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Autism
Autism is a developmental disorder that manifests itself in the first years of life. Characteristics of this disorder include impaired social interaction, repetitive behavior and delayed language development. Ask questions about disorders in the autism spectrum here.
1,402 Questions
Why do autistic children rock back and forth?
In what way? surely there is no harm in Rocking chairs, literal (Hobby Horses), and use of playground equipment with a to-and-fro motion.
Yes it can and it also can mean a side effect of a medicaton that is making the child very antzieHave you ever felt like your skin is crawling. Well kids head banging are feeling very neverious.Drugs, abuse, sexual abuse etc. I have ADHD and yes I have felt like banging my head against the wall, rocking etc. Usually I have eatten to much sugar or chocolate protein etc before going tobed.
Are there support groups for people with Asperger's Syndrome?
Yes. There are online and local support groups. There are support groups for individuals with Asperger's Syndrome and for the families of individuals with AS.
If you go to the OAASIS website listed in the "Related Links" section, it has information on support groups.
Did Albert Einstein have autism?
Albert Einstein died before autism and Asperger's Syndrome were recognized as conditions, so the possibility that he had Asperger's Syndrome is speculation. Einstein had difficulties with social skills, which is one characteristic of Asperger's Syndrome, but that alone would not be enough to diagnose Asperger's Syndrome. He had some other characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome, but also some characteristics not commonly found in people with severe Asperger's Syndrome, so if he did have Asperger's Syndrome, it was probably a milder form.
Woody Allen, Tony Benn, Bob Dylan, Joseph Erber, Bobby Fischer, Bill Gates, Genie, Crispin Glover, Al Gore, Jeff Greenfield, David Helfgott, Michael Jackson, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Mitnick, John Motson, John Nash, Keith Olbermann, Michael Palin, Keanu Reeves, Oliver Sacks, James Taylor,albert Einstein
???? different person???
i just, what to say i looked up un some websites about autism... it said bill gates is probably not autistic.
What part of the brain does autism affect?
Well, the brain differences are actually what affects ADHD ;). The primary area affected in ADHD individuals (according to numerous recent brain imaging studies) is the prefrontal cortex. The volume (size) is smaller in ADHD children; this size can catch up (though slower) with peers and is a sign of disappearance of the disorder (meaning the brain developed fully and the adult with not have ADHD); if development doesn't catch up (the prefrontal cortex remains small) the adult will continue to exhibit ADHD.
Prefrontal cortex is the hub for deliberate thoughts and actions--it's where your motor cortex (your conscious control of muscles) is centered, along with functions such as attention, planning, working memory, set-shifting, etc.. Explains a lot of ADHD, huh?
How many people are autistic in America?
The CDC puts Autism diagnosis at 1 in 68, however it is impossible to say how many Autistic people exist in the US. Many people are not diagnosed or may not even realize that they're Autistic, furthermore certain groups are under-diagnosed - for example girls are less likely to be diagnosed than boys, and African-Americans are less likely to seek diagnosis for a number of reasons.
The current scientific information says that although they are yet to find the cause of Autism, it may be hereditary. This is due to the increased rate in familys, with someone affected by Autism, having another Autistic family member. It is also incredably common in identical twins for both to have Autism rather then just one. Scientists are currently trying to find what gene, if in fact it is a gene, that is causing Autism.
Have you got autistic spectrum disorder?
Yes i do have autism
I'm on the spectrumI have very mild Asperger's syndrome. Why are you asking a general "you" this question?mys sister has autism and dispratsia and attachment and sensory issues and aspergers and i have trates every1 here autistic dont understand how much people try to make your lives happy and then the slightest thing wrong you think that they dont love you because they do and even if the dont show it Y WOULD THEY HATE YOU people hate people the same every single one of you atre unique in your own ways
No, there is actually strong evidence against this idea. The MMR vaccine is not linked to autism.
Much of the original controversy was caused by a paper published by Andrew Wakefield (t the time he was a physician) in The Lancet - the prestigious British medical journal. After the publication of Wakefield's paper, other researchers were unable to reproduce Wakefield's findings or confirm his hypothesis of an association between the MMR vaccine and autism, or autism and gastrointestinal disease. After a British Journalist uncovered and published undisclosed financial conflict of interest information (Wakefield was getting money from people suing the vaccine company claiming the vaccine caused autism in their children), the British Governing Medical Council (GMC) - the governing body for physicians in Britain - opened an investigation against Wakefield and two former colleagues. Most of his co-authors withdrew their support for the study's interpretations
On 28 January 2010, a five-member statutory tribunal of the GMC found three dozen charges proved, including four counts of dishonesty and 12 counts involving the abuse of developmentally challenged children. The panel ruled that Wakefield had "failed in his duties as a responsible consultant", acted both against the interests of his patients, and "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in his published research.
