So many years after autism has been classified as a disorder, we still rely on diagnosing the condition by observing a child and how he or she interacts with others. Considering that it might take two years or more to diagnose the problem, there’s a lot of time that is wasted between the disorder manifesting itself and the treatment.
What exactly is autism is a question that first needs to be answered. It is basically a disorder of the brain – the nerves, to be precise and it affects the child’s communication processes as well as its movements. So what are natural physical milestones in a regular child’s life will be different in an autistic child’s. The child might seem to be unsteady, the development might not follow the usual progression and they tend to be loners. These children find it hard to communicate the way others do and they express themselves differently. In fact, their whole perception of the world is very different. The sad fact is that up to 2 in 1000 people are autistic and it affects males much more than females.
There is no clear idea exactly what happens in the brain or even who is more prone to suffering from this disorder. While genetics could play a large part, external causes could also be responsible for this disorder. The point is, can autism be defined as abnormal or is it just something that makes a person different from the regular norm? An autistic child could have a lot of trouble trying to connect a word with its meaning but could be a wizard at numbers. Remember the movie Rain Man and the character played by Dustin Hoffman? An autistic child who does not laugh might be like that because he has not yet associated laughter with something being funny. Maybe he hasn’t understood what ‘funny’ means either and what we take for granted is very difficult to explain to an autistic child.
Very often, they get angry because of not being understood and they can be repetitive in their words and actions. This makes it tough for them to go to regular school or to play with other children because they just cannot comprehend the need for quick thinking or action or in other cases, for reactions to certain stimuli.
There are different degrees of autism and while some are affected only slightly, there are others who are very badly affected and they need special care – right from the home to school to play and later on when they grow up. Not just the children, the families need to learn how to cope as well and to try and see what ways are best to help these children integrate into life as we know it and to try and feel comfortable in this world which seems so strange to them. With a lot of love and care, autism can be handled but what is needed is a lot of research to try and pinpoint why it happens and how to treat it so there’s a cure.