关注“星星的孩子”

“Sons of Stars” refers to the children who are sighted but turn a blind eye to people and things around them， who have normal hearing but turn a deaf ear to every sound， who have well-developed language skills but rarely talk， and whose behaviors tend to be against the normal ways. They are compared with the stars in the sky， because each of them is preoccupied with their own world， just like a star shining alone. Some people think they are geniuses， arguing that gifted people such as Einstein， Van Gogh， and Newton were all found to have strange behaviors. Based on the modern medical methodology， they are probably diagnosed as the cases of autism. However， some other people think those children are just weirdoes. They live in their own world and are aliens to the normal people.

有视力却对周围的人与物视而不见，有听力却对声响充耳不闻，有语言却不知如何开口说话，有行为却总与常人的愿望相违，犹如天上的星星，一人一个世界，独自闪烁，常被人们怜惜地称作“星星的孩子”。有人说，他们是天才，因为爱因斯坦、凡高、牛顿等很多出类拔萃的天才生前都有怪异的行为，用现代的医学方法去判断，他们很可能患有孤独症。也有人说，他们是异类，只生活在自己的空间里，像个外星人，天外来客……

In December， 2007， the UN General Assembly passed the following resolution： starting from 2008， 2nd， April of every year is designated as “World Autism Awareness Day” （WAAD）， in order to increase people's awareness about people， especially children， with autism. Moreover， every April is designated as the “National Autism Awareness Month”， which is a special opportunity for everyone to educate the public about autism and issues within the autism community through mess media as well as various activities. As more and more attention is paid to this special group， and the information about autism is more and more publicized， people become even more shocked and concerned when they find the truth that the number of people with autism has been increasing.

2007年12月联合国大会通过决议：从2008年起，将每年的4月2日定为“世界自闭症日”，以提高人们对自闭症和相关研究与诊断以及自闭症患者的关注。同时将整个四月份定为自闭症宣传月，以期在这段时间内通过媒体、口传、活动或其他可行方法集中性地传播有关自闭症的信息和知识。在此基础上，越来越多的目光开始聚焦这个特殊群体，殊不知，伴随着人们对自闭症越发深入的认识，却是自闭症患者数量越发高涨的现实。

In the 1960s， autism was considered a rare disorder that occurred in only about 3 in every 10，000 children. In February， 2007， the Centers for Disease Control （CDC） announced the results of two surveys of autism spectrum disorders covering 22 states. Using the newly-funded Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network （ADDM）， CDC researchers found an average rate of 1 in 150 children with an autism spectrum disorder， with New Jersey at the top， with a rate of approximately 1 in 100. Autism Speaks， the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization， released a rough statistics in 2010， reporting that there were around 67 million people with autism in the world， which was more than the sum of people with cancer and AIDS. The statistics also showed that the children with autism already took up more than 1/50 of children in the US.

Some people believe these figures suggest an epidemic， and there must be "some reasons” -- like a vaccine or something in the environment -- that has caused this so-called "epidemic". In fact， "so much more autism" does not necessarily mean that there is an actual increase in the number of autistic people. Greater understanding of autism， earlier diagnosis of children with autism， more accurate ways adopted for diagnosis， and changes in the criteria for statistics analysis， have made society and culture maintain a more open mind and become more caring for disabilities. Therefore， it is very likely that the huge group of people with autism has always been there， but just wasn’t noticed by people before.

在60年代，人们认为自闭症是非常罕见的，儿童中只有万分之三的发病率。2007年2月，美国疾病控制中心了两个覆盖22个州的自闭症普查结果。控制中心的研究人员通过国家新近拨款建立的自闭症与发育障碍监测网发现，在22个州中，自闭症儿童与正常儿童的比率是1比150，其中以新泽西州的比率为最高，达到了1比100。时间过渡到2010年，这一年，美国最大的自闭症科学与用户组织――自闭症代言者对全球自闭症患者进行了粗略统计，得到了全球6，700万自闭症患者的数据，已然超过了全世界癌症、艾滋病患者的总和，统计同时指出美国儿童中自闭症患者占正常儿童的比例已达到1/50之多。

这些数据让很多人直观地认为自闭症在近几年有越发流行的趋势，他们认为一定有什么“原因”――疫苗，或者是环境里的什么物质――造成了所谓的“流行”。实际上，“更多的自闭症患者”并不等于患者实际数量的增加，在另外一些因素如自闭症知识的普及、儿童更早获得诊断、诊断标准的修订、更准确的统计方式、社会观念和文化的变化等的共同作用下，人们比过去更容易承认和接受残疾和差异。因此，事实极有可能是，庞大的自闭症人群一直存在，只是在以往并未被周围所重视。

Autism Spectrum Disorders

异常行为

According to the definitions in medical science， different from what the phrases “self-imposed” and “loneliness” deliver literally， autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication， and by restricted and repetitive behavior. It has long been presumed that there is a common cause at the genetic， cognitive， and neural levels for autism's characteristic triad of symptoms. However， there is increasing suspicion that autism is instead a complex disorder whose core aspects have distinct causes that often co-occur.

据医学资料显示，与字面意义上的“自闭”、“孤独”明显不同，自闭症是一种以社会交往障碍、言语和非言语交流障碍、特殊兴趣和刻板行为为主要特征的发育行为疾病，发病原因不明，其发生与家庭教养缺失、养育者的冷漠、语言环境复杂等都没有明显关系，发病症状也是千差万别。

“There’s tremendous diversity in the symptoms and severity of autism. Although there’s a lot of diversity， there’s a common denominator： a person with autism has difficulty processing social interaction in typical ways，” says Dr. Fred R. Volkmar， the director of the Yale Child Study Center and co-author， with Dr. Lisa A. Wiesner， of “A Practical Guide to Autism. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child's life. The signs usually develop gradually， but some autistic children first develop more normally and then regress. It is distinguished not by a single symptom， but by a characteristic triad of symptoms： 1. Impairments in social interaction. People with autism often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted. They show less attention to social stimuli， smile and look at others less often， and respond less to their own name. 2. Impairments in linguistic communication. The higher the severity of the autism， the more affected are one’s speaking skills. Many children with an ASD do not speak at all. People with autism will often repeat words or phrases they hear - an event called echolalia. 3. Restricted interests and repetitive behavior. They usually develop specific routines or rituals and become disturbed at the slightest change. 4. Lower intelligence. Most children with autism are slow to gain new knowledge or skills， and some have signs of lower than normal intelligence. 5. Disturbances in feelings. Some of them may be unusually sensitive to light， sound and touch， and yet oblivious to pain. 6. Other abnormal behaviors. Sometimes they may perform activities that could cause self-harm.