An unusual and strange, gifted child or adult. Among boys, autism is several times more common than among girls. There are many reasons for the onset of the disease, but all of them are not fully revealed. The features of the deviation in development can be seen in the first 1-3 years of life of children.
Who is an autistic?
They immediately attract attention, whether adults or children. What is an autistic is a biologically determined disease that relates to general violations of human development, characterized by a state of "immersion in yourself" and avoiding contact with reality, people. L. Kanner, a child psychiatrist, became interested in such unusual children. Having determined for himself a group of 9 children, the doctor observed them for five years and in 1943 introduced the concept of RDA (early childhood autism).
Autists how to recognize?
Each person is unique in nature, but there are similar traits of character, behavior, addictions and common people and those with autism. There are a number of common features that you should pay attention to. Autistic signs (these disorders are typical for both children and adults):
- inability to communicate;
- violation of social interaction;
- deviant, stereotyped behavior and lack of imagination.
Autistic child characteristics
The first manifestations of the unusualness of the baby, attentive parents notice very early, according to some sources, up to 1 year. Who is an autistic child and what are the characteristics of development and behavior that should alert an adult in order to seek medical and psychological help in time? According to statistics, only 20% of children have an easy form of autism, the remaining 80% are severe deviations with concomitant diseases (epilepsy, mental retardation). Beginning with younger age, the following characteristics are characteristic:
- there is no revitalization complex;
- Avoid eye contact with others, do not follow the eyes of the toy;
- poverty of facial expressions and facial expressions;
- delay or complete absence of speech;
- a lack of emotion;
- echolalia (automatic repetition of phrases);
- fear of noisy and moving objects;
- lack of desire to share their joy, a new achievement, a toy;
- absence of games where spontaneity and imagination are required;
- concentration on one kind of activity, toy;
- Obsessive movements: clapping, clicking with fingers, swinging with the trunk, etc .;
- avoid touching;
- rituality.
Adult autistics - what are they?
With age, the manifestations of the disease can be worsened or smoothed, it depends on a number of reasons: the severity of the disease, timely drug therapy, social skills training and capacity development. Who is an adult autistic - it can be recognized already at the first interaction. Autistic - symptoms in an adult:
- experiencing serious difficulties in communication, it is difficult to start and maintain a conversation;
- absence of empathy (empathy), and understanding of the states of other people;
- sensory sensitivity: the usual handshake or touch of a stranger can cause a panic in an autist;
- disturbance of the emotional sphere;
- stereotyped, ritual behavior that persists until the end of life.
Why autistics are born?
In recent decades there has been a spike in the birth rate of children with autism, and if 20 years ago it was one child out of 1000, now 1 in 150. The figures are disappointing. The disease occurs in families with a different social structure, prosperity. Why are born autistic children, the causes of the scientists until the end has not been clarified. Doctors call about 400 factors affecting the occurrence of autistic disorder in a child. The most likely:
- genetic hereditary anomalies and mutations;
- the various diseases transferred by a woman during pregnancy (rubella, herpetic infection, diabetes, viral infections );
- mother's age after 35 years;
- a violation of the balance of hormones (the fetus increases the production of testosterone);
- poor ecology, mother's contact during pregnancy with pesticides and heavy metals;
- vaccination of the child with vaccinations: the hypothesis is not supported by scientific evidence.
Rituals and obsessions of an autistic child
In families where such unusual children appear, parents have many questions to which they need answers, in order to understand their child and help develop their potential. Why do autistics not look in the face or behave inadequately emotionally, produce strange, ritual-like movements? Adults think that the child ignores, avoids contact, when he does not look into the eyes when communicating. The reasons lie in a special perception: scientists conducted a study, which revealed that autistics have better developed peripheral vision and there is a difficulty in controlling eye movements.
