Part of the book: A Comprehensive Book on Autism Spectrum Disorders
Part of the book: Recent Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Risk factors are understood to encompass “aspects of individual behavior or lifestyle, environmental exposure, hereditary or congenital characteristics that are associated with a health related condition”. These are conditions that increase the chances of the child presenting speech-language disorders and that can be avoided, controlled, or treated. Risk is defined as the chance of a child exposed to certain factors (environmental or biological) to acquire or develop speech-language disorders. The objectives of the present study were: to identify the risk factors for speech-language disorders in children up to five years of age and to verify the relationship between risk factors and speech-language diagnostic hypotheses. The aspects of being male gender, prematurity, shyness, being an only child or youngest child, presenting deleterious oral habits, having a family history of speech-language disorders, and use of licit or illicit drugs during pregnancy seem to be the factors that should draw the attention of the health professionals in child development. Therefore, the monitoring of children who have these risk factors should be performed in order to promote the necessary stimulation and the construction of healthy environments.
Part of the book: Advances in Speech-language Pathology
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) constitute a group of disorders characterized by changes present at early ages and manifesting in the areas of development of communication, behavior, and interpersonal relationship. Because ASD significantly affects communication and the social skills, all multicultural context needs to be better investigated. There is an urgent need to understand the impact of migratory process, bilingual environment exposure on the language development of children with ASD. The present study aims to present the results of 657 foreign residents in Brazil that answered an online questionnaire to know the consolidated information about ASD. Participants from 23 countries responded to the survey. Bolivia and Argentina were the countries with the highest number of participants. The present study found that 100% of the participants have heard of autism. About 80.6% of the sample had a family member with autism. The sociodemographic diversity identified in this study reflects the sociocultural diversity present in Brazil, besides reinforcing the importance of considering this population when thinking about strategies and behaviors directed at individuals with ASD.
Part of the book: Advances in Speech-language Pathology