RETT's syndrome
RETT's syndrome is a neurological disorder with symptoms that look like autism. RETT is being explained as part of ASD a lot. That is wrong.
RETT is a disorder that's allmost non-existent in boys. 1 Out of every 10.000 to 23.000 girls is born with it. It is extremely rare in boys. It arises by a fracture of one of the arms of the X-chromosome. The X-chromosone it the chromosome wich makes the female gender. That is why it is so rare in boys.
RETT's syndrome is a development disorder of the nervoussystem. Specially the brainstem is under developed. The first 6 to 18 month of development, the child will be normal. Then development will slow down and the child will lose motor functions and communicative skills. This results allmost allways in an complete inability to speak or walk. At this time the child will often develop an irregular breathing.
After a while there will be a more stable period. Apraxia (=an inability to handle), epilepy and scoliosis (= a rare curvature of the spine by wich one or two curves arise) will begin to form. At this point the motor function and communicative skils can improve. Mobility can become worse because of muscle weakness, stiffness and worsening scoliosis.
RETT's symdrone is no ASD disorder. But, because of the loss of communicative functions, the child can develop Autism like symptoms. That is why it is often said that RETT is an ASD disorder, even though it is not.
If you want further information about RETT's syndrome, please take a look at the following website. Notice: this website is in Dutch! www.rett.nl.
