Autism 3

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before the discovery of the illness:
In 1799, a boy about eleven years of age was found naked in the woods of
Averyron, France. He was dirty, covered with sores, mute, and behaved like
A wild animal. Jean Itard, the physician of the new institution for deaf-mutes,
Was given charge of the abandoned child. From Itard’s description, Victor
Showed many features of autism—he did not look at people and never
Played with the toys, but showed remarkable memory in recalling the position
Of objects in his room and resisted any change of these objects. (Paluszny 2)
In attempt to educate Victor, Itard used a glass of water as a form of encouragement, but he continued to remain silent and never spoke any words.
It was not until 1943 that the label “autism” was used by a child psychiatrist, named Leo Kanner to describe the symptoms. “The term autism derives from auto, the Greek word for self,” (Hamblin 137). Kanner used this term when he studied eleven children who had a “unique form of ...

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answers.
During the stages of infancy, the autistic baby seems normal. Then, a period of time before the age of three, the child experiences regression. In some cases, the first signs are at the age of three. There is no exact determination of when the signs appear. When autistic parents were told to think back in time before the third year, some parents said that they could not “pinpoint exactly what the difference was, but they described a vague feeling that something was wrong from infancy” (Paluszny 4).
In normal development of children, Paluszny says that “one of the first milestones is the social smile” (4). Babies smile and respond to the faces and voices of adults. The ...

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