Autism

A Unique Sensory, Emotional, and Social Development

The Areas in which Autism Affects People:

    Autism is manifested in three very inter-related areas: social interaction and communication; repetitive, non-functional behaviors; and unique emotional development. The unique development that autistic individuals experience in those three areas is the result of physiological uniqueness that starts and guides their development in their own, unique direction. Those areas of unique development are probably the result of the physiology of only a few cells.

The good news is that since development is a process, a unique and poorly functional initial condition can be redirected until it becomes adaptive within the autistic individual's general society, not just within a special person's center.

    For instance, all the repetitive, unnecessary behaviors, the inappropriate and anti-social behaviors can be reduced to near or total eradication. Correct verbal communication can be trained in many cases, to the point of meeting most or all social demands. Emotional responses can be modified to become totally socially acceptable. All these corrections take extremely intensive behavior programs aimed at the correct performance. So, the people working with the autistic person have to be able to implement an extremely severe discipline. Discipline in this context does not refer to any sort of punishment; it refers to the stringent following of a highly focused behavioral treatment with strict consistency for as long as is required.  Furthermore, the discipline must be aimed at the development of the correct skills.  

    There are, however, two major problems that often occur with these corrections. First, in most cases the discipline is not sufficiently consistent and it may be aimed at pleasing adults in charge more than at the developmental goals required for the child‘s benefit. In most places I have worked, my first observation is that adults say "no" to many things the child wants to do. Yet, most of the things the adults stop the child from doing would not have harmed the child in any way.

So, my first training of parents tends to be "Think before you say no and use the no's wisely."

    An example of this may be when the child wants a cookie at 3:00 in the afternoon. The mother says no. The child stays hungry and cranky. The mother gets frustrated and eats a cookie. Eventually the mother gives the child the cookie. The right thing would have been to say "OK, you spend 20 minutes without rocking, and we eat a cookie together." You get to help the child to reduce the rocking, and you teach the child to have a good time with you, doing some thing social, such as eating a cookie. If you are on a diet, your child has the cookie and you have the carrot. If you are afraid the child may get fat, have him or her do more exercise. If sugar affects the child, buy sugarless cookies or give the child crackers, or teach the child to enjoy eating baked corn chips or yogurt.

    The other problem associated with the modification of emotional responses is that they are developmental. Correcting one triggers changes that affect many other behaviors. So, they must be corrected in the right order. This order depends on the emotion being corrected, and the person who is correcting it should know the order to avoid creating additional emotional problems. ABOVE ALL, not too many emotional behaviors can be modified simultaneously without harm. So, patience and the correct order of modification of behaviors are essential. This is not something most parents can do; a professional is needed.

Autism is not an illness; it can not be cured. But since it is a unique developmental path, it can be redirected so that the autistic person functions happily in a non-autistic society.

Every action we take towards the child should be directed towards correcting the child's development.

If we do the right things, the autistic child can develop into a productive, happy, and well adjusted adult. For an autistic person to grow up appropriately, treatment has to be effective in three major functional areas. Treatment must adjust the autistic person’s social interactions and communications; treatment must reduce repetitive, non-functional behaviors; and treatment must correct sensory-emotional stimulus perceptions.

The following autistic characteristics are discussed in their own pages:

Social Interactions and Communications

Social Referencing

 Social Learning

Repetitive, Non-Functional Behaviors

Self Stimulation and Repetition