Who is autistic? Autos is a Greek word meaning "oneself." They call themselves autistic. In fact, they are completely different. Children with Kanner syndrome are so indifferent to everyone around them that they do not even feel the need to learn to perceive speech and speak, although voice apparatus, and their hearing is fine. Without knowledge of language, the brain stops developing, which leads to mental retardation. People with good intelligence are often outstanding individuals, versed in mathematics, music, programming, linguistics, chess... However, communicating with other people is not their strong point.
Who is a person who has no strength for the people around him? Autistic may be a two-year-old child who is excellent with iPads, but does not recognize himself in mirror image or your own mother. This could be an adult who spends all his time at the computer and absolutely does not notice anyone around him, even those closest to him.
Scientists suggest many reasons for the appearance of this disease. From negative reaction body for vaccination before the age of the parents. Both ecology and environment, and genetic factors.
Every year the number of such people increases. Now we can say that autism is one of the most common diseases. In Russia, every 1000th child is autistic. In America, for every 88 children there is one suffering from a similar disease, in Israel - every 200th. Poland classifies every thousand child as autistic, Sweden - every 500th. However, these figures cannot be considered accurate. The quality of disease diagnosis leaves much to be desired. Who is autistic? Modern medicine often diagnoses an autistic person with “schizophrenia”; other diseases are also attributed to him. Quite often, such children are classified as uneducable and any doors to the future are closed. Autism is often diagnosed in mentally ill healthy children but have hearing impairments.
Outsiders are not allowed!
Autistic children are accepted into these groups, but are quickly expelled due to difficulties in the educational process. A special school for autism is a way out in which the child can not stop developing, but develop further as far as possible. In our country there are eight types of schools for such children. For example, for children with visual impairments, hearing impairments, and mental retardation. But there are very few of them, and the incidence increases from year to year. There is only one such school in Moscow, and it only has primary classes. The institution is part of the Center for Psychological, Medical and Social Support for Children and Adolescents with Autism. Most of the classes at school are designed to teach the child to look into the eyes of the interlocutor, maintain a conversation and answer questions.
They can work
Who is autistic? On the one hand, this is a person who is able to see and hear well, but, on the other hand, he does not want to notice anything around him. However, more than a quarter of autistic children who are diagnosed quality help, are able to get an education, live a normal life and be no different from other people. Such people are able to enter a university, get a profession, get married and have children of their own. Of course, autistic parents are simply unable to provide the warmth and affection that a child needs. They will perceive the baby's cry as a threat or aggression, so they will try to avoid the baby or give a response, but not care. In each subsequent generation, the traits of autism and mental distortions will be more pronounced.
If such a child was born in some small town where it is impossible timely diagnosis, and even more so correct work With autistic people, most often everything turns out very sadly. The patient receives a diagnosis of “early schizophrenia” and is placed in a specialized institution.
Violation mental development, which is characterized by motor and speech disorders and leads to impaired social interaction, is autism. This disease has a strong impact on the early development of the child and throughout the person’s life in the future. Doesn't exist medical tests who could diagnose autism. Only by observing a child’s behavior and his communication with others can a diagnosis of autism be made.
Children with autism are reluctant to make friends. Such children give preference to solitude rather than playing with peers. Autistic people develop speech slowly, often use gestures instead of words and do not respond to smiles. Boys are approximately four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism. This disease occurs quite often (5-20 cases per 10,000 children).
Sulamot Group provides comprehensive assistance treatment of the autism spectrum: from differential diagnosis of developmental problems to the creation of a correction plan.
In some children, symptoms of autism can be detected as early as infancy. Autism most often appears by age three. Signs of autism may vary depending on the child's developmental level and age.
Behavioral characteristics used to describe autism syndrome:
People with autism are characterized by uneven development, which gives them the opportunity to be talented in some narrow area (music, mathematics). Autism is characterized by impaired development of social, thinking, and speech skills.
Some researchers believe that autism may be caused by various pathologies childbirth, traumatic brain injury, infections. Another group of scientists classifies autism as childhood schizophrenia. There is also an opinion about congenital brain dysfunction.
It is likely that the innate fragility of emotions plays an important role in the development of autism. In such cases, when exposed to any unfavorable factors, the child closes off from the outside world.
Doctors are not immediately able to detect autism in a child. The reason for this is that such symptoms of autism are also observed in normal development child. Because of this, the diagnosis is often made late. Autism is characterized by a variety of manifestations, while a child may have only two or three symptoms, which also complicates diagnosis. Main sign autism - a violation of the perception of reality.
A child suffering from autism does not want to interact with anyone. It seems like he doesn't even feel pain. Speech develops slowly. Speech underdevelopment occurs. The child is afraid of everything new and performs monotonous and repetitive movements.
If parents detect symptoms of autism in their child, they should immediately contact a child psychiatrist. Currently, many child development centers have been created that will help diagnose and provide effective assistance in treatment.
Autism is a diagnosis that many parents perceive as a kind of death sentence. Research into what autism is and what kind of disease it is has been going on for a very long time, and yet childhood autism remains the most mysterious mental illness. Autism syndrome manifests itself most clearly in childhood, which leads to the isolation of the baby from family and society.
Autism in Wikipedia and other encyclopedias is defined as a general developmental disorder in which there is a maximum deficit in emotions and communication. Actually, the name of the disease determines its essence and how the disease manifests itself: the meaning of the word “autism” is within oneself. A person suffering from this disease never directs his gestures and speech to the outside world. There is no social meaning in his actions.
At what age does this disease appear? This diagnosis is most often made in children aged 3-5 years and is called RDA , Kanner's syndrome . In adolescence and adulthood, the disease manifests itself and, accordingly, is rarely detected.
Autism is expressed differently in adults. Symptoms and treatment of this disease in adulthood depend on the form of the disease. External and internal signs autism in adults. Characteristic symptoms are expressed in facial expressions, gestures, emotions, volume of speech, etc. It is believed that types of autism are both genetic and acquired.
The causes of this disease are associated with other diseases, psychiatrists say.
As a rule, autistic children are in good physical health and have no external defects. The brain of sick babies has a normal structure. When talking about how to recognize autistic children, many note that such babies are very attractive in appearance.
Mothers of such children proceeds normally. However, the development of autism is still in some cases associated with the manifestation of other diseases:
All of these conditions can have a negative impact on the brain and, as a result, provoke symptoms of autism. There is evidence that genetic disposition plays a role: signs of autism are more likely to appear in people who already have autism in their family. However, what autism is and what the causes of its manifestation are are still not completely clear.
Autism in children manifests itself with certain signs. It is generally accepted that this syndrome leads to the fact that the baby cannot combine all the details into a single image.
The disease manifests itself in the fact that the child perceives a person as a “set” of unrelated body parts. The patient hardly distinguishes inanimate objects from the animate. All external influences - touch, light, sound - provoke an uncomfortable state. The child tries to withdraw inside himself from the world that surrounds him.
Autism in children manifests itself with certain signs. Early childhood autism is a condition that can manifest itself in children at a very early age - both at 1 year and at 2 years old. What is autism in a child, and whether this disease exists, is determined by a specialist. But you can independently figure out what kind of illness a child has and suspect him based on information about the signs of such a condition.
This syndrome is characterized by 4 main symptoms. In children with this disease, they can be determined to varying degrees.
Signs of autism in children are:
The first signs of autistic children may appear as early as 2 years of age. May appear as mild symptoms forms when eye-to-eye contact is impaired, and more severe forms when it is completely absent.
The child cannot perceive as a whole the image of the person who is trying to communicate with him. Even in photos and videos, you can recognize that such a baby’s facial expressions do not correspond to the current situation. He does not smile when someone tries to cheer him up, but he can laugh when the reason for this is not clear to anyone close to him. The face of such a baby is mask-like; grimaces appear on it from time to time.
The baby uses gestures only to indicate needs. As a rule, even children under one year of age sharply show interest if they see an interesting object - the baby laughs, points, and demonstrates joyful behavior. The first signs in children under 1 year of age can be suspected if the child does not behave this way. Symptoms of autism in children under one year of age are manifested by the fact that they use a certain gesture, wanting to get something, but do not strive to capture the attention of their parents by including them in their play.
An autistic person cannot understand other people's emotions. How this symptom manifests itself in a child can be tracked already at an early age. If ordinary children's brains are designed in such a way that they can easily determine when looking at other people whether they are upset, happy or scared, then an autistic person is not capable of this.
The child is not interested in peers. Already at the age of 2, ordinary children strive for company - to play, to meet peers. Signs of autism in 2-year-old children are expressed by the fact that such a child does not participate in games, but is immersed in his own world. Those who want to know how to recognize a child 2 years old and older should simply take a closer look at the company of children: an autistic person is always alone and does not pay attention to others or perceives them as inanimate objects.
The child finds it difficult to play using imagination and social roles. Children 3 years old and even younger play, imagining and inventing role playing games. For autistic people, symptoms at 3 years old may include not understanding what the social role is in play and not perceiving toys as whole objects. For example, signs of autism in a 3-year-old child may be expressed by the child spinning a car wheel for hours or repeating other actions.
The child does not respond to emotions and communication from the parents. Previously, it was generally accepted that such children did not become emotionally attached to their parents at all. But now scientists have proven that when the mother leaves, such a child at 4 years old and even earlier shows anxiety. If family members are nearby, he seems less obsessive. However, in autism, signs in 4-year-old children are expressed by a lack of reaction to the fact that parents are absent. The autistic person exhibits anxiety, but he does not try to get his parents back.
