Autism
Autism
Autism is a pervasive development disorder which affects the person’s ability to communicate well with people or to make sense of the world. The condition has probably existed for centuries, but has only been labelled since 1943 by Kanner in the United States and by Asperger in Austria. It is fairly usual to speak now of Autism spectrum disorder when referring to the condition because there is a wide range of levels and ability, and Asperger’s name has been used to identify the high functioning end of the spectrum. People diagnosed as being Aspergers are autistic.
For a long time we spoke of an incidence rate of between 1 and 17 per 10,000 births, but these figures are probably out of date and figures of different rates are given in many different countries, so a rate as high as 50 per 10,000 may be closer to the truth. Of course better diagnosing and higher awareness may account for some of the increase, but the increase has also been seen in countries like the U.S and Sweden where there was always a high awareness. There is a universally agreed rate of incidence of 4 boys to every girl.
Nowadays a diagnosis is often made when a child is between 18 months and two and a half years, but this is very variable and many children are older than this when they are diagnosed. You will have children in crèches and pre-schools who have not been diagnosed. The age of diagnosis is often related to the age of speech development or its absence. The first point of alarm for parents is often the delay in speech development and the early stages of the diagnostic process often involves an investigation of deafness.
A very large number of the profound Kanner type autistics don’t speak, or lose whatever little speech they may have had. Others develop repetitive /echolalic speech, however this type of speech isn’t very good and the point is that autism is a communication disorder.
In the early stages other pointers are;
- Does the child have good eye contact.
- Does he have feeding problems.
- Is he apathetic and unresponsive - rejecting contact or a cuddle.
- Does he have repetitive movements - hand flicking, prolonged rocking, spinning or head banging.
- Obsessive interest in certain toys or inappropriate play with toys.
- Insistence on being left alone.
- Sleep problems.
- Resistance to environment or routine change.
Many of the ordinary little games we play with infants are also important pointers: playing peep and asking the child to point to people in the room or objects we see when out walking are good examples.
The higher functioning ones and the Aspergers will show a much higher range of abilities, and many of them will do well in mainstream school if they have good support systems and appropriate programmes.The supports will be necessary because many Aspergers don’t have good social skills and can be very rigid in behaviour, leaving them open to loneliness and indeed bullying.
There are excellent doctors in all the children’s hospitals who are very capable of giving a diagnosis. It used to be perceived that it was hard to get a diagnosis in Ireland, but that isn’t so now, though the process is often long, because the position isn’t very clear when children are young and doctors are therefore naturally reluctant to be hasty in giving a label.
At the moment there is no known cause and no known cure, though a wide range of research is going on on all fronts. Recently there are indications that there may be a biological/chemical cause and some researchers are looking seriously at our modern foods with all the chemicals that are involved in agriculture and food production.
Down the years there have been a succession of alleged cures but none of these have worked, and parents need to be on their guard against people who come offering quick fixes - parents are desperate for a cure and are vulnerable to these charlatans.There is no silver bullet. There is a small percentage of children who come out of the condition any way and there can be tremendous improvements made in the child’s development and quality of life with good educational programmes.
There are a number of good educational methods available now and the situation is improving by degrees.Among the education methodologies are TEACCH, ABA and PECS( picture exchange communication system) and many more. Each of these methods are good and some work better with some children than with others.
The Beechpark project was the first breakthrough in autism specific education provision and a wide outreach service operates from there.The Education Act will bring an improvement in services and The National Council for Special Education is now functioning as a result, and the council has Special Education Needs Organisers already out coordinating the placement of children with special needs in appropriate services.
Some people favour integrated education and this works well for some, though there may be a group of profoundly affected children who require autism specific services. In the very early stage of a child’s development many do well in ordinary preschools, but as time goes on the autistic child has to run faster to stand still—time shows the difference.
There are not enough places out there in spite of the improvements, and we must continue to agitate for more.
In the meantime there is a system of home tuition available on application to the Special Education section of the Department of Education and Science, Cornamaddy in Athlone. There are up to 20 hours of tuition available for children with the appropriate diagnosis. A child in a mainstream school can also be provided with a class room assistant. (This scheme is effected by the SENOs mentioned above).
The two Departments of Education-North and South together with the Irish Society for Autism in Dublin and PAPA in the North have produced a video which provides an introduction to Autism for parents with a concern or a recent diagnosis, and a CD- rom for teachers in all levels of ordinary schools who may have an autistic child in their class.
The Video and any other advice can be obtained from :
The Irish Society for Autism
Unity Buildings
16/17 Lower O Connell Street
Dublin 1
Phone 01 8744684.
The CD-rom may also be obtained from
The Laois Education Centre
Block Road
Portlaois
Co Laois
Phone; 050 272400.
Both of these are free of charge though there may be a small cost for post and packing.
Denis Sexton, parent of John, a young man of 20 who has autism,
is a retired secondary deputy principal teacher and a member of the Education Committee of the Irish Society for Autism.
Written by
Ireland's leading Early Years education Magazine
