Autism: there is a way out. Early diagnosis: the key to successful treatment

Autism means that a person develops differently and has problems communicating and interacting with other people, and unusual species behaviors such as repetitive movements or involvement in very specialized interests. However, this is only a clinical definition and is not the most important thing to know about autism.

So...what should the average person know about autism? There are a huge number of misconceptions important facts, which people are not even aware of, and a few universal truths that are always ignored if we're talking about about disability. So let's list them.

1. Autism is diverse. Very, very diverse. Ever heard the saying, “If you know one autistic person, then you know... only one autistic person”? This is true. We like completely different things, we behave differently, we have different talents, different interests and different skills. Get a group of autistic people together and look at them. You will find that these people are just as different from each other as neurotypical people. Perhaps autistic people are even more different from each other. Every autistic person is different, and you can't make any assumptions about them based on their diagnosis other than, "This person probably has problems with communication and social interaction." And, you see, this is a very general statement.

2. Autism does not define a person's personality... but it is still a fundamental part of who we are. Someone kindly reminded me of the missing second item on this list, so I just added it! I miss something every now and then... especially if it's something like "If it says it's a list of ten items, then there must be ten items." The thing is that I have a hard time seeing the big picture, and instead I find myself constantly focusing on details like, “Did I make a spelling mistake?” If I didn't already have a pervasive developmental disorder, I would have been diagnosed with an attention disorder like ADHD - it's not just autism in my head. In reality, autism is just one of many things, and most of them are not diagnoses. I am autistic, but I also have enormous problems with organizing my actions and switching to a new task, which people with ADHD usually have. I am excellent at reading, but have serious problems with arithmetic, but not with counting. I am an altruist, an introvert, I have own opinion on any subject, and I am a moderate in politics. I am a Christian, a student, a scientist... So many things go into identity! However, autism colors it all a little, as if you are looking at something through stained glass. So if you think that I would be the same person without my autism, then you are definitely mistaken! Because how can you remain the same person if your mind starts thinking differently, learning differently, and you have a completely different view of the world? Autism is not just some additive. This is the very basis for the development of the personality of an autistic person. I only have one brain, and "autism" is just a label that describes the way that brain works.

3. Having autism does not make your life meaningless. Having a disability in general does not mean that your life is meaningless, and in this respect autism is no different from any other disability. Limitations in communication and social interaction, coupled with learning difficulties and sensory issues that are common to us, do not mean that life for an autistic person worse than life neurotypical person. Sometimes people assume that if you have a disability then your life is inherently worse, but I think they are just too inclined to see things from their own point of view. People who have been neurotypical their entire lives begin to think about how they would feel if they suddenly lost their skills... when in reality they should imagine that they never had these skills, or that they have developed different skills and a different view of the world. Disability itself is a neutral fact, not a tragedy. In relation to autism, the tragedy is not autism itself, but the prejudices associated with it. No matter what limitations a person has, autism does not prevent them from being part of their family, part of their community, and a person whose life has inherent value.

4. Autistic people are just as capable of love as any other person. Loving other people doesn't depend on your ability to speak fluently, understand other people's facial expressions, or remember that when you're trying to make friends with someone, it's best not to talk about wild cats for an hour and a half non-stop. We may not be able to copy other people's emotions, but we are capable of the same compassion as everyone else. We just express it differently. Neurotypicals usually try to express empathy, autistics (at least those who look like me, as I said before - we are very different) try to fix the problem that upset the person in the first place. I see no reason to believe that one approach is better than the other... Oh, and one more thing: although I myself am asexual, I am in the minority among people on the autism spectrum. Autistic adults, with any form of autism, can fall in love, get married and have families. Several autistic people I know are married or dating.

5. Having autism does not prevent a person from learning. Doesn't really bother me. We grow and we learn throughout our lives, just like any other person. Sometimes I hear people say that their autistic children have "recovered." However, in reality they are only describing how their children grow, develop and learn in suitable environment. They actually devalue the efforts and achievements of their own children, chalking them up to the latest drug or other treatment. I've come a long way from the two-year-old girl who cried her eyes out almost 24 hours a day, constantly ran in circles and threw violent tantrums at the touch of woolen fabric. Now I'm in college and I'm almost independent. ( Wool fabric I still can’t stand it, though.) In a good environment, with good teachers, learning will be almost inevitable. This is what autism research should focus on: how best to teach us what we need to know about a world that is not designed for us.

6. The origin of autism is almost entirely genetic. The hereditary component of autism is about 90%, which means that almost every case of autism can be traced back to some combination of genes, whether it's the "nerd genes" that were passed down from your parents or new mutations that just arose in your generation. Autism has nothing to do with the vaccines you received, and it has nothing to do with what you eat. Ironically, despite the arguments of anti-vaxxers, the only proven non-genetic cause of autism is congenital rubella syndrome, which occurs when a pregnant (usually unvaccinated) woman gets rubella. People, get all the necessary vaccinations. They save lives - the millions of people who die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases would agree.

