Research Question: Autism is becoming more and more prevalent in the diagnosis of children who have mental disabilities. Although the link to what causes Autism is not known, the effort to find a cure is something many people are trying to accomplish. To find a cure, we must understand what is causing the diagnosis. What causes Autism and what efforts are being taken to find a cure?

Waterhouse, Lynn. “Developmental Trends in Cognitive Skills for Children Diagnosed as Autistic and Schizophrenic.” Child Development. 55.1 (1984): 236-248.
This book presents a lot of information about autism in children and schizophrenia in adults. It had a lot of general information about Autism and how a child who has Autism interacts with others. The Author generalized behaviors between people diagnosed with Autism and people diagnosed with Schizophrenia and how they can display the same cognitive delay. This article was particularly interesting in the fact that the research presented generalization of the two diagnoses as having very similar traits and one may lead to the other. The author presents a great deal of facts and knowledge through graphs that show her research she conducted.

Loomis, Earl A. Jr. “Autistic and Symbiotic Syndromes in Children.” St. Lukes Hospital, Division of Child Psychiatry. 25.3 (2003): 39-48.
The author in this book presented a lot of information about how children are diagnosed with Autism and how Autism may be linked from genes. There was a family that had four children and all of the children had Autism, the first child had the least severe and the youngest child had the most severe case of Autism. Children with Autism present certain words and phrases that they say at a certain time during development that lead to the diagnosis of Autism. The family experienced the same instances of all their children.

Sigman, Marian, and Ruskin, Ellen. “Continuity and Change in the Social Competence of Children with Autism, Down Syndrome, and Developmental Delays.” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 256.64.1 (1999): 1-142.
The information in this book focused a lot on the interactions of children who have Autism experience with his or her peers. It was a study conducted from the authors and presented a lot of information of how a child with Autism may act. The most useful section of this book was about the stability of diagnosis and intelligence of the child and also the nonverbal communication, play and language skills. This book does not provide any information about a cure for Autism or the cause but rather what interactions people have who are diagnosed with it.

Enzi, Mr. “Combating Autism Act of 2005” 109.2d. (2006): 109-318
This document has a lot of information about Autism and the legislature. It is from the Senate Report. The contents include many different areas revolving around Autism. Since Autism is becoming more prevalent in young children, the government is taking strides to find the cause of it. The report focuses on what the government is doing, the background information and the need for legislation, laws that are in place to protect those who have Autism.
Bauminger, Nirit. “Children with Autism and Their Friends: A Multidimensional Study of Friendship in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Journal of Abnormal and Child Pychology. 36.1. (2008): 135-150.
This article from the Journal of Abnormal and Child Psychology presented a lot of data that discussed in depth the friendships that children hold who have Autism Spectrum Disorder, and the perceptions that those students have on their own friends. There was a study conducted that compared students who have Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, to students who do not and how that friendship was valued differently. This article will help me with my paper to relate how students with ASD can have above average IQ’s but yet fall behind in socially adaptive behaviors.

Spek, Antionnette A. “Brief Report: The Use of WAIS-III in Adults with HFA and Asperger Syndrome.” Journal of Abnormal and Child Psychology. 38.1. (2008): 782-787.
This journal article compares the similarities between high functioning autism, HFA, and Asperger’s Syndrome. There was a study conducted that related the two in several different categories such as: Performance Intelligence and Verbal Intelligence, Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, Freedom from Distractibility and Processing Speed. Similar to other journal articles I have found, this one will come in great when I discuss the relationships between the different types of Autism.

Eaves, Linda C., Ho, Helena H. “Young Adult Outcome of Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Journal of Autism Dev. Disorder. 38.1. (2008): 739-747.
The article in this journal presented information related to the way parents found out that their child had Autism Spectrum Disorder and procedures when done once the testing started. The cause for Autism is still unknown, so there was no way that the parents and caregivers mentioned in this article would ever know if the rest of their children could be diagnosed with ASD. I will use this article a lot because it talks greatly about the ways parents were told their child has ASD and the testing that was done to figure that out.

Fitzgerald, Michael. Matthews, Pat. Woods, Mairide. “Research in Brief.” SAGE Online Journals. 32.(1999): 193-195
This article links Autism and the Coeliac Disease in children. The article focuses on people who have Autism, Asperger Syndrome or any features of Autism. It relates some of the people who had Asperger syndrome correlate to respondents with Coeliac disease. Also, it talks about how family members other than the immediate family had Autism or Aspergers Syndrome. This article will help me connect how Autism may be linked to genetics and discuss other possible ways of the causes of Autism.

