Talk about autism

As a parent, I needed to know about autism quickly. I found out that autism is a developmental disability that severely hinders the way information is gathered and processed by the brain, causing problems in communication, learning and social behavior. It typically appears during the child's first three years, in roughly 15 to 20 of every 10,000 births, and is four times more common in males than females.

One time I attended a family support session held by the Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP) and the parents there generally agreed that the problem with autism is that the affected children look normal, pretty much like every other kid you know. No doubt this one of the reasons why some parents remain in denial for quite some time, delaying much needed intervention.

For kids affected with autism, language develops slowly or not at all. They use words without attaching the usual meaning them and gestures to communicate to others. They also have short attention span. As to social interaction, they spend time alone rather than with others, show very little interest in making friends and are less responsive to social cues such as eye contact or smiles.

Kids affected with autism have unusual reactions to physical sensations such as being overly sensitive to touch or under-responsive to pain. Their sight, hearing, touch, pain, smell, taste may be affected to a lesser or greater degree. They also do not exhibit spontaneous or imaginative play, do not imitate other's actions and do not initiate pretend games.

As an aid in the diagnosis of autism, Prof. J. Rendle-Short of the University of Queensland Brisbane Children's Hospital, Australia, designed a checklist of 14 behavioral signs and symptoms. No single item is significant alone but if a child exhibits 7 or more of the traits, a diagnosis should be seriously considered. See the checklist here.

To know more about autism, visit the website of the Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP) and this website by a parent who is affected with autism. Illustration above was taken from the ASP website.