In children under 5 years of age and later, speech delay or her complete absence (mutism ). With this disease, the signs in children 5 years old in speech development are already clearly expressed. Further development speech determines the types of autism in children: if a severe form of the disease is observed, the child may not master speech at all. To indicate his needs, he uses only some words in one form: sleep, eat, etc. The speech that appears is, as a rule, incoherent, not aimed at understanding other people. Such a child can say the same phrase for several hours, which has no meaning. Autistic people talk about themselves in the third person. How to treat such manifestations, and whether their correction is possible, depends on the degree of the disease.
Abnormal speech . When answering a question, such children repeat either the entire phrase or part of it. They may speak too quietly or loudly, or intonate incorrectly. Such a baby does not react if he is called by name.
No “age of questions” . Autistic people do not ask their parents many questions about the world around them. If questions do arise, they are monotonous and have no practical significance.
Gets fixated on one activity.
Among the signs of how to identify autism in a child, one should note obsession. A child can spend many hours sorting cubes by color and making a tower. Moreover, it is difficult to return him from this state.
Performs rituals every day. Wikipedia shows that such children feel comfortable only if the environment remains familiar to them. Any changes - a rearrangement in the room, a change in the route for a walk, a different menu - can provoke aggression or pronounced withdrawal.
Repeating meaningless movements many times (manifestation of stereotypy) . Autistic people tend to self-stimulate. This is a repetition of the movements that the child uses in an unusual environment. For example, he can snap his fingers, shake his head, clap his hands.
Development of fears and obsessions. If the situation is unusual for the child, he may develop seizures aggression , and also self-injury .
As a rule, autism manifests itself very early - parents can recognize it before the age of 1 year. In the first months, such children are less mobile, react inadequately to external stimuli, and have poor facial expressions.
Why children are born with autism is still not clearly known. Despite the fact that the causes of autism in children have not yet been clearly identified, and in each specific case the reasons may be individual, it is important to immediately report your suspicions to a specialist. Is it possible to cure autism, and is it curable at all? These questions can only be answered individually, after conducting an appropriate test and prescribing treatment.
Those who do not know what autism is and how it manifests itself should still remember that such children are found among your children's peers. So, if someone's toddler is having a tantrum, it could be an autistic child or a toddler suffering from other mental disorders. You need to behave tactfully and not condemn such behavior.
Autistic traits also appear in a child's intellectual development. What it is depends on the characteristics of the disease. As a rule, such children have moderate or light form mental retardation . Patients suffering from this disease have difficulty learning due to the presence of brain defects .
If autism is combined with chromosome abnormalities , microcephaly , then it can develop deep mental retardation . But if it has the place is easy form of autism, and at the same time the child develops speech dynamically, then intellectual development may be normal or even above average.
The main feature of the disease is selective intelligence . Such children can demonstrate excellent results in mathematics, drawing, and music, but fall far behind in other subjects. Savantism is a phenomenon where an autistic person is very clearly gifted in one specific area. Some autistic people are able to play a melody accurately after hearing it only once, or calculate complex examples in their head. Famous autists of the world - Albert Einstein, Andy Kaufman, Woody Allen, Andy Warhol and many others.
There are certain types of autistic disorders, including: Asperger's syndrome
. It is generally accepted that this is a mild form of autism, the first signs of which appear at a later age - after about 7 years. This diagnosis requires the following features:
Such people lead relatively normal lives: they study in educational institutions and at the same time they can make progress and create families. But all this happens on the condition that they are created the right conditions, there is adequate education and support.
This is a serious illness nervous system, the causes of its occurrence are associated with disorders in the X chromosome. Only girls suffer from it, since with such disorders the male fetus dies in the womb. The frequency of this disease is 1:10,000 girls. When a child has this particular syndrome, the following signs are noted:
How to determine Rett syndrome - this is a question for a specialist. But this condition is slightly different from classic autism. So, with this syndrome, doctors determine epileptic activity and underdevelopment of the brain. The prognosis for this disease is poor. IN in this case any correction methods are ineffective.
Externally, such symptoms in newborns cannot be determined. However, scientists have been working for a long time to identify signs of autism in newborns as early as possible.
Most often, parents notice the first signs of this condition in children. Especially early autistic behavior is determined by those parents whose family already has small children. Those who have autism in their family should take into account that this is a disease that should be tried to be diagnosed as early as possible. After all, the earlier autism is identified, the greater the chances of such a child to feel adequately in society and live a normal life.
