critical. Some treatments include special diets and vitamin supplements, and focus on drawing a child with autism away from their agenda. If an autistic child is geared away from what they want they tend to become aggressive. Autistic children tend to stray away from conversation or tasks in an irregular manner unable to focus on what others may want. Some signs of the disorder include a decrease in language skills and interaction in activity and attention with others. People with autism dont understand social norms or rules like normal people. Autistics are unable to learn from observation. They need to be taught the significance and meaning of a frown as a pose to a smile, or how to focus on the person that is talking to them. Autism is easily confused with low intelligence, but many children with autism are in fact very smart. "While 70 percent of the children diagnosed with autism score below average on IQ tests, many are of normal intelligence, and a few are considered quite bright" (Riccio, 1999 p.1). Autistics can learn and improve their education and behavior, and this allows some of them to function as close to normal if not equal in society although most still need assistance with living and job skills throughout adulthood. Every autistic child is unique. Not all therapies are universal. Each one has to be tailored for the specific patient. People with autism like a very structured environment. They like consistency in their surroundings. Even a slight change in their home setting, E.I.: the movement of a table, can be very unsettling and make the child agitated. Although most autistic people are severely mentally retarded about 10 percent are autistic "savants". A savant is a person who incredibly excels in a particular area, such as music or math. "A person who has autism yet can play a Beethoven sonata after hearing it just once, or can do complex mathematical equations, or tell you whether December 3, 1956, fell on a Tuesd...
