My brother Jack was diagnosed with Austism Spectrum Disorder. The way he behaves sometimes is different than the way my friends and I do.

I needed my parents to explain to me what autism is. They said...

"Autism is a disorder that causes problems with the way a person communicates and behaves" (Losh & Gordon, 2014).

It turns out autism is a lot more common than I thought. Approximately 1 in 88 people have autism and boys are more likely to have it than girls (Weiner & Greene, 2014).

There are some signs of autism that we can observe like having trouble interacting and communicating in social settings or repeating patterns that may seem weird to other people (Kostyuk et al., 2010).

When a person with autism is in a crowded space with lots of noise or people, their senses can become overloaded and they may become very uncomfortable and act uncontrollably (Manning et al., 2015).

When their senses are overloaded, it can be hard to make friends because they may isolate themselves to not be overwhelmed when lots of people are close by (Schaaf et al., 2014).

Ms. Johnson's Classroom

In classrooms, it can be hard to focus on a topic that they are not interested in, so they have to practice their skills at school and at home, otherwise they might become disruptive to the class. (Koegel, L., Singh, & Koegel, R., 2010).

About 80% of those with autism receive special education services at their school. This helps accommodate their needs to be successful (Baio, 2010)

Some might struggle in school and in public because they cannot pick up on social cues that a speaker may be giving. This makes it hard to understand what is happening or being said (Horvath et al., 2018).

If someone has autism, there is a one in four chance they will be diagnosed with another disorder that impacts their behavior (Lecavalier et al., 2018).

My brother usually has problems going to bed and staying asleep, my parents say this is because of his autism. On nights he does not sleep much, he is more likely to have behavioral problems the next day too (Gringras et al., 2017).

Although scientists are not sure yet why, they found that people with autism have common abnormalities in their digestive systems, and believe that genetics may play a role (Frye et al., 2018).

Many people take dietary supplements, or vitamins, to help with the imbalances in their digestive system. For some people these vitamins can greatly improve their daily function (Adams et al, 2018).