The First Person With Autism - 1834 Words

I grew up in Armenia, where, unfortunately, people with mental disabilities didn’t have a big role in society. The situation is changing to the better now, but when I lived there, there were no support groups for these people, no special schools, and the parents didn’t even hope that these kids could have a normal life. The first person with Autism that I’ve met was a little girl at my mom’s friend’s house. Being around 10 years old myself, I didn’t know much about autism or any mental disorders. All I knew was that girl was different from me, that she was too aggressive, and when she wanted to play with a fake phone, she started screaming until we gave it to her. My mom later explained to me what her disability was, and I thought she was†¦show more content†¦The society, regular people like me are also doing everything in their power to make the lives of people with ASD more â€Å"normal,† and to make the struggle with the di sease easier. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with a child with ASD during a â€Å"Spirits in Actions† event, organized by the accounting fraternity Beta Alpha Psi at USC. So meeting that little girl with Autism when I was young has sparked an interest in me about Autism, its treatment, and most of all, about the lives of those with the disease, which is why I decided to do more research and to write this paper about that disease. When speaking about Autism, the image that usually comes to people’s minds is someone who doesn’t interact with others, doesn’t show emotions, and is a genius in some field of science or music. Though this might by the true picture of a person with autism, symptoms of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder can vary greatly. The main characteristics of ASD are: hardships in social behavior, repetitive behavior, interests in a specific subject or subject area, which cause â€Å"significant impairment in social, occupat ional, or other important areas of current functioning.† ASD should be noticeable in the first couple of years of a child’s life. In the US, about 1 in every 68 children has ASD, boys being affected 4 to 5 times more than girls (nimh.nih.gov). The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental Disorders,