When a child is growing up and overt actions that should ordinarily be expressed are not, the parent/caregiver may start wondering what the issues are. The understanding of the possible problems is the first step among several others that make the parents to seek the needed help for both the child and themselves. There are many conditions that can restrict the normal expressive behaviours of a child but we want to focus on autism today.
What is autism? Autism is a childhood neuro-developmental disorder that is characterized by restrictions to social, language and relationships domains of the child. It is a condition that will not typically appear in adulthood but seen from childhood if seen in adulthood, it generally appears on a spectrum suggesting that some characteristics of this condition can be experienced more by some people and with less symptoms in others. Prior to this period, there were conditions such as Asperger’s syndrome, Retts syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder and so on but they are now subsumed into autistic spectrum disorder.
The major characteristics of this condition are inability to engage in successful back and forth conversation. For example, your child of two years cannot reciprocate your greetings of good morning or good afternoon nor even respond as you ask him to say some things but rather would prefer to be fixated on a particular interest or behaviour repetitively. At a much younger age than 2 years, he cannot give you a social smile and (at a little bit older than 2 years) would prefer to respond with tantrums if the arrangements to the environment he has gotten used to are distorted. Autistic conditions become more noticeable when the way the child responds to the demands of the society in the areas of communication and social interaction is grossly impaired.
The case of Bazauye (not real name) a 15-year-old male readily comes to mind. He was described by his mother as a gentle young boy but would only respond to you with the same words you say to him. He would not tolerate you touching him and if you did, he would touch you back where you touched him. Bazauye had odd interests in the rays of light from fluorescent bulb as he would continually steal gazes to and from the tube.
Autistic spectrum disorder can present with other childhood problems such as language problems, intellectual disability, walking or other motor problems, enuresis and anxiety problems.
It can be emotionally draining for parents/caregivers of children with autism with various experiences of burden of care which could be causing a roller-coaster of emotions, physical problems and deficits in having meaningful social living. The mother of Bazauye comes visiting every other day to check up on him which she said was very stressful for her.
You and your child can be helped to organize your life better by Clinical Psychologists who are in the employ of Diamondmoor Psychological Services, a center that has the knack for delivering qualitative and best psychological services. The center has battery of psychological tests to unearth the core problem and start you on the recovery route. The child will be assessed using the appropriate psychological tests to ascertain the areas of strength and weakness which will inform the bespoke intervention to deploy. The added advantage is that the parents/caregivers and the school teachers will be trained on some of these interventions and ultimately, how these adults can manage their lives taking care of a child with the autistic spectrum disorder.
Contact us 081 2827 6962 +234 2291 4084.