Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

INTRODUCTION Autism, a disorder that once diagnosed in a child is a life long commitment made by the parents. Autism is a complex disorder that can be a devastating shock to families who are not ready or willing to meet its challenges (Elder, 2002). As an individual who works in the home of a family with two children diagnosed with Autism, the present author was very interested in finding out more about the etiology of autism and how one poor mother can be bestowed with two daughters both with this disorder. It is difficult and frustrating not knowing how to communicate with your children or to know what’s wrong when they are not feeling well. A simple thing like a toothache can take weeks to diagnose because your child does not know how to communicate what the problem is to you. The ONLY differences in two people that both are diagnosed with the same disorder are family members but have completely different levels and severity of symptoms is also very interesting and can be explained by the use of the word spectrum. As Edwards and Bristol (1991) say the diagnosis of autism is not established by a single symptom, such as lack of eye contact, or by the certain skills but the diagnosis is based on a spectrum of communication an