INTRODUCTION - National Trust

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FACTS ABOUT AUTISM • People with Autism are not physically disabled and ‘look’ just like anybody without the disability. Due to this invisible nature of the disability it is much harder to create awareness and understanding about the condition. Since a child with Autism looks ‘normal’, others assume they are naughty or that the parents are not controlling the child. However, no known factors in the psychological environment of a child have shown to cause Autism. Earlier myths that Autism is a mental illness or that Autism is caused by “bad parenting” have been proved false. • Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that appears in the first three years of life. It interferes with the development of language, intuitive thought, repertoire interests and social interaction. Speech and language may develop slowly or abnormally. A large number of children with Autism remain unable to communicate their needs through spoken words. Often they prefer to be alone. They may also be over or under sensitive to sensory inputs such as touch, sound, and light. Repetitive behavior patterns are a notable feature and they sometimes show resistance to change in routine. Many suffer from hyperactivity, self-injurious behaviors, sleeplessness and eating disorders. • Autism is often referred to as a spectrum disorder as the symptoms can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations ranging from mild to severe. Two children diagnosed with Autism can act very differently. There is also a condition called Aspergers syndrome, which is a form of Autism used to describe people at the higher functioning end of the Autistic spectrum. 12
MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS Autistic disturbance is generally considered to include some combination of the following symptoms: 1. Autistic children exhibit a profound failure to relate to other people, which is often apparent from birth. They may show delayed social smile and in many cases smile is absent. They may not reach upwards in anticipation of being picked up. Some children fail to form emotional attachments to significant people in their environment. For example, they show no distress when their mother leaves the room. Similarly, a child might play in the vicinity of other children without interacting or participating with them. 2. Autistic children commonly show various levels of impaired or delayed language acquisition and comprehension. Some autistic children are non-verbal and others may exhibit echolalia. For example, a child may repeat numerous phrases or conversations previously heard without indication that the words convey meaning. Immature grammar, pronoun reversal, and/or the inability to use abstract terms may also be apparent. 3. Many autistic children show apparent sensory dysfunction, as if they do not see or hear some environmental events. They may exhibit under-or over-responsiveness to touch, sound or pain. For instance, the child may not exhibit a startle response to a loud disturbance but may respond to the sound of a candy wrapper, or may tantrum excessively every time a siren goes by. 4. Many children with autism show inappropriate and/or flat affect. They may not display appropriate facial expressions and may not exhibit fear in dangerous situations, such as crossing the street. They may respond to even simple requests with severe, prolonged tantrums. They may also laugh and giggle uncontrollably in absence of any apparent eliciting stimuli or cry inconsolably for hours. 5. Typically, autistic children will occupy themselves for hours in stereotyped, repetitive self-stimulatory behaviours, which serve no apparent purpose other than providing the child with sensory input. Commonly, self-stimulatory behaviours take the form of manipulation of hands or fingers in front of the eyes, eye crossing, repetitive meaningless vocalization (e.g., “aeh, aeh aeh...”) suspending or spinning objects in front of the eyes, mouthing objects, hand tapping, body rocking, and other stereotypical behaviour. Such behaviours have been found to significantly impair learning in autistic children (Koegel & Covert, 1972 cited in Johnson & Koegel, 1982). 13
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