Draft one

Once I became an older sibling, I knew my life had changed. I thought the only thing that would change was the fact that I would have to share everything with them, but I was wrong. For me, it changed for the better and in a way that none of my family expected. My brother was diagnosed with Autism but we didn’t find out officially until the age of five. Since I’ve grown up around him, it makes me want to learn more about what causes him to live this life. Autism is a condition that affects many things such as communication and behavior. People didn’t always know what Autism was and would confuse it with other mental conditions but with expanding research fields we are able to learn more and more. With more research studies, we become more informed but there is still a confusion about what causes autism. Due to this, I came up with the research question: what causes autism in individuals in the United States before the age of five?

Autism is a condition that affects the social and physical development of the brain. As of March 27, 2017, it was proven that only 1 out of 68 children have autism (AUSTIM SPEAKS SOURCE). Although this number isn’t small, there doesn’t seem to be many people educated on the topic of Autism. This condition is one that you are born with but treatment at a young age can help the individuals overcome obstacles that they may face. These obstacles often include social interactions, speech and behavior. Many doctors will not diagnose before the age of three because there is still the possibility of the child just have delayed larning but after that they start to look into the different signs of children with autism. Some of the first signs to look for include no response to hearing his/her name being called, lack of eye contact and has a hard to being physical such as cuddling and hugging.

To help raise awareness, there are many non-profit organizations that help teach the community, help the family members and raise money for research studies to expand the knowledge about autism. These non-profit organizations include Autism Speaks, Train4Autism, and Autistica. These non-profit organization also hold meetings for parents to meet other parents of children with autism. One great opportunity are the Centers for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) that are located at many schools such as Florida State University and Florida Atlantic University. – Quote from Antosenko about fau card and son- . What kind of research, How do they connect with families