Wakefield's study that was used to link MMR to autism was retracted by The Lancet and was subsequently labeled an "elaborate fraud" in an investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ. The investigation concluded the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
Three months following The Lancet's retraction, Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register, with a statement identifying deliberate falsification in the research published in The Lancet and was barred from practicing medicine in the UK.
Wakefield's utter failure to conduct valid research does not disprove any possible links between vaccines and autism, but it is pretty obvious his "study" suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism was worthless.
How could you diagnose someone for autism?
It comes down to a simple urine test. The chemical bufotenin makes up most of the autistic individual and is easy to detect. If it is not found within the urine, then the person must have some other obscure disorder.
How do you get autistic kids to take pills?
Many autistic children have difficulties withthe feeling of swallowing food let alone pills. I would get any meds that I could prescribed in a liquid form and as for the rest I would just crush them and mix with something you are fairly certain they will eat or drink all of.
Would a person with Munchausen by proxy simulate Asperger's Syndrome in a child?
Before pediatricians and psychiatrists were familiar with Asperger's Syndrome, some of them thought the parents who said there was something wrong with their children were exaggerating, delusional, over-protective, and, in some cases, abusive parents with Munchausen by proxy. (For mention of parents being thought to have Munchausen by proxy because their children had AS, see the links below.)
I do not know of Munchausen by proxy cases where the parent or guardian attempted to make the child appear to have Asperger's Syndrome, but this does not mean it has not happened. There are other conditions that would be easier to fake by giving the child medicines or chemicals, since some of the social skills impairments (lack of eye contact, avoidance of social contact) would be harder to replicate with drugs. However, many medical professionals' unfamiliarity with Asperger's Syndrome diagnoses could make it an attractive option for Munchausen by proxy, since the professionals might not have been exposed to it previously. Asperger's Syndrome also has the advantage of not being able to be diagnosed with laboratory tests. However, using Asperger's Syndrome means the parent might need to engage in lengthy descriptions of AS before receiving the desired sympathy and attention from others. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a definitive answer on whether the condition of Asperger's has been the goal of an abusive parent via Munchausen by proxy.
Can people with a mild case of autism have kids?
I think that this story about a couple with Autism will provide a lot of insight regarding relationships between individuals who have autism...
"Living and Loving With Autism - A Very Special Love Story"
Here's the link: http://autismbeacon.com/topics/article/living_loving_with_autism_a_very_special_love_story/sexuality
To learn more about this topic, there are many additional resources and articles to be found under the category "Sexuality and Relationships" on AutismBeacon.com
http://autismbeacon.com/topics/articles/sexuality
No one knows for sure what causes autism, but there's a good chance that it's linked to early-childhood vaccines. Many parents of autistic kids say their kids were normal and changed after vaccinations.
What do doctors say about vaccines causing autism?
No they do not. Autism is not a side effect of MMR vaccine.
Information about the Study Showing a Link Between the MMR Vaccine and Autism
Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who controlled the well-known study that claimed a link between autism and vaccinations changed the results of his study for his purposes. The medical records of the children were obtained and evaluated in 2009, and those show results differing from those that Wakefield published. Contrary to what he reported in his study, several of his subjects showed signs of autism before the vaccinations. Also, he had accepted funding prior to beginning the study to prove that the MMR vaccine was harmful, so it was a conflict of interest when he did this study. In addition, his study only involved 12 children, which was too small to prove anything, and the children were not randomly selected, so it was a biased study.
Wakefield's results were already in question because despite removing the mercury from vaccines, autism rates continued to increase. Also, countries that had been using different vaccines and vaccination schedules also had increasing rates of autism. Numerous studies have disproven the conjecture that vaccines cause autism.
Being anti-social is one way to describe the inability to develop social relationships. However, autism is also a condition that prevents the development of social relationships.
What is the actors name that played temple grandin in the movie?
Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an animal medicine researcher, and is noted for her advocacy of animal welfare, and dealing with autism in humans (she suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and persevered in her education despite the challenges).
She created a device called a "hug box" that uses mild pressure to calm agitated autistic children.
What famous people have autism?
