Autism is an interactive disorder that impairs communication skills, language development and social interaction associated with inflexible monotonous conducts. The broad range of symptoms in this condition is the reason behind being referred as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is four times more common in boys than girls, and mostly it appears in the first three years of life. Learning can be defined as the acquirement of knowledge or skills through experience, study or a lesson. The question of whether autism can affect the healthy learning life of an autistic person is dependent on the counteractive measures functional to the affected person. I, therefore, find it necessary to evaluate how ASD impacts on the average learning life of an autistic child.
Autism spectrum disorder affects the development of a child. Children with this disorder develop at a different rate with delayed development of skills than typically developing children (Dillenburger, Jordan, McKerr & Keenan, 2015).. An example to back this explanation is when a child with ASD begins to use a few words at the age of one year. A typical child may have an explosion of language which might be different with a person with this disorder, who may learn a couple of words each month. They may not be able to combine these words into phrases until they are three years old or even older. Another example is when we may have a child who can label personal body parts but unable to mark them on a chart or a drawing.
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ASD affects attention and interaction with the ill person. It impairs the ability of the child to tune into other people in the same manner as a typically developing child. Children require the capability of shared attention for developing language and communication skills. The common focus is the use of gestures and eye contact to stake experiences with others ( Rodogno, Krause-Jensen & Ashcroft, 2016). For example, if an Uncle is pointing a picture of a cow, but the child with ASD is looking at a different object, the child will have difficulty on learning the association between the word ‘cow' and the picture of the cow. Another example is when people with this ailment may not be able to respond to their name, wave a goodbye, smile at caregivers or make eye contact without a direction from someone. A person with difficulty on shared attention makes it hard on interpreting the facial expression, maintaining a subject matter in a conversation or learning skills such as taking turns.
People with autism spectrum disorder may struggle with organizations, attention, focus, transitions, time management, frustrations, memory and emotional control ( Boucher & Anns, 2018) . An individual with difficulties with this capacities can affect the learning process of a child. While a student is solving a mathematics question, the child may know how to answer it but may be unable to find a solution. The reason behind this is because, it is challenging to organize concepts, put them together to find a solution. The high-level abilities help people to cooperate while working with others and prioritize other things that are needed to be done.
Understanding of facts, concepts and various things is impaired by autism spectrum disorder. It might be challenging for a child with ASD to look and see things from other people's viewpoints (Wong, 2015). Viewing items differently from how other people see them is an essential social ability. The absence of this skill in people with autism makes it tough for them to get along and understand other people. They may not realize that other people can have different beliefs and desires from them. They may also have a problem in predicting and understanding the behavior of other people, and how they affect others. A person with this condition may not comprehend why other people are upset. It may take 3-5 years of age for a typical developing children to develop these abilities.
People with this disorder may be unable to put issues into the right perspectives. Typical developing children may be able to pull together diverse sources of information and see the situation as a whole, which might be the opposite of an autistic person. A good example is that of a person who can see the endless expansive perspective of a single tree as ‘the forest'. But a person with the ailment would see only many trees. Trouble in not seeing the big picture can disturb a child's learning and development. After a child reads a story, they might remember the minor information, forgetting the overall meaning of the story. A learner with this disability might focus on the background details of a book instead of focusing on the storyline and characters in it.
In conclusion, normalcy is broad and relative to what autistic disorder is. The effect of this condition varies with different people depending on various factors such as interventions made. Being a lifelong disorder, we should concentrate on identifying what the person with this disability is best in and work on sharpening it to ensure that they live their life to the fullest. It is with no doubt that autism spectrum disorder affects the normal learning life, and therefore, people with the condition should receive specialized care and treatment to make sure that they live a life same as others do.
References
Boucher, J., & Anns, S. (2018). Memory, learning and language in autism spectrum disorder. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments , 3 , 2396941517742078.
Dillenburger, K., Jordan, J. A., McKerr, L., & Keenan, M. (2015). The Millennium child with autism: Early childhood trajectories for health, education and economic wellbeing. Developmental neurorehabilitation , 18 (1), 37-46.
Rodogno, R., Krause-Jensen, K., & Ashcroft, R. E. (2016). ‘Autism and the good life’: a new approach to the study of well-being. Journal of medical ethics , 42 (6), 401-408.
Wong, C., Odom, S. L., Hume, K. A., Cox, A. W., Fettig, A., Kucharczyk, S., ... & Schultz, T. R. (2015). Evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with autism spectrum disorder: A comprehensive review. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders , 45 (7), 1951-1966.
