Happy Autism Day :)

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Bloggers :)


Maaf lama x mengisi blog ini..Kebelakangan ni sibuk dengan aktiviti-aktiviti sekolah maka beberapa kali menangguhkan niat hendak menambah isi dalam blog ini..Truly sorry for the delay :P


2hb April adalah merupakan hari Autism sedunia dan sempena hari tersebut, sya ingin kongsikan beberapa perkara mengenai Autism...

What is Autism?

According to Wikepedia autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior and exist in many different severity. These signs all begin before a child is three years old.

Individual with Autism are most likely to shown distinctive behavior such as withdrawal from social event (they don't like being or surrounded by a lot of people), unable to understand certain social boundary or etiquette, lack of verbal or non verbal communication, shows extreme sensitivity towards light, sound, taste, touch, hearing and smell, a certain repetitive behavior (almost like a ritual) and sometime shows unusual attachment to certain objects. 

Autism is also linked to savant.Some Autism children are born with unique talent in music, art or event mathematics.


Autism is actually is just one of five different autism disorder within one broad Autism Spectrum Disorder :


1. Classic Autism 

• Is considered as the most severe Autism Disorder among the other five. Children who has classic autism shows problem in communication, behavior and their social development.
• According to Leo Kanner (a psychiatrist from John Hopkins University) have identified a few key characteristics based on an observation, which are :
• a profound lack of affection and emotional contact with other (unable to emotionally understand by showing no expression or affection when other show varies emotion such as crying, in pain or smiling)
• an intense need for sameness in routines (children needed consistency in doing daily routine)
• muteness of abnormality in speech (mumbling, humming or shrieking in high pitch voiced)
• fascination with manipulating objects (spinning objects)
• high-levels of visuo-spatial (e.g playing jigsaw puzzle) skills, but major learning difficulty in other areas 
• attractive, alert and intelligent appearance

2. Asperger's  Syndrome (AS)

• Also can be known as pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are a spectrum of psychological conditions that are characterized by abnormalities of social interaction and communication that pervade the individual's functioning, and by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior.
• One of the main characteristic about AS is individual with AS is compulsively cling to a same routine and go ballistic when changes are made (even a small changes) .
• AD children also show reduced sensitivity in pain (unable to respond appropriately when hurt) and increased sensitivity on light or sound.
• AD children may possess average or above-average intelegence

3. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)

• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder includes severe regression in communication skills, social behavior, and all developmental motor skills. At the beginning these children seem perfectly normal. They start to regress at between ages 2-4 years. At that time these children stop socializing, lose potty-training skills, stop playing, lose motor skills and stop making friends

4. Rett Syndrome

• Rett syndrome is a neurological and developmental disorder that mostly occurs in females and is marked by poor head growth. Loss of muscle tone is usually the first symptom. 
• Other early symptoms may include problems crawling or walking and diminished eye contact. They stop using their hands to do things and often develop stereotyped hand movements, such as wringing, clapping, or patting their hands. 
• The inability to perform motor functions is perhaps the most severely disabling feature of Rett syndrome, interfering with every body movement, including eye gaze and speech. Infants with Rett syndrome seem to grow and develop normally at first, but then stop developing and even lose skills and abilities.

5. Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified

• This tends to describe people who have many or all of the different types of Autism disorders. Children with PDDNOS either do not fully meet the criteria of symptoms used to diagnose any of the four specific types above, and/or do not have the degree of impairment described in any of the above four specific types.

What causes Autism?
Its still a mystery to what really causes Autism..Some scientist think that Autism is a genetic disorder which are hereditary. Some think it might been due to babies having to many shots since childbirth and due to overexposed to too many chemicals might have altered the way the brain function. Some even think that difficulty during pregnancy can also contribute to Autism due to trauma that the unborn baby might have endured. The answer is still out there and is still yet to be discovered and finding the truth is a tricky process due to brain is a complicated and delicate organ to understand. But one thing for sure, Autism affect boys more than girl.

How to handle children with Autism?
Some children diagnosed with Autism can recover with little intervention but most Autistic children need intensive therapy and behavioral modification by doctors, therapy and even special teacher in order to ease the transition onto normal surrounding. 


The first step in intervene with handling Autistic children is to teach them how to communicate. A lot of methods have been introduced but one stand out than the others is PECS,  which is short for Picture Exchange Communication System. This method does not requires high tech machinery nor facility and it is easily applied to most people and recent literature reviews supported PECS as an evidence-based practice. Some Autistic children also undergo speech therapy to enable them to talk.


Next, come the social skill learning which teach the children on daily social skill such as greeting people appropriately, wait for their turn and following instruction. Most Autistic children also needed help in learning basic living skill such as brushing teeth to wearing clothes. Behavioral modification is also been implied to Autistic children because some of them have trouble in sitting still , aggressive and self-abusive. Therapy like equestrian therapy and water therapy are mostly affective in calming the mood of an Autistic behavior.


I've recently come across a youtube video showing an self-abusive Autistic teenager and his mother have to drag him to the pool for him to calm down. Autistic individual also can develop a self-soothing behavior such as touching or caressing texture of a concrete wall, a crispy cracker or even gently tickling their hand or feet. This kind of behavior somehow sooth themselves and ended temper tantrum.


Last word..
Most of the information above are compiled from various sources such as Wikepedia, KidsHealth.org, and Autism.com...
I will keep on updating in methods and ways in handling children with Autism so thats all for now..Happy reading and do aware that Autism is not a disease, its an disorder :)

Lets celebrate Autism Awareness Day on 2nd April...
APRIL IS ALSO AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH :)