What is Autism? Autism is a topic which is widely discussed in the book Cage of Butterflies; Autism is a biological disorder of the brain that impairs communication and social skills. Autistics have been described as being in their “own world”. Many high functioning autistics describe two worlds; “their world” and the “outside world” Many autistics describe their experience as “thinking in pictures”.
Parents or relatives of an autistic person may display autistic-like behavior, for example they might experience some communication and emotional disorders or they might repeat their behavior and have troubles with talking or expressing them selves. The symptoms of autism always depend on the person.
People affected by autism are are sometimes aggressive and might even try to harm themselves, or if the symptoms aren’t as severe, the people have learning difficulties or problems with getting along with others. The most common symptom is the serious inability to relate to other people.
For autistic children routine is a very common thing. Unlike other children, they usually do not interact with one another as others do. Constant screaming fits, rocking back and forth, arm flapping, pulling of hair, biting of their own hands and banging their heads against walls can be classified as these routine behaviors. Also urges to play with their own saliva and urine.
The worlds of autistic children can be described as being turned totally upside down. For a typical individual, we take the normal function of our five senses for granted:
- Vision
- Hearing
- Touch
- Taste
- Smell
An example of the impact a dysfunctional sensory system may have is, for instance
A walk Through the Neighborhood.
Take yourself for an example; the following scenario should sound like a perfectly normal thing that you are quite capable of achieving.
You, a typical individual, would have no problem walking down the street with a friend, having a conversation, hearing the sounds of the neighborhood in the background, smelling flowers, and chewing gum, all at the same time.
Whereas for an autistic individual, who has a dysfunctional sensory system, this typical experience may be totally overwhelming. The individual may be completely oblivious to the sounds of the neighborhood such as an ambulance screaming by, or may be totally overpowered by the smell of the flowers. The sun shining through the trees may be such an intense experience, it may inhibit the individual from being able to concentrate on walking down the side walk.
Some people who have over come autism as children wrote books describing their feelings and emotions. A lot of these people wrote about how some noises hurt or terrified them so they had to withdraw to their own world. Drifting away in their own world is another problem, because whilst they are doing that, autistic children are completely oblivious of what is happening in the real world, this proposes a great danger for the children.
There is no test for diagnosing autism. It is usually diagnosed by the behavior and actions of newborn babies and young children. There is also no proven cure for this disease. The reason for this is, that if one particular treatment is developed it would not work for every patient, because some patients might have more difficulties In speech, where as others might need assistance in hearing, therefore it is an individual disorder.
One excellent treatment that has been invented by an autistic adult is the Hug Box. The Hug Box is a simple soft box, into which a child could crawl if they were feeling insecure. The inventor insisted that when she was a child, she often experienced great feelings of loneliness, and often wanted someone close, so she crept under a pile of blankets and pillows.
There are also a few other methods of curing autistic children. There are usually a few teaching methods, or just a visit to a professional. Behavior Modification is one method where autistic children are taught useful skills or are taught to communicate properly. Sometimes autistic children need to attend school 6 times a week so that they would not forget a particular skill that took them months to learn. Not all autistic adults work at handicapped workshops; some actually get jobs like normal people and attend universities.
Overall, autism is a disorder which affects the brain and has no specific established cure so, hopefully a real cure will be found soon.