If childhood autism is suspected, diagnosis is carried out through interviews with parents, as well as studying how the child behaves in his usual environment. The following tests are used:
The following methods are used:
It is important for parents to correctly perceive the behavior of a child who suffers from autism.
| Adults see | This is NOT | Perhaps this |
| Shows forgetfulness and disorganization | Manipulation, laziness, lack of desire to do anything | Lack of understanding of parents' or other people's expectations, high anxiety, reaction to stress and change, attempt to regulate sensory systems |
| Prefers monotony, resists change, gets upset by change, prefers to repeat actions | Stubbornness, refusal to cooperate, rigidity | Uncertainty about how to follow instructions, desire to maintain normal order, inability to assess the situation from the outside |
| Does not follow instructions, is impulsive, makes provocations | Selfishness, disobedience, desire to always be the center of attention | It is difficult for him to understand general and abstract concepts, it is difficult for him to process information |
| Avoids lighting and certain sounds, does not look anyone in the eye, rotates, touches, smells foreign objects | Disobedience, bad behavior | He has poor processing of bodily and sensory signals, high visual, sound, and olfactory sensitivity |
Whether this condition can be treated or not is of most interest to the parents of such children. Unfortunately, the answer to the question " Is autism curable?" unambiguous: " No, there is no treatment».
But, despite the fact that the disease cannot be cured, the situation can be improved. The best “treatment” in this case is regular classes every day And creating the most favorable environment for autistic people .
Such actions are actually very difficult for both parents and teachers. But with such means one can achieve great success.
The most common treatment for autism is practiced according to the principles behaviorism
(behavioral psychology).
One of the subtypes of such therapy is ABA therapy . The basis of this treatment is to observe what the baby's reactions and behavior look like. After all the features have been studied, stimuli are selected for a particular autistic person. For some children this is their favorite dish, for others it is musical motives. Further, all desired reactions are reinforced with such encouragement. That is, if the baby did everything as needed, then he will receive encouragement. This is how contact develops, skills are consolidated and signs of destructive behavior disappear.
Despite the degree of autism, these children experience certain difficulties with speech development, which interferes with normal communication with people. If your child regularly works with a speech therapist, his intonation and pronunciation will improve.
Autistic people lack the motivation to play and do everyday things. They find it difficult to adapt to maintaining personal hygiene and daily routine. To consolidate the desired skill, they use cards on which the order of performing such actions is drawn or written.
Treat autism medications acceptable only if destructive behavior little patient interferes with its development. However, parents need to remember that any reaction of an autistic person - crying, screaming, stereotypy - is a kind of contact with the outside world. It’s worse if the child withdraws into himself for whole days.
Therefore, any sedative and psychotropic medications can only be used according to strict indications.
There are some opinions that are more popular than scientific. For example, data on what helps to cure an autistic person has not been scientifically confirmed.
Some methods are not only not beneficial, but can also be dangerous for the patient. It's about application glycine , stem cells , micropolarization etc. Such methods can be very harmful for autistic people.
The symptoms of this disease are associated with delayed psycho-speech development. They are in many ways similar to the signs of autism. Starting from the very early age, the baby does not develop in terms of speech as expected by existing norms. In the first months of life, he does not babble, then he does not learn to speak simple words. At 2-3 years old vocabulary very scarce. Such children are often poorly developed physically and sometimes hyperactive. The final diagnosis is made by the doctor. It is important to visit a psychiatrist or speech therapist with your child.
This condition is also often mistaken for autism. Children with attention deficit are restless and have difficulty learning at school. Problems arise with concentrating; such children are very active. Even in adulthood, echoes of this condition remain, because such people find it difficult to remember information and make decisions. You should try to diagnose this condition as early as possible, practice treatment with psychostimulants and sedatives, and also visit a psychologist.
These are a variety of hearing impairments, congenital and acquired. Children who are hard of hearing also experience speech delay. Therefore, such children do not respond well to their names, fulfill requests, and may seem disobedient. In this case, parents may suspect autism in their children. But a professional psychiatrist will definitely refer the baby for examination auditory function. Hearing aid will help solve problems.
Previously, autism was considered one of the manifestations in children. However, it is now clear that these are two completely various diseases. Schizophrenia in children begins later - at 5-7 years. The symptoms of this disease appear gradually. Such children have obsessive fears, talk to themselves, later delirium and... appear. This condition is treated with medication.
It is important to understand that autism is not a death sentence. After all, provided proper care, the earliest correction of autism and support from specialists and parents, such a child can fully live, learn and find happiness as an adult.
Today, as you understand, the conversation will be about Russian autists. Who are autistics? How many autistic people are there in the world and in Russia? What awaits them? What are the prognoses for such children and people?
One fact is indisputable: there are more and more autistic people. And it is impossible not to notice them, thanks to the introduction of inclusive education, they begin to study together with ordinary children; they can no longer be hidden within four walls or boarding schools.