Most of the people on the following list are speculated to have Asperger's Syndrome, rather than being confirmed cases of Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome was not included in the World Health Organization's diagnostic manual until 1991, and not in the American Psychiatric Association's manual until 1994. Also, for a number of the people on this list, there are other characteristics evidenced by the people listed that would suggest that they did not have Asperger's Syndrome.
Historical people from earlier periods (died before 1975)- Jane Austen, 1775-1817, English novelist, author of Pride and Prejudice
- Béla Bartók, 1881-1945, Hungarian composer
- Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008, World Chess Champion
- Michelangelo, 1475 1564 - Italian Renissance artist
- Erik Satie, 1866-1925 - Composer
- Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827, German/Viennese composer
- Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1922, Scottish/Canadian/American inventor of the telephone
- Anton Bruckner , 1824-1896, Austrian composer
- Henry Cavendish, 1731-1810, English/French scientist, discovered the composition of air and water
- Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, US poet
- Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, US inventor
- Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German/American theoretical physicist
- Seth Engstrom, 1987-Present, Magician and World Champion
- Henry Ford, 1863-1947, US industrialist
- Benjamin Franklin,1706-1790, US polictician/writer
- Kaspar Hauser, c1812-1833, German foundling, portrayed in a film by Werner Herzog
- Oliver Heaviside, 1850-1925, English physicist
- Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, US politician
- Carl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychoanalyst
- Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, Czech writer
- Wasily Kandinsky, 1866-1944, Russian/French painter
- Abraham Lincoln,1809-1865, US Politician
- H P Lovecraft, 1890-1937, US writer
- Ludwig II, 1845-1886, King of Bavaria
- Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1868-1928, Scottish architect and designer
- Gustav Mahler, 1860-1911, Czech/Austrian composer
- Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962, US actress
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791, Austrian composer
- Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, English mathematician and physicist
- Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher
- Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, British logician
- George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish playwright, writer of Pygmalion, critic and Socialist
- Richard Strauss, 1864-1949, German composer
- Nikola Tesla, 1856-1943, Serbian/American scientist, engineer, inventor of electric motors
- Henry Thoreau, 1817-1862, US writer
- Alan Turing, 1912-1954, English mathematician, computer scientist and cryptographer
- Mark Twain, 1835-1910, US humorist
- Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter
- George Washington, 1732-1799, US Politician
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951, Viennese/English logician and philosopher
- Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941, English Writer
- Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, Russian/US writer on science and of science fiction, author of Bicentennial Man
- Hans Asperger, 1906-1980, Austrian paediatric doctor after whom Asperger's Syndrom is named
- John Denver, 1943-1997, US musician
- Glenn Gould, 1932-1982, Canadian pianist
- Jim Henson, 1936-1990, creator of the Muppets, US puppeteer, writer, producer, director, composer
- Alfred Hitchcock, 1899-1980, English/American film director
- Howard Hughes, 1905-1976, US billionaire
- Andy Kaufman, 1949-1984, US comedian, subject of the film Man on the Moon
- L S Lowry, 1887-1976, English painter of "matchstick men"
- Charles Schulz, 1922-2000, US cartoonist and creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown
- Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, US artist
- Tony Benn, 1925-, English Labour politician
- Pip Brown "Ladyhawke", 1979-, New Zealand Singer/Songwriter, Musician
- Charles Dickinson, 1951, US Writer
- Bob Dylan, 1941-, US singer-songwriter
- Joseph Erber, 1985-, young English composer/musician who has Asperger's Syndrome, subject of a BBC TV documentary
- Bill Gates, 1955-, US global monopolist
- Genie, 1957-?, US "wild child" (see also L'Enfant Sauvage, Victor, )
- Crispin Glover, 1964-, US actor
- Al Gore, 1948-, former US Vice President and presidential candidate
- Jeff Greenfield, 1943-, US political analyst/speechwriter, a political wonk
- David Helfgott, 1947-, Australian pianist, subject of the film Shine
- Garrison Keillor, 1942-, US writer, humorist and host of Prairie Home Companion
- Paul Kostabi 1962-, writer, comedian, artist, producer, technician
- Kevin Mitnick, 1963-, US "hacker"
- John Motson, 1945-, English sports commentator
- John Nash, 1928-, US mathematician (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, USA 2001)
- Keith Olbermann, 1959-, US sportscaster
- Michael Palin, 1943-, English comedian and presenter
- Oliver Sacks, 1933-, UK/US neurologist, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings
- James Taylor, 1948-, US singer/songwriter
- Robin Williams, 1951-, US Actor
- Jamie Hyneman, 1956-, Co-host of Mythbusters
- Seth Engstrom, 1987-, Magician and World Champion in Sleight of Hand. The best man with a deck of cards that the world has ever seen.
