HEALTH ISSUE | APRIL 2021
Articles
April is World Autism Awareness Month by Dr. Sharon A. Mitchell
There are over 700,000 autistic people in the UK. One in every 54 American children has autism. If autism has not touched your life, it will affect your friend, neighbor or your co-worker. Autism is a spectrum disorder. That means that there is a large variation in how the autistic symptoms play out in individuals. For some, the autism characteristics permeate every moment of their day. For others, these characteristics can appear more muted. But within one person, functioning can vary throughout different life stages, or even throughout the day. Autism has a genetic basis, and this is the way the child comes. Some parents say that they could tell from birth that there was something different about the way their infant related to the world. With other children, the differences aren’t as apparent until the preschool year. Autism is not a result of any parenting style.
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An
autistic
child
has
challenges
in social communication. That could range from being unable to speak, to coming across as socially awkward. Even in those who are highly verbal, there will be difficulties with communication, especially in the nonverbal realms. Challenges in reading body language and understanding subtleties and subtexts make socializing difficult. There will be repetitive interests and/ or behaviors, although each of these can change when some other topic or action becomes the focus. Along with behaviors come what are sometimes referred to as restricted interests, although I’m not a fan of the word “restricted” in this case. In many kids, it’s an intense interest that consumes their attention for time spans that are far longer than shown by their peers. There are some clear advantages to having restricted interests. The individual may know far more about his area of interest than anyone you’ve ever met. If this interest can one day be translated into a job, it’s a win-win. Monotropism is a feature of