The topic is interesting, and no matter how hard anyone tries to think that this does not concern him, this is a problem for him too, because one day such an unusual child will play in the courtyard of his house with his children, on the bus in the seat opposite there will be a man sitting, stereotypically waving his arms, but at the same time singing beautifully, an autistic child will study at the school where his children study.
Let's also talk about the myths circulating around autism, about what autism really is.
Myths: Almost every fourth child is now autistic; there is an epidemic of autism in the world.
Truth: there are more and more such children - this is a fact, but there are actually very few “pure” children with an officially confirmed diagnosis; those who are unofficially suspected of having it, many have speech delays, mental development, and not autism.
Myths: These kids are geniuses.
Truth: according to statistics, a maximum of 10% of gifted children among them, mostly autism is combined with moderate and severe mental retardation.
Myths: causes of autism in: 1) vaccinations, 2) burdened psychopathological heredity, 3) teratogens on early stages, 4) severe stress during pregnancy, 5) genetically modified products, ecology.
Is it true: There is not a single reliably known reason for the development of autism, there are only assumptions.
Myths: There are many autists among famous mathematicians, programmers, and geniuses.
Is it true: There were rumors that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were autistic, for example, specifically, Bill Gates has Asperger's syndrome. But these are just rumors, there is no evidence of this. This is just speculation. Yes, many of these individuals are, to put it mildly, eccentric, but they do not suffer from any officially confirmed mental disorder, or this information is not provided to the public. There is a special personality type, especially among mathematicians and physicists - schizoid, which implies isolation, isolation from the world, a penchant for scientific experiments, exact sciences.
Schizoid personality is one of the risk factors for the development of schizotypal disorder (which in some countries is classified as a type of autism) and schizophrenia. According to research from the Tomsk Institute of Psychiatry, the presence among relatives, especially in the male line, of such mental illness how schizotypal personality disorder and schizophrenia increased the risk of having a child with autism. However, scientists have long been saying that schizophrenia and autism are various diseases, completely different development mechanisms.
Briefly about autism from the website “Autism in Russia” (www.autisminrussia.ru):
“Autism is not a disease, it is a developmental disorder.
Autism cannot be cured. In other words, there are no pills for autism.
The only thing that can help a child with autism is early diagnosis and many years of qualified pedagogical support.
Autism is a severe disorder of mental development, in which, first of all, the ability to communicate and social interaction suffers. The behavior of children with autism is also characterized by strict stereotyping (from repeated repetition of elementary movements, such as shaking hands or jumping, to complex rituals) and often destructiveness (aggression, self-harm, screaming, negativism, etc.).
Level intellectual development with autism it can be very different: from severe mental retardation to giftedness in certain areas of knowledge and art; In some cases, children with autism have no speech, and there are deviations in the development of motor skills, attention, perception, emotional and other areas of the psyche. More than 80% of children with autism are disabled.
The exceptional diversity of the spectrum of disorders and their severity allows us to reasonably consider the education and upbringing of children with autism to be the most difficult section of correctional pedagogy.
childhood autism (F84.0) (autistic disorder, infantile autism, infantile psychosis, Kanner syndrome);
atypical autism (with onset after 3 years) (F84.1);
Rett syndrome (F84.2);
Asperger's syndrome - autistic psychopathy (F84.5);
more details on ICD-10
IN recent years, autistic disorders began to be united under the acronym ASD - autism spectrum disorder. Autistic disorders include strictly autism (Canner's, Asperger's, Rett, atypical) as well as autistic behavior. There is reason to believe that in ICD-11 Rett Syndrome will be classified as an independent disorder, and autistic behavior is not autism as such.”
You can imagine for a long time what autism and autistic people are, but you can never understand it from the outside - until you personally communicate with such people and children.
Autism cannot be cured with a pill, autism cannot be “cured” at all, you can only socialize the child as much as possible, as far as the initial level of his intelligence and safety allows mental functions. For some children, especially if there are outbursts of aggression, self-aggression, anger (more than half of autistic people exhibit this behavior to one degree or another) or running away from home or trying to jump from a height, taking antipsychotics is indicated.
Some people try to do without them until the last minute... But mostly, sooner or later parents resort to drug therapy antipsychotic drugs. Neuroleptics provide many side effects, such as weight gain, excessive appetite, significant regression in development, problems with the heart and other organs.
Autism occurs 4 times more often in boys than in girls.
“According to World Health Organization experts, up to 1% of the world’s population suffers from autism spectrum disorder, and the number of people with autism has been increasing in recent decades.”
“In recent years, the number of children with autism has begun to grow rapidly. There are 7-10% more such patients every year.”
