Autism spectrum disorder is a disorder that affects a person’s development and neurology from childhood and lasts throughout a person’s life. It mainly affects the physical interaction with others, their communication and learning. It is referred to a spectrum because the affected persons have a range of symptoms: inability to speak, maintain eye contact, and failure to feed, hence they are fully dependent on others and some are found doing the same things for longer periods of time. Its cause is not known but researchers have mostly associated the disorder with genetics and environment National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Prevalence
It has been estimated that almost one in one hundred and sixty child suffer from autism. Some studies have however reported differential figures that are slightly higher than that of WHO. Based on the epidemiological study that was done years ago, the prevalence of autism has been recorded to be increasing globally (Mayada, 2012). This is mainly because of the increase in awareness, constant research aimed towards suppressing the disorder and also better diagnostic tools that have been associated with the disease.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
A child is said to be autistic when they display the following characteristics
When they have delayed speech
When they cannot express their feelings
When they obsess over things and activities
When they don’t respond to their name by 1year
When they cannot reach out to objects by 14 months
When they repeat words and phrases
Grown persons with autism have the following signs and symptoms
- Poor body posturing
- Undistinguishable facial expressions.
- Unidentified voice tone
- Disturbances in their behaviors.
- Inability to speak
- Inability to maintain eye contact
- Poor social interaction skills
- Usually focusing on one topic
- Inability to comprehend different languages
- Lack of empathy
- Constantly repeating certain words
- Repeating certain movements
- Self-harm or abusive behaviors
- Lack of sleep
TREATMENT
ASD has no standard treatment but ways of minimizing the symptoms have been established. Treatment helps no matter the age or stage of diagnosis. Given the necessary and appropriate therapies, people with ASD can explore all their abilities and skills. Some get to near-normal levels. Starting early is often recommended because of that way the therapy has more positive effects than later.
BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT THERAPY FOR AUTISM
This kind of treatment aims to strengthen wanted behaviors and habits and weaken unwanted ones. It guides the caregivers on what to do before the problem behaviors, during them, after and in between.
This therapy is mainly based on behavioral applied analysis, which is an accepted way of tracking a child’s progress Types of ABA commonly used are
- Positive Behavioral and Support (PBS). PBS figures the reason behind a problem behavior. It changes the environment, impacts skills, and makes other changes that strengthen the wanted behavior.
- Pivotal Response Training (PRT). PRT occurs in the child’s surrounding. It focuses on motivating the child to communicate and interact
- Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI). EIBI takes place in individual levels. It requires physical interaction between the caregiver and the affected person
- Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT). DTT impacts skills in a controlled manner Training is done step by step.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY FOR ASD
This form of therapy relies more on the thoughts, feelings and behavior of the patient. Caregivers are therefore encouraged to set up aims for the therapy. That way, the person with ASD is able to identify thoughts that can lead to certain feelings or behaviors in certain situations. This kind of therapy has different phases based on the strengths and weaknesses of the patient.
EARLY INTERVENTION
Researchers found out that early intervention have long-term positive impacts on kids with
The process involves family training, speech, and physical therapy. Nutrition services are also offered. Early interventions are administered at the age of 2 or 3 when the child’s brain is still forming hence changeable
MEDICAL TREATMENT OPTIONS
There are various autism treatment methods available depending on the condition of the patient. These includes the following:
Behavioral management therapy for autism:
This treatment option aims at reinforcing wanted behaviors by suppressing the unwanted ones. Generally, behavioral therapy is majorly based on an analysis called applied behavior. This program tracks the progress of a child regarding to the improvement of their skills. This section entails various applied behavior analyses that are used in treatment of autism.
- Positive Behavioral and Support (PBS). This process aims at figuring out the reason behind a certain behavior that an autistic child possesses. It thereafter provides options to correct the behavior and make them behave correctly.
- Pivotal Response Training (PRT). This process aims at improving the child’s pivotal skills such as that of communication it takes place on a day-to-day basis as it will serve as the constant reminder of the topics learned. It also imparts them with skills that they can use in many situations.
- Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI). This is provided to children at the very young age with the intention of shaping their concurrent behaviors. It requires a lot of time and commitment for the process to be successful.
- Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT). This treatment option teaches a certain skill in a controlled manner: that is, step-by-step provision of information and constant feedback regarding the process made.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Autism
This treatment option focuses on the connection that exists between thoughts, feelings and behavior of the autistic patient. It entails both parties, the therapist, autistic person and the parents/guardian coming up with some of the goals that are to be achieved during the process. Throughout the process, the autistic patient is equipped with skills that enable them to change the thoughts that lead them to behave in a certain way (Lang, 2010). Since it’s a long process, it is structured into specific phases in order to realize positive results. This therefore means that the response will depend on the strengths and weaknesses of the patients. In conclusion, this form of therapy helps autistic patients to cope with social situations and realization of their emotions.
Speech-language therapy.
This therapy session aims at addressing challenges related to communication among the autistic community. This varies from person to person. Some may be able to talk while others could be having total difficulty in relaying information. There are also those who have difficulty in understanding the facial expressions or body language of the speaker.
This form of therapy begins with intense evaluation of the speech language of the person. This helps to assess their individual strengths and weaknesses. They thereafter come up with goals that aim at improving their nonverbal skills, spoken language among other mentioned factors.
Some of the activities that may be adopted during this therapy is the strengthening of the mouth muscles, that is the jaw and neck, creation of clear speech sounds, responding to questions, matching pictures with meaning among other various identified factors (Paul, 2008).
Nutritional therapy
Children with autism tend to eat certain foods depending on how they perceive their taste: this therefore means that they are more likely to ignore some because of their situation. it is therefore essential to provide an all-inclusive meal plan in order to improve their immune. For instance, people with autism are on gluten-free diets, this means foods containing proteins are not their forte and should therefore be taken into consideration (Adams, 2011).
Besides, proper nutrition is essential for autistic children since they tend to have thinner bones. This means that they should be provided with bone building foods in order to facilitate their development (Zimmer, 2012).
Educational considerations of autistic students
Autistic children have a right to public and fair education as per the law. The question however is on the mode of transmission as they are quite different from the others. Flexibility is therefore an important factor since there is need to come up with different styles that will be effective in execution of learning. The following are some of the proposed guidelines that should be used:
Use of visual instructions
Visual instructions tend to stick more than just verbal interactions. This is because the photographic cues will most definitely be useful in the restoration of their memories. Besides, they can revisit them whenever they want.
Introducing fidget toys
This will help reduce their constant movements in the classroom as they act as a form of interruption to the other students. Besides, they will act as a source of comfort in a situation where they feel uncomfortable or are experiencing social anxiety (Simpson, 2003).
Conclusion
In conclusion, autism is one of the widely researched sector as it is something that we encounter in our day to day basis. As much as a lot of efforts have been put into this, there are still aspects that are unclear such as the treatment options available for the disease. NICHD and other agencies are however working on providing full term solution to those people living with autism.
References
Adams, J. B., Audhya, T., McDonough-Means, S., Rubin, R. A., Quig, D., Geis, E., et al. (2011). Nutritional and metabolic status of children with autism vs. neurotypical children, and the association with autism severity. Nutrition & Metabolism, 8(1), 34.
Lang, R., Regester, A., Lauderdale, S., Ashbaugh, K., & Haring, A. (2010). Treatment of anxiety in autism spectrum disorders using cognitive behavior therapy: A systematic review. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 13(1), 53–63.
Mayada et al. Global prevalence of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Autism Res. 2012 Jun; 5(3): 160–179.
Paul, R. (2008). Interventions to improve communication in autism. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics of North America, 17(4), 835–856.
Simpson, R. L., de Boer-Ott, S. R., & Smith-Myles, B. (2003). Inclusion of learners with autism spectrum disorders in general education settings. Topics in language disorders, 23(2), 116-133.
Zimmer, M. H., Hart, L. C., Manning-Courtney, P., Murray, D. S., Bing, N. M., & Summer, S. (2012). Food variety as a predictor of nutritional status among children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(4), 549–556.
