. Autism is a developmental disorder with no cure or known cause that affects communication, imagination, planning and reciprocity emiocional.
The inability of social interaction, isolation and stereotypies (uncontrolled movement of a limb, usually the hands) are some of their characteristics.
on the autism spectrum we find the following variants:
* Asperger syndrome (like autism, but with normal language development).
* Rett syndrome (very different from autism, and only occurs in women).
* childhood disintegrative disorder (rare condition where a child learns skills, then loses them by age 10 years).
* Disorder Pervasive Developmental otherwise unspecified (PDD-NOS, for its acronym in English), also called atypical autism .
is a pervasive developmental disorder that differs from autism in that abnormal or impaired development occurs only after three years of age or missing sufficiently demonstrated abnormalities in one or two of the three areas of psychopathology required for the diagnosis of autism (social interaction, communication disorder and restrictive behavior, stereotyped and repetitive), despite presence of features of one or two of the other areas. Atypical autism usually occurs in profoundly retarded individuals with poor performance which facilitate the presence of specific deviant behavior required for the diagnosis of autism. It also happens in people with severe specific developmental disorders of language comprehension. It makes sense, therefore, to distinguish atypical autism from autism.
Studies in identical twins indicate that the disorder may be partly genetic, because it tends to affect both twins also can affect only one of them. Although in most cases have no obvious cause, some may be related to a viral infection (eg congenital rubella or cytomegalic inclusion disease), phenylketonuria (an inherited deficiency of enzyme) to the fragile X syndrome (a chromosome degeneration).
This variant of autism, called Pervasive Developmental Disorder - not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS English - Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified), with onset in childhood or atypical autism may have a later onset, to 12 years old.
Like the child with early onset autism, children with atypical autism do not develop normal social relationships and often has strange ways of speaking and abnormal patterns . These children may have Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive-compulsive disorder or hyperactivity.
Thus, it can be very difficult for the physician to differentiate these conditions.