice is very low, very low, or repeating some monotonous words to themselves. Some children will only imitate what others have said, and will not talk in their own language. Many children do not ask or answer questions, but just repeat others' questions. Language communication is often manifested in the confusion of the use of pronouns, such as using you and him instead of himself. There are also many children with autism who often scream. This situation can sometimes persist to 5 to 6 years or more.

(3) Interest is narrow, behaviors are repetitive, and the environment is strongly required to remain unchanged.

Autistic children often focus on one or more games or activities for a long time, such as obsessed with rotating the lid, monotonically placing building blocks, keen to watch TV commercials and weather forecasts, and face the usual children's favorite There is no interest in cartoons, children's TV, and movies. Some children have to eat the same meals every day, go the same route when going out, and require the same toilets for defecation. Willing to change their original habits and behaviors, it is difficult to adapt to the new environment. Most children also show purposeless activities at the same time, excessive activity, monotonous repetitive bouncing, clapping, waving, running and rotating, and some even self-injury and self-harm, such as Repeatedly digging nostrils, picking lips, biting lips, sucking and other actions.

(4) Most are mentally retarded and unbalanced.

Most intellectual development is slower than their peers, and a few children have normal or near-normal intelligence. But some of them are surprisingly good in one aspect of intellectual activity, it is incredible that many children have strong mechanical memory ability, especially the ability to remember characters and symbols. If a 3- or 4-year-old child especially likes to read characters, ask what he sees when he sees the word, and remember it only once. For this reason, he can read children's story books fluently and effortlessly, indicating that he has mastered a lot Vocabulary, but when he wants to use words to express his meaning, there are obvious difficulties, indicating that they have impairments in understanding language and using language.

Differential diagnosis of children withdrawn:

Autism needs to be distinguished from other generalized developmental disorders and other common neuropsychiatric disorders in children.

1. Asperger Syndrome (AS) Asperger Syndrome is a type of generalized developmental disorder. Children have social communication disorders and repetitive stereotypes, but they develop normally in terms of language and cognitive abilities, and Most children with AS may be abnormal in some aspects of cognition, especially in memory of words, maps, statistical tables, and train schedules. Although the language ability is normal, there are still abnormalities in the spoken language of AS children. It feels pedantic and overly formal and looks like coquettish writing. Awkward movement is a feature of AS. It is difficult to establish friendship with classmates at school, usually only Found only in school age. It is easier to confuse with high-function autism. The main point of identification is that children with high-function autism have language retardation, while AS children have no obvious language development lag.

2. Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD-NOS) This diagnosis is usually used to diagnose those with mild or atypical autism.

3. Rett syndrome Rett syndrome is only seen in girls. The child develops normally in the early stage, and the disease starts in about 6-24 months. The development of the disease usually goes through four stages. The early onset of stagnation (June to June), Rapid regression phase (1-4 years), pseudo-stagnation phase (preschool-early school age), and late motor decline phase (5-15 years). Autism-like manifestations occur during the first and second stages, including loss of language function, characteristic hand stereotypes of hand washing, significant regression of intelligence, and hyperventilation. However, children with this disease have more obvious neurological symptoms and signs in the third and fourth stages, such as decreased muscle tone, trunk ataxia and apraxia, scoliosis and posterior process, and severe cases of ankylosing state. Most cases Associated with seizures. This can be distinguished from autism.

4. Disintegrating mental disorder in children Disruptive mental disorder is also called infant dementia or Heller syndrome, and the child develops normally before at least two years old. Later, there were obvious and rapid regressions in language, social interaction, play, and incontinence, etc. It was very difficult to distinguish early-onset patients from autism.

5. Children with mental retardation (MR) Some children with MR can show autism-like symptoms, and most children with autism also show mental retardation. It can be identified based on social disorders, behavioral characteristics, and some special cognitive abilities in children with autism.

6. Children with schizophrenia Autistic children behave in some ways similar to schizophrenia, but autistic children do not have delusions and hallucinations, and it is not difficult to identify them.

7. Other diseases that need to be distinguished from autism include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, severe learning disorder, selective mutism, and sensory language development disorder.

(1) Lonely and outlier, will not establish normal contact with people

That is, lack of communication with people. The tendency to communicate, and some children show this characteristic from infancy. For example, they have not been close to their parents since childhood, and they don't like to be held by others. , Do not take the initiative to find a child to play, others dodge when they play with him, do not respond to calls, always like to be alone and play alone. Although some children show that they do not reject others, they do not interact with the children, that is, they lack social communication skills. For example, when they are looking for a child, they either slap someone suddenly, slap people or suddenly slap people, and then leave. It seems that shooting people and slap people is not just an action in order to find someone to contact, or there is only a form of contact, but no content and purpose of contact. Their loneliness is also manifested by their indifference to the surroundings. It seems to be oblivious, blind, and do what they want to do. There is no scruples. If there is no one, what happens around them seems to have nothing to do with him. Note that eyes often change, and it is not easy to stay on the things that others ask him to pay attention to. They seem to live in their own little world. In addition, their eyes do not look at each other or even avoid each other's eyes. They usually move their eyes when they are active. They often squint, squint, or afterglow. They rarely face and rarely smile, and never say hello.

