During a toddler's early stages of "talking" they will look at a persons eyes rather than at their mouths as they speak. This means that they are developing social skills that they will need later in life. Now, scientists are finding that a toddler who watches a person's mouth as they talk is going to have autism. The more they watch a person's mouth, the more severe the disorder is. The reason this is is because they are focusing on only the physical aspects of the person's face rather than on the person themself. This is an important discovery for scientist because now they can flag autism at an early age.
This article didn't really relate to me because I don't know anyone with autism, but I did find the article very interesting. I wouldn't have thought that not toddlers not looking into peoples' eyes directly related to autism. I wonder what the fundamental causes of autism are and how it can be treated. I hope that scientists can make these discoveries, but they have made a good start with this discovery.
I found this article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926143751.htm
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2 comments:
Hi Narah! Interesting article-- psychology is just such a fascinating subject. I liked the reasoning behind the mouth-watching = autism idea; "The reason this is is because they are focusing on only the physical aspects of the person's face rather than on the person themself." It kind of shows autism as being really, really selfish, completely unable to comprehend concentrating on anyone else. This is also a confusing concept-- selfishness is regarded as a negative trait, while autism is just regarded as a sad unfortunance. Why aren't the two directly related? But anyway, I like this article and your analysis-- "I wonder what the fundamental causes of autism are and how it can be treated." and that the first step is discovering the symptoms. We're on the way, Narah-- see you later!
You raised a very interesting question about the relation to autism and selfness. As much as I do think that autism is very sad, the selfishness of the disorder does bother me. Remember that book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime"? The main character in that book struck me as very selfish, and I found that extremely irritating. I suppose it wasn't the character's fault, but I had a very hard time feeling empathy for him.
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