This same 1% of 7 billion people is 70 million... 70 million people in the world suffer from autism and ASD (austic spectrum disorders). There is also unofficial information.
For example, in a Siberian town with a population of just over a million people, there are officially about 160 autistic children (officially diagnosed with autism, disability), unofficially, according to various organizations, about 5 thousand are children not with “pure” autism, and with speech and mental disorders, developmental delays - in fact, today “autism” has become a “dumping ground” where problems with speech and mental health are dumped. If the child does not speak, autism is already suspected... But it is autism in its pure form, manifested in mental disorders, without other severe neurological and somatic diseases- does not occur very often.
I want to say that there are quite a few officially diagnosed autism... This rare disease(developmental disorder). Besides, autism is different from autism. There are milder forms of autism: Asperger's syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder and PDD-NOS are officially combined into one disorder - autism spectrum disorder. Savant syndrome (more on this later) occurs in some forms of Asperger's syndrome.
A significant proportion of people with light forms autism successfully contacts the world, self-actualizes, and socializes.
Atypical autism, autism in combination with ADHD, mental retardation, as a rule, are severe forms of impairment, some cases are difficult to correct.
Among autists, of course, there are geniuses, but this percentage is very low: only 0.5% to 10% of people with autism spectrum disorders demonstrate unusual abilities and talents.
“Savant syndrome, sometimes abbreviated as savantism (from the French savant - “scientist”) is a rare condition in which individuals with developmental disabilities (including those of an autistic nature) have an “island of genius” - outstanding abilities in one or more areas of knowledge, contrasting with the general limitations of the individual.”
For example, there are cases when a person suffering from autism in combination with mental retardation has a phenomenal memory, stores libraries of books and information in his memory, and can write a chapter at a time. Some people draw beautifully and unusually. The same Anton (from Lyubov Arkus’s film “Anton Is Near Here” - about an autistic young man) wrote an essay that touched many people with its penetration, purity, accuracy, and subtlety. True, I want to say that not all autists are like Anton: Anton has mental retardation in addition to autism, there are children with mild form mental retardation. In general, you can’t equate everyone one by one, there are more complex cases, there are easier cases.
“A person with savant syndrome may be able to repeat several pages of text he has heard only once, accurately name the result of multiplication multi-digit numbers, as if he knew the result in advance, or to say what day of the week January 1, 3001 will fall on. There are savants who can sing all the arias they heard after leaving the opera, or draw a map of the London area after flying over the city, as 29-year-old savant Stephen Wiltshire did.”
It so happened that the opinion I expressed in the article is by no means detached: my son has autism, in its pure form, with a disability. Of course, every mother of a sick child paints pictures in her mind that everything is or will be much better than it really is. So for a long time I believed that he was just a genius, you just need to be patient and everything will manifest itself, the butterfly will recover from the cocoon... However, when you see such children from the outside, it is sobering and you understand that there is only a few percent of genius there - at best.
He is one of several thousand autistic people in Russia who has been officially diagnosed.
I don’t understand this general romantic flair over such children and people. Yes, this is one of the most mysterious diseases that cannot even be called a disease. Such children are often very beautiful in appearance, only with some kind of mental damage, either intrauterine or postpartum, and their features are not immediately visible; outwardly, especially if they are silent and behave quietly, they give the impression of being beautiful and smart. But this is a misleading impression. Such children need to be rehabilitated and fought for their decent lives. But to draw what doesn’t exist to make life easier is self-deception.
My son, at the age of 8, can read and write (but does not understand the meaning of what he reads, writes, writes and reads everything in a row, on different languages), knows the alphabets of ten languages... everything is written in Chinese characters and Hebrew. He sings songs that he has heard once, in a thin, beautiful voice, hitting the notes exactly. He draws beautifully.. He can draw a series of cartoons from memory in a few minutes. And he shows many other abilities and talents. However, this has nothing to do with real life does not have: the child may be completely inadequate in behavior, uncontrollable, does not understand the danger - tries to jump from a height, throw himself under a car, does not know how to eat normally, does not dress, does not talk, etc. That is, in essence, this is an eternal 9-month-old child, only five times larger, physically normal, running fast, hyperactive, sometimes dangerous to others and to himself. In fact, these are very difficult children...
Society, unfortunately, does not yet understand who these children are; they are often perceived simply as spoiled. in this regard, with physical disabilities (I mean not severe forms of illness) - it’s simpler: children, as a rule, have intact intelligence, outwardly it’s immediately clear what’s wrong... But in the case of autism, everyone needs to explain and prove that what’s wrong with the child or just listen a flurry of discontent.
And to me, as I think to many mothers of similar children, all that was offered by government agencies was to send my son to a boarding school...
When such children were hidden in boarding schools and at home, society had no complaints, but today mothers and their children (autists) go out into the world, “pump up” their licenses - at first it was extremely difficult, but today the ice has broken, it’s already easier.
