AUTISM -COMMON DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER
Autism literally means introversion, symptoms begin before the age of 3, and is 4-5 times more common in boys. It is a developmental disorder characterized by impairment in social interaction, insufficiency in language development, and restricted and repetitive behaviors.
SYMPTOMS
A healthy developing 3-month-old baby has a human face and voice. shows interest. A 6-month-old baby can express his happiness or sadness with his face and body. 8-9. At months, he can clap his hands, make sounds by repeating syllables, start to shy away from strangers and start calling his mother. At the age of 1, he can say "mom and dad" and point to an object with his index finger. A 2-year-old baby can make simple sentences with 2 words and play imitation-based games. In autistic disorder, there is a disruption in these developmental stages.
The most common complaint in autism is a delay in the child's speech. Most of the time, the child makes certain sounds but they do not mean anything, or although he says words such as ba ba and de de, he says this in response to any situation, not to the father or grandfather. The child's self-expression is limited. While children with speech delay can express themselves with signs or different words, in autism, self-expression is very low. Instead of pointing with his finger, he usually chooses to explain what he wants by holding the mother's hand. Although it is more common after the age of 3, repeating the same sentence or word said by the other person can be seen. Sometimes it can be seen that they do not use pronouns (I, you, he, etc.) or they use them incorrectly and address their parents by their names.
Another important symptom that can be seen from the early periods is the limitation in eye contact. . Eye contact is one of the most important parts of communication for humans. In children with autism, eye contact with the person in front of them is around a few seconds. We can understand this symptom more easily when we sit directly in front of him and in a position suitable for his height. However, sometimes this eye contact may be a little longer when a song is sung or during short mutual games. This should not be misleading and eye contact should be evaluated in general.
Di� Another important finding is that he does not look when his name is called. Mothers usually describe this as "he looks at it when it suits him, for example, he runs around when his favorite commercial comes on." But the child is on his own and indifferent to the events happening around him. It's like he has a completely different world. Parents have to work hard to attract their attention, but even if they can, it is short-lived. Staying close to the mother, which is important around the age of 1-2, and sometimes not being able to leave, this may not be seen in our children and may not react to the mother's departure. In addition, they do not pay much attention to other children. When they go to the park or when a child they see frequently comes home, they may act as if the child does not exist. Their emotional reactions are difficult to understand. They do not like skin contact, hugging and kissing.
Don't worry about the environment in which we expect rapid development after the age of 1, this is limited in our children. They are curious about certain situations, such as rotating objects, toys, or constantly looking out the window. In some different types of autism, special interests may occur, especially after the age of 3. There may be excessive interest in numbers, brands and letters. It is seen that they learn how to read at an early age, perform difficult mathematical operations, have a very strong memory for certain situations, and pay attention to even the smallest details about the subjects they are curious about. For example, a 4-year-old child was able to draw in detail the airport he saw for the first time. Although there is no significant delay in speech in children with this type of autism, it is characterized by difficulty in maintaining communication with different interests and limitations in motor abilities.
Another symptom is repetitive hand, arm and head movements. Although he sometimes does it when he is happy, most of the time these movements do not have any meaning. In addition, spinning around oneself is a common symptom, especially after 1 year of age. Sometimes it is seen that he makes meaningless sounds over and over again. Tip-toe walking may be observed in some children with autism.
EVALUATION
Symptoms should be evaluated according to the developmental period they are in. Having just one of these symptoms will not lead to a diagnosis of autism, and it is not necessary to have all of them. It is important to know that some of these symptoms It is also seen in children with normal development. In cases of suspicion, it is necessary to seek help from a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. In addition, similar findings may be seen in hearing problems and some neurological disorders. However, it can often be confused with psychosocial deprivation. In psychosocial deprivation, there is no effective communication between the child and the mother. They spend a lot of time with electronic devices such as TV, computer, tablet phone and there are not many peers around them. In this case, the parents also need to be psychologically evaluated.
WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?
Although the exact cause of autism is unknown, it is assumed that birth and prenatal problems and genetic predisposition are more important. However, many studies continue in many different fields regarding both its cause and treatment. However, unfortunately, many methods, the effectiveness of which has not yet been proven, are applied by families at high costs as a ray of hope for children with autism, but their benefits are not seen much.
TREATMENT - RECOMMENDATIONS
Nowadays The most effective treatment for autism is special education. The aim of this method is to develop appropriate behaviors and increase the possibility of living independently. It is seen that well-organized programs given by special education experts lead to many improvements in symptoms. The most important factor affecting the success of treatment is early diagnosis. It is especially important that treatment begins before the age of 3. But sometimes the parents may not accept this situation. Sometimes comments made by relatives, such as that the mother exaggerates the situation regarding the child, or that the father or any of his relatives was like this when he was little, and then got better, may delay consulting a doctor and starting treatment. Speech therapy may be added to the treatment over time. In addition, sensory integration methods, occutipinal therapy and social skills training can be applied with the guidance of experts. Drug treatment can be applied in cases of accompanying behavioral disorders, attention deficit, repetitive movements and hyperactivity etc. But these methods are only part of the treatment. The most important part is that parents behave appropriately at home. One of the most important functions to do at home is to talk to your parents. s efforts to increase eye contact. It is important not to leave him alone for a long time, to try to make eye contact and skin contact while talking, and to verbalize what he does rather than making him talk. In addition, it is very important to reduce the child's time as much as possible with electronic devices such as television, computer, tablet, etc., which increase the symptoms of autism the most. Because these devices cause the child to reduce eye contact and spend more time alone. In addition, many negative effects on brain development have been shown in research. It is important that these activities should not exceed 1 hour, especially under the age of 5.
Autism disorder (pervasive developmental disorders)is a wide window. There are very mild forms of this disorder, as well as severe ones. Therefore, the course of treatment varies from child to child. In this process, the biggest medicine for parents is patience. Although sometimes the treatment progresses slowly, the important thing to know is that it will never get worse. Especially in this process, the mother gets very tired and, unfortunately, sometimes she is criticized even by her closest relatives, and this unfairly increases the mother's feelings of guilt. The father's support to the mother and sharing of child-related tasks relieves the mother both emotionally and physically. In other words, autism is a condition that requires the active participation of the whole family.
Although it is an intense and very demanding job, the developments seen in children make the parents happy, first of all. For this reason, early diagnosis, effective special (individual) education and parental attitudes will be the best gift of life for these children.
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