What is Autism?
Yesterdays post “What is Asperger’s Syndrome?” Triggered a lot of emails
from people wanting to know “What exactly is autism?”. Thanks to all of you who stepped up to
ask! For those of you who have no idea or are just not quite sure, here’s a
definition. I have to say as a mom of a
child with autism, this is a definition and gives you facts, which are good.
What it won’t do is help people to grasp how unique each child with autism is,
and what it really looks like. I can’t
show you that for every family but I can show you some. To better understand,
you need to see what autism looks like. If you want to see what autism looks like up close and personal visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/AutismDayByDay?feature=watch.
Pick a topic and take a peek.
What is Autism? What Causes
Autism?
Autism is known as a complex
developmental disability. Experts believe that Autism presents itself during
the first three years of a person's life. The condition is the result of a
neurological disorder that has an effect on normal brain function, affecting
development of the person's communication and social interaction skills.
People with autism have issues
with non-verbal communication, a wide range of social interactions, and
activities that include an element of play and/or banter.
What is ASD?
ASD
stands for Autism Spectrum
Disorder and can sometimes be
referred to as Autistic
Spectrum Disorder. In this text Autism and ASD mean the same. ASDs are any
developmental disabilities that have been caused by a brain abnormality. A
person with an ASD typically has difficulty with social and communication
skills.
A person with ASD will
typically also prefer to stick to a set of behaviors and will resist any major
(and many minor) changes to daily activities. Several relatives and friends of
people with ASDs have commented that if the person knows a change is coming in
advance, and has time to prepare for it; the resistance to the change is either
gone completely or is much lower.
Autism is a wide-spectrum
disorder
Autism (or ASD) is a
wide-spectrum disorder. This means that no two people with autism will have
exactly the same symptoms. As well as experiencing varying combinations of
symptoms, some people will have mild symptoms while others will have severe
ones. Below is a list of the most commonly found characteristics identified
among people with an ASD.
Social skills
The way in which a person with
an ASD interacts with another individual is quite different compared to how the
rest of the population behaves. If the symptoms are not severe, the person with
ASD may seem socially clumsy, sometimes offensive in his/her comments, or out
of synch with everyone else. If the symptoms are more severe, the person may
seem not to be interested in other people at all.
It is common for relatives,
friends and people who interact with someone with an ASD to comment that the
ASD sufferer makes very little eye contact. However, as health care
professionals, teachers and others are improving their ability to detect signs
of autism at an earlier age than before, eye contact among people with autism
is improving. In many cases, if the symptoms are not severe, the person can be
taught that eye contact is important for most people and he/she will remember
to look people in the eye.
A person with autism may often
miss the cues we give each other when we want to catch somebody's attention.
The person with ASD might not know that somebody is trying to talk to them.
They may also be very interested in talking to a particular person or group of
people, but does not have the same skills as others to become fully involved.
To put it more simply, they lack the necessary playing and talking skills.
Empathy - Understanding and
being aware of the feelings of others
A person with autism will find
it much harder to understand the feelings of other people. His/her ability to
instinctively empathize with others is much weaker than other people's.
However, if they are frequently reminded of this, the ability to take other
people's feelings into account improves tremendously. In some cases - as a
result of frequent practice - empathy does improve, and some of it becomes
natural rather than intellectual. Even so, empathy never comes as naturally for
a person with autism as it does to others.
Having a conversation with a
person with autism may feel very much like a one-way trip. The person with ASD
might give the impression that he is talking at people, rather than with or to
them. He may love a theme, and talk about it a lot. However, there will be much
less exchanging of ideas, thoughts, and feelings than there might be in a
conversation with a person who does not have autism.
Almost everybody on this planet
prefers to talk about himself/herself more than other people; it is human
nature. The person with autism will usually do so even more.
Physical contact
A number of children with an
ASD do not like cuddling or being touched like other children do. It is wrong
to say that all children with autism are like that. Many will hug a relative -
usually the mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, teacher, and or
sibling(s) - and enjoy it greatly. Often it is a question of practice and
anticipating that physical contact is going to happen. For example, if a child
suddenly tickles another child's feet, he will most likely giggle and become
excited and happy. If that child were to tickle the feet of a child with
autism, without that child anticipating the contact, the result might be
completely different.
Loud noises, some smells, and
lights
A person with autism usually
finds sudden loud noises unpleasant and quite shocking. The same can happen
with some smells and sudden changes in the intensity of lighting and ambient
temperature. Many believe it is not so much the actual noise, smell or light,
but rather the surprise, and not being able to prepare for it - similar to the
response to surprising physical contact. If the person with autism knows
something is going to happen, he can cope with it much better. Even knowing
that something 'might' happen, and being reminded of it, helps a lot.
Speech
The higher the severity of the
autism, the more affected are a person's speaking skills. Many children with an
ASD do not speak at all. People with autism will often repeat words or phrases
they hear - an event called echolalia.
The speech of a person with ASD
may sound much more formal and woody, compared to other people's speech.
Teenagers with Asperger's Syndrome can sometimes sound like young professors.
Their intonation may sound flat.
Repetitive behaviors
A person with autism likes
predictability. Routine is his/her best friend. Going through the motions again
and again is very much part of his/her life. To others, these repetitive
behaviors may seem like bizarre rites. The repetitive behavior could be a
simple hop-skip-jump from one end of the room to the other, repeated again and
again for one, five, or ten minutes - or even longer. Another could be drawing
the same picture again and again, page after page.
People without autism are much
more adaptable to changes in procedure. A child without autism may be quite
happy to first have a bath, then brush his teeth, and then put on his pajamas
before going to bed - even though he usually brushes his teeth first. For a
child with autism this change, bath first and then teeth, could completely put
him/her out, and they may become very upset. Some people believe that helping a
child with autism learn how to cope better with change is a good thing,
however, forcing them to accept change like others do could adversely affect
their quality of life.
A child with autism develops
differently
While a child without autism
will develop in many areas at a relatively harmonious rate, this may not be the
case for a child with autism. His/her cognitive skills may develop fast, while
their social and language skills trail behind. On the other hand, his/her
language skills may develop rapidly while their motor skills don't. They may
not be able to catch a ball as well as the other children, but could have a
much larger vocabulary. Nonetheless, the social skills of a person with autism
will not develop at the same pace as other people's.
Learning may be unpredictable
How quickly a child with autism
learns things can be unpredictable. They may learn something much faster than
other children, such as how to read long words, only to forget them completely
later on. They may learn how to do something the hard way before they learn how
to do it the easy way.
Physical tics and stimming
It is not uncommon for people
with autism to have tics. These are usually physical movements that can be
jerky. Some tics can be quite complicated and can go on for a very long time. A
number of people with autism are able to control when they happen, others are
not. People with ASD who do have tics often say that they have to be expressed,
otherwise the urge does not stop. For many, going through the tics is
enjoyable, and they have a preferred spot where they do them - usually
somewhere private and spacious. When parents first see these tics, especially
the convoluted ones, they may experience shock and worry.
Obsessions
People with autism often have
obsessions.
Myths about autism
A person with autism feels
love, happiness, sadness and pain just like everyone else. Just because some of
them may not express their feelings in the same way others do, does not mean at
all that they do not have feelings - THEY DO!! It is crucial that the Myth -
Autistic people have no feelings - is destroyed. The myth is a result of
ignorance, not some conspiracy. Therefore, it is important that you educate people
who carry this myth in a helpful and informative way.
Not all people with autism have
an incredible gift or savantism for numbers or music. People with autism are
ordinary people... with autism.
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