Demystifying Autism

What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?



Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD, as it is more commonly known, is a lifelong developmental disability that affects social and communication skills.  Children and adults with Autism, tend to look no different from a non autistic person, which can also make it a lot harder to create awareness and understanding that they in fact have Special Needs.   While over the past couple of years I have learnt a lot more about Autism, I still have a lot to learn and no doubt will pick up more as my son Alexander grows up. Like other children, autistic kids still do follow a pattern of growth and development, but not in the same way as non autistic children. I don't like to use the term "normal" to describe non autistic people, since I despise it and in reality there is no such thing as "normal". In April this year Alexander finally got an official diagnosis of Autism, just after his 4th birthday at the end of March. Until then he had what the professionals class as "A working diagnosis" which in simple terms meant that they highly suspected he was autistic based on his behaviour, loss of speech, lack of interaction and awareness towards people, and not meeting the usual toddler milestones of kids aged between 2-3 years old.At first I explained Alexander was classed as probably being autistic, but in the end it got tedious, since I deal with so many people outside of the house and started saying he was Autistic anyway. According to the Developmental Paediatrician we have been seeing since Alexander was 3 years old, she said that Alexander fell into the mild-moderate range of the Autistic Spectrum, and with the right Intervention he will have more of a chance to be mainstreamed, but with various forms of help. At the moment, Alexander is still in Kindergarten, but only goes for the morning sessions from 8.30-11.30am, on Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. For those outside of NZ, children here typically start Kindergarten around 3 years old and start off going to the afternoon sessions which are from 11.30-2.30, unless they go to the all day session, which a lot of Kindergartens these days also run including my sons one. For Alexander though, an all day session is too much to cope with, so he just goes to the traditional morning session for the 4-5 year olds. He has a Teacher aide on Tuesday and Wednesdays, which has helped a lot, especially with his social behaviour. Alexander has finally reached the stage where he is showing more interest and awareness of other children, after the nearly 2 years of teaching him to develop awareness of people amongst other things, but the downside is now that since he is  still very limited with speech, tends to express his wants to occasionally join in where he is able to inappropriately, and will hit,push over and scream at the kids and or adults if they intervene. He also is still very impulsive and lacks awareness of dangers like kids usually do  when they are under 3 years old, and unlike non autistic kids, autistic kids can quite often be like this well into school age or even adulthood and don't usually tend to outgrow impulsive behaviour or develop  awareness of danger the same, without it being taught explicitly to them, which I am doing at the moment. What I have written here is  based on my own experiences so far, but for more info check out: http://www.autismnz.org.nz/Autism-New-Zealand/More-About-Autism.php