Min·or·i·ty: a racial, religious, ethnic, or political group smaller than and differing from the larger controlling group in a community, nation, etc. Au·tism: a developmental disorder characterized variously by impaired social interaction, difficulties in communicating, problems with seeing and hearing, repetitive behavior, etc.

According to Wikipedia, all signs of autism show before a child is 3 years old. Autism affects how information processes into the brain, altering how nerve cells connect and organize information and details.Sometimes it is caused from genetics but is also be listed as a birth defect. About 1 in every 1,000 people is diagnosed, and is most commonly found in males. Signs of autism are usually noticeable in the first two years of a child’s life, symptoms usually becoming more aggressive and noticeable as the child gets older.

Being autistic makes simple things a lot harder than they should be. Communication for example is really hard for a child with autism to express. Because there is a lack of confidence in most autistic children, it is more difficult for them to interact with their peers and those around them.They are less likely to make eye contact, engage in social activities, and attach easily to their caregivers.

Also, they are more likely to suffer from frequent loneliness regardless if they’re with friends or not. Because of this reoccurring feeling, many relationships are hard to hold and violence has been noticed as the only outlet. Autism is hard to understand, you see a child and because he or she isn’t playful it must mean they’re shy. They are attached to their parent? It’s because they love their mom or dad.They don’t play well with others, well they must be frustrated. Wrong.

Toddlers and children suffering from autism are on a whole other level than kids. Children with autism are very smart, it’s a matter of figuring out what their strength is. Mateo Ruiz, for example, he was diagnosed with Autism at 2 ? years old. He was quick to throw tantrums, didn’t like to share, was upset easily, sometimes spaced out and was almost always fixed in his own thoughts. Books however, were his weakness.

He would ask for his mother, babysitter, or even his sister to read him a book every chance he got. Secretly he was absorbing all of the information and ran wild with it. He is now attending a regular elementary school, get’s fantastic grades, and is one of the best readers in the class. Autism isn’t a disability, but because America has expectations of “social norms”, it will always be classified as a minority group. In America, a minority group is a group of lesser people who don’t hold the same amount of power as others.

Autism is just a challenge to trounce. It’s up to the child, the teenager, and the adult to embrace the obstacles they’ve overcome so far, and the one’s they’ll have in the future. Everybody belongs to a minority group in one way or another- it’s what makes everybody so unique, so different. It’s okay if you have a hard time communicating with another person, or if you get frustrated easily, it’s okay if you don’t think like the person sitting next to you.

Minority means “less”, but it doesn’t mean you are anything less than the best person you can be.