Aman, a 4 yr
old male child usually spins around himself and around the furniture. When on
bed he rocks himself to sleep. His interaction with his parents is less for his
age. He is unable to follow simple
commands at home and at play school. He
occasionally gets aggressive with peers and screams without any clear reason. To an outsider, Aman looks like a typical
overactive child full of energy.
Simran is 6
years old and is a very quiet child. Her mother says that she is a very shy
child and still hides behind her mother if an outsider comes to her house. At
school she follows instructions and is doing well. She does not participate in
group activity at school and has no friends. During her visit to the doctor she
had poor eye contact and demonstrated minimal interaction.
Raj is
extremely hyperactive and difficult to control. His mother is unable to cope up
with his motor-like activity and feels completely frustrated. He was put in a play group and after one month
the school politely refused to let him continue as he was disruptive for the
entire class.
Most of
these children have behaviour which is extreme and affects their learning and
play as well. These children belong to the autism spectrum disorder which is
not so uncommon anymore.
Autism is a
neurodevelopmental condition which mainly affects areas of social interaction
and communication. These children also
may have some motor movements like hand flapping, rocking which are repeated
over and over again. The manner in these children behave is quite different and
represent a spectrum of symptoms from mild ones which are considered as shy to
the real aggressive ones.
The younger
children with autism are referred to me with complains of speech delay or
hyperactivity while older children lag behind i
The parents
notice the soft subtle signs of autism like poor eye contact of the child while
talking, most of the children were late to start talking and have inadequate
speech. Usually stay in a world of their
own, these children are happy alone and find it difficult to play and interact
with other children. Inability to focus and hyperactivity with unpredictable
aggression also is noted in the children.
Doctors, school
teachers and parents have become increasing aware of this condition in the last
decade. The awareness has been greatly increased by media with main stream
movies like ‘My name is Khan ‘and ‘Barfi’ depicting main characters with autism
spectrum disorder. Many Hollywood movies
like Dear
John, Mercury Rising and Rain Man showed autistic characters and popular serials like the Big Bang theory have depicted the
main character as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.
The
statistics across the world are mind boggling with the latest reported
prevalence of autism being 1 in 50
school going children reported to have autism in United States recently.
It is
difficult to estimate the numbers in our country as there is no mandatory
reporting of Autism in India as for diseases like Malaria, Tuberculosis. However there is an alarming increase in the
number of cases of autism seen in past few years.
Children
with autism have difficulty at an early stage but come for treatment late. Most
of the mothers report noticing something wrong with the way child behaves much
before they come for help but find it difficult to point out.
It is
important for parents not to ignore atypical behaviour in the child. I feel
that early detection of this condition with proper treatment can go a long way
in normalizing the behaviour. Closing
your eyes is not going to take the problem away but you lose on the benefits of
early treatment.
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