Symptoms and Treatment of Autism

Symptoms and Treatment of Autism

I have been blessed to have a job that allows me the privilege of working with my favorite little people, children. I initially had no idea what autism was, and what children who suffered from autism looked like or acted like. On my second day on the job one of the speech therapists had an appointment with an eight year old girl who had been diagnosed with a severe case of autism. She was non-verbal and was at the facility to have her usual speech session. This young lady came into the office and was very agitated. According to mom, she had a rough day at school and was not in the mood to work, but mom wanted her to come in anyway. I will never forget what I saw next. As the therapist walked into the lobby to take the patient to her session, the patient began to cry uncontrollably. She threw herself on the floor and began banging her head on the floor. When the therapist tried to get her off the floor, the patient began to physically attack the therapist. The therapist seemed completely unafraid by what was going on. She continued to sit on the floor with the patient and brush her arms with a therapy brush until the patient calmed down. After about 15 minutes of this, the patient got up and walked into the office for her therapy. When I later asked the therapist what had set the patient off she said that she wasn't wearing her usual uniform.

Autistic disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder marked by extreme unresponsiveness to other, poor communication skills, and highly repetitive and rigid behavior, also known as autism. (Comor, 2011) There are three major symptoms of autism, decreased capacity for social engagements, communication deficits, and lack of imagination. Children with autism that have a decreased capacity for social engagements have trouble being around other people and have trouble in social situations. It is difficult for them to make eye contact with people because they generally only think of themselves. The only time they care to know about anyone else is when they need someone to attend to their needs. Autistic children also have deficits in communication. This is the symptom that I deal with on a day to day basis since I work at a facility that provides speech therapy services for children. I have worked with autistic children that are completely non-verbal and some that have very little language skills. When I help the therapists work I see how these wonderful people can completely turn a non-verbal child into someone who can express their wants and needs. Lack of imagination is also a challenge that autistic children face. They don't know how to role play, and also have trouble playing games with other children. One thing that is noticeably abnormal in James' behavior is that he seems very easily agitated. This is not something that in normal in most eleven year old children. He is also completely non-verbal and is unable