The Autistic Centre

What is Autism?
Autism is defined as a biological disturbance in the central nervous system, which normally takes place before birth or starts before the age of three. Autism does NOT occur as a result of the environment. Global research shows that 1 out of 1000 worldwide suffer this handicap.

Symptoms:
Children with autism do not ususally have a visible handicap. They look normal, very often with a normal IQ. Autism manifests itself mainly through contact deviation - the autistic person avoids contact with everyone, including his mother. He/she does not want to be held or cuddled. The autistic child's development is characterised by: contact disturbance, language disturbance, stereotype rituals / odd interests.

Autistic children may be grouped as DISTANT (seeming to live in his or her own world, without taking interest in the surroundings); PASSIVE (does not wish to be independent or take interactive action of its own); ODD (often absorbed in a single object or activity that takes up all their time and energy).

Consequences:
Autism causes difficulties in daily life especially since other handicaps develop out of autism. It is thus important to understand that autism is the primary handicap. Even the slightest form of autism is disabling, because the contact disturbance makes it impossible fort he autistic person to interact with other people. They do not understand the nuances of language or other people's non-verbal messages. Autistic children need help throughout their growing up, at home, in daycare centres and in school.
Can people with autism be helped? Continue reading here...