My son, accompanied by me (a tutor is planned in the future), is studying in an inclusive format in a regular school, teachers and specialists work with him individually. We have only had this inclusive education for a year. We constantly talk with parents and children about what kind of child this is, why he needs to be accepted, so that his behavior does not shock anyone.
In our city, several resource classes have been opened (for the second year), where only autistic people study, according to the ABA therapy system, special conditions for children's adaptation. But all these schools are very far from us.
I personally favor full-time attendance at school, such a child needs society, discipline, normal children nearby. Otherwise, it is degradation and desocialization, retreat into stereotypy and primitive behavior.
What can medicine and the system as a whole offer to such children in other cities of our country? I communicate with several mothers of autistic children living in remote regions of the country, in a working-class village and in a small town where there is only one school for the entire area. And there are not even close to the conditions that we have. But our conditions, to put it mildly, are far from progressive.
In the outback where these mothers live, such children often become the object of ridicule... a paradox - not only from children, but also from adults. They do not provide any qualified help; only sometimes a teacher comes to the house. Children often do not know how to count at the age of 8-9, they do not go to the potty. And this is not a problem for the mother, but for a society that has essentially rotten the mother.
And at the level high topics in a direct line with the president or for the sake of a nice word in some interview, it is now fashionable to talk about autistic people, to feel sorry for them, to call them gifted, to offer to take up the flag of help - in reality, no one needs such children and mothers.
If in large cities there is still the opportunity to unite into groups of the same mothers, to create human rights organizations - what will a lonely, overwhelmed mother do in the outback, where she is alone with such a child against the crowd?
In Germany, for example, the most favorable conditions have been created for such children, they go to kindergartens where ordinary children are, they are accepted with understanding, the state greatly helps families raising such a child.
There is progress with AAA therapy in Israel... In America too.
Information on the website “Autism in Russia” says: for normal rehabilitation of autistic people, a minimum of 30-70 thousand rubles per month is required, while 80% of families have low income, there are many single mothers who are not able to support such children even at a weak level, and either They send them to boarding schools, or simply spend their lives within four walls; 80% of autistic people are disabled.
All that we can do so far is to “stick” schizophrenia on an autistic child after 8-10 years, so as not to provide any specific help and write everything off as an endogenous mental illness... Only when such children became many times more numerous did mothers begin to talk. Today, autism is even classified as a “behavioral disorder” in ICD-10, but the practice of “drawing” schizophrenia for such children is still very much alive. If an autistic person is still entitled to rehabilitation and sanatorium-resort treatment, then a schizophrenic child is simply isolated by any means necessary.
It has long been known that schizophrenia and autism are completely different diseases. Schizophrenia is based on an incorrect, distorted interpretation of signals coming from the outside world (for example, the suspicion that they are being watched); in autism, there is a complete or partial impossibility of interpreting signals (the child sometimes does not even understand where he is). This is a huge problem in modern Russian medicine and psychiatry that autistic children are diagnosed with schizophrenia, thus disowning them! It takes more than one revolutionary to break the system.
According to research, there are many reasons for the development of autism... Not a single competent doctor will be able to name the exact cause. There are Russian studies where it has been established that older fathers and parents (especially in the male line) who have cases of mental illness in their relatives are born with autism several times more often than in the opposite categories.
There are studies that food additives with the prefix E- contribute to the development and intensification of autism symptoms. There is evidence that mercury, lead, and heavy metal salts contained in vaccines cause the development of autism. The same applies to intrauterine infections, including influenza.
But I heard another interesting version from a psychologist: l People became different, life became different. People give birth on the go, without having time to understand why they need children, families, everything happens in a hurry, at a frantic pace, there is a lot of noise and useless movement around... A huge part of the world's population is on the Internet, the world has moved away from communicating with its own kind, everyone is “virtualizing” ", disunity in society. The growth of cities, high-rise buildings, suicides.
And in all this, new people are born who, while still in the womb, do not understand why they need all this (do you think that children in the womb are absolutely unconscious embryos? It has long been established that the condition of the mother during pregnancy and the atmosphere around him greatly affects the baby). They close themselves off from this world, even before they are born, withdraw into themselves from too much noise, bustle, fear, this is a kind of defensive reaction.
I once read in a book about emotional disorders of children about an experiment with birds: that in moments of stress overload - too strong a provoking factor acting on the psyche - birds (seagulls) - instead of running away, for example, a cannon shot many times, they began behave as if nothing was happening, walk back and forth pointlessly, as if stunned, they straightened their feathers, guarded the chicks.
At the same time, with a weaker provoking factor, their behavior was more adequate - they ran away from danger, screamed, and showed emotion. And when amplified, it’s as if the fuses have burst... The same thing happens to our children in the womb - the fuses are already blown by a world in which we are all on a noise conveyor belt.
