A symbolic action. Prime Minister François Fillon awarded the label of Great National Cause 2012 to the collective of associations “Together for autism”, which represents more than 100,000 families. Objective: to raise awareness and work towards better management of autism. The government is also showing its willingness to fight against the prejudices attached to autism, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. >> To read also: True-false on autism
A disease poorly known to the general public, autism is defined by the WHO as a “severe and early pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) which affects brain functions”, recalls the association. France autism on his site. Within PDD, we find infantile autism, atypical autism, Asperger’s syndrome or Rett’s syndrome. >> >> More information on autism in our file
A PDD results in communication difficulties, poor social interactions and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. The autistic person “cannot decode the messages that come to him […] nor to clearly address its own messages to those around it”, specifies the France autism association on its site.
Today autism affects nearly 600,000 people in France. But not all autistic people have the same symptoms, which makes this disease difficult to pin down. Main problem: support. The associations denounce “inappropriate” care with serious consequences for the sick: “abuse”, “delay in diagnosis” linked to a lack of training for hospital staff, “inappropriate psychoanalytic treatments”, underlines the collective Together for the autism in a press release. Another striking figure: nearly 80% of children with autism are also out of school.
While the causes of autism remain unclear, a recent American studyfound a link between prematurity and autism. Children born prematurely would thus present five times more risk than others of being affected by autism, according to the researchers.