7. Autistic people are not sociopaths. I know you probably don't think so, but it still bears repeating. “Autism” is often associated with the image of a person who absolutely does not care about the existence of other people, when in reality, it is simply a problem of communication. We don't care about other people. Moreover, I know several autistic people who are so terrified of accidentally saying “something wrong” and hurting other people’s feelings that as a result they are constantly embarrassed and nervous. Even nonverbal autistic children show the same affection for their parents as non-autistic children. In reality, autistic adults commit crimes much less often than neurotypical adults. (However, I don’t think that this is due to our innate virtue. After all, very often crime is a social activity).

8. There is no “autism epidemic.” In other words: the number of people diagnosed with autism is growing, but the total number of autistic people remains the same. Studies of adults show that the rate of autism among them is the same as among children. What are all these new cases related to? Just because diagnoses are now being made for milder forms of autism, including the recognition that Asperger's syndrome is autism without a speech delay (previously there was no diagnosis if you could speak). In addition, they began to include people with mental retardation (as it turned out, in addition to mental retardation, they very often also have autism). As a result, the number of diagnoses of "mental retardation" has decreased, and the number of diagnoses of "autism" has correspondingly increased. However, the “autism epidemic” rhetoric has also had a positive effect: it has taught us about the true prevalence of autism, and we know that it is not necessarily severe, and we know exactly how it manifests itself, which allows children to get the support they need from a very early age.

9. Autistic people can be happy without healing. And we are not talking about some second-rate happiness according to the principle “something is better than nothing.” Most neurotypical people (unless they are artists or children) will never notice the beauty in the arrangement of cracks in the asphalt of the pavement, or how beautifully the colors play on spilled gasoline after the rain. They will probably never know what it's like to commit completely to a certain topic and learn everything they can about it. They will never know
the beauty of the facts that were brought into a certain system. They'll probably never know what it's like to wave your hands in happiness, or what it's like to forget everything because of the feel of a cat's fur. There are wonderful aspects to the lives of autistic people, just as there are likely to be wonderful aspects to the lives of neurotypicals. No, don't get me wrong: it's a hard life. The world is not designed for autistic people, and autistic people and their families face the prejudices of others every day. However, happiness in autism is not a matter of “courage” or “overcoming.” It's just happiness. You don't have to be normal to be happy.

10. Autistic people want to be part of this world. We really want it... just on our own terms. We want to be accepted. We want to go to school. We want to work. We want to be listened to and heard. We have hopes and dreams for our future and the future of this world. We want to contribute. Many of us want to start a family. We are different from the norm, but it is diversity that makes this world stronger, not weaker. The more ways of thinking there are, the more ways will be found to solve a particular problem. A diverse society means that when a problem arises, we will have different minds on hand and one of them will come up with a solution.

Unfortunately, many professionals working with autistic children still do not have the new information and continue to rely on older and more pessimistic information. This leads to the two most common scenarios. So, for example, the psychiatrist to whom autistic Justin was taken by his parents when he was still a child said: “He has autism, and you need to be prepared for the fact that when he grows up, he will be institutionalized.” Parents who have heard such sentences know the despair they can lead to. Clinicians often justify such words by saying that it is better to prepare parents to face reality than to allow them to hide behind denial. However, they forget that it is the denial of such a verdict that makes hope possible. Denying the future, choosing not to see it now, is fundamentally important for the healing process and for getting rid of the sadness that goes hand in hand with the awareness of the fact that your child is not at all like the child you dreamed of, with whom you had hopes and births. which you have been patiently waiting for. New evidence about the effectiveness of interventions (both early and throughout childhood) does not allow for doom and gloom, especially for high-functioning groups such as children with Asperger's syndrome.

The psychiatrist Tom's parents consulted took a different, now more common approach: he avoided making a diagnosis for as long as possible because the clinical manifestations of the disorder were not "classic." He didn't know that there was no such thing as "classic" autism anymore. Realizing that the number of options clinical manifestations The extent of autism, that the clinical picture changes over time, and that there are other forms of autism that are similar but distinct from “classical” autism are perhaps the most important developments in autism science in the last two decades. Most parents notice something not quite normal in their child's development during the first two years of his life. However, they often find out the diagnosis when he is five or six years old. Make a diagnosis in more early age difficult, but we are learning more and more about the earliest signs of disorder. One can only hope that as new information flows from researchers to clinicians on the front lines of the fight against this disorder, such delays in diagnosis will be eliminated. Perhaps the most important finding is that early diagnosis primarily depends on assessing young children's social-communication skills.

Early diagnosis: the key to successful treatment

Preschoolers with ASD do not often demonstrate the repetitive, stereotyped behaviors (rocking, rituals, resistance to change, circling, etc.) more common in middle-aged and older children. Too often, the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome is made at eight or nine years of age or even older. Family doctors, not yet familiar with this new information, try to reassure parents that their concerns about the social and communication skills of infants and preschoolers are the result of excessive anxiety, inexperience associated with being a first child, or a complete lack of knowledge about children's development. This lack of readiness to receive a diagnosis at an early age results in a significant delay in the child's entry into early intervention programs. Some children who start these programs at age five or six are less likely to improve than they would have been if they had started much earlier. It is difficult to imagine greater despair than that of parents who were first told that they were too worried about the fact that their child did not speak, and two years later they were told that he had autism and that they would not soon get treatment because the waiting list was too long. great.

Clinicians tend to ignore the fact that we have been hearing for decades that some children with autism are getting good results. Kanner titled one of his latest articles: “How far can children with autism advance in social adaptation?. In this article, published in 1972, he wrote about the "best results" among the first 96 patients seen at his clinic. Of these 96 people, he identified 11 who, in his opinion, “functioned in society on high level" Indeed, specific sociological studies have revealed significant progress, but also demonstrated difficulties in adult intimate relationships. With regard to the development of adult individuals with in different forms autism, perhaps most striking is the huge dispersion of results. Some (our data suggests about 20% of people with Asperger's syndrome and 10% of people with autism) cope very well in life, their social and communication skills are rated as "average", and they have either mild or no symptoms of autism. are missing. Perhaps another 15-20% cope well enough to live independently with little help. However, the new generation of children with whom early intervention programs began has not yet reached adulthood, and therefore it is possible that even these data will need to be revised in the future.

Limits of Achievement

The reality is that most children with autism and Asperger's syndrome will improve with age. There is a tendency that each subsequent year of their life turns out to be better and less stressful than the previous one. The most difficult years are the first years when the diagnosis is first made and when all efforts should be directed towards starting intervention as early as possible. But some time passes, the situation “settles down”, and children develop according to their own “schedule”. Different skills will develop differently, each at their own speed; sometimes a step back will be taken, sometimes two steps forward, which will bring great relief. Sometimes what seems like a regression actually turns out to be a reaction to a new challenge that the child is not yet quite ready to answer; in time, with a little help, he will do it.

We do not know how the development of this or that child will end; no one can predict the end result. The achievements of a child with one form or another of autism can only be disappointing if you look at them from the outside and approach them with a general yardstick. “I'm afraid he's not living up to our expectations,” Justin's teacher once told his parents, and they were immediately disheartened by his son's progress. It is much better to evaluate the child's achievements from the point of view of his own world. What obstacles did he have to overcome to reach this level? The victories of a child with ASD are often of a purely personal nature: persistently continuing to go to school despite constant ridicule and bullying, trying to talk to another child in the cafeteria, working at the computer for the first time with his brother. Many of these victories are known only to parents, but this does not make them any less significant. In families where ordinary children grow up, these achievements are often taken for granted, as something taken for granted. Parents of children with some form of autism cannot take anything for granted; every step towards “typical development” is a victory that illuminates everyday events like a guiding star. You need to evaluate the success of a child with autism by comparing him not with other children, but with himself, with how he was last year or the year before.

When I began to become interested in autism about two decades ago, one of the things that struck me most was that the literature on the consequences of autism said virtually nothing about adults who were coping well in life. The published studies are clearly outdated and were conducted at a time when autism was thought to be a consequence of poor parental performance. Then social workers often subjected parents to long-term psychotherapy and children to long-term play therapy. This literature is no longer relevant because the studies described in it were conducted before the advent of more effective forms of behaviorally based early intervention. However, new information did not reach the general public. Moreover, there were no data on the effects of other forms of autism, such as Asperger's syndrome.

Since many children were diagnosed this way, this was a significant information gap. Can I help replenish it?

My first experience in research work— a study of long-term results conducted in 1987. along with the West End Creche Center in Toronto. At the time, Creche was known as a center that treated children with autism. The chief physician was Dr. Milada Havelkova, a Czech anesthesiologist who emigrated to Canada after the war. She was only able to find work in the field of child psychiatry and was given the Creche Center as her clinical base. She became very interested in the problem of autism, and from the early 50's, Creche became a children's therapy center in Toronto.

I wanted to meet adults who were diagnosed with high-functioning autism as children by Dr. Havelkova. She was very kind and very enthusiastic that her work could continue. I remember spending one very snowy Christmas Eve in the basement of the Creche Center, going through the files of all of its old patients. I was sitting in the basement of an old building, where there had once been a laundry and where hopelessly outdated laundry presses still remained. There were cabinets and boxes filled with old files everywhere. The room was damp, cold and dusty. I had to look through at least five hundred folders. Reading these old case histories with their outdated terminology (childhood psychosis, traumatic brain injury, commensal psychosis) was extremely helpful and provided insight into Toronto and how children with special needs used to be treated. It was disconcerting to think that at the same time that I was growing up in this city, dramatic events and real tragedies were unfolding in families living within a few miles of my home.

