Autisim

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Autism is a very complex brain disorder that affects 1 in 68 children in the United States. (What is Autism?, n.d.) Autism can have many symptoms, however, the larger symptoms include: social challenges, communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors, genetic disorders, seizure disorders, sleep dysfunctions, sensory processing problems, and pica. Since Autism affects so many children and has such a drastic list of symptoms associated with it, many parents, teachers, and medical professionals want to know what causes autism and how can we prevent and/or cure autism, or should we even cure autism. This has been and will probably be a hot topic for a good time or at least until everyone can agree on the answer.
The main bandwagon that was jumped on and is still a big argument is that vaccinations is what causes children to become autistic. This idea came about as the rise in autism was noticed to spike in the 1980’s which happened to align with the push to increase childhood vaccinations. When scientists began to look into what could have possibly been the link to the vaccinations and autism, they came to a general consensus that the children were being exposed to too much mercury. However, after scientist began to look into this theory the science could not lie, all children who were receiving the same vaccinations were not becoming autistic. While science has been able to show that the vaccinations do not show a direct link to causing autism, there are still parents and groups that are publicly pushing against vaccines for children. (Silencing Debate Over Autism, 2007)
A study completed in Denmark was completed to help solidify that vaccines were the major cause of autism in children. However, this study backfired. In fact, it...

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...cation through literature reviews like this would be deadening for my future as a teacher. “The tragedy isn’t autism- the tragedy is the lack of understanding of autism, lack of resources, interventions not being met with the person in mind and assumptions being made about the person” Paul Issacs. Hopefully what I will see more of in my time of teaching is more understanding and more acceptance of those who are different around us.

Works Cited

Baron-Cohen, S. (2009). Does Autism Need a Cure? The Lancet, 1595-1596.
Shute, N. (2010). Desperate For an Autism Cure. Scientific American, 80(6).
Silencing Debate Over Autism. (2007). Nature Neuroscience, 531.
Stokstad, E. (2003). Vaccine-autism link dealt blow. Science, 1454.
Wadman, M. (2011). A Voice For Science. Nature, 28.
What is Autism? (n.d.). Retrieved from Autism Speaks: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism

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