Understand Autistic Children
Today on the “World Autism Awareness Day” I would like to share that observing an autistic child has been a learning experience for me. When I met him first he refused to shake hands and make eye contact. Treating him like any other child and being an ill-informed person on the subject it took me weeks to realize he is different. Until that time he became quite upset and aggressive.
He got admitted in my preschool group when he was not even three years old , I treated him like an ordinary baby. He hardly spoke a word and was like a free spirit who did not listen, respond and did not follow any directions. When I discussed his behavior with the mom she completely denied everything. Parents here in Pakistan like to be in a state of denial and I fully sympathize with them but we as responsible adults have to take up the matter more practically. As I read more about autism I seem to love, care and protect him more.
“Autism is a developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, and affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills.”
My personal observation about an autistic child are:
- He rarely makes an eye contact or maybe not at all.
- Difficulty in social communication.
- He keeps on repeating what you say or tell.
- Learns everything orally and quite quickly but with no understanding of the concept.
- Smiles and cries for no reason.
- Aggressive towards other children.
- Has started following the daily routine quite nicely like saying ‘salam’ to each child every morning, eating his lunch himself, etc.
- Lives in a world of his own and does not participate in group activities.
- He has learnt names and recognize people but does not talk to them.
He is four and half years old now and I wished that someone guided me on teaching techniques for such children. Parents living in Islamabad do not have much of a choice if they do not want to label their child as abnormal or special. So they are forced to put them in normal schools. Today on geo tv I heard a speech therapist giving a useful information. She said making them follow instructions and so things is easier if you use pictures, especially their own pictures. She further said these children have a strong sense of time as they know when they eat or sleep without watching a clock.
Signs of Autism
Some physical and environmental factors limit the available nutrients to the brain and body and create additional stress to chemical pathways.Routine blood work often fails to identify the problem. Biomedical testing can determine more specific abnormalities so the appropriate treatment can be determined. Father of an autistic child says,
“By just following the results of the food allergy test, where only low level of reactivity was reported in wheat and sugar, I just minimized these two elements from the environment under the supervision of our food nutritionist in Pakistan and within 15 days I have witnessed that my son has started to sit calmly for short noticeable time spans and his impatient violent movements also started to appear to have slightly eased out. Even this change has also been acknowledged by the special school.
After the receipt of the Gluten / Casein Peptide test report we plan to initiate comprehensive follow-up in the light of other reports with the help of our nutritionist and I am sure that the little progress signs witnessed in my son are quite encouraging and my son will soon be a part of normal life. Any parents of an ADHD / Autistic child in Pakistan can get in touch with me to have first hand feel of my personal experience through my cell No 0092-300-8414169.”
New Theory links autism with fever. Read more.
More signs of Autism
Useful links:
[...] Understanding An Autistic Child and Loving Him [...]
Childrens who speak less and are shy are not abnormal, they are just different, I was such a kid too. Though I agree they dont develop much social and communication skills and are not very confident when facing groups of people but I would disagree with many points mentioned above.
Putting them in a separate special school will make them feel like you think there is something wrong with them and they will become more resistive, so its better he goes to normal school and plays with other classmates. Best way to grow soft skills into them is to school to organize some classes for “all” students so that autistic kids do not feel alienated and can grow with others.
Yogesh thanks for your views. I agree autistic children can be taught in a normal school depending on the degree of their problem. It varies in each child. The points I mentioned are about the things I observed in the child I was talking about. Tis is my observation over the period of around 2 years.
My bad, well there may be some issue with him at home which he cannot talk about to others like not getting proper attention because of other sibling or scoldings at home which break his confidence. Unless his habits are changed when young, he may become an introvert when he grows up. I would say outdoor activities play an important role in bonding among toddlers, Good luck !
Thanks…points noted!