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According to The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, autism is not a disease, but a developmental disorder of the brain functions. The person with classic autism shows three types of symptoms: limited social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, imagination, and limited or unusual activities and interests. The symptoms of autism usually appear during the first three years of childhood and continue throughout the lifetime. Although there is no cure, the appropriate care may promote a relatively normal development and reduce the undesirable behaviour. People with autism have a normal life span. |
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What is blindness? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), blindness is a vision lower than 20/400 or 0.05, always considering the better eye with best possible correction. It is considered that a person is legally blind when their vision is lower than 20/200 or 0.1 in the better eye with best possible correction.
What is low vision?
Low Vision is an insufficient vision, even with the best corrective lenses, to achieve a desired task. From a functional point of view, persons with low vision may be those who posses a residual vision enough to see light, be guided by it and use it for functional purposes.
What are the causes of visual impairment?
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Although blindness can be caused by an accident, there are also numerous diseases that put people at risk, such as, cataract, glaucoma, leucoma, diabetic retinopathy, premature retinopathy, cataract and congenital glaucoma, optic atrophy, retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa.
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Can it be prevented?
There are diverse ways to prevent visual impairment, such as prevent traffic and work accidents, occupational diseases; adequate care during pregnancy; detection and reporting of deficiencies in the newborn and genetic consultation to families in cases of hereditary diseases. Early ophthalmologic consultation in cases of family history with visual impairment also helps with prevention.
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How do we interact with a person with visual difficulties? A blind person can do almost everything, but it must be you who attends to his needs, always at their request or by asking the person if s/he needs help.
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Deafness is the total loss of hearing. Deafness prevention is relatively difficult because of the numerous causes throughout one’s lifespan: prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal. The hereditary or genetic cause is the most important, but it unfortunately is difficult to predict. In the perinatal period, deafness is caused by fetal or maternal causes through problems with abnormal labor.
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| Among the postnatal causes of deafness, bacterial meningitis still occupies a very important place. Almost as prevalent, is otitis media, which generally causes a gradual deterioration of hearing. Thirdly, deafness is caused by high intensity noises. |
Deafness of transmission
At the level of the external acoustic meatus, the eardrum and the auditory ossicles, through aplasia of the ear, chronic otitis, sclero-adhesive otitis, fracture of the petrous portion of the temporal bone, or as a result of otospongiosis.
Deafness of perception
Toxic deafness, cochlear infections, cochlear traumatism, presbycusis, Meniere's disease, sudden deafness, retrochoclear deafness, acoustic neurinoma.
Central deafness
Deafness of the acoustic nuclei situated in the bulboprotuberantial region or the temporal lobe. The origin is almost always vascular, and sometimes tumoral or traumatic. The agnosia is characterized by the relative conservation of the elementary auditory perceptions with recognition disorder and the identification of perception.
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
What is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and who is affected by it?
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Generally, it affects both genders, although it is more prevalent in males. Although the etiology is varied, some of the risk factors include genetics, as well as prenatal, perinatal and environmental factors. Recent studies suggest alterations at the level of neurotransmitters. It is easily diagnosed by age three, and with greater certainty by the age when compulsory education begins (at 5 years).
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Symptoms vary, but they are all related to behavior associated with one of the following:
Lack of continual attention
Excessive motor activity
Impulsivity
The symptoms (up to a total of 15 to 20 according to diagnostic criteria), must have started before age seven, last for at least six months, and not be attributable to other causes, such as a severe transitory emotional disorder, a severe or profound mental retardation, or schizophrenia.
Early detection of the syndrome facilitates the social integration of the child and contributes to good academic learning.
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The available data have come primarily from male children and adolescents. Reliable information is difficult to obtain after the age of twenty. Although some of the affected people are of legal age and there is record of adults who were affected by the syndrome, they were generally diagnosed very late, or never diagnosed, and hence, have carried problems into their school, family and social life. |
The daily lives of these children take place in two main environments, namely school and family:
School
The hyperactive children do not integrate well from their earliest infancy. Teachers "do not understand them", have an excessive number of students in their classrooms and have to pay attention to all of them. The instructor expects the hyperactive child to behave like the rest, abide by the rules, remain seated, pay attention to the lectures, all these without specific incentive, it's impossible.
