What is Autism?
Autism is a complex and varying array of behavioral excesses and deficits. Autism is a spectrum of behaviors. I knew about autism but never had hands-on experience until the year 2021. From March 2021 till December 2021, I worked in a GA Pre-K Academy. In my class, I had three (3) students with autism. They are lovable, cute, and beautiful children but very difficult to handle. It took me all the patience I could muster to adapt to them and their unusual habits.
Autism is a neurological disorder that produces significant impairments and difficulties:
- Difficulty with social interaction
- Nonverbal: eye gaze, facial expression, body postures
- Peer relationships
- Joint attention
- Social/emotional reciprocity
- Difficulty with communication
- Delayed or lack of spoken language
- Trouble sustaining conversation
- Stereotyped, repetitive, or idiosyncratic language
- Lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play
- Restricted, repetitive, or stereotyped behaviors, activities, and interests
- Intense focus on restricted interests
- Non-functional routines or rituals, (inflexibility)
- Repetitive motor mannerisms (i.e., hand/finger flapping)
- Preoccupation with parts of objects
Before the age of 3 years, Children with Autism have delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of these areas:
- Social interaction
- Language as used for social communication
- Symbolic or imaginative play
On Memory Lane 3, I will discuss Asperger’s Syndrome and the difficulties people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome experience.