(2) Speech disorders are very prominent

Most children have very little speech, severe cases do not speak for life, limited vocabulary they can speak, and even if some children can speak, they are often reluctant to speak and prefer gestures instead. Some can talk, but the voice is very low, very low, or repeating some monotonous words to themselves. Some children will only imitate what others have said, and will not talk in their own language. Many children do not ask or answer questions, but just repeat others' questions. Language communication is often manifested in the confusion of the use of pronouns, such as using you and him instead of himself. There are also many children with autism who often scream. This situation can sometimes persist to 5 to 6 years or more.

(3) Interest is narrow, behaviors are repetitive, and the environment is strongly required to remain unchanged.

Autistic children often focus on one or more games or activities for a long time, such as obsessed with rotating the lid, monotonically placing building blocks, keen to watch TV commercials and weather forecasts, and face the usual children's favorite There is no interest in cartoons, children's TV, and movies. Some children have to eat the same meals every day, go the same route when going out, and require the same toilets for defecation. Willing to change their original habits and behaviors, it is difficult to adapt to the new environment. Most children also show purposeless activities at the same time, excessive activity, monotonous repetitive bouncing, clapping, waving, running and rotating, and some even self-injury and self-harm, such as Repeatedly digging nostrils, picking lips, biting lips, sucking and other actions.

(4) Most are mentally retarded and unbalanced.

Most intellectual development is slower than their peers, and a few children have normal or near-normal intelligence. But some of them are surprisingly good in one aspect of intellectual activity, it is incredible that many children have strong mechanical memory ability, especially the ability to remember characters and symbols. If a 3- or 4-year-old child especially likes to read characters, ask what he sees when he sees the word, and remember it only once. For this reason, he can read children's story books fluently and effortlessly, indicating that he has mastered a lot Vocabulary, but when he wants to use words to express his meaning, there are obvious difficulties, indicating that they have impairments in understanding language and using language.

Treatments for autism

I. Psychotherapy

In the early days, due to the prevalence of psychology, it also directly affected the treatment received by children with autism and their parents. During this period, whether it was directed at children or parents indirectly, the most common treatment was psychotherapy. law. But this method does not have subsequent related research to support its theory.

Second, medical therapy

Due to the influence of autism and schizophrenia-related doctrines, for some time, the treatment of schizophrenia was often used in the treatment of autism patients. Therefore, some schizophrenia drugs have also Used in the treatment of autism. However, because autism is very different from schizophrenia, and it is difficult to have a drug that can effectively treat all the symptoms of autism patients, so the medical treatment is mainly for autism patients. Control of some physical problems (such as epilepsy), behavioral problems (such as hyperactivity), or prevention of autism through genetic counseling. In addition, some studies have pointed out that the treatment of drugs can be considered as a part of the overall treatment of autism. Through evaluation, medication analysis, diagnosis and multiple effects evaluation, for some patients with autism, drug treatment can also be used. Be considered one of the safe remedies.

Educational Therapy

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, since autism was no longer viewed as a schizophrenia or caused by psychosocial factors, the treatment of autism was also significant. change. Instead, emphasis is placed on methods that can help the development of interpersonal, linguistic, and cognitive functions in autistic societies.

In the education sector, the importance of autism-appropriate education has begun to be emphasized. In terms of school facilities, pre-school education, commuting or staying at school, and post-graduate counselling measures have also been expanded. Many scholars have shown that The length of educational time is greatly related to its future development, and the effect of structured teaching is far superior to laissez-faire teaching methods.

Fourth, behavioral therapy

At the same time that appropriate educational facilities are gradually gaining attention, behavioral-based treatment methods have begun to develop. By the mid-1960s, the theory of constraints had been widely used in the treatment of a variety of children's problems, while autistic children Improving inappropriate behaviors through behavioral therapy isolation, weakening, punishment, and difference enhancement, including self-injury, self-stimulation, hyperactivity, and aggressive behavior. Later, operation control skills began to be used in the improvement of other abilities of autistic patients, such as self-care, functional training, etc., and even further used in the training of social interpersonal interaction and language communication skills. Although effective, the following issues need to be considered:

1. Many treatment studies are almost case reports and cannot be compared effectively.

2. Most treatments focus on specific changes in one behavior without long-term and specific impact considerations.

3. Little consideration is given to children's needs at different stages of development and individual differences.

4. Most of the behavioral changes are evaluated in the treatment place, without considering whether it can be classified into other places that are not treated.

5. Long-term follow-up coaching is quite needed.

V. Other therapies

There are also several educational tips for special treatments related to autism:

Disgusting therapy, physical therapy, dance therapy, development therapy, speech therapy, game therapy, music therapy, hug therapy, interactive therapy, sensory integration, return to the mainstream, non-sanatorium placement.