What is autism?

What are people with autism like?

Communication: An individual with autism may have no language, language may develop slowly, or they may have a highly developed vocabulary (as in the case of people with Asperger's). Some may use words without attaching the usual meaning to them and others may speak at people, not with them. Many individuals echo words, phrases, and sentences they have heard and use this as a way to communicate with others. Those individuals who are verbal may use language in an odd or unusual way and often there is great difficulty in initiating, and/or maintaining a conversation. Sometimes efforts to communicate are accomplished with gestures instead of words. It is not unusual for a person with autism to be very literal and to understand language in its literal context.

Social Interaction: Many people with autism may prefer to spend time alone rather than seeking out the company of others. Many children with autism do not have the inherent need to please adults, nor do they understand social hierarchy. They often have attachments with their immediate families but they may show little interest in making friends, or speaking to others they are not familiar with. Most individuals with autism have difficulty in understanding non-verbal communication such as body language and facial expressions. Quite often they are less responsive to social cues such as eye contact or smiles. Those individuals that are more social typically have difficulty in understanding the "how to's" of social interactions.

Play: Children with autism usually do not imitate others and therefore lack the building blocks for spontaneous or imaginative play. Their patterns of play are often repetitive and restricted and they usually do not initiate pretend games, or play activities with other children.

Sensory Impairment: Many individuals have sensitivities in the areas of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, again to various degrees. Sometimes these sensitivities resolve themselves as the individual gets older, and some individuals experience sensory impairment in waves that become better and worse for a variety of reasons.

Behaviours: Individuals with autism may be overactive or very passive. They may throw tantrums for no "apparent" reason (there is always a reason). Many show an apparent lack of fear and sense of danger or may seem to lack common sense. They can show an obsessive interest in a single item, idea, activity or person. Sometimes people with autism are aggressive to others or to themselves (again there is a reason although the function of a particular behaviour may be difficult to determine). And many often have difficulty with changes in routine.

Every person with autism is an individual and, like all individuals, similarities and differences are found. Two children, both with the same diagnosis can act very differently from one another and have varying skills. It is not uncommon for an individual to be mildly affected in one area and severely in another, nor is it uncommon for some individuals to be affected severely, or mildly, in all areas.

Despite what was once widely believed, many children and adults with autism may make eye contact, show affection, smile and laugh, and demonstrate a variety of other emotions, although to varying degrees. Like anyone else, they respond to their environment in both positive and negative ways. The way autism affects them will affect their range of responses to external stimuli and make it more difficult to control how their bodies and minds react. Many individuals with autism make unusual body movements when excited or stressed (called perseverative or self-stimulatory behaviours - ie. hand flapping). Sometimes visual, motor, and/or processing problems make it difficult to maintain eye contact with, and react to the overtures of, others. Some individuals with autism use peripheral vision rather than looking directly at people and for some, the touch or closeness of others may be painful, resulting in withdrawal even from family members. Understandably, anxiety, fear and confusion may result from being unable to "make sense" of the world the way most typical people do.

Individuals with autism can learn, but each has a unique pattern of learning strengths and difficulties. These strengths and difficulties must be considered when implementing a treatment/educational program in order to provide the most effective learning experience. Progress can vary because the abilities of an individual with autism may fluctuate from day to day due to difficulties in concentration, processing, or anxiety. Progress can also be reflective of the effectiveness of the teaching procedures being used with a child.

What Is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)?

A widely accepted definition of ABA comes from Cooper, Heron & Heward, 1987, Applied Behavior Analysis:

Applied behaviour analysis is the science in which procedures derived from the principles of behaviour are systematically applied to improve socially significant behaviour to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate experimentally that the procedures employed were responsible for the improvement in behaviour.

"applied": refers to the social significance of the behaviour under investigation - that is, the target behaviour is important to the subject or to society.

"behaviour": choose a behaviour for change that is in need of improvement (not a similar behaviour or the subject's verbal description of the behaviour). Also, select behaviours that are measurable.

"analytic": refers to being able to control the occurrence and non-occurrence of the behaviour. This happens, when a functional relation between the manipulated events and the behaviour of interest can be shown.

Applied Behaviour Analysis involves a variety of teaching methods for both increasing and decreasing behaviours. Techniques for increasing behaviours include procedures such as discrete trial teaching, shaping, chaining, and video modelling. Procedures for reducing behaviours include procedures such as extinction, time-out, and response cost. Regardless of the teaching procedure being used, differential reinforcement is key to all ABA procedures. Data is collected regularly for all programs, and appropriate changes to programs are initiated based on what the data indicate about the child's progress. Scientific research has confirmed the many positive gains children can achieve with ABA based instruction.

For more information about various ABA procedures, please visit http://www.bacb.com.

Other Useful Links and Infomation

Enzymes
Enzymes are being used by some adults and children with Autism either alone or in conjunction with the GFCF diet. They help with the digestion issues that are common to many individuals with Autism as they help break down the foods that the individual has malabsorption issues with. For more information visit http://www.enzymestuff.com/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnzymesandAutism/.

Vitamin B-6 and Magnesium
An effective intervention for many autistic children and adults is the use of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) and magnesium. B6 and magnesium have received more scientific support than any other biological intervention for autism. There are 18 studies showing that B6 and magnesium are beneficial to about half of autistic individuals, eleven of these studies involved a double-blind placebo design. More information about these research studies along with other relevant information can be obtained at http://www.autism.com/ari/ or http://www.autism.org.

Vitamin A
Dr. Mary Megson, an American paediatrician, has treated children who have Autism with vitamin A which has improved their symptoms by repairing damage to their retina, strengthening the immune system and repairing damage to the intestinal tract so that it can be more efficient at expelling toxins from the body. For more information please visit http://www.megson.com/.

Bio-medical Interventions
The book "Children With Starving Brains - A Medical Treatment Guide For Autism Spectrum Disorder" by Jaquelyn McCandless, MD, offers in-depth information on bio-medical interventions for autism. For more information please visit http://www.autism-rxguidebook.net/.

NIDS
NIDS stands for neuro-immune dysfunction syndromes, a classification for illnesses or disorders related to problems with the complex interactions between the central nervous system and the immune system. Children with NIDS often have a genetic pre-disposition to immune dysregulation. Please visit http://www.nids.net for additional information.

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