565-570)Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) that is very complex and involves many different and separate physical and mental disorders. Researchers have long been puzzled by autism, or childhood autism as it is often referred to. This severely disabling disorder affects approximately 80,000 children in the United States and is usually diagnosed by therapists and psychologists before the onset of two and a half years of age.Doctors note many of the complex disorders and symptoms associated with autism during the months of infancy. Babies who would normally look toward recognizable voices and reach out to people are often times devoid of these social growth indicators. The absence of obvious indicators of emotion, such as smiling and laughing have caused researchers and doctors in the past to label autistic children as emotionally flat. Researchers, since the release of recent study outcomes, have retracted this label. There are generally five areas of developmental disorder most prevalent in children diagnosed with autism. One of these areas relates to, and in the past led to the labeling of emotional flatness. Autistic disorder often creates in a child a lack of social understanding and a lack of comprehension of social interaction by and toward others. Extreme withdrawal from social situations is often apparent. This behavior is often documented and referred to by the term self-isolation. It will be discussed at a later time how professionals work with autistic children in the treatment of this particular behavior along with the treatment of other clinical evidence recognized in autistic children.Development in language skills is often times absent in an autistic child. Although some may develop the ability to learn language, it most often occurs that the autistic child learns simple words such as yes and no by a method called echolalia, which is much like parroting. Along with the disability to learn a vocal language...