I was able to contact twenty autistic adults who in the 50s. were treated at Creche. They were considered “high functioning” as children and still lived in Toronto. I visited their home and talked with them and their parents. I was amazed at how good life was for some of these kids. Of the twenty people, four were just fine: they lived independently, worked or studied (librarian, salesperson, teacher's assistant, university student), went on dates and had friends. One of them was even married. But during their childhood there were no effective methods treatment! The first thing I realized was this: real stories High functioning people with autism are revealed wonderful opportunities personal improvement, even without any treatment.

Stories of Fred and Herschel

Fred's story illustrates one of the best results I have encountered. I agreed to meet him in the evening near his house. Acutely aware of how punctual many people with autism are when it comes to their routines, I arrived on time, which is unusual for me. From what I knew, I knew that Fred had a special schedule and that he would be very upset if I was late. However, there was no one at the appointed place. I waited, not understanding what could have stopped him. I was about to leave when a young man appeared, very elegant, in a suit and tie, and, breathless, began to apologize for his lateness. Could this be Fred, the autistic man I was supposed to meet? Yes, it was him. He explained to me that he was studying geography with a middle school student and that the lesson lasted longer than he expected. He politely asked if I had lunch, and, having received a negative answer, suggested we have lunch somewhere together. I was shocked. He was not just polite, he was worried about whether I was hungry! It would never have occurred to me that this young man had autism if I had not read in the medical history about the terrible symptoms that he had as a child. It was written about outbursts of irritation, rigid behavior, lack of social contacts with adults and children, and active resistance to change. Is this really the same person?

We drove to the restaurant in my car. It was one of those little Italian restaurants that serves pasta. self-made. We talked for a long time about his childhood, his current life and what he expects from the future. He remembers almost nothing about his autism, and he doesn’t remember anything at all about what happened before the age of five. He was in the same class with other children with autism, and it was an unpleasant experience. He was always interested geographical maps; you could say that as a child he was simply obsessed with them. It seemed significant to me that geography became his profession, that he was able to turn an “obsession” into a useful specialty. He earned his living by giving private lessons, but hoped for a more promising career in teaching. Anyone who saw us sitting at the table eating our pasta could easily assume that we were talking about girls, about sports and about the latest gossip in our office. However, we talked about what it means to be autistic, how it is perceived from the inside and what remains of the disorder as part of his personality. It seemed to him that the only reminder of her was the excitement he felt in social situations. He dated girls, was planning to eventually get married, but felt slightly nervous in public. He was animated, cheerful, made jokes about himself, constantly gesticulated. Yes, he was slightly constrained and formal, but he was hardly different from many of his peers. Was Fred normal? How different was he from the millions who grew up as healthy children? Truly, its development turned out to be triumphant. It should be recognized that such a result is very rare, but it is not excluded. According to the results of many studies, this is only possible in very capable individuals. The most amazing thing about Fred's story was that he was treated disgustingly as a child, and therefore I could not even imagine how his situation had changed. However, one guess came to me thanks to the story of Herschel.

Herschel's result may not be as impressive as Fred's, but it is also admirable in its own way. He lived alone with his mother in the suburbs and was enrolled in a local university. He took a course in history and several courses in humanities, but had difficulty completing the program and attending additional classes. I was with him. Modest one-story house with a veranda among massive trees on a quiet street. I realized very quickly that Herschel's family was deeply religious. Herschel was a quiet young man. He wore a yarmulke. He spoke little and answered my questions politely but succinctly. He led a secluded life, but regularly attended the synagogue. Herschel had several friends with whom he communicated only in the synagogue. He had practically no special hobbies or interests. He had little idea of ​​his future, but he was very concerned about the grades he received at the university. Perhaps he was even too preoccupied with graduating from university to the detriment of everything else. For him, the marks were not milestones on the path to completion, but they themselves marked the end.

However, I was amazed at how much it has changed for the better over the years. There was no possibility that the early diagnosis was wrong: I became convinced of this later when I re-read his medical history. It said that as a child Herschel had many symptoms of autism and a pronounced learning disability. This made his academic achievements even more remarkable.

However, it was Herschel's mother who made the strongest impression on me during the visit. She was a short, but very strong-willed woman. We sat in the dining room at a table surrounded by family photographs of children and relatives from the “historical homeland.” She spoke vividly about early childhood Herschel, about his pain and his worries for his future. Noticing that something was wrong with the boy, she took him to a specialist in a large clinic at a medical higher education institution. educational institution. The specialist said that the boy had autism and advised the mother to prepare for the fact that her son would not be able to study with normal children and would end up in a specialized medical institution. Herschel’s mother listened to this verdict with stoic calm, thanked the doctor for his advice and tried to quickly put everything he said out of her head. She looked at me seriously and said, “When I left his office, I swore that I would make a man out of this boy, even if it cost me my life.”

