Today, April 2nd is “World Autism Awareness Day” it is unfortunate that this year it also happens to be Good Friday, our schools are closed for the Easter holidays and no events are planned for today.
Last year we had a concert, invited local and provincial dignatories and culminated with a party and a balloon release.
How do I recognise autism in my child or grandchild ? I hear you say, here’s a short checklist from one of our brochures:-
The more common signs of autism are as follows :
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- Little awareness of others, their feelings and their communication.
- Development of speech and language may be deviant, delayed or at worst, absent for life.
- Changes in routine or the environment, may cause extreme distress.
- Inappropriate attachment to objects.
- Difficulty in interacting with others.
- Little or no eye contact.
- Indifference to, or dislike of being touched, held or cuddled.
- Uneven gross / fine motor skills.
- Preferring to play alone.
- Imaginative play may be poor. e.g. cannot play with a wooden block as if it is a car, rather just an item to constantly line up or stack.
- Minimal reaction to verbal input and sometimes acts as though deaf.
- Pursues activities repetitively and cannot be influenced by suggestions of change.
- Displays extreme distress and or tantrums when sensory bombardment becomes too much.
- No real fear of dangers.
- Sense of touch, taste, sight, hearing and or smell may be heightened to a point that makes even the inane situation become close to unbearable.
- Unusual habits such as rocking, hand flapping, spinning of objects etc.
- Abnormal sleep patterns.
- Self-injurious behaviour e.g. head banging, scratching or biting with the intention of creating a focus of pain as a means of blocking out the sensory bombardment they can experience.
“Autism is considered to affect 1 in 110 children, therefore in South Africa every hour a child will be born that will develop autism.” (Autism S.A.)
Boadicea's Chariot 
Thank you for reminding us Soutie.
Do you have any delayed events planned?
Hello Boa
Not events as such (although we did have a small ‘party’ at the school before end of term) but awareness programmes. We’ve had brochures printed and will be manning information tables at local shopping centers to answer concerned parents questions.
We’ve also had a thousand bottle opener type keyrings made (with our Autism Eastern Cape details), we will be giving those out to parents and friends over the month.
Thanks Soutie.
Keep up the good work.
Asperger’s Syndrome, is on this continuum and can be debilitating for some. More recently it has been recognised that girls also suffer from it more than previously believed, but present in a different way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome
Hi Soutie, that last symptom strikes me as being really sad.
“Self-injurious behaviour e.g. head banging, scratching or biting with the intention of creating a focus of pain as a means of blocking out the sensory bombardment they can experience.” I can think of few things worse. I suffer from what I suppose is a relatively mild form of tinitus. I have become used to it, but it was hugely irritating when I first acquired it. I wonder if autistic people learn to live with it and whether the they become immune to the pain.
Does autism play any part in life expectancy? I have a relative whose son is autistic and he is now in his mid twenties. I know that people with Downs Syndrome generally do not make it much past their thirties, though I have a DS friend who is in his 40s now. Amazingly he does not seem to have aged physically or mentally since I first met him when he was 13.
Sorry, by ‘learning to live with it’, I meant ‘learning to live with all that sensory bombardment’.
Hello Sipu, I understood what you meant.
The ‘symptoms’ that are described above are more for early identification in pre-school children, from about 2 years when parents first notice a development delay.
With the correct exposure to therapists most of the children outgrow the physical harm they may cause themselves quite early. It’s the teaching (academic) side that I find the most frustrating.
Autists enjoy a normal life expectancy, physically most are fine it’s just that little bit between the ears that doesn’t develop properly!
I read a while back how before the invention of computers, some mathematicians would employ the services of autistic savants to perform some of the more laborious calculations to prove or test a theory. One such, Daniel Tammet ‘can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places.’ I gather though that such abilities only occur in about 10% of autistic sufferers as opposed to 1% of the rest of the population.
I think if I was a young man again with a decision to be made about a career I would choose exploration. But I would want to explore the Human Brain, there is so much that we do not understand about that organ, Sipu’s post about savants sums it up perfectly, can you imagine the thrill in entering and understanding just a small part of what is unknown today?
Thanks, Soutie. We need reminders like this. We regularly receive newsletters from a charity here in the UK which does a great deal to raise awareness and of course tireless fund-raising.
Soutie, this is indeed an informative reminder about a subject that is absolutely fascinating yet alien to many people. You may recall that I work in a school where many, possible at least half the 160 or so students are on the autistic spectrum. Indeed there are three classes that exclusively cater for austistic students. I have one class; a transitionary class, which filters autistic children into the main school and into adulthood. I have worked with these chldren for the best part of 4 years, in the twilight of a varied career – no previous experience in education! I do hope to be able to share some of my experiences with you and other readers/members where time permits. Many of the kids are gems, absolutely fascinating characters and interests as you can well imagine!
PS Gotta get me picture up!
Hello, PapaG: how lovely to see you here. Your comments are not visible on here yet, but they will be soon.
Thanks Ara – hope to spend more time here!
Puzzled how you knew he was here, Ara, before he appeared….
Hello PapaG
I am honoured that this post of mine got you off your backside and into this community.
Of course I remember your involvement with the autists at your school, we’ve discussed it before.
How is Kojo?
You won’t be able to post blogs of your own for a couple of hours or so, but feel free to join in the varied discussions here, all your comments are now automatically approved!
I looked at the comments on my dashboard Nym and saw that there were two from PapaG waiting to be released.
Pseu – thanks – we all need to be kicked up the backside from time to time and your efforts on MyT deserve both attention and praise. Kojo is well. This morning he was happy to run through a length of puddles at the kerbside on our way to buy the Daily Telegraph. He likes making repeated splashes! One I master the hang of this site I hope to put up some pictures of him. Will definitely spend more time here knowing the site is civilised. (Well I hope so!) I shall keep my toe in the water on MyT.
Major Whoops – Soutie I’m sorry for calling you Pseu. It is I that is honoured by your remembrance of me!
PapaG
🙂
I admire your enthusiasm and dedication, Soutie. Thanks for this post and good luck with your fund-raising.
Hello, PapaG. How lovely to see you here! 😀
Hello Bilby, thank you for the kind words and wishes. Fund raising is more a question of strategy than luck, but if both arrive at the same time then we are truly blessed!
Soutie, the blog (post) I published does NOT appear in DNMT pages but shows up in PapaGuineas Blog. Have I pressed the wrong buttons or was my set-up wrong? Are you able to help? Anyway may I congratulate you and Bearsy for all efforts so far to create this site.
Hello Papa: yes, it is an easy mistake to make. If you look at the top left of the page you will see “Your Dashboards”. When you write a post you have to choose Bearsy’s site, that is here, rather than your own.
If you wrote the post on your own site it will appear there!
Copy it – go to ‘My Dashboards’ click on Bearsy and open a new post, making sure that you click on Bearsy again and publish it here. 🙂
I shall probably be told that I haven’t explained it very well! -:)
Snap Araminta!
Hi Boadicea: well, between us, hopefully PapaG may sort if out. 🙂
or even “it”!
Soutie, all the best with the funding and awareness raising. Goodnight now..