Autism Spectrum Disorder – Symptoms, Causes and Counselling techniques for dealing with Autistic Children
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person perceives others and socializes with them. Autism creates problems in social interaction and communication. This disorder may also include repetitive patterns of behavior. The ward 'spectrum' in Autism Spectrum Disorder indicates that there is a wide range of symptoms and severity. Autism Spectrum Disorder (also referred to as 'ASD') begins in early childhood and gradually causes problems in functioning socially, in school and later at work.
Symptoms of ASD
(1) One of the significant symptoms of ASD seen in many children is that they avoid eye contact, do not respond to their name or show indifference to their care giver.
(2) Some children may be normal in first few months of birth but suddenly become withdrawn or aggressive or lack language skills. These signs may be seen at about age of 2 years
(3) A few children suffering from ASD may have difficulty in learning or a few may have lower than normal intelligence There are also children suffering from ASD who have normal to high intelligence.
(4) Autistic child may not speak or has delayed speech.
(5) Autistic child can't start a conversation or keep one going.
(6) The children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder may perform repetitive movements like rocking, spinning or hand flapping.
Causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder:
There is no single know cause of autism. But broadly speaking, causes may be categorized into (1) Genetics (2) Environmental factors.
(1) Genetics: Autism Spectrum Disorder involves several different genes. ASD may be associated in case with of some children with a genetic disorder such as Rett syndrome or Fragile X syndrome. In case of some other children, genetic mutations may be responsible for ASD. Other genes too may affect brain development or severity of this disorder. Some of the genetic mutations are spontaneously happening while others may be genetically inherited.
(2) Environment Factors: Complications during pregnancy and medications taken during this period are believed to have significant impact in development of Autism Spectrum Disorder in a child. Other factors like viral infections or air pollution are also suspected to trigger autism spectrum disorder.
Counseling Techniques:
Following counseling techniques can be useful for the people suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder.
(1) Help in mastering fundamental Social Behavior: An autistic person does not interact or make eye contact with others. Therefore, he is very slow in learning proper social behavior. He needs to be involved in interaction with others gradually by the Counsellor.
(2) Development of Language skills: Because of lack of interaction with other children and his own parents too, an autistic child is usually very late in acquiring the basic language skills. Therefore, speech and language therapies can be very useful for the child suffering from ASD.
(3) Behavioral Counselling: The child suffering from ASD can be guided by the counselor in learning how he should behave with his parents, siblings, other family relatives and other children. Counselor can play a crucial role in this direction.
(4) Parental Counseling: Parents have to be counseled to show acceptance and warmth to the child. It has been observed that the ASD children, whose parents do not hold them in high regard, may develop low esteem and low self control. Due to this, they may suffer also from many anxiety disorders, emotional and behavioral problems. It has also been observed that there is also a moderate need for parental strictness without which there can be mal-adjustments and high level of aggression in the autistic child.
In view of the above, the counselor must make it clear to the parents during parental counseling that the parenting style affects the child behavior and development significantly in case of an autistic child. The counselor must guide the parents about permissible parenting style which Includes acceptance of the autistic child and keeping him under some sort of low control. The counselor is also supposed to guide the parents and teachers that any sort of punishment meted out to the child may damage his self-esteem and hence must be avoided.
(5) Training children to do their own work: The counselor must try to ensure that the child learns to do his own work, particularly he should become independent in terms of taking bath, using toilet, dressing up, eating properly and interacting with others at home or at school.
(6) Engaging the child in various activities: If a child suffering from ASD engages in some fruitful activities, he is likely to grow faster improvement in his condition. Play therapy and Music therapy can particularly be useful for such children.
(7) Behavioral Modification Techniques: Behavioral modification is possible by following techniques:-
(a) Positive reinforcement – This involves appreciating good behavior so that it enforces itself in the child and he is encouraged to do similar behavior.
(b) Negative reinforcement – In this method, child is motivated to act in particular manner failing which he loses something as a punishment.
