Psychometric Assessment Autism Background of Autism What is autism? Autism is a disease, which poses tons of questions, while providing least of answers. This being said, autism is one of the five diseases coming under Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). It shows in early years of a human and effects the brain's functioning. An autism website states that, 'it's a result of a neurological disorder, which hampers the proper operations of a brain,

SPED Assessment In 2002 the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) made changes to their manuals regarding the assessment of mental retardation (MR). The revisions were designed to affect changes in professional practice regarding assessment of MR, public policy, and the science and understanding of MR. Key in this change was the attempted change from the MR term to a more politically correct term Intellectual Disability. Assessment was to consider both

The AS person has often spent an inordinate amount of time fixated on one particular (often peculiar) topic, and when that person is in a social environment, he or she tends to ramble on about the topic and that one-sided rambling is more important to that AS person than any other activity in a social setting, Woodbury-Smith writes on page 4. According to Woodbury-Smith, as the AS person gets older,

(Pulsifer, 2005) ACADEMIC STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES Meier (2008) states that there is a tendency to over generalize those with Down syndrome but states that there are however "significant trends that teachers can use to help their students learn and become part of the classroom." Meier states the following strengths and weaknesses of students with Down syndrome related to academics: Learning Strengths Strong, short-term visual memory High social/interpersonal intelligence (Meier, 2008) Learning Weaknesses Poor short-term auditory memory Difficulty

Jones relates that statement of Corrigan: "Our work suggests that the biggest factor changing stigma is contact between people with mental illness and the rest of the population. The public needs to understand that many people with mental illness are functioning, fully contributing members of society." (Jones, 2006) Jones states that "the social cost of stigma associated with mental illness is high because it translates into huge numbers of

Vitamin a for Autism Spectrum Disorder The Theory of Using Vitamin a as Treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorders There is widespread linkage of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Oxytoxin. There are reports that any decrease in the pathway of Oxytocin, is a possible causative factor to the development of autistic situation (Munese-et-al., 2008). Decrease in Oxytocin comes about because of mutations in its receptors, which lead to a reduction on the