All those dreams

DISCLAIMER;&Credits
Resources: 1 2
Code references:3 4
Inspiration:5

the designer does not carry the responsibility of the resources used in the header image.

Introduction

It had come to our attention that emphasis for Valentine’s Day and the general view of many youths these days was that love was something purely romantic between lovers only. However, we all came to a general consensus of agreement with the stand TKGS had taken in saying, love was more than that, it was platonic, it was familial, and it encompassed love for the community as well.

Hence, our project aims to look at the concept, “Love through Different Eyes”, through eyes of people we do not usually take the time or effort to understand, autistic children. By learning different viewpoints on life, love and friendship, we projected that students would learn more about themselves and learn to care more about others, especially in this community that needs so much patience and care.

In short, our project is stimulated to address the need to see love and in seeing it, give love to those that need it most and we sincerely believe that our concept, “Love Through Different Eyes” will manage to touch the eyes, minds, hearts and actions, of many in Singapore.

What is AUTISM???

Autism is a brain disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to the external world.

People with autism often exhibit repetitive behavior or narrow, obsessive interests. Other characteristics of autism include problems with verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction.

Scientists aren't certain what causes autism, but it's likely that both genetics and environment play a role. There is no cure for autism. Treatment of autism focuses on minimizing the effects of the disorder's symptoms. For many children, autism symptoms improve with treatment and with age.

What are the EFFECTS of autism???
In the COMMUNITY By observation and common knowledge, the community's attitude towards autistic children can be easily deduced. The latter deduction is that people of the community feel uncomfortable when interacting with an autistic child.The survey we conducted to judge people's attitide towards autistic children also supported the conclusion mentioned above. The child having autism is the sole reason he or she is shunned away by the average society.

For the AUTISTIC CHILD
By the way the average society looks at him or her with a degrading opinion, the self-esteem of the child is lowered. Hence, the child distances himself or herself away from the community and avoids any means of interaction with them. This causes the child to suppress his or her emotions. They have temper tantrums that causes the community to misinterpret their general behaviours.

For the FAMILY MEMBERS of the autistic child Parents of an autistic child will face financial problems, social problems, emotional problems.

Emotional
"Is the child the consequence of my sins?", "What will happen to my child after my time?" are common questions running in the minds of parents of such "different" children. They will feel remorse as they would think that it is because of them that the child first came to Earth and suffers in this unaccepting society.
As for the siblings of the autistic child, they might feel neglected as they will misinterpret their parents' concern towards the autistic child as more love and affection being shown to that special child. Due to that sole reason, they will tend to dislike their autistic sibling at a point of time in some cases and would feel it an embarassment to be the sibling of the autistic child.

Social
The society they live in might understand the situation of the autistic child and its family, but there can never be assurance that the world they live in would understand the family's situation and give them moral support, when it is essential for them to go on and bring up the autistic child.

Financial
Definitely, having an autistic child in a family would cost more in terms of medical expenditure and educational needs. A large amount of money would be required for treatment of the autistic child. And the child has to be put in a special school that hosts autistic children and nurture them to behave normally.

PRESENT TIME solutions...
There is no single best treatment for autism presently int he medical field yet. One point that most professionals agree on is that early treatment for autism is important; another is that most individuals with autism respond well to highly structured, specialized programs. Therapies and behavioral interventions are designed to remedy specific symptoms and can bring about substantial improvement. Most professionals agree that the earlier the intervention, the better. That is the condition right now.

In the FUTURE...
With improved technology and advanced thinking, we are sure that a certain cure for autism will be found in the medical field thus making it possible for children diagnosed with autism to be perfectly normal and mingle with the average society in their everyday lives.

STATISTICS in Singapore...

Experts estimate that two to six children out of every 1,000 will have autism. Males are four times more likely to have autism than females. Therefore, it can be summarized that between1 in 500 to 1 in 166 children have autism.
Assuming the occurrence rate has been constant over the past two decades, we can estimate that up to 500,000 individuals younger than 21 have autism. However, many of these individuals may not be classified as having autism until school-age or later. Because behaviours related to autism are usually present before the age of 3, it is important to make sure the individuals are being identified and are receiving appropriate intervention services as early as possible.

Podcast from 93.8FM live

A short film of a girl with Autism

Newspaper Article of on Autism

What is the CONCLUSION from our project???
Though we may be quite or in fact very uncomfortable to interact with autistic children, they are also human beings with a heart that is full of feelings and emotions. You need not be very interactive with them, but just make sure you do not cause any means of trouble for them to make their lives miserable. We must respect them and accept them in our community instead of shunning them away.

Friday, 4 July 2008

What are the CAUSES of autism???

What are the CAUSES of autism???

Autism has a strong genetic basis, and the genetics of autism are complex. But, it is still not clear what causes autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The large number of autistic individuals with unaffected family members may result from copy number variations (CNVs)—spontaneous deletions or duplications in genetic material during meiosis.

Hence, a substantial fraction of autism may be highly heritable but not inherited: that is, the mutation that causes the autism is not present in the parental genome.All known teratogens (agents that cause birth defects) related to the risk of autism appear to act during the first eight weeks from conception, and though this does not exclude the possibility that autism can be initiated or affected later, it is strong evidence that autism arises very early in development.

Although evidence for other environmental causes is anecdotal and has not been confirmed by reliable studies, extensive searches are underway. Environmental factors that have also been claimed to contribute to or exacerbate autism, or may be important in future research, include certain foods, infectious disease, heavy metals, solvents, diesel exhaust, PCBs, phthalates and phenols used in plastic products, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs, and vaccines.There is no certain cause for autism. Findings by scientists are preliminary and still require further studies. Common links are formed in the relationship of the environment and genetics with autism.

************** What we basically mean by the deletion, duplication, inversion are chromosomes abnormalities.A substantial fraction of autism may be highly heritable but not inherited: that is, the mutation that causes the autism is not present in the parental genome. [the chromosomes from the parents do not contain the mutation(abnormalities)]:

-deletion, some proteins that prevent autism from occurring may get deleted due to rare mutations.

-duplication, some important proteins are produced again due to rare mutations which is not supposed to occur as you are only supposed to have a certain number of those elements in your bodies.

-inversion, the proteins that need to follow a certain order in which they are arranged in the chromosome get inverted and some abilities the proteins possess get are no more due to rare mutations.

July 2008

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