Autism diagnoses are different than most diagnoses of other disorders. It may take doctors years to finally gather up enough evidence for the diagnoses of autism. Parents usually are suspect long before the diagnoses is given because they can see that the child may not give them eye contact or that the communication process that the child has learned has started to regress after the first year and a half or so of life. The average age for diagnoses in this country is between the age of two and three and that is where the symptoms start to manifest themselves.
The difficulty in the diagnosis of autism is mainly due to the developmental changes a child goes through during the first three years of life. When a child is developing quickly the nuances of communication and social behavior may elude doctors or even parents who are not specifically watching their child for autism. The pattern of a child's development is ever changing and without a close eye and experience, the onslaught of autism is almost impossible to catch. Even the slightest social blunder may be that the child just has some odd quirks and the line between these quirks and minor autism is a very thin one.
Only the judgment of the doctor is the determining factor to label a child autistic. Some autistic children have gone through their entire life with the label of emotionally disabled or behaviorally challenged. Many doctors stay away from this label because of the emotional impact on the parents or care providers and the chance of lawsuits if the label causes adverse reactions later in life. There are no medical tests that can be administered that would clearly define autism. The doctor's opinion is the only thing that will label a child and put them in a category among special needs that hasn't even really been defined or researched much.
The criterion for autism is determined by a panel of doctors who compare related cases and find a common symptom. Though the criterion is sketchy at best, right now it is the only way some doctors can comfortably make a diagnosis. Most clinicians and medical personal use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders to classify autism and the basic guidelines only include the manifestations of communication use and social behavior. Another guideline that is usually diagnosed as compulsive behavior is the constant vigilance toward established patterns or norms.
The autistic child will find their comfort zone in a specific path they will walk around their house or at school. They may be schedule oriented in which they will follow a specific schedule and will refuse to deviate from it. If a autistic child is made to change their pattern they will lose control of emotions and behavior. Behavior exhibited could be uncontrolled anger to verbal confrontation of an unpleasant manner. The need to follow the specific pattern in built into their system as a way to deal with an ever changing world.
The one thing that the criterion does not cover is the fixation on certain things. Some autistic children can memorize entire books if it is something that they really like. One autistic boy in Wyoming could recite the entire series of Dr. Seuss books. He would recite the entire book including the title and reference sections.
There have been stories and tales of a cure or magical treatment for autism. These claims are not true. They set up the hopes and dreams of both parents and teachers alike only to be disenchanted with the discovery that the claim is false. There has only been one proven treatment for autism and the treatment is not a cure. The treatment is an educational program that individually fits the autistic child's abilities and works around the disabilities to teach the child alternative forms of communication and behavioral skills which will allow them some semblance of a normal adulthood.
When an autistic child reaches school age, there will be a meeting of professionals including a psychologist, doctors, parents, speech therapists, and other interested parties who will draw up an individualize education program for the child. The program will look at the abilities of the child and what level of achievement the child has had in the parent's home and outside services. Mainstreaming the child into regular classrooms is the goal of the program, but the child will be pulled out of mainstream classes in order to provide special services which may include a speech instructor or an behavior specialist who works on both the communication process and the behavior associated with autism.
There are advocates that autistic children should be brought out of the mainstream classes and put into a more restrictive environment that will limit the sensory items that might distract or upset the child. The autistic child needs to have a pattern in their lives and in the mainstream classroom; the hustle and bustle of public education settings may lead them to sensory overload. Not only that but the social aspect of being different and not being able to contribute or communicate to the rest of the class can be heartbreaking to both the student and the teachers involved. The self- contained class room will break down tasks into manageable chunks that the child can be successful and maybe eventually learn. The treatment process goes on both at home and at school. The autistic child must be taught how to appropriately interact with others. A common behavior in autistic children is to take off their clothes. They see no sense of wrong or right by being nude in public. Such behaviors need time and patience to mend and some methods might work for one child and then be completely a failure for others. Parents, teachers, and medical professionals need to keep abreast of new treatments so that they can replace a treatment or method that has been proven a failure for a particular child. Sometimes the behavior cannot be changed at all and the individualize education program must come up with strategies to deal with the behavior.
Parents and teachers must remember that the autism is a life long condition and as the child moves through life the treatments must change to fit the life period of that child. For example, when puberty come along the autistic child will discover themselves sexually and masturbation usually follows. The program must change to fit the new behavior of masturbation and in a few years it must change again to teach the child the appropriate behaviors with the opposite sex. The changes are not understood by the child, but like Pavlov's dog, a conditioned response may be instilled in the child and the proper behavior may be a learned response.
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