After the visit to the clinic, Herschel’s mother enrolled Herschel in a regular kindergarten at a nearby school and in all local events in which a child from a religious family was not prohibited from participating. She recalled how she fought with specialists in the school department of local government, with minor officials who were in charge of programs children's recreation, with doctors who thought they knew better. No one could shake her determination to help her son. She may be ostracized, she may be laughed at, but who can say how his life would have turned out if she had not fought so decisively and fearlessly for him? She had an inhuman will that almost no one could resist. What she was doing was not at all accepted in Toronto at the time. Unlike now, there was no evidence that being around healthy children was better for autistic children than being in special schools and being isolated from healthy peers. There is no doubt that the specialists in their offices, with two and a half children of their own at home, thoughtfully nodded their heads at each other during “five-minute meetings” and said that she was interfering in the wrong business and was mistaken about mental abilities own son. But what almost none of them seemed to understand was that it was thanks to her actions that Herschel’s life changed radically.

Susan's Story

Susan's life is a completely different story, no less magnificent in its own way, despite the terrible poverty in which she and her father lived. She lived in the very center of Toronto, in a very run-down area. I remember standing on the porch of her house and ringing the doorbell. The house was in disrepair, the paint was peeling and there were warped screens sticking out of the windows. Finally Susan appeared on the threshold. She looked at me in surprise, but then remembered that we had agreed to meet, and invited me into the house. She said she was upstairs doing some calculations on the calendars. She led me into a small living room. All the walls were haphazardly hung with calendars. different years, open in the same month. An elderly and, apparently, very decrepit gentleman was sitting in a chair in front of the TV, watching some kind of show; The sound was turned up almost at full volume. I politely introduced myself, but soon realized that the old man could hardly hear anything. Susan told me that her mother died several years ago and now she is looking after her father. They are visited periodically by social workers who provide some help around the house, but Susan does the daily household chores herself: shopping, cooking and cleaning. She does not work or study, but spends time in her room, looking at calendars and film magazines. This life suits her quite well, and she doesn’t need anything else.

Many years ago, Susan was taught by her mother to cook and do simple homework. It took a long time, but she must also have been a strong-willed person, because in the end she managed to teach her daughter to take care of herself and the house. Once formed, these skills began to live on their own, and now that her mother is gone, it is the established order, the routine that allows her to care for her father and live in own home. Her victory is that, despite her own limitations, she was able to care for her father. One of the benefits of autistic inflexibility is that it makes established routines part of his life. She may not consider caring for her father such a big burden, but I could only wonder how she manages to live in such conditions. What saved this family was the inherent ability of autistic people to strictly follow routine. Susan went about her business calmly and efficiently, but I understood the enormous amount of effort and training that had gone into establishing this routine in the first place. Her mother must have had the same unyielding will that I have so often met in other families.

In almost every class and in every group kindergarten Today you can meet a child with signs of one of the mild forms of autism. Many parents do not recognize autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their children: “These are the modern kids these days!” - they say, and it is clear that admitting to yourself that your child is somehow different is very difficult. The range of feelings experienced by parents ranges from anxiety to complete denial and rejection of their own child.

Research confirms that early, intensive intervention leads to better outcomes for the child and family. It is important to notice and recognize the signs of autism early, since pediatricians often fail to diagnose ASD in the early stages. Parents - best experts for your children, so it is recommended to take the following test by 18 months.

Autism Test

Even with one answer “NO”, repeat the test in a month.

Behavioral signs of autism In addition to the fact that by the age of 18 months a normally developing child should point to what he wants, look where you show him, and play with objects “make-believe”, he should have formed social and communication skills

Gastrointestinal disorders as a sign of autism

Dr. Tim Buie, a gastroenterologist at Harvard University and Boston General Hospital, has performed endoscopies on more than 1,000 children with autism and found gastrointestinal problems in 400 of them. Children with ASD have stomach problems much more often than typical children. Esophagitis (inflammation of the esophagus) was found in 20% of children, gastritis in 12%, inflammation of the duodenum in 10%, colitis in 12%, and lactase deficiency in 55%. These children often have undigested food in their stool and experience constipation or diarrhea. If necessary, you should contact a gastroenterologist.

A blow to the family

Autistic people may stay awake for days, not know day from night, or have difficulty falling asleep and constantly waking up. They can sleep for a short time - 1-2 hours a day, while parents do not get enough sleep. These children have a low or absent pain threshold, frequent seizures, and unexplained spontaneous bouts of crying or laughing. A family raising an autistic child has limited visits public places, cinemas, shops, cafes, cannot fully travel and relax in nature. To rehabilitate a family with a child suffering from autism, you should contact specialized centers where early intervention specialists will provide speech, occupational or physical therapy assistance.

