Have You Heard About Autism

Autism is a neurological disorder that affects communication, social skills and behavior. Children with autism do not follow the same rules of communication and socialization that comes naturally to others and they have difficulty in making sense of the world. At present, there is no cure for autism. The only consistently effective treatment for autism is a structured training program which consists of ABA (Applied behavior analysis), biomedical therapy, RDI (relationship development Intervention), etc. Therefore, a combination of a good school with autistic-specified trained teachers and parent training is the best known treatment.

Autism affects 1 in 150 kids and has a strong genetic basis, although the genetics of autism is complex and unclear. Some scientists think that some kids might be more likely to get autism because it or similar disorders run in their families. Other proposed causes of autism are childhood vaccines, though this has not been proven yet. Most of the cases I have heard or come across are directly or indirectly related to vaccination. Immediately after the vaccination, the child develops a high fever and then starts regressing where loss of language and social skills are seen along with failure to make progress. The child stops responding when called by name (which before the regression he/ she was doing perfectly), stops playing with others, is not able to communicate even the most basic needs like hunger, thirst and toilet needs. The child also exhibits other signs like reduced eye contact or loss of eye contact, flapping of hands, toe walking, have tantrums, say certain words over and over (echolalia), playing with only one particular toy, etc. Most kids with autism don’t like change in routines. They are very repetitive in their behavior. They may also insist that their toys or other objects be arranged in a certain way and if this is not done they may get upset.

Many of you must have seen the movie “Rain man” in which Dustin Hoffman plays an autistic man. In reality, the actual disorder is nothing so dramatic. Many don’t even realize they are in the presence of an autistic child if the child is undergoing some kind of intervention or therapy unless they are trained or have a child with similar issues. Also, though they appear not to, children with autism listen to every word said in their presence, even the ones normal children may not pay attention to, but they rarely make sense of what is said. Most of them are hyperlexic (an ability to reads words that is above their chronological age or fascination with letters or numbers). Autism causes kids to experience the world differently from the way most other kids do. It's hard for kids with autism to talk with other people and express themselves using words. Kids who have autism usually keep to themselves and many can't communicate without special help.

Diagnosing a child with autism is very difficult. Most of the times, it’s the parent who gives the doctor the clues as to the behavior of the child at all times during the day for the correct diagnosis. Autistic children can make significant progress if the intervention is appropriate and consistent. Early diagnosis and intervention before the child is five is especially crucial to the child’s progress. It is for this reason that spreading awareness about autism is so necessary.

I would like to say that before vaccinating your children according to the schedule given by the pediatrician, please spare this condition and these kids a thought. A few years back so many vaccines were not insisted upon, then why now? Why inject our children with these unnecessary viral vaccines and stand the chance of making them social and behavioral retards? Why make them socially inept when you could have a bouncy, healthy and happy baby. Families and lives will never be the same again once autism strikes. What if the child gets a Mumps or a chicken pox once in his/ her childhood? Haven’t we all got it once in our lifetime? Didn’t we develop natural protection to those diseases then? ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is much much more difficult to manage than a bout of Mumps or measles. So, people do spread the word and think!