Mitchell

HEALTH ISSUE | APRIL 2021

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.

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 diffi culties with communication, especially in the nonverbal realms. Challenges in reading body language and understanding subtleties and subtexts make socializing diffi cult. 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

autism; monotropic minds focus their attention on a narrow but an intense number of interests, often overlooking things that are not within this tunnel of interests.

When you put together communication issues, diffi culty with socialization and sensory sensitivities, you might understand how autistic kids might be anxious. Anxiety is not part of the diagnostic criteria for autism, but it is a common co-existing condition.

Other mental health conditions, such as mood disorders, can also co-exist with an autism diagnosis. In addition, some autistic kids will also have an intellectual disability. It is debatable just what proportion of autism people are also intellectually disabled. The diagnosis does not tell you who your student is. It suggests that he might experience a range of characteristics. You will need to get to know him to see how these play out for him.

Your autistic child or student is not a cluster of symptoms. He’s an individual with interests, strengths, and challenges. And he or she needs your support in ways that will truly help him. You can do this.

When parents receive the news that their child has autism, they spend countless hours researching the subject, usually at night, after an exhausting day. Teachers, when they hear that they’ll have a student with an autism spectrum disorder, also try to learn as much as they can. The award-winning Amazon bestseller Autism Goes to School was written for such parents and teachers - an entertaining, easy read that, yet offers strategies and sound information on autism. It has hundreds of fi ve-star reviews on Amazon.

About the author

Dr. Sharon Mitchell gets it. Her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees specialized in autism. She’s been a teacher, counselor, school psychologist, district consultant and autism consultant for decades. She has presented to thousands at conferences and workshops on teaching and parenting autistic kids. She teaches university classes to wanna-be-teachers and to school administrators on inclusion strategies and students who learn differently.

Her books include:

Autism Goes to School (This will be free from 22nd to 25th of April) Autism Runs Away Autism Belongs Autism Talks and Talks Autism Grows Up Autism Box Set Autism Goes to College - Jeff’s Coming-of-Age Story Autism Questions Teachers Ask Autism Questions Parents Ask Anything for Her Son - Prequel Short Story to the Series When Bad Things Happen GONE: A Psychological Thriller - Book 1 of the Series When Bad Things Happen TRUST: A Psychological Thriller - Book 2 of the Series When Bad Things Happen