When our oldest son was three years old, we were diagnosed with autism. It sounded like a sentence and broke my heart into pieces. We came to different specialists who told us the same thing:

• There is no cure for this
• Give birth to yourself healthy child and this one will never change
• It's hopeless
• It will only get worse
• Think about yourself, make your life easier
• Send him to a special school, special boarding school

I was only 27 years old then. This was my first and at that moment only child. And for me it was the end of the world. We were really looking forward to him, preparing for his birth, we tried to do everything right, we loved him. As best they could, as best they could.

And these conversations were killing me. After each specialist, I cried for several days. I didn’t believe, I didn’t want to believe that my son was hopeless. that he never will an ordinary child. That I should put an end to it. It was all too scary to be true.

We decided not to resign ourselves. And they began to look for a way out. The most important step for us was that we found a specialist of a different level. Lyubov Nikolaevna is a specialist in autism and sensory disorders. We brought her to St. Petersburg just to show her the baby. We gathered a small group of the same parents. We were waiting for recommendations, advice, new horizons. And we got much more.

During these two days, about ten children came for consultations, including ours. Doctors gave almost everyone the same diagnosis. Autism. Like a sentence.

It turned out that only one out of ten children had true autism. What did the others have? The autism spectrum and sensory impairments are something that can and should be corrected.

The most valuable thing for me that day was to hear: “This is not autism.” And since it’s not autism, it means it can be treated. So, something can be done about it. This means he is not hopeless. This means that you can and should live, believe, and pray.

Many years have passed. Now no doctor will give us such a diagnosis. Although there are habitual behavioral traits that are similar to an autistic person. Although there is a delay speech development. But these are minor things. Because the delay is made up, behavior is transformed. The main thing is that a miracle happened.

And now parents turn to us one way or another. We cannot help many people now, we can only share our experience like this - articles. Not personally, not individually, but wholesale. I saw children with some of them. And now I understand what Lyubov Nikolaevna said. There are very few true autists. One in ten thousand children. Nothing changed.

But there are children who are similar in some ways to autistic ones. Autism spectrum, sensory impairments. There are a lot of them. One of six children. The only difference is that it is adjusted. And if real RDA is very difficult to cure, although I know those who succeed as successfully as possible, then sensory disorders are a feasible goal to work on.

I see a child walking with his father's hand along the seashore. He put on a life jacket and walked away muttering something under his breath. Sometimes he looks at dad. This child is diagnosed. But what kind of autistic is he?

A global autistic person will not respond to anyone or anything - from birth. He will be in such strong armor that you will never even meet his gaze and will not melt from his smile, which is intended for you.

If your child cooperates with you - at least in something, if he reaches out to you for praise, tries to communicate as best he can - even if only by shouting - this is a reason to think. Think about the fact that there is a way out. That these are sensory issues.

Sensory problems are problems of perception. We have sense organs - eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue. And when they work normally, it turns out to be an ordinary person. Who sees the world the same way as others, hears the same, has the same skin sensations.

And if not? If your world is less clear? If sounds seem louder to you than they are? If your brain interprets any touch to your skin as pain? How will you then react to ordinary situations?

This is something that happens often with children. Their brain interprets touches, movements, sounds, pictures differently. Some people have a flat world, some have a limited angle of vision, some are very sensitive to sounds, some cannot stand touch, and some must constantly move in order to feel themselves.

If we do not understand what is happening in the child, then it all seems strange to us. The child is not like everyone else. He stands out. He looks strange. We go to a psychiatrist and get a diagnosis. For example, autism. If the child does not want to be touched, is afraid of sounds, large cluster people and does not sit still - most likely, they will tell you about autism. He doesn’t look you in the eye (and it’s hard for him to focus his vision this way), avoids hugs (because it physically hurts him), and plays stereotypical games (this way he saturates himself with sensations). That's all.

Then mom and dad are crushed by the diagnosis. With which nothing can be done. But the diagnosis is false. Wrong. And too cruel. This is how families are destroyed - it is unbearable. Who is to blame that this happened? The dad who drank beer? The mom who was always nervous? Doctors who caused harm during childbirth? Whose fault is more?

No matter how much you delve into the reasons, it will not change the situation. In the case of sensory problems, they need and can be solved. Layer by layer, removing small problems like cabbage leaves. Saturate with sensations - for example, treat the child’s entire body with brushes several times a day. Or create pressure on his body by wrapping him in blankets and carpets. Saturate with sounds - using players, headphones. There are many ways. Information too. There are even specialists. There are few of them, but they exist.

There is no need to blindly trust doctors. Autism is a fashionable diagnosis. You can’t do anything with him; you can spend your whole life pumping money out of your parents. And at the same time, there is no need to guarantee anything - there are no guarantees, it is incurable.

Look for specialists who understand this. Which can inspire you. From which you emerge not with a stone around your neck, but with wings behind your back. Who see the child, and not diagnoses and pieces of paper. And believe. Believe, pray. This will definitely help.

