My sister who happens to be a classroom teacher was telling me about a little boy in her class who has autism, in Nigeria, so many children who should be placed in a unique space are often joined with other children, and the parents will always give the excuse of wanting them to mix up with other kids, but I am always of the opinion that children with special needs should be trained by teachers who have the skill to do that, mixing them up with other children is a NO for me, but that is entirely my opinion though. So, back to what I was speaking about, the child having autism was not a new story as I have read and watched videos of children with autism, but what got me scared was the fact that she mentioned that the child actually inflicts injury himself, he may begin to scratch his face angrily, cause severe damage on his body while screaming.
These teachers are not specially trained for situations like this, so they try to hold him down until he calms down, they repeatedly do this for the little boy and for me, it is the very first time I am hearing the case of a child with autism inflicting pain on himself. Could that be autism? I asked myself, there is, however, so much we do not know and we may never know if we fail to do research.
Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) is a disability, a developmental disability that is caused by brain differences, people who have ASD usually have big issues with social interaction and communication, and those with ASD may as well learn differently, move differently, and pay attention differently, some people who do not have ASD may likewise experience these symptoms.
Those with ASD would act, interact, learn, and communicate in ways that are different from most other people, there is nothing about their looks that differentiates them from others, but the abilities of people living with ASD vary greatly, while someone who has the condition may need some high conversational skills, some others may be nonverbal, while some of them as will require a lot of effort and work every day, others can work with little or no support.
Autism spectrum disorder starts in a child before the child is 3 years old and the condition could last for as long as the person lives.
The effect of social communication and interaction would usually show up in one or more ways, characteristics include;
Failure to maintain eye contact.
Does not show any excitement in things they like by 15 months of age.
Fails to show facial expressions, so parents cannot differentiate the moment of being sad from being happy, angry, or surprised.
The child does not like to play simple interactive games.
Does not spend time playing with other children by 36 months.
Does not try to sing or dance for parents by 60 months.
Failure to act or pretend to be someone/something else, probably a superhero by 48 months old.
Shows little to no gesture at 12 months old.
Difficulty adapting to a new change.
Being overly focused on one niche subject and ignoring others.
Arranging things in one particular way.
There is no medical test procedure like taking out a blood sample for diagnosing ASD, doctors however carefully observe how a child behaves and his or her developmental behavior in order to make the diagnosis, it can sometimes be detected at 18 months or younger, and by age 2 the diagnosis can then be considered a reliable one, but some people do not also get diagnosed until they become fully grown adults, but the delay in getting diagnosed is the delay that will be associated with getting the required help.
The treatment available for people with ASD is to help reduce the symptoms interfering with their quality of life, since each case is often different, the treatment plans by different experts in the field will help those with the condition feel better. Early access to treatments could greatly improve how the child socializes with others and boosts effective communication.
It is sad that those with autism are often treated differently, we should focus on the fact that those with autism also have health issues and when they get to the hospital, they also need to be attended to urgently. Being autistic is in no way a disease or an infection, it rather means the brain is working in a different way, so this should not prevent you from having a good life, making friends, building new relationships, or getting a job, but like I have mentioned before, it has to be worked towards together with the help of experts in different relatable fields in order to make the achievement a possibility.
No one actually knows what the major cause of autism is or if it even has a cause, it can actually affect those from the same family, and sometimes it even gets transferred from parents to children, so do not judge parents when a child is autistic. Autism isn't caused by; improper diet, infection, vaccines, and bad parenting, etc.
Some other conditions that a child with autism could also possess are;
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Where the child begins to forget a lot, tries to talk too much, carelessly drops items or make mistakes, is unable to get along with others, fidgets, or squirms a lot.
Dyslexia: This is a case of a learning disorder characterized by reading difficulty, inability to identify speech sounds, and learning how these sounds relate to words and letters. Another name for dyslexia is reading disability.
Anxiety disorder: This is a mental health condition that makes it difficult to get through the day conveniently, characterized by feeling nervous, getting scared, panicking all through the day, sweating profusely, etc.
Depression: When children who are autistic begin to realize they have different behavior from other kids, they could begin to feel depressed. Depression is a consistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest in major things.
Epilepsy: Autistic children could also be epileptic, and I cannot even imagine how scary and inconvenient that is going to be. Epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system causing seizures or periods of unusual behaviors, sensations, and even loss of awareness.
Now that we have learned a lot about autism, I still go back to the story I started the post with, what could make an autistic child harm himself, in case you are still not sure, let's get there quickly.
In most cases, self-injury is a means of communication, often the child is trying to convey a particular message and he is unable to say it in words, so he devices mean like, headbanging, scratching, and other injurious means just to get the attention of people around, the child may be trying to say, this is too hard for me, I need to get out of here, kindly look at me or even any other thing.
Self-injury is usually a learned behavior, parents unintentionally reinforce the behavior in kids, imagine that, a child begins to bang his head and the mother quickly gets him ice cream, he registers in his subconscious mind that, he just needs to do that again in order to get another cup of ice cream and that is how it becomes a habit.
I wish I could speak to the parent of the child and advise a special care school with specially trained teachers who will be able to understand him and take care of him appropriately, but one thing about Nigerian mothers is that you could get into trouble for doing that and I would have taken the risk but I do not know how to get across to her.
However, bear in mind that, autism is not the only reason why a child would inflict self-injury on himself, there are other associated conditions behind that. You should evaluate and understand the reason behind the condition and of course, proceed to make necessary treatment accordingly.
Autism is a brain developmental disability, it begins in children and lasts them for a lifetime, autism in these children comes with differently displayed characteristics, and detecting and managing it on time, will enable the child to live a normal life and enjoy life as it should be, but detecting the condition as an adult could be a little too late to control.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9536-anxiety-disorders