Wolff, Sula. “The History of Autism.” Early Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 13.1. (2004): 201-208.
Autism was first diagnosed almost 60 years ago and still to this day, it is untreatable and the cause is unknown. This article talks about children who had Autism when it was first diagnosed and characteristics that are found in children in present time. Some similarities can connect from theories back then to theories now as to what is the reason of Autism. I will use this article when I talk about the relationship between methods used in young infants back when Autism was first diagnosed and the methods used in present day infants.

Abramson, RK. Ravan, SA. Wieduwilt, K. Wright, HH. “The Relationship Between Restrictive and Reptitive Behaviors in Individuals with Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms in Parents.” Child Psychiatry and Human Development. 36.2. (2005): 155-164.
This article talks in great deal about how repetitive behaviors are linked with Autism and how many children who have Autism have Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. It also talks about what kind of things families do when their child has these behaviors. I am not sure if I will use this article in my paper because it doesn’t really relate to the Autism and the cause/cure of Autism.

Brayne, Carol. Williams, Jo. “Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders.” SAGE Online Journals. 10.1. (2006):11-35.
This article explains certain procedures that are conducted when a child is referred to doctors that may have Autism Spectrum Disorder. There are a lot of graphs in this article that show how the testing has changed over the years. It relates to how things used to be tested and how they are tested now. I like this article and will use it in my paper to discuss the relationship between screening for Autism and the characteristics found in all children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Dawson, Geraldine. Fein, Deborah. Greenson, Jessica. Meltzoff, Andrew N. Toth, Karen. “Early Social, Imitation, Play and Language Abilities of Young Non-Autistic Siblings of Children with Autism.” Journal of Autism Dev Disorders. 37. (2007): 145-157.
This article compares children who have siblings that are Autistic and the relationship between those children and the relationship they have with their parents. It compared how children with Autism were accepted into the family and how the other family members did not have Autism and how they were accepted into the family. The beginning of the article briefly explains Autism and impact it can have on a family. It also talks about the experiences the family had in the hospital with the child who was later diagnosed with Autism and experiences the family had with their children without Autism.

Lauritsen, Marlene Briciet. “Effects of familial risk factors and place of birth on the risk of autism.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 46.9. (2005): 963-971.
Since the cause of Autism is still unknown, strong empahasis has been placed on the genetic make-up of children who have Autism. This article takes a look at how families who have one child with Autism almost always have another child who is diagnosed with Autism. It talks a great deal about how families with a history of Autism, or Asperger’s syndrome had children with Autism. I will use this article in my paper because it explains a lot about the genetic makeup of parents who have children with Autism, although it is not proven yet.

Cederlund, Mats. Gillberg, Christopher. “Asperger Syndrome: Familial and Pre- and Perinatal Factors.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 35.2.(2005): 159-166.
This article was a study conducted that linked genetic factors and brain damage to Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism. It talked about how clinical examinations of the families with children with Asperger’s Syndrom were conducted and the diagnoses. It related that Asperger’s Syndrome was related to the familial fisk and pre/parinatal problems that occurred during pregnancy.

Scheeren, Anke M., Stauder, Johannes E.A. “Broader Autism Phenotype in Parents of Autistic Children: Reality or Myth?” Journal of Autism Dev Disorders. 38. (2008): 276-287.
This journal article relates how Autism is linked to the Genetic DNA make-up of that individual. Although it is still unclear, it is important to understand that there are many different genes that make up DNA and it is hard to understand which genes carry the traits of Autism and combat those genes. I like this article because it talks about how the genetic makeup of DNA can be related to children with Autism and the testing that is being done on individuals that have Autism.
Chaing, Hsu-Min. “Communicative Spontaneity of Children with Autism.” SAGE Online Journals. 12.1. (2008): 9-21.
This article talked about the verbal and non-verbal communication difficulties that children with Autism have. The language barriers that children with Autism are faced with and how families communicate with their child who has Autism. I like this article because it gives a great amount of information about the history of Autism but I will probably not use the parts that talk about verbal and nonverbal communication too much.

Glasco, Fances Page. “Can a Broadband Developmental Behavioral Screening Test Identify Children Likely to Have Autism Spectrum Disorder?” SAGE Online Journals. 46.9. (2007): 801-805.
The cause of Autism is currently unknown. The author or this article presents information linking pregnancy and the diagnosis of Autism. He goes into great detail about certain things preformed during pregnancy can be the reason why children have Autism. Perhaps, eliminating those things during pregnancy can stop Autism being diagnosed.