Just recently Lyubov Nikolaevna told us:

“You understand that this is a miracle. That you begged him."

This is true. In any Holy place I prayed with hot tears. I prayed for the baby's health. Again and again. And now, when I see that the tests have not changed in two years - the same excess of mercury is 50 times and lead is 100 times - and the child is different, I understand - they begged. Now we need to take the steps ourselves. Now that there is faith that everything will work out and get better. When there is a feeling that God is with us.

Pray, believe. The Lord fulfills everyone's desires. Your child has no one but you. And if you don’t believe in him, no one will. If you don't help, no one will help. Pray and be the hands of the Lord for your children. Love and believe. And never give up.

Olga Valyaeva - valyaeva.ru

Autism is a brain disorder that is characterized by abnormalities in a person's social behavior, as well as restrictions and repetitions in it. Specified signs usually appear already in childhood, up to three years. During the course of the disease, milder symptoms may also appear, which are classified as autism spectrum disorders.

In autism, changes are observed in many areas of the brain, but the course of their development is unclear. At early detection and intervention in a child's behavior can help him acquire self-help skills, communication and social behavior, however, there is no guaranteed cure for autism. Only a few children are able to live independently upon reaching adulthood.

At the moment, the causes of autism are not entirely clear, it is only clear that they are associated with genes. Perhaps their multiple interactions are to blame, or perhaps rare mutations. There are also controversial theories about the occurrence of the disease, for example, vaccination of children. Doctors estimate the prevalence of disorders in this spectrum at 0.6% of the entire population.

Interestingly, autism is 4 times more common in boys than in girls. The mysterious reasons for the occurrence of this disease and its course have given rise to many myths around it, which will be partially debunked.

Myths about autism.

Autism can be caused by poor parental attitudes. I would like to believe that this myth has already been eradicated, because it has long been proven that this is not true. Autism is a neurological condition, so it cannot occur due to psychological reasons. After all, if poor upbringing and harsh parental attitudes caused autism, then there would be many more cases of the disease in the world.

Low-functioning and high-functioning autism are completely different disorders. Even as the name suggests, it is clear that the diseases are still different. However, studies have shown that there are no fundamental differences between patients with these two forms except for IQ level. In both diagnoses, the main deficits are the same, they are just expressed differently.

All autistics are the same. Typically, such a myth is based on comparing one autistic friend to everyone else. It is believed that others behave similarly. Of course, patients have some common features deviations, as a result of which some of their gestures and mannerisms may coincide. But these people have their own individuality, just like the rest of us. The following three statements also apply to this myth.

Autistic people think exclusively in pictures. Indeed, visual thinking is much more common in such people than in ordinary people, but such brain function cannot be unambiguously considered a universal or unique characteristic. Not all autistics think this way, although books and scientific papers are even written about this way of thinking.

Autistic people have sensory problems, which include increased sensitivity to sounds and touch. Sensory problems may also consist in the fact that mild stimuli are not perceived at all or hyposensitivity, in the presence of synesthesia, when one sense is mistaken for another, and other deviations. It is interesting that these problems can relate to any sense, including the sensations of space or the vestibular apparatus.

All autistic people have some special ability. According to statistics, only 10% of autistic people have unusual abilities. This figure is thousands of times higher than that of other people, but still, this is the exception rather than the rule. It happens that unusual abilities appear in childhood, and then, with experience in communicating with people, the opportunities disappear. By the way, such abilities are not necessarily useless; some autistic people successfully use them, say, when finding a job.

Autistic people cannot speak properly. This is not true, it often even happens that the occurrence of autism in children is ignored, since they communicate quite successfully, but after a few years the disease still makes itself felt. Many autistics even begin to speak quite early.

Autistic people have severe intellectual disabilities. Autistic people can have any intelligence, without differing in this characteristic from ordinary people. At first, children's intellectual achievements can be interpreted as collateral deviations, and later they are interpreted as characteristics of a gifted person. Therefore, an IQ test is not representative for autistic people, nor for other people. Although it should be noted that in autistic people the gap between intellectual deficit and ability can be much greater than in ordinary people. You should not consider the lack of abilities in one area as an indicator that there are no abilities at all or that they certainly exist in another direction.

All autistic people have problems relating to other people. Parents of sick children are often told that their children will never be able to experience such feelings as love. However, many autistic people have full-fledged families and children. Sometimes even severe forms of autism do not prevent people from demonstrating affection and showing concern about the feelings of other people.

Behind the shell of autism lies an ordinary normal person. It is believed that some measures can be taken that will release normal person, breaking through the wall of autism. However, this is not true, autism penetrates a person, significantly affecting his ability to feel, perceive events, information, reactions, and interactions. The disappearance of autism from a person will radically change him, so that a completely new personality can be seen.

