The amount of American’s with autism is quickly growing. As the numbers increase, we become more curious about the why’s and how’s associated with this disorder. I have had years of experience helping special needs kids, especially children with autism. I was given the opportunity to start helping when I was seven and I have loved it ever since. While helping these kids, I see what goes on between the friends and families. I was able to gain a new perspective into the life of being and taking care of a special needs child. I have found that when people cannot get answers, they make up their own which leads to more confusion. This has created many misconceptions about what autism is, what the cause is, and the treatment options. Some of the main misconceptions about autism are related to the history of the disorder. Autism is usually thought to be a newer disorder. There is some truth to this myth because it was first described and explained using the term “autism” for the first time by Leo Kranner in 1943. However, the symptoms were actually first specifically written in 1799 by Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard, but he had not come up with the term “autism” yet. Because of the small amount of …show more content…
Many people have suggested the disease is created through vaccines or it’s passed down through genes. Vaccines are believed to lead to autism in young children when they get the shots needed around the ages of two to four. Some even go as far to say that autism is a result of cold or distant parents. Because people believe that autistic kids are mean themselves, they automatically relate them to mean parents, and that they didn’t get the basic skills they needed to mentally develop. Even though there is evidence to support that those ideas could be possible, doctors still haven’t found a real cause for the disease. Because we don’t know of a cause, we can’t exactly find how to reverse