Amy Lee
Richard Pearse (First to fly a plane),
Dr Janet Frame (Famed Authoress),
Charles de Gaulle (Great French warzhyphenztime/peacezhyphenztime leader/President),
T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) (British leader of Arab Revolt against Turks),
Captain Matthew Webb (First to swim the English Channel),
Satoshi Tajiri (Pokemon Inventor - formal diagnosis),
Dan Aykroyd (Leading Musician/Comedian, Blues Bros - formal diagnosis?),
Alfred Hitchcock (Horror-movie Sub-genre Creator),
Bobby Fischer (Greatest Chess Player Ever),
Daniel Tammet (Smartest Man Alive Today - formal diagnosis),
Les Murray (Greatest Living English Writer/Poet Alive - self diagnosis),
Gary Numan (Greatest Industrial Synch-pop Musician Ever),
Craig Nicholls (Lead singer of top Australian group The Vines - formal diagnosis).
Comment:
I do not believe that Les Murray has any formal diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. He does have a formal diagnosis of depression, and has self-identified as autistic, and does have a close relative with a formal diagnosis of autism. Can you back up the above claim with any published references?
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Sorry, quite correct...
Les Murray wrote an amazing poem AFTER his self discoveryre Aspergers...
"I very much wanted to ask him about his self-diagnosisof Asperger's Syndrome, but he hadn't publicly read the poem (which plays upon the phrase from the opening line of the old Latin Catholic Mass, Asperges me hyssopo, [Sprinkle me with a Hyssop branch], where Murray transmutes it to Aspergers me, and ends on such a wry note with "Hyssop is a bitter herb"), so it seemed too personal to ush the question succinctly." [Peter Craven, The Monthly]
Further Audio comment from a podcast (skip 1st 3 minutes) featuring Les talking about his 'mild' Autism and a case of Autism per se in his family is at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2006/1634867.htm
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The best place that I know of to look for information about famous people and Asperger syndrome is the list maintained at the blog Incorrect Pleasures (Google it). It is a big and diverse list of famous people backed up with referencesto published or mass-media sources that are generally produced by professional journalists, authors, psychologists or psychiatrists, including book biographies, journalistic interviews, scholarly and medical journal papers, famous people's own blogs, and books specifically about famous people and Asperger syndrome. There's even a reference to a poem in which a famous poet identified himself with Asperger syndrome, and the details of a YouTube video of another famous person filmed rocking in a very autistic manner. Many of the journal papers and other resources linked to and listed at this list are freely available to read or view or listen to through the internet. The list at Incorrect Pleasures is based on references that meet a higher standard than the one set for the Wikipedia, which often accepts trashy, misspelt and anonymous bits of writing that can only be found on the internet, or dead links, as documentary evidence to back up claims made on the Wikipedia. Every effort has been made to avoid nationalistic and other types of bias in the compilation of this list. The list is not dominated by American names or consicuously geeky scientists and mathematicians.
One word of caution, though - only very few of the famous people in the list at Incorrect Pleasures have been given a formal diagnosis of autism or Asperger syndrome during their lifetime, as adults. Many famous people have been posthumously diagnosed, and the list also includes a few living people who claim to have been clinically labelled as autistic when they were children. There is also quite a collection of famous people, including one Nobel Prize winner, who claim to be themselves currently autistic, to varying degrees. Rock star Craig Nicholls was formally diagnosed by a Dr Attwood in 2004 in Australia. Fields Medallist Prof. R. Borcherds was sorta-kinda diagnosed by Prof. Baron-Cohen, and this diagnostic process was described in detail in a popular science book. See the list at the blog Incorrect Pleasures for more details. Below is a very rudimentary list of the names listed at Incorrect Pleasures:
John Couch Adams
Joy Adamson
Hans Christian Andersen
Sherwood Anderson
Archimedes of Syracuse
Hans Asperger
Julian Assange
W. H. Auden
Sir A.J. Ayer
Dan Aykroyd CM
Charles Babbage FRS
Stefan Banach
Syd Barrett / Roger Barrett
Béla Bártok
Daisy Bates
Samuel Beckett
Ludwig van Beethoven
David Bellamy OBE
Jeremy Bentham
Richard Borcherds
Robert Boyle
Gordon Brown
Anton Bruckner
Warren Buffett
Tim Burton
David Byrne
Lewis Carroll
Augustin Louis Cauchy
