Autism in children

Children's autism is a painful and sad phenomenon. First of all, you can pity the very child living in constant fear and loneliness, who can not express his feelings. It's hard for his parents, who often, with all their will to help, do not know how to do it. Finally, the treatment of such a disease as autism in children is not very well developed these days and is quite severe, since it is necessary to start treatment as early as possible.

What is autism

Autism( autistic disorder, childhood autism, infantile autism) is a pathology that involves more than one dysfunction. It is a complex violation, to some extent even more than mental retardation, or epilepsy. This disease specialists consider one of the symptoms of brain dysfunction, which can occur for many reasons. The earlier the child's early autism is diagnosed and the treatment begins, the better it will be for the child.

Causes of child autism

For a long time, there was an opinion that the symptoms of autism in children can be caused only by a common cause for all, which can affect the genetic, cognitive and neuronal levels. But researchers recently began to pay more attention to the assumption that children's autism is a disorder of the most complex kind that occurs for various reasons. These reasons can often interact with each other at the same time.

Genetic predisposition

The most common cause of childhood autism is considered to be genetic predisposition. At the University of Rochester, a survey of 60 people with autism was conducted. In 50% of cases, a mutation of a specific gene was found, which plays a big role in the formation of the brain in the embryo at an early stage of development. It should be noted that for the occurrence of this disease it is sufficient to inherit a defective gene from one of the parents. It should also be noted that parents of children with autism are normal themselves. They may have only weak symptoms of autism.

Male hormone testosterone

Another reason for the development of child autism may be the hormone testosterone. Specialists conducted a survey of a group of children with autism. The children were tested for hormones, starting even from the intrauterine stage of development. It turned out that the concentration of the male hormone testosterone was significantly exceeded. In addition, when children reached the age of four, parents were presented to these children with tests to create a picture of the development of the disease. According to the test results it can be concluded that babies with high content of this hormone can hardly be adopted in a social environment and they are not very curious.

Many scientists believe that there is a direct link between the hormonal background and the autistic features. Neuroscientists believe that one of the reasons for the development of autism is the compensatory behavior of the cerebral hemispheres. With an overabundance of the testosterone hormone, the left half of the brain can not fully develop. If the left hemisphere of the brain is not developed, then the right half of the brain compensates this deficiency.

gene conflict The cause of childhood autism, as well as other mental illnesses, can be a conflict between the genes that the kid inherited from his father and mother. Many factors indicate that the occurrence of autism can lead to a shift in the activity of genes in the direction of "paternal", and the shift to the "mother" side - to psychosis, depression, paranoia.

Organic brain damage

Many cases of childhood autism are combined with brain lesions( organic) that develop in the infant during intrauterine development. Such violations are possible after infectious diseases suffered by the mother during pregnancy, occupational hazards( poisoning, radiation), trauma, mental stress. Also, the causes of brain disorders can be and birth trauma, premature birth. Usually, nature itself tries to get rid of embryos with organic and genetic disorders. Therefore, if during pregnancy there were threats of miscarriages, then there is also the likelihood of the birth of a baby with autism.

Immune disorders

Many researchers also believe that one of the causes of childhood autism are immune disorders. They believe that the brain is affected by dairy and flour products that contain casein and gluten.

Supporters of this theory believe that excessive protein intake contributes to the disruption of the child's nervous system, and this leads to the appearance of symptoms of early autism.

Some parents note that a favorite child has changed after a disease that was accompanied by fever, or after vaccination. But there is in this case no evidence that this was the cause of childhood autism. Most likely, an inoculation or a disease was simply the cause that triggered the mechanism of already existing unidentified disorders.

Symptoms of child autism

Autism is a pathology of the brain, in which there are certain difficulties in communication. With this disease, certain parts of the brain do not work in concert, as they should. In most cases, symptoms can be seen before the age of three. Even if the disease is caused by hereditary causes, this does not mean that the baby will behave in the same way as the sick relative. The symptoms of childhood autism are many-sided. Most researchers of this disease divide all children into four groups. In each group, the symptomatology of the disease is described by how hard autism is manifested.

The first group of

The first group includes children suffering from the deepest degree of disease. Usually it is not possible for such children to even get into eye contact - they never look purposefully, do not turn to other people even with gestures and do not react when they are treated.

In most cases, the children of the first group do not use speech. Only in exceptional cases can a child pronounce a phrase or word that was used by a person known to him in such a situation. Children of this group can look through the window for hours, absolutely not moving or slightly swaying. However, although the child seems indifferent to the world around, they can still get out of balance, especially if something has changed in the environment( for example, the favorite advertising signboard on the street was removed).In this case, the child can express discomfort by crying, screaming, or attacks of self-aggression.

Second group

In the second group, the symptoms of the disease are expressed to a lesser extent. Children of this group can already behave quite adequately in their usual environment, that is, if the daily routine they are following is observed. However, getting beyond this situation, the child feels fear and self-aggression. As a rule, children's autism in general almost always causes the appearance of fears, which are not typical for a child of this age.

