A Paper Presented By Pharm. Chisom Julia Okafor At Opinions From Africa Research Department (#ResearchwithPet)- During An Online Conference On Learning Disabilities Encountered By Children.
Host – Jidechukwu Angela Nwabueze
We will be handling this topic with this outline below:
- Highlight of topic
- Symptoms
- Diagnosis
- Strengths and Challenges
- Treatment Options
- From an autism point of view
Highlights
The truth is in the society today especially in Nigeria, there is a silent or full blown stigma associated with being mentally challenged or having a mentally challenged child.
This translates to a kind of negligence towards a mentally challenged child/person by the parents or those around (what I’m trying to say here is that the person who is mentally challenged suffers either by being ignored and treated without love and respect or by being loved and treated decently but not being able to get to his/her full potential because resources are allotted to more mentally sound members of both family or society).
Autism also known as Autism Spectrum disorders (ASD) because it’s a group of disorders that are linked are severe developmental disorders characterized by lifelong impairments in social interaction, communication, and behavior. ASD include autism, Asperger syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
Other highlights of the topic are:
- It’s more common in boys than in girls.
- It can also be associated with other mental health issues.
- It can be associated with intellectual retardation (This does not mean that everyone on the spectrum is not intelligent).
- It can’t be cured. It’s for life.
- Every person with autism is different and presents different symptoms.
Symptoms/Characteristics of Autism
The characteristics of having Autism are grouped into two major categories
- Social interaction and communication problems
- Restricted and Repetitive Pattern of behaviour
These characteristics include:
- Children with autism and even adults on the spectrum have difficulties in having a normal back and forth conversations
- They have challenges in sharing interests, emotions, and understanding of social cues like eye contacts, body movements (e.g he/she wouldn’t understand when the parent(s) is/are angry if the parent(s) frown, cross their arms and/or look sternly at them).
- They exhibit restricted and repetitive pattern of behaviours like handflapping, toe walking, playing with a toy in an odd manner, speaking in a unique way.
- Having inflexible routines
Other characteristics may include
- Exhibiting intense interest not common for age.
- Highly fixated or restricted interest.
- Fascination with light and movement.
- Being overwhelmed with noise or some other elements
It’s worth noting that these symptoms may not all be present in the same individual. Also, symptoms can range from mild to severe in different individuals
Causes of Autism
It has no known/identified cause. Gene mutation however has been implicated in it. Most cases are said to involve a complex mix of genetics and environmental factors that affect early brain development. Some factors are noted to increase the risk. These factors include:
- Extreme prematurity
- Difficulty during child birth
- Mother being exposed to high levels of pesticides and pollution during pregnancy
- Parental age
- Some drugs like thalidomide used for morning sickness, misoprostol taken during pregnancy
Please note these have not being processed to cause autism but can increase the risk of having an autistic child.
Autism also exists with mental illnesses as I stated earlier and in this case it’s known as a Dual Diagnosis. The chances of autistic people getting a mental illness are relatively higher than in normal individuals. A combination of various factors can cause this:
- Biological differences in their brain structure
- Social interaction difficulty that can lead to decreased self esteem and tendency to think threats as greater than they actually are.
- Problems with finding responses to situations or threats. These may lead to anxiety disorders, depression or obsessive compulsive disorders.
Diagnosis
Why is diagnosis important?
- It helps the individual access services available for management of autism.
- It makes the individual or care giver aware so they can be able to work more on reducing the challenges of the person.
How is a Diagnosis done?
Autism is diagnosed by simply observing how the person talks and behaves in comparison with other kids or people of the same age
Possible red flags that may suggest autism include:
- Not responding to his/ her name by 12 months of age.
- Avoiding eye contact or preferring to be alone.
- Getting upset by minor stuffs.
- Not pointing at objects or showing interests by 14months of age ( e.g not pointing at the favourite kids mummy -shark)
Strength and Challenges
Due to the unique way their brain interprets information they have certain strong points and also weaknesses
Strengths include:
- Attention to details
- Often highly skilled in certain areas
- Deep knowledge in areas of interest
- Less concerned about what others think of them
- Honesty
- Loyalty
- Tendency to be logical
- Usually have visual processing
Challenges
- Grasping the big picture
- Have uneven skills set
- Difficulty studying non interest areas
- Difficulty expressing empathy
- Sensory integration problems
Treatments
There’s no cure for ASD. What we can get are therapies either given by a therapist or learned by a parent to some extent to make the symptoms less noticeable
Among the therapies we have
- Behaviour and communication therapy. Is this important? Yes it is. It helps to promote positive behaviours and discourage negative behaviours
- Occupation therapy: These therapies help them manage life skills like eating, dressing and so on.
- Sensory integration: This helps people with the problem of being touched or with sounds or light.
- Speech therapy: This helps to improve communication between them and others
In terms of autism associated with mental illnesses, therapy and medication appropriate for the particular condition can be used to manage the situation. Simply put, the treatment is to used in a specialized way to help the individual understand better and to teach him how to act and handle/respond to various situations
FROM AN AUTISTIC POINT OF VIEW
- Autism is not a disorder but a different way of thinking this is because people with autism can communicate well with one another but not well with a “normal” (neurotypical) person.
- I think they may also want you to know that they have feelings too though unable to effectively express them.
- A lot has being out into finding a “cure” or “cause” of the extraordinary way of thinking termed weird to normal thinking people but not much has been done to make them comfortable in the society. What am I trying to say? Hospitals have steep stairs for those on wheel chairs, there are brailles for the blind However when it comes to autism using one of their challenges which is reaction to lights and loud music there has been no form of adjustments in the society to accommodate that no dim lights or special shopping sections at the malls or public places for these people.
- Lastly they would want to be treated well so they can live longer and productive lives because a good number of autistic people die of suicide.
