关于世界自闭症日，你需要了解些什么？

小白老师说：自闭症谱系障碍（autism spectrum disorder，ASD，以下简称自闭症）是一类常见的神经发育疾病，症状在三岁前出现，患者多为儿童。 自闭症的概念 1943 年由美国约翰斯·霍普金斯大学专家莱奥 · 坎纳首次提出。自闭症在医学上也称孤独症，是一个尚没有被全社会知道、了解的病症。

2007 年 12 月联合国大会通过决议，从 2008 年起，将每年的 4 月 2 日定为“世界自闭症关注日” (World Autism Awareness Day)，以提高人们对自闭症和相关研究与诊断以及自闭症患者的关注。

点击这里欣赏感人至深的关爱自闭症儿童宣传片**********▼**********

今天是第 11 个世界自闭症日，今年世界自闭症日的宣传主题是 “Empowering Women and Girls with Autism”。

提到自闭症，我们很多人都会想起《雨人》这部电影中的雷蒙巴比特，他头脑如同一台微型计算器，有着过目不忘的超能力，能迅速数清掉落在餐厅地板上的 246 根牙签，随口说出电话簿上自己读过的电话号码。

当然了，现实生活中，像雷蒙这样的自闭症天才还有很多，他们会说七八种语言，有着超强的逻辑力，计算能力和艺术鉴赏能力。然而基于电影电视中的常规印象，我们常常会将自闭症患者等同于天才，但实际上这种自闭症天才仅在自闭症患者中占到五分之一的比例。

这里是关于世界自闭症日的英文解读，与大家分享。

World Autism Awareness Day was established on December 18, 2007 by the United Nations. Autism affects approximately 1 out of every 150 children around the world. It is a neural development disorder that affects their ability to socialize normally by impacting their abilities to utilize verbal and non-verbal communication.

Since 2012, there has been a 30% increase in the amount of children being affected with autism, and World Autism Awareness Day helps to bring awareness to this growing health concern.

Autism first appears very early on, sometimes manifesting as early as infancy, in other times waiting until later in childhood. The disease progresses steadily without remission, its first symptoms generally appearing around six-months, and being firmly in place by age two or three.

Rather than having one distinguishing characteristic, Autism is indicated by the coming together of three separate symptoms. The triad includes difficulty socializing, problems in communication, and a limited number of interests combined with repetitive behavior such as can-stacking.

Autism is no longer classified as a single disorder, but rather an entire spectrum ranging in severity. Autism is the core of all of these syndromes, with its features being prevalent to varying degrees throughout, and includes such disorders such as Rett Syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder.

One of the most commonly known disorders on the list, outside of Autism itself, is Asperger’s. Asperger Syndrome is signified by the presence of Autism symptoms with no impairment of language development.

Asperger Syndrome often leads to problems with social interaction with their peers. Common body language queues that are picked up on by those not on the Autistic Spectrum are often lost on those who suffer from AS. It is not uncommon among the Asperger community to hear them speak of their frustrations with non-Asperger people, as huge chunks of the conversation just seem utterly lost on them.

Things such as tone, context, and sarcasm have to be considered very carefully, as they are not often native to those with AS, and their frustration with communication often stems from this and other social queues.

However, much like anyone on the Autistic spectrum, they will present with areas of intelligence that are much stronger than that of others. These areas tend to be in the reading, language, music, or spatial skills, occasionally manifesting to such a degree that they may fall into the “gifted” range in those areas. This seems to be counterbalanced by significant delays in other areas of development.