Autism Facts + How Brain Training Fits In
Millions of individuals are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) every year. While this diagnosis is extremely broad and each individual has their own unique sets of strengths and struggles, understanding autism a little more deeply is so important. Whether you are a parent facing an autism diagnosis or a community member seeking to understand and include those who are neurologically different, here are some of the key things to understand about autism.
How Common is Autism?
1 in 44 children in the US has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Accurate diagnoses can happen as early as age 2. However, most of the time kids are 4 or older before they get the official diagnosis.
Boys are 4 times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism. However, this may not be an entirely accurate number. Researchers and clinicians believe that symptoms of autism spectrum disorder in males and females may be so different that girls are just often missed in the diagnosis process.
Symptoms of Autism
The primary marker of autism spectrum disorder is a deficit in communication and interaction skills, both verbally and nonverbally. Repetitive or obsessive behaviors or interests often accompany this deficit. Some of the key early signs to watch for include:
- Avoiding eye contact
- Not talking as much as their peers
- Repeating the same words or phrases
- Not responding to their name
- Being less open in their facial expressions
- Repetitive movements (flapping hands or rocking)
- Not talking with other children or inviting others to see what they’re doing
While these things are applicable for both boys and girls, research shows that boys are more likely to develop obsessive rituals or routines, make less eye contact, experience fear in noisy or over-stimulating environments, or have specific and strong clothing preferences. Because the signs are slightly more subtle for girls, diagnoses don’t happen as easily.
How Does Autism Impact Intelligence?
Autism doesn’t necessarily mean lower intelligence. 31% of individuals with autism have an intellectual disability, 25% are in the borderline range, but 44% have average or above average IQ. As with all areas of life for individuals on the autism spectrum, intelligence and academic performance will vary based on the individual.
Brain Training for Individuals on the Autism Spectrum
At LearningRx, we believe in helping everyone achieve their highest potential, whether they have an official diagnosis or not. Whether you have autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or some other diagnosed learning struggle—or your brain just works differently and you have to work harder than peers in some situations—we are happy to partner with you!
Brain training provides a baseline knowledge of cognitive abilities and builds from there. Our one-on-one approach allows us to facilitate each program based on an individual’s needs and goals, which makes it an ideal fit for individuals with autism.
Some of the ways brain training has helped individuals with autism include:
- Social interaction and language development. For many people, brain training has been a way to easily support individual expression, train eye movement and fixation, and support the brain’s ability to hear and process language effectively.
- Academic support. Whether your child is in a conventional classroom or specialized one, cognitive skills are a critical piece for learning and functioning efficiently. Our experience shows how brain training programs have helped kids, teens, and adults on the autism spectrum. Between 2010-2018, kids and teens with autism improved learning and thinking skills by 3.2 years on average after brain training! During the same period, adult clients with autism made similar across-the-board gains in cognitive skills.
- Reading and comprehension. While reading comes easily for some individuals on the spectrum, it can be a huge challenge for others. Our ReadRx program is a foundational sound-to-code reading program that gets down to the basics to help all individuals become confident readers.
We understand that every situation is unique, especially in the world of navigating support for individuals with autism. If you’re looking for a way to support a child’s or adult’s thinking, learning, reading, focusing, and comprehension skills, we would love to have a conversation about how brain training may be a good fit.
Click here to learn more about our approach to Brain Training!
Disclaimer: LearningRx helps clients with autism by targeting and training cognitive skills used for learning and thinking. Please note that we cannot diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and brain training is not a treatment or cure for autism.
