Development and Autism Part 6
Accommodating the Atypical System: Interventions fueled by Understanding over Correction
Autism research as it is currently being undergone heavily relies on genetic and inherited risk factors that make certain individuals more susceptible to developing the disorder than others. Risk level is determined by familial occurrence of autism not because of social influences but based on assumed shared genetic factors. Currently, the accepted notion is that a later-born sibling to an older child with autism is at risk of developing the disorder due to their shared genes. Extensive studies have been executed to pinpoint the specific genes that cause autism or that make the autism-gene-carrying individual more susceptible to the development of autism. While some researchers have found certain genetic factors to correlate more highly with the autism outcome, the specific genetic contribution remains inconclusive (Gupta & State, 2007).
Conversely, other research has sought ways to trace autism to exogenous environmental factors, such as pollution, vaccines, and diet. Extensive lifestyle shifts and therapies have been administered to treat the disorder, again with debatable results (Wolff, 2004).
As always, the problem is much more complex than those proposed by singular explanations of genes or environmental factors. In order to fully understand the spectrum of complexities surrounding the emergence of autism, it is useful to investigate the possible mechanisms behind the symptoms and their potentially adaptive functions. By applying the idea of simple approach/withdrawal processes tailored specifically to their system, earliest symptoms suddenly seem rather fitting given the developmental circumstances of the individual. If, for various prenatal reasons, certain physiological structures develop atypically, following physiological, anatomical, and behavioral configurations will be affected and may develop accordingly. Similarly, if during earliest infancy, certain atypical behaviors develop for further reasons, other atypicalities are more likely to follow.
The current response aims to propose through the synthesis of several studies and findings a series of possible mechanisms that may affect and/or cause the emergence of autism. Ranging from prenatal factors, such as parental stress and obstetric complications, to early postnatal factors, such as neural overconnectivity and dopaminergic hyperactivity, to toddler symptoms, such as sleep atypicalities and motor disabilities, this synthesis proposes that autism can emerge due to early abnormal development and the system’s concurrent adjustments.
Recognizing the openness of the timeline during which autism can express itself should allow caretakers, researchers, and clinicians to feel emboldened in their ability to intervene and correct the destructive symptoms. Understanding that the symptoms emerge as partial coping strategies, potential alternatives can be investigated and relayed to affected individuals. While taking into account a potentially self-accommodating system striving to attain instances of predictability and agency, new interventions can be designed to more specifically target the abnormal symptoms as coping mechanisms rather than harmful byproducts of a genetic disorder.
Following this theory, there is hope for those affected to garner and hone behaviors that both match their systems specifically, but also allow them to engage their social environment more typically. Depending on how early these types of interventions occur, certain deficits normally seen in, for example, communication, emotion regulation, and cognition, may be adjusted appropriately to the given individual in a way that would allow them to partake and learn socially.
The developmental and clinical question of what is typical and what is not should, in certain cases, have less to do with what occurs most commonly. It should instead focus on what allows the individual to partake in life in a way that is gratifying both intrinsically (to the individual) and extrinsically (to family, friends, colleagues). Depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders correlate highly with individuals and families affected by autism indicating a generally lower quality of life (Bishop & Lord, 2010). For that reason alone, autistic individuals should be assisted in acquiring more effective and socially rewarding strategies to cope with their systems and with the world around them. Amazing and extensive work has been done to illuminate the potential sources of autism. The next step is to render said sources less important with the confidence that given sufficient understanding future research can defy the biomarkers of a disorder and instead take advantage of the plasticity of life.
Like what you've read?
Make sure to check out Works Cited of the Series Development and Autism