 |
Posted by Sylvia on Sunday, November 16, 2003 (13:27:10)
by Caroline Mackworth-Praed, mother
I have a son with Autism, and if you are reading this, then you probably know a child with this, too. In my area of Britain, one male child in 69 has Autism. Of course, girls can also have Asperger's Sydrome which is similar, although usually has little speech delay. This is what my daughter has. This article looks back on the challenges, difficulties and joys faced in bringing up my little family.
Discovering your child has autism
I run a telephone helpline, and I have spoken to hundreds of parents (and other family members) who wonder if - or have just been told that - their child has autism. I am myself married to a man with Aspergers Syndrome, and I have two children who are also on the autistic 'landscape'.
When my son was nine months old, he was just beginning to walk, he had several understandable words - Mummy, Daddy, his sister's name, and 'Lady', the name of the cat, as well as 'cat' and 'meow' (the three last were interchangeable!). As he passed his first birthday we began to become concerned that all was not well. Gradually he lost all the words he had, and became anxious, often tearful. We worried that he was losing his hearing, and that he was regressing to babyhood.
I took him to the eighteen month check-up to ask if he was deaf. He seemed not to hear his name - even when I shouted it in an endless game of 'catch me if you can'. And yet... he could hear a sweet being unwrapped at 50 paces, and was pitch- and speed-perfect in his favourite video theme tunes.
In this way autism differs from many other special needs. Typically, you think you have a 'normal' child, one who has passed all of the developmental milestones (though I do know families where the autism was apparent from the very earliest days). But by the time your child reaches the first, second, or third birthday, that child has been stolen away from you. It happens so gradually that at first you barely notice, until in his place you have a stranger.
I say 'his', because boys are perhaps three times more likely to be autistic than girls. Nobody is certain why that should be. In our area of the country, the paediatrician has counted the number of children severe enough to be brought to her attention. It is one male child in every 69. And one child in every 139 if you add in the girls. I suspect you would find yet others, undiagnosed.
Full Article
And yes, for unknown reasons, there are more and more children being diagnosed on the autistic 'landscape'. Possibly better diagnostic procedures add to these numbers, but they cannot account for all of the children.
And our paediatrician has used the same tests, in the same room, with the same staff, over many years - and yet has also seen a huge increase. This same increase in numbers has been seen world-wide.
Best guess seems to be that there is often a genetic predisposition, and then there are environmental factors that 'trigger' autism in those who are susceptible. We do not yet know what these are, though the blame has been placed with mercury, lead, vaccinations, pollution and various other substances.
Certain viral infections in pregnancy are also known to cause autism, and various birth difficulties have been blamed. Often, though they spend endless hours of guilt and worry, parents will be unable to establish any reason why their own child has autism.
Hearing tests
At his eighteen month check up, my son was given a standard 'hearing test' - the nurse standing behind him ringing bells and shaking a rattle to one side or the other - which he passed. He was my second child, almost exactly two years younger than his sister, and I was told that 'you cannot compare children' and that 'boys are often slower to talk than girls and even that 'Einstein didn't talk until he was four'. It may all have been true, but it was not any comfort.
Later we found that he did, in fact, have quite severe 'glue ear'. The fact that he'd turned round to see where the nurse was, at more or less the right time, had probably been co-incidental rather than because he heard her. He went on to pass another three hearing tests of various sorts before he finally allowed a specialist clinic to bounce sound waves off his ear drums and prove that he had virtually no hearing!
This complicated everything. The fact that he 'could hear' had allowed doctors to say that there was just a 'delay' in his speech and no reason to worry. The fact that he then 'could not hear' allowed them to say that this speech 'delay' had to be expected, and there was still no reason to worry.
Needless to say, we worried. Many children with autism do seem to have endless bouts of hearing infections/antibiotics. Nobody is quite sure if or how these two things are connected.
Behavioural problems
Over the months his behavioural problems increased. He was now biting me, his sister, and anyone who stood in his way, often drawing blood when he did so. He had also discovered that kicking my shins caused such awful pain that - if I tried to carry him off - a heavy kick would all but disable me. The only reason he was still able to attend a mother and toddler group was that I ran the group!
I know other children with autism who self-harm, most commonly by biting themselves.
In both cases the reason probably is that the child has no control over their environment. In one case, the child tries to exert control, in the other the self-harm seems to bring a relief similar to an opiate pain killer.
The only way to cope with either is constant monitoring, distraction if the child appears to become upset, and - ultimately - removal from the situation that is giving rise to the problem. And then try again another day.
Click here to read more
|
|
Latest: 
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 7452
Members: 0
Visitors: 10
Total: 10
1: