Brain is the most complex part of the human body. Any alteration in its development leads to physical, mental, and behavioural disorders. Autism is one such disorder that affect parts of the brain that control emotions, communication, and body movements.
Autism is a lifelong brain based disorder. A complex, neurological, developmental disability affects social and verbal abilities of a person. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of developmental disorders that begin in childhood. There are over 60 million people with autism across the world. The most recent estimates suggest that one out of every 88 children is diagnosed with Autism. Boys are diagnosed almost 5 times more frequently than girls are. Some estimates indicate that one out of every 54 boys is diagnosed with an ASD.
It is estimated that 350,000 children in Pakistan suffer from autism.
The actual cause and treatment of autism is still unknown. However, many children have shown significant improvement resulting from early diagnosis and use of effective therapies.
Every year, United Nations together with autism organizations around the world celebrate the world autism awareness day to promote understanding of Autism in the general community on 2nd April. The theme of this year's AWD is "Towards self autonomy and determination."
Types of Autism spectrum disorder:
Autistic disorder: People with autistic disorder usually have significant language delays, social and communication challenges, and unusual behaviours and interests.
Asperger syndrome: It is an ASD characterised by difficulties in social interaction and nonviable communication. Characteristics often include restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour or special interests.
Rent syndrome: This disorder affects girls almost exclusively. It is characterised by slowing of development, loss of purposeful use of the hands, slowed brain, and head growth, problems with walking, and intellectual disability.
Heeler syndrome: Children with this disorder appear to develop normally for the first two years of life, but then lose skills in areas such as language, play, and bowel control and manifest impaired social interaction and communication associated with repetitive, stereotyped behaviours.
Behaviours common among children with autism:
Children can be diagnosed as autistic when they reach at the age of two. However, symptoms can present during infancy. At the age of one year, a child with ASD may not turn to a mother's voice, not respond to his own name, not look people in the eye, have no babbling or pointing by age one and not smile or respond to social cues from others.
By the toddler years, some children with ASDs have unusually large heads and brains, which may be because of problems with brain growth.
The signs of autism are more noticeable in a child's second year. While other children try to form words and show curiosity towards their surrounding, a child with autism remains standing apart.
Some children develop normally until 18-24 months old and then stop or lose skills. Physical signs of an ASD can include "repeated motions (rocking or spinning), avoiding eye contact, or physical touch delays in learning to talk, repeating words, or phrases, getting upset by minor changes, and digestive problems. They may also focus keenly on an object, while ignoring others around them for long periods.
Children may have interests that are unusual in their intensity and may or may not be age appropriate. For example, a child may know detailed facts about a particular topic or may be interested in only one toy that is played with exclusively and/or repetitively.
A person with autism is different from other people:
Individuals with autism do not behave like other people. An autistic person finds it difficult to make friends because it is hard to communicate with others. Often they enjoy watching other children and may want to be near them but may feel hesitant, unsure, and even scared to join them in their activities.
Many appear to be in a world of their own, indulge in their activities, and show little interest in another person. Others are not aloof, but rather passive in their interaction.
Some autistic people have unique way of interaction with other people. They make active approaches to other people on their own, but may do so in an odd, inappropriate, repetitive way such as hugging or pushing others. As they grow older, they find it difficult to understand and follow social rules of games, such as getting 'out', taking turns.
They find it easier to join the company of older people who can tell them what to do and or with people younger to them who will do as they are told.
They have unique talents:
People with autism have special gift or talent; they have a hidden skill that just needs to be discovered.
They have amazing abilities and skills. For example, when other children are drawing straight lines and sketch, some children with autism are able to draw detailed, realistic pictures in three-dimensional perspective. They can put complex jigsaw puzzles together. Some individuals have well-developed sense of hearing and can play musical instruments they have never been taught, play a song accurately after hearing it once, or name any note they hear.
Some people with autism can memorize entire television shows, phone directory, or bus/train timetables; others can calculate day of the week from a date or may have exceptional arithmetic skills.
Raising children with autism is a challenge for parents:
With the right care and planning, parents can play an effective role in helping improve their child's cognitive ability, and lead a more normal life. There is great emphasis on training mothers to better handle the needs of their autistic child. The best treatment for children with autism is teamwork and patience. Parents are advised to be connected with other affected parents. They should contact with child specialist, psychologist, social worker, and therapist who can monitor child's development over time and answer parent's questions as they arise.
Physical activities:
Physical exercises and group activities provide multiple benefits. According to a research behaviours such as body rocking, spinning, head-nodding, hand flapping, object-tapping, and light gazing, that have been shown to interfere with positive social behaviour and learning, can thus be controlled by the use of exercise. Additionally, exercise can discourage aggressive and self-injurious behaviour while improving attention span.
Physical activities also provide opportunities to build self-esteem, confidence, and friendships with other children.
Group activities help to improve social and communication skills of autistic children. For example, combine painting activity is good for children having interest in art. Participating in art projects often opens the door for communication.
Experts suggest that in order to help children learn, parents can use a series of pictures, often referred to as visual supports, to represent each step of the instructions. Visual supports help children by translating verbal directions into a sequence of pictures that children can refer to each time they complete an activity rather than relying on the large amount of fleeting words.
For example if you say an autistic child to "keep your room clean." It will be difficult for him to understand what steps are involved in cleaning the room. Instead, place a series of pictures on the wall that indicate what to do to clean the room-pictures of a bed that has been made, clothes hanging neatly in the closet, and toys in their appropriate place.
A little care and attention can lead an autistic child to live happy, healthy, and productive life.
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