For example, a child may not be afraid of unfamiliar dogs or darkness, but be scared if necessary to get his hands dirty or go to the toilet. Self-aggression in children suffering from autism, in situations that are critical for the child, are almost always observed. Its manifestations can be both extremely dangerous for the children themselves, and can be expressed, for example, by tearing the hangnails to the blood. The speech of a child of this group is developed to a degree far from normal, but he can, if necessary, express his needs and speak. Talking with such a child resembles a conversation with a foreigner who only recently learned the language - the child speaks of himself in the third person, confuses the pronouns, uses only fixed phrases that were heard in a similar situation or read from books.

The third group of

Children in the third group, at first glance, do not look detached or withdrawn. They often talk a lot and in most cases have a lot of vocabulary, but their speech is not addressed to the interlocutor. At any attempt of communication the child as though tries to splash out an object of the interests. At the first conversation this can often not even be noticed, however, when you observe the conversations of the child with other people, you can see that with all he talks only about it. In the field of interests can include a variety of topics - road signs, the history of the native land, cars, knights, etc. The sphere of interests is studied by him in the smallest detail. As a rule, children with autism have almost absolute mechanical memory, which allows the child to read or read almost by heart, while constantly increasing the pace of conversation and choking in words. For all its apparent overdevelopment, the child entering this group is very trusting, vulnerable, suffers from many fears and does not understand humor.

Fourth group

Fourth group of autistic children are characterized only by mild symptoms.

A child of this group can communicate with other people, but is completely lost with any resistance from these people. Like representatives of other groups, he is slow and awkward in movements, has few gestures and facial expressions.

Diagnosis of Autism in Children

Any specialist who is obliged to monitor children should carefully monitor any signs of mental retardation and physical development. If the doctor observes at least one of those signs of developmental lag, listed below, the child should be immediately examined for autism.

• At the age of the year the child does not show on subjects, does not try to talk, there is practically no gesture;
• By a year and a half the child can not utter a single word;
• By two years the child is not able to pronounce a sentence of two words, except for the repetition of what has been heard;
• At any age - the loss of communication skills.

If after the screening procedure there were no signs of developmental lag, in most cases the child does not need any additional examination until the next planned medical examination.

At any age, if there are any problems with learning, communication or behavior, you should immediately consult your doctor.

Autism Diagnostic Questionnaires To determine the behavior that is common for children with autism, and to determine how difficult the treatment will be for the disease, special question sets are used. Depending on what the symptoms are, different sets of questions can be used. Most of them include such questions as:

• Screening of general pathology of mental development. This set of questions is asked of parents, it is necessary to identify early stages of autism;
• List of models of behavior inherent in autism. It is filled by the teacher of the child;
• Interview. This interview, which is structured in a special way, helps to get a lot of information from the child's parents about the presence and complexity of the disease;
• Corrected list for revealing pathologies in the development of children who started walking. As a rule, this list is used when examining children older than two years. At the moment, we are working on an improved version of the list, which can help in identifying autism in the middle stage of development;
• Screening for Autism. Applicable only if the child is older than 3 years;
• Special scale for assessing the level of existing autism. This type of test shows the extent to which the child's behavior differs from the behavior of the average child of the same age group;
• Surveillance for the diagnosis of autism. In this case, the specialist looks at how successful the child is in social interaction.

Physical Examination for Early Autism Identification

As the physical examination is carried out, a specialist checks whether there are some symptoms that are characteristic of autism. If the child is tested for autism, the following tests can be performed:

• Measurement of head coverage - to make sure that the head size is normal. In autistic patients, the head is often less or more than normal;
• Standard tests that are designed to verify whether a disorder in the development of hearing loss or vision is caused;
• Checking reflexes, as many children with autism have inhibited reflexes;
• The child is weighed and his height is measured to make sure that the child is growing normally;
• Visually examined legs, head, hands - in order to make sure of the absence of congenital diseases;
• Evaluation of those injuries that are inflicted on themselves by the child. In some cases, the causes of inflicting harm on oneself to the child may be an infection or some kind of wound;
• Exercises to determine the dominant hand.

If a child suffers from autism, then this test may be delayed, because autism is slow.

Treatment of autism in children

Nowadays there are quite a few methods of treating autism, we will consider some of them.

Medical products

Autism is treated with medications. Most often, drugs are used to eliminate certain types of behavior( fear, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hyperactivity), to treat related problems.

Special therapy for

Another treatment for autism is specialized therapy. They take here occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy. Such species are important components in the treatment of autism, they are included in general therapy in the treatment of this disease. With the help of speech therapy the patient is able to develop communication skills. With the help of occupational therapy, they are taught to process information that the patient receives from the senses. These are sounds, sight, touch, hearing, smells.