Henry Cavendish
King Charles XII of Sweden
Bruce Chatwin
Bram Cohen
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Marie Curie
Helen Dale / Darville / Demidenko
Henry Darger
Charles Darwin
"Dibs"
Emily Dickinson
Paul Dirac OM FRS
Greg Egan
Albert Einstein FRS
Robert Emmet
Paul Erdos
Robert "Bobby" Fischer
Tim Fischer AC FTSE
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS
Henry Ford
Janet Frame ONZ CBE
Rosalind Franklin
Evariste Galois
Bill Gates
Antoni Gaudi
Charles de Gaulle
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
Kurt Godel
Major-General Charles George Gordon CB
Glenn Gould
Temple Grandin
Sir William Rowan Hamilton
Daryl Hannah
G. H. Hardy
John Hartford
Hermann Hesse
Patricia Highsmith
David Hilbert
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Edward Hopper
John Howard (1726-1790)
Peter Howson
Stonewall Jackson
Thomas Jefferson
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Irene Joliot-Curie
Sir Keith Joseph CH PC
James Joyce
Wassily Kandinsky
Leo Kanner
Immanuel Kant
Andy Kaufman
Alfred Kinsey
Stanley Kubrick
Ladyhawke / Pip Brown
Paul Laffoley
Joseph Louis Lagrange
Oscar Levant
Charles Lindbergh
Nikolai Lobachevsky
Deborah Locke
Courtney Love
H. P Lovecraft
L.S. Lowry
James Clerk Maxwell FRS
Darius McCollum
Herman Melville
Gregor Mendel
Michelangelo
Reg Mombassa / Christopher O'Doherty
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG GCB DSO PC
Caiseal Mor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Les Murray
John F. Nash Jr.
Craig Newmark
Sir Isaac Newton FRS
Craig Nicholls
Nico / Christa Paffgen
Moe Norman
Gary Numan
George Orwell
Patrick Pearse
Grigori Perelman
King Philip II of Spain
Henri Poincare
Enoch Powell MBE
Willard Van Orman Quine
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Charles Richter
Bernhard Riemann
Paul Robeson
Peter Mark Roget FRS
Bertrand Russell
Carl Sagan
Erik Satie
Solomon Shereshevskii
William Shockley
Boris Sidis
William James Sidis
Adam Smith
Vernon L. Smith
Socrates
Spinoza
Richard Stallman
Lawrence Summers
Screaming Lord Sutch / David Sutch
Jonathan Swift
Satoshi Tajiri
Daniel Tammet
Nikola Tesla
Henry David Thoreau
Alan Turing
J. M. W. Turner
Maurice Utrillo
Eamon de Valera
Michael Ventris
Louis Wain
Robert Walser
Andy Warhol
John B. Watson
Simone Weil
Orson Welles
Herbert G. Wells
Opal Whiteley
Norbert Wiener
Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Jack B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats
Bill Gates
If you are also interested in famous people who have or might have had synesthesia/synaesthesia, there is also a list of famous synaesthetes at the Incorrect Pleasures blog.
No, Johnny Depp is not autistic, or at least he has not publically identified himself as autistic. He doesn't show any obvious signs of being autistic either.
What actors have Asperger's Syndrome?
I don't know too many but guranteed muscians with Asperger's are Micheal Jackson and Ludwing van Beethoven. I think Serj Tankian from System of a Down shows some signs of it (great style of his music, excellent poet, etc.)
Comment:Michael Jackson was never diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Ludwig van Beethoven lived before Asperger's Syndrome was recognized as a condition, so we do not know if he had it, although some people speculate that he did. Some people with Asperger's Syndrome are exceptional at music, while other are not. Musical talent does not indicate Asperger's Syndrome.What are the similarities between autism and Asperger's Syndrome?
Well to clarify, Asperger's Syndrome is within the Autism Spectrum Disorders. So it would help if you were more specific. But Asperger's Syndrome is classified as High Functioning Autism. Symptoms are commonly associated with social dysfunctions and antisocial behavior. Children with AS tend to be smart and have similar symptoms to that of OCD (obsessive Compulsive Disorder), having an ability to "zero in" on specific topics and often repeating speech and behavior.
Autism, or the most common form associated in the media, is defined by the ASFA as:
A complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first two years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Both children and adults on the autism spectrum typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.
Autism is one of five disorders that fall under the umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), a category of neurological disorders characterized by "severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development." (Copied from http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_whatis)
All of the disorders within the Spectrum have symptoms of social dysfunction of one degree or another. Whether it is lack of speech or general communication or inability to understand social cues.