Ritual behavior helps the child reduce anxiety. The world with all its changing variety is incomprehensible to autists, and rituals give it stability. If an adult intervenes and breaks a child's ritual, panic attack syndrome , aggressive behavior, self-aggression may occur. Providing himself in an unusual environment, the autist tries to perform the usual stereotypical actions for him, in order to calm down. The rituals and obsessions themselves are diverse, for each child their own unique, but there are also similar ones:
- twist ropes, objects;
- put in one row toys;
- go the same route;
- watch the same movie many times;
- they click their fingers, shake their heads, walk on tiptoe;
- wear only their usual clothes
- eat a certain type of food (lean diet);
- sniffs objects and people.
How to live with an autistic?
Parents find it hard to accept that their child is not like everyone else. Knowing who an autistic person is, it can be assumed that it is difficult for all family members. In order not to feel lonely in their troubles, mothers unite in various forums, create alliances and share their small achievements. Disease is not a sentence, you can do a lot to uncover the potential, and sufficient socialization of the child, if he is a shallow autistic. How to communicate with autistics - first to understand and accept that they have a different picture of the world:
- understand the words literally. Any jokes, sarcasm are inappropriate;
- are prone to frankness, honesty. It can be annoying;
- do not like touching. It is important to respect the child's boundaries;
- Do not endure loud sounds and screams; calm communication;
- difficult to understand spoken language, you can communicate through writing, sometimes children begin to write poems, where their inner world is visible;
- there is a limited range of interests where the child is strong, it is important to see and develop it;
- figurative thinking of the child: instructions, pictures, diagrams of the sequence of actions - all this helps the learning.
How do autistics see the world?
They not only do not look in the eye, but they also see things really differently. Children's autism is later transformed into an adult diagnosis and it depends on the parents how much their child can adapt to society, and even become successful. Children autistic hear differently: the human voice can not be distinguished from other sounds. They do not look at the picture or the whole photo, but they choose a tiny fragment and focus on it all their attention: a leaf on a tree, a lace on a shoe, etc.
Self-Aggression in Autistic
The behavior of an autist often does not fit into the usual norms, has a number of characteristics and deviations. Self-aggression manifests itself in response to resistance to new demands: it starts beating its head, screaming, tearing its hair, runs out onto the roadway. The autistic child does not have a "sense of edge", the traumatic experience is badly fixed. Elimination of the factor, due to which self-aggression arose, return to the usual situation, pronouncing the situation - allows the child to calm down.
Professions for autistics
The autism has a narrow range of interests. Attentive parents can notice the child's interest in a certain area and develop it, which in the future can make him a successful person. Who can work autists - given their low social skills - this is a profession that does not involve prolonged contact with other people:
- Drawing business;
- programming;
- repair of computers, household appliances;
- veterinary technician if he likes animals;
- various crafts;
- Web design;
- work in the laboratory;
- Accounting;
- work with archives.
How many autistics live?
The life expectancy of autistic people depends on the favorable conditions created in the family in which the child lives, then the adult. The degree of disorders and concomitant diseases, such as: epilepsy, deep mental retardation. Causes of a shorter life expectancy may be accidents, suicides. European countries have investigated this issue. People with autistic spectrum disorders live on average 18 years less.
Famous Autistic Personality
Among these mysterious people there are super-gifted or they are also called savants. World lists are constantly updated with new names. A special vision of objects, things and phenomena allows creating autistic masterpieces of art, developing new devices, medicines. Autists are increasingly attracting public attention. Famous autistics of the world:
- Barron Trump is an autistic . The assumption that Donald Trump's son autistic was voiced by the blogger, James Hunter, after the publication of the video, where Barron sees strangeness in behavior.
- Lewis Carroll is an autistic . The famous author of "Alice in Wonderland" showed extraordinary abilities in mathematics, differed in strangeness in behavior, stuttered. I preferred to adults - communication with children.
- Bill Gates is an autistic . Public figure, one of the founders of the company "Microsoft".
- Albert Einstein is an autistic . Many of the scientist's habits seemed odd to others. According to rumors, in his dressing room hung 7 identical suits for each day of the week, which may indicate a stereotype in behavior.