Parental support and training

Parental support, training is another method used to treat children with autism. For this, parents need to consult a specialist, contact a support group. This is necessary for training and assistance.

Chelation

For treatment of autism, a method of treatment is used - chelation. This method presupposes the removal of heavy metals from the body, mainly mercury. This is because the symptoms of poisoning with such metals are similar to those of autism. This is a difficulty for the patient to recognize familiar faces, to recognize emotions. The patient has an increased sensitivity to sharp sounds and bright light. Experts suggest that after vaccinations in the child's body appears mercury, because of the fact that it is mercury used for the preservation of vaccines and drugs from it. In this case, the treatment of autism is precisely the excretion of mercury from the body.

Homeopathy

Some specialists combine traditional treatment with homeopathy. This treatment has several directions. One of them - a homeopath on the basis of vaccines makes their preparations. Those who use this method are sure that autism is caused precisely by vaccinations and it is also necessary to treat it with medicines from the same drugs. The main rule is that the treatment of the disease by homeopathy must be combined with cranial therapy. This treatment is performed by an osteopathic physician.

Biocorrection

Biocorrection of autism is used in most methods - a set of methods used to treat autism. Official medicine many of these methods have not yet been approved. But, a lot of medical research shows that children with autism have a number of disorders that can be corrected by biological methods of treatment. These are violations such as: immunity disorders, metabolic disorders, malabsorption. These are conditions in which nutrients are not absorbed, as it is necessary, which is the cause of the deficiency in the body of nutrients.

Behavioral Therapy

Widely used to treat autism are behavioral therapy. This is an intensive home behavioral program, applied behavior analysis, intensive school behavioral therapy, a natural learning paradigm. Also teaching basic reactions, learning fluency reactions, learning verbal behavior, positive behavior support.

It should be noted that the varieties of behavioral therapy are different methods of teaching and are applied depending on the skills that are necessary for the patient.

Other treatments for

The following therapies are also used for the treatment of autism:

• Auditor integration
• Animal therapy
• Dolphin therapy
• Cranio-sacral therapy
• Holding therapy
• Sensory integration
• Visual therapy
• Therapy with the help of art
• Music therapy, etc.

Treatment of autism -This is a set of different techniques, namely homeopathic, medicamental and non-traditional treatment.

Summing up I want to add. ..

The first thing you should know for the parents of a child with autism: remember, the diagnosis of "autism" is not a sentence. Of course, the child will always differ from his peers. However, this does not mean that it will be different for him to differ - in your power to make his life better and help in adapting to society, especially if you can honestly look at the problem in person and start taking action to combat it.

The process of treating childhood autism is long, long-term, painstaking. But it always bears fruit. In most cases, this is a large complex of activities, which includes psychotherapy, physiotherapy, speech therapist, in some cases, prescribed medication.

As for the aforementioned drug treatment, as a rule, specialists do not recommend the child to take medicines( in particular stimulants and antipsychotics).The fact is that they practically do not help in the treatment of autism, but only for a time remove its symptoms, as if making the child "convenient" for other people. It is clear that the side effects of such treatment will be incommensurably more harmful than the result obtained from it. That is why such treatment is prescribed by doctors in extreme cases after careful consideration and weighing of all the pros and cons. Most doctors are sure that the drug treatment of autism is ineffective. A little better result obtained with homeopathy, however, and it should be no more than an auxiliary tool, and not the main one.

The main method of treatment is psychotherapy. Specialists should deal with the child at least 4-5 times a week for at least several years. A lot of positive feedback has this method of treatment as an animal therapy - the treatment of autism with the help of animals. One of the most effective varieties of this technique is called dolphin therapy - with it a child learns to communicate with other beings, expand his comfort zone, express feelings and emotions, empathize, develop speech and communication skills. And the lessons themselves in the water environment contribute to the physical development of the baby. And the main impact lies in high-frequency sounds produced by dolphins - the scientists found out that they contribute to the production of endorphins( happiness hormones), which are very important for an autistic person, they help strengthen its immunity and stimulate brain activity.

If the child has problems with speech, then you will have to deal with a speech therapist. Also good work can be done with a physiotherapist and an audiologist. It is recommended during this period to use a special diet - to remove from the diet all foods that can contain casein and gluten, that is, all flour and dairy products. With the help of scientific research it has been proved that these products in autistic people are addictive akin to the narcotic, which leads to the fact that the child constantly requires a treat for feeling euphoric and calming.

In fact, any of the above-described activities can be appointed as a specialist, and not appointed, because for each child a set of treatment procedures is selected individually - a universal recipe that is suitable for everyone, without exception, does not exist. Therefore, if you want to help your child suffering from autism, you need to see a doctor and tune in to a long wait, which, however, is always rewarded.

And finally I would like to turn to the mothers of autistics - remember that caress and love your children need much more than others. They much more want attention and praise, are afraid and worry. Try to support them and in any case, do not criticize!