Autism, especially low-functioning autism, is a completely negative thing in itself. People with autism remember their nonverbal childhood experiences, but many do not perceive them as negative. This state was not accompanied by feelings of loneliness or fear. Yes, the world may be incomprehensible or somewhat frightening, but this is taken for granted. Typically, how aspects of autism are perceived depends on how people view them. For example, hyperfocus may seem like a problem if you think of it as the quality that causes you to focus on your feet while missing traffic lights. But when working intensively with projects, this quality can be indispensable. This applies to cases when a person works as a freelancer or requires increased care when working at the computer. Autism should not be seen solely as something bad or different. Yes, in general, autism leads to disability, but many are satisfied with this state of affairs, because healing can lead to a person losing himself and entail serious psychological problems.

Autistic people are often obsessed with something, prone to rituals, self-stimulating behavior, this must be fought. Indeed, such behavior is characteristic of an autistic person, but it is usually completely harmless. People with autism relieve stress and regulate sensory input through self-stimulating behaviors. There is a direct relationship between an increase in self-stimulation and a decrease in self-harm in patients, which can hardly be explained by chance. Is it worth identifying stimulating movements as “strange” and fighting them if the person himself seems strange to society? This modification may be desirable for those high-functioning autistics who may want to blend in with the crowd. To make an appropriate decision to change behavior, you need to understand whether an autistic person will have problems? Let us emphasize once again - a tendency towards specific interests is inherent in autism, annoying others, but this trait is harmless! Sometimes obsession even helps in career growth. For example, if a person is passionate about computers, then employers will undoubtedly be impressed by the obsession in this environment. Obsessive-compulsive disorder can occur in autism, but this is a different phenomenon. In conclusion, it can be said that those behaviors that are socially unacceptable, and not just strange and annoying, do need correction, as they may be harmful or illegal.

If children tease each other, there is nothing wrong with it. Many believe that it is in such skirmishes that a child’s character is strengthened, without paying attention to how real bullying occurs. There is also an opinion that children themselves are to blame for such behavior of their peers, or that it simply all comes down to the fact that “children are children.” For the most detached autistic children, there is nothing wrong with swearing; they simply do not perceive it, having generally a weak perception of people in general. But with age comes an awareness of the place of such bullying and social exclusion. As a result, sick people may experience depression, which can provoke suicidal thoughts and intentions, and possibly self-harm. Therefore, it is still better to prevent children from bullying each other and teasing; these are not harmless games at all; as a result of such an attitude between children, serious consequences can arise.

Autistic people, like all other ordinary people, need and want the same things. Many people judge the lives of autistic people from their own point of view. Like, I would be unhappy in this situation, which means they are probably unhappy too. It should be noted that autistic people often make unusual choices regarding their leisure, entertainment and social life in general. It seems strange to many that autistic people do not go and do not strive to attend parties, dances and other entertainment events. Often autistic people prefer fiddling with construction blocks or small objects to active recreation. It may be strange, but such behavior does not harm anyone. The main thing is that sick people like it, bringing them a piece of pleasure. Ordinary people consider themselves completely independent, for them this feeling is important, although in fact they bear the burden of social responsibility and dependence. But autistic people are truly independent, and their feelings are different from ordinary people. We must try to look at the lives of autistic people and their values ​​through the eyes of sick people, and not to impose on them the point of view of those who do not understand and do not accept someone else’s world.

Autism is a common childhood illness. Few people understand that autistic children grow up, but the disease remains with them. Society gets autistic adults. These people learn, develop and grow just like everyone else, maybe even more. Only for autistic adults, especially those who are active social life and performing certain functions, there are practically no specialized services.

Having “mild” autism should not affect a person’s behavior. There really is no such thing as mild autism. Even a high-functioning autistic person spends great conditions to adapt to society. Many people minimize Asperger's syndrome by calling it "nerd" syndrome. However, there is a clear difference between normal healthy person, albeit strange and autistic, albeit high-functioning. The line is where certain character traits lead to disability. For example, a sick person has guest mode. In it, an autistic person is practically indistinguishable from an ordinary person, but long work in this mode can lead to a serious nervous breakdown. This is why an autistic person may need rest intervals. For others, such behavior may seem like a sign of laziness or lack of motivation, irritating those nearby. Autistic people can only remind people of their illness so that people understand that high functionality still has certain limitations.

In life, it is easier and better to be a high-functioning autistic person than a low-functioning autistic person. In childhood, a sick person has no need for communication, nor an understanding of why this is necessary. Accordingly, there is no frustration from the absence of this. Many autistic people even regret that they learned to communicate with the rest of the world, because thereby they lost their unique fairy-tale nonverbal world. They often miss him, unable to bring him back. Parents of autistic children say that low-functioning children are usually happy. For patients, what is difficult is not the lack of opportunity to do something, but the realization that the desire for action is not supported by the ability to carry it out. Therefore, many autistic people find it easier to be low functioning than to be in a state in which they cannot achieve the desired outcome.