What kind of disease is autism? This is the question every mother asks herself when she hears an unknown and frightening diagnosis from a pediatrician. The number of “self-aware” children in the world back in 2000 was 5-26 cases per 10 thousand, in 2010 there was already 1 autistic child per 150 people.
And this is the World Health Organization (WHO), the most official data possible. In Russia there are no official statistics at all, and not a single pediatric doctor undertakes to give even approximate figures. This means the scale of the problem may be even greater.
What is autism in simple words? It is easy to understand this by learning the meaning of the word: the name of the disease comes from the Latin autos - “himself.” This is a developmental disorder in which the baby is withdrawn, lives in his own world, does not want to come into contact with people (even loved ones), constantly repeats the same actions or strictly follows his own clear rules.
The term “autistic” was first proposed in 1938 by Hans Asperger (one of the forms of the disease would later be named after him); in 1942, Leo Kanner outlined the diagnosis itself and its features. In 1947, the Soviet scientist Samuil Mnukhin took up this issue.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the number of diagnosed autism spectrum disorders among preschool children increased sharply, and the WHO no longer just sounded the alarm, but beat all the drums. Since 2007, April 2 has been World Autism Awareness Day, but this information is still sorely lacking. Especially in our country.
There are various types autism, which are usually combined into a large group of autism spectrum disorders.
The causes of autistic disorders are still unknown: many scientists put forward many theories. Today, the main version of the birth of autistic children and the subsequent development of the disease is the complex influence of several factors at once.
The situation is especially difficult in families where there is a predisposition to the disease. When one of the parents or loved ones suffers from a mild form of pathology, the trigger can be anything: vaccination, flu, stress, etc.
It is quite easy to recognize chromosomal or physiological abnormalities in a kindergartener - for example, there are never any difficulties with... With autism, everything is much more complicated - this disorder manifests itself differently in every little person, although there are basic symptoms.
It is most difficult to recognize the signs in children under 1 year of age, but here you can also notice dangerous conditions. If the baby doesn’t smile, doesn’t try to focus his eyes on people, reaches for a toy but ignores his own mother, doesn’t respond to sounds, it’s time to start visiting the doctors.
Autistic children - how to recognize the disease and begin treatment? This problem is extremely acute in our country. If in the USA and European countries, at the slightest suspicion, they begin to look for signs of autism in children 2 years old and even younger, then in our country they are usually not ready to make such a diagnosis until they are 3 years old.
Often, a sentence is passed on absolutely healthy children who simply have difficulty hearing, or are confused with another anomaly (for example, they are sometimes mistaken for autism with impaired speech and movements).
IN modern world For diagnosis, two main methods are used - a special questionnaire and a rating scale. Also required full score baby’s health, family conditions, mental and communication skills, etc. The most important point – differential diagnosis. Various shapes schizophrenia, poor hearing, speech disorders, mental retardation - an incompetent doctor can easily call all these problems a mysterious word starting with the letter “a”.
Doctors are still researching the causes and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. It is important to understand that children are not treated with pills, this is not mental disorder. All antipsychotics can only aggravate the situation and lead to the fact that the child will never be able to integrate into society, get an education and start a family.
Medication may only be needed if the main symptoms are accompanied by inappropriate behavior or health problems. These include seizures, depression, outbursts of anger, attempts to bite loved ones.
The main methods for treating this problem in the West are aimed at developing children and creating the most comfortable conditions for them:
The so-called unusual techniques are also widespread: massage, hypnosis, music therapy, pet therapy (games with dolphins, dogs, horses).
In the West they fight for autistic children to the last. If you notice the signs in a child of 3 years old or a little earlier, it is quite possible to achieve remission, and by the first grade none of his peers will guess about it. terrible diagnosis. Yes, a person will forever have mild communication problems, shyness, a pathological love of order and special rituals, but he will be able to get an education, find a job, find a soul mate.
The numbers speak to this - in Israel, since 2007, such people can serve in the army and work as assistant teachers in kindergartens. In the United States, half of these children are able to go to college and find a job after school.
What does autistic mean? With full treatment, the attention of parents, the individual approach of doctors, this is no longer a person with incurable disease, but an almost full-fledged member of society, just with health conditions. Often a real genius. Just think of Woody Allen, Andy Warhol, Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci - all of these people had symptoms of autistic disorders.
In our country we are not yet ready to talk openly about autism, so hundreds (and maybe thousands) of children are deprived of the chance to find themselves in this world. And the only way out is to unite the efforts of the state, scientists, doctors and parents in the fight for the health and life of such unusual babies.
The article for the site was prepared by Nadezhda Zhukova.
