Autism is a term that refers to a variety of neurological developmental issues. It effects certain areas of the brain, the ones that are responsible for the language skills, the interaction with others and many more depending on each individual person. People that have autism are can act differently from each other and because we know so little about the brain and the way it works it's hard to understand what causes this affection or what is the best method of treating it.
Most doctors are convinced that the causes of autism are genetic and are located in the brain only. Because many tests have been performed on autistic people and their organisms are identical to the organisms of non-autistic people, it is considered that everything to do with this condition is in the brain.
In the beginning, when autism was first discovered in 1943 and there were very few cases that could be studied, people thought that autism was caused by parents who raised their children wrongly, did not show them love and treated them badly but this conception was soon proved to be wrong. However, nobody has ever discovered a particular cause of autism to this day, so the reason why autistic people are different remains unknown. There are still several theories about what could cause the disorder but nothing is certain.
Recent research has linked chromosomes with autism and they may be guilty of something because in many other affections of the brain, like downs syndrome, chromosome anomalies are the cause.
If however you compare the genes of an autistic person with the genes of a non-autisticl person you aren't going to see any real difference, so it cannot be said that any certain gene or chromosome is guilty.
** New **Free - Behaviour Message Board & Chat Forum for Visitors of Behaviour Support Services. EvenCreate Your Own 'Blog' for free. Share Ideas, Stories and Experiences.
A large number of scientists also believe that some children are born with some anomalies and predispositions in their genes and these combined with several environmental factors cause autism to appear. Probably not one single gene is abnormal but more of them are slightly different and when the environmental factors appear too, a 'button' is pushed and the disability appears.
Other theories suggest that a severe emotional trauma may affect the brain so much that the person withdraws from society and other people.
Until some point in the future when medical science evolves to the point where the causes of autism are certain, we can only suppose why it appears. Unfortunately, because we don't know the causes we also don't know how it can be cured. For now, we can only hope, and help autistic people as much as we can. Complementary Childcare - Autism, Behavioural Problems And Dyslexia [2002]
