by Salena Corley; The Academy @ Shawnee (Louisville, KY)

Autism, it’s one of those things that many people have to deal with. It is not deadly, so you can live with it. But in some cases, it is hard to handle.

Credit: Flickr Commons.

According to CDC.gov, every 1 in 68 children have been identified with autism. That includes 2 of my family members—my brother and my cousin.

 Autism has many symptoms, according to WebMD.com. These include memorization of trivia, sensory abnormalities, drooling, and possible babbling. Someone with autism may also walk into things and may walk on their toes. Most of these symptoms only affect children. If you are a parent with a child who has autism, you may have high levels of stress if they have these symptoms, says Wikipedia.com/Autism.

I have two family members with autism. That includes my brother and cousin.

 “If you have mild autism, it does not affect you as much,” says my brother Lee who is 30 years old. “It is like you don’t have it at all.”

 I didn’t even know he had autism until my parents told me about it. My brother seems like he is a normal person to me. Autism comes in many different shapes and forms.

 My cousin Alex, who is 11, has a different story. He has severe autism. He has many of the symptoms above, such as drooling, babbling, sensory abnormalities, and he used to walk on his toes. I could never really talk to my cousin because I could not understand him. I did however play video games with him. He had to have special help with many councilors. He even had to go to a special school. He had many different symptoms. This includes the ones from above, drooling, babbling, and sometimes he would go to his kitchen and stack things. This shows that autism can be from severe to mild. Severe is the worst kind of autism, but mild is not that bad.                                                                              

 Autism cannot be inherited. Autism is a birth defect or it could have happened when the baby was in the womb. Some people say that if someone has autism, it means that they have trouble learning. In some cases, that is not true. If you have this symptom of memorization of trivia, you could have a better chance at learning. You have a better memory than someone who does not have autism. My brother did well in school. He passed all of his grades and never had to skip one. My family and I think it was because of memorization of trivia.

Autism can be helped with behavioral treatments and medicines, or both, says autismsupportcommunity.org. Autism can be treated but it can’t be cured. If the autism is treated the right way, it will be like you never even had it. At least that worked for my brother. My brother was giving counseling, which worked. My cousin was given both medicine and counseling, but that was only because he had severe autism.     

There are many organizations that help families with autism. This includes autismspeaks.org and autismsupportcommunity.org. They have helped many families that have someone with autism. They give the families tips about what to do if your child acts up. Salena Corley

 

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