Autistic development
Today, the diagnosis of autism is not a sentence for a child. Rehabilitation and socialization of autistic children is entirely in the hands of psychologically competent adults. "What future awaits my child?" - a sore point for anyone raising an autistic son, daughter or grandson. An incoherent question for every involved specialist - doctor, psychologist, teacher. I would like to do everything possible so that the development of the autistic person evens out to the norm …
"What future awaits my child?" - a sore point for anyone raising an autistic son, daughter or grandson. An incoherent question for every involved specialist - doctor, psychologist, teacher. I would like to do everything possible so that the development of the autistic person evened out to the norm. In order for the terrible diagnosis to be removed, the baby grew up and lived a full life: he could study, work, have family and friends.
In this article, you will learn:
- how autism occurs and which children are at risk;
- how to identify and eliminate factors traumatizing the psyche;
- how to accurately choose the right methods of correction and rehabilitation, not to waste time on trial and error;
- what needs to be taken into account in the social adaptation of the child.
The development of autism: the fundamental cause of impairment
Primary violation
Symptoms of autism can occur only in children with a sound vector, their feature is hypersensitive hearing. Normal sounds for these babies can sound as deafening as powerful headphones at full volume. And really loud noises cause unbearable suffering, excruciating pain.
A sound baby with hypersensitive hearing is born to be an absolute introvert. The desire to perceive the world from the outside arises in him only on the basis of the pleasure principle: he listens with joy to quiet and pleasant sounds. But if the sound atmosphere around hurts, the child remains unresponsive, closed in himself, in his deep introversion.
The baby's psyche normally develops only in interaction with other people. If the child is withdrawn within himself, serious disorders arise. Both the sensory and the conscious sphere suffer:
- the development of understanding of speech among autists is delayed: the ability to perceive and recognize the meanings of words is impaired;
- the ability to perceive and recognize the feelings of people, to build emotional ties with them is also impaired.
In the future, a whole cascade of violations occurs, which will be discussed below. How to recognize the signs of autism at an early age - read here.
If the connection with the outside world is not completely lost, during the development of the autistic child, mothers notice the special sensitivity of the baby's hearing. He hears from the far corner of the apartment a barely audible sound when his favorite juice or candy is opened. In noisy places and in large crowds, he covers his ears with his hands - a grimace of pain on his face. From the buzzing hair dryer, the vacuum cleaner hides and runs away. The more severe the child's condition, the less he reacts to any sound.
Sound trauma can be caused by: constantly turned on TV or loud music, noisy household appliances, living near noisy places (construction site, airport). The child is especially traumatized by a cry, scandals and quarrels in the family, a conversation in a raised voice, offensive meanings in communication between adults. Frequent stay of a pregnant mother in unfavorable sound conditions causes the so-called congenital autism of a sound person.
Important! This article describes the psychogenic causes of autism. With congenital genetic disorders, organic brain lesions in a child, symptoms of autism can also be traced. This means that there is a sound vector in the structure of the psyche of such a child.
It is also necessary to know the structure of the child's psyche in this case. This will help you find the most correct approach to it and choose the best methods of rehabilitation.
"Cross-cutting" mental disorders in autism
Secondary violations
In modern urban children, on average, the psyche consists of 3-4 different vectors, each of which endows the child with certain abilities and desires. The sound vector is dominant in this device.
As a result of sound trauma, the psyche is closed within itself, and any of its properties (in all other vectors) do not have sufficient connection with the outside world. They also cannot develop adequately. A cascade of disorders arises, the nature of which is determined by various features of the development of autistic children:
- Obsessive movements, tics, hyperactivity and field behavior. They suffer only those autists who are endowed with the properties of the skin vector.
Normally, skin children are just restless and nimble. They quickly switch from one to the other. They have sensitive skin: they like gentle strokes and massages, they react painfully to rough touches. They strive to pick up any object, hold and touch.
With autism, the child is no longer just nimble and switchable - his skin properties take on a pathological form. He can non-stop circling the room, every minute grabbing various objects in his hands and immediately losing interest in them. The high need for movement takes the form of motor stereotypes. Pretentious postures and gestures appear, tension of certain muscles of the body.
Tactile sensitivity is also off scale: sometimes the baby simply does not allow anyone to touch him. Or, on the contrary, obsessively and constantly forces adults to stroke themselves. Read more about these symptoms here.
- Aggression and auto-aggression, stubbornness, rejection of everything new. Such symptoms are characteristic only for autists, who have the properties of the anal vector of the psyche.
Healthy children with the properties of this vector are unhurried and thorough, natural conservatives. They cannot quickly switch: they need to tune in to any business. They are people of quality, focused on small details. To assimilate information, it is important for them multiple repetitions, then they systematize what they hear and their phenomenal memory stores every detail.
With autism, the rigidity of the psyche takes the form of extreme viscosity of thinking, very slow reactions. A child can repeat the same stereotyped action for hours, and it is almost impossible to distract him. Attempts to rush or urge the baby only cause aggression and stubbornness. If there is speech, it is replete with constant repetitions of stereotyped phrases.
Excessive fixation on small details leads to the inability of the child to separate the important properties of the object from the secondary ones. He gets stuck on insignificant details and has difficulty absorbing information.
Natural conservatism also takes on a pathological form: the child categorically protests against new food, a new route of walking. A sharp deterioration in the condition occurs with an unexpected, unplanned change in the usual way of life. Read more about these symptoms here.
- Frequent changes in emotional state, multiple fears, tantrums. Such features of the development of autists can arise only if the child is endowed with the properties of the visual vector.
By nature, visual children have the largest sensory range and a special sensitivity of the visual analyzer. When the baby is healthy, he gradually learns to bring his palette of feelings into emotional connections with people. Learns to empathize with the little, the sick and the weak. His sensitive vision sets the ability to see the maximum shades of color and light, such children draw with pleasure, are fond of photography, etc.
With autism, a huge emotional range is closed within a person; it is not realized in creating emotional connections with other people. Hence, hysteria and tearfulness, anxiety and fears, rapid emotional exhaustion and mood swings arise.
At the same time, the special sensitivity of vision is also not realized in useful activity. The child reacts to any visual stimuli, but with difficulty fixes his gaze at will on the desired image. The eyes "run up", sliding from object to object. Visual stereotypes may arise: viewing objects in the light, obsessive play with a switch. Read more about these symptoms here.
Development problems of an autistic child in various fields
When a child with autism has problems in a certain area (reduced attention, impaired sensorimotor development), this is often a complex construct of pathological conditions in different vectors.
- Attention and concentration. An autistic audio person has trouble paying attention to what other people are saying (i.e. listening) anyway. If the child is also given the properties of a mobile skin vector, he constantly switches from one action to another, jumps up, runs away. Add supersensitive vision here - and the baby cannot fix his gaze. The total amount of pathological manifestations in all vectors of the child gives a total serious problem with concentration.
- Sensomotor development of an autistic. Here, they usually mean motor reactions to various sensory stimuli (for example, to sound, to an image, etc.). Autistic people always have many disorders in this area. For example, without recognizing the meaning of a word, a child cannot point with his hand to the desired object. Without fixing his gaze, he cannot draw what he sees, etc.
- Physical development. Most autistic children have a hard time controlling their bodies. The reasons can also be cumulative. For example, at an early stage, isolation from people leads to the fact that the child does not master visual-effective thinking, does not know how to imitate and repeat. Therefore, self-care skills and general motor skills develop with delay. Obsessive movements and tension of individual muscles in the skin vector can also interfere with adequate physical development.
- Autistic speech development. Due to trauma with sounds, the ability to understand speech, to recognize the meanings of words, first of all suffers. If in this respect the child is relatively safe, he still tries to express his desires in words. But he can not always clothe a thought in the desired form - then speech is agrammatical. The child confuses pronouns, case and generic endings, etc. Special symptoms (echolalia) occur in autists with an anal vector. Such a child gravitates towards ritual and repetition, including in speech.
- Sensual development. This area directly depends on the psychological state of the baby's mother. Before puberty, any child is associated with the mother by the "psychological umbilical cord." From her, he receives a basic sense of security and safety, without which a sensual connection with people and adequate development are impossible. If a mother is often nervous, has fears or resentment, is depressed, the little sound person withdraws even more into himself. He is not able to sensually open up to meet such states of the mother. As a result, problems arise in emotional connections with any people.
Adapted programs for autistic children
Today there are many different methods for working with autistic children. Some parents and professionals purposefully move only in one specific method. Others try to combine and combine different approaches. In order not to walk by trial and error, not to waste precious time, it is worth relying on the following rule:
Any program for the development of an autistic child must take into account all the natural properties of the child's psyche.
The basic condition for successful development is sound ecology at home and in the classroom. The rest of the rehabilitation measures are based on the full set of innate properties of the child, for example:
- Board games, manuals and books are suitable for children with an anal vector. These are assiduous kids. In the presentation of the material, it is worth using the principle of multiple repetition. Give more time to complete tasks, do not rush, do not rush.
- Tasks in the form of outdoor games are more suitable for children with a skin vector. You can rely on the child's tactile sensitivity: through this sensor, the baby will better absorb information. The alphabet can be made from rough velvet paper, numbers can be molded from salt dough, etc.
- At first, it is better for children with a visual vector to create such conditions for classes so that there is no too colorful background around. Otherwise, they will not be able to fix their gaze. But the handbook itself, with which the child works, should be bright and colorful.
Examples of developing games and activities with autistic children, taking into account their psyche, are shown in separate articles.
Techniques and ways of interacting with an autistic person in problem situations
Finding contact with a child and resolving problem situations becomes much easier if you understand in detail how his psyche works. Let's take a look at simple examples.
The child does not hear you - what to do? You ask him to do something or call him - he does not react. Although the meaning of the request has long been clear to him. After several attempts, patience bursts and we begin to raise our voice. Or even shout. What does it do?
At a short distance, a cry can "pierce" the entire depth to which the soundman has gone into himself. And we draw the wrong conclusions: he reacts only to a cry in general. In fact, a cry for a sound engineer is over-stress. It creates the feeling that you need to save your life immediately. It is clear that in this situation you have to go outside.
But in the long run, the world of other people becomes an even greater threat to the child than before. The next time, to shout, you will have to do it even louder and longer. And so on until the child stops responding to sound at all. Will completely lose contact with you.
The right decision: on the contrary, lower the intonation so that the child listens to the speech. Sometimes this brings the result literally the first time - the child responds to a quiet request. But even if at the first moment you do not see the result, it will certainly appear within a few days. And over a long distance, the baby will fulfill your requests more often, faster and more willingly.
The child gets stuck for a long time at every action, too slow. Usually we try to rush him, urge him on, teach him to act faster. But at a long distance, this has the opposite effect: if you urge and rush the baby with the anal vector, he "slows down" even more and falls into a stupor. When an unusual rhythm of life is constantly imposed on him, aggression and auto-aggression, stubbornness, protests arise.
The right decision: at first, give the child as much time as he needs. Little by little, he will come out of his stupor and act faster. But his reaction speed and switchability will never become the same as, for example, in a nimble skin mother. He just has a different nature.
A child in public jumps, waving his arms, shaking his fingers, etc. Without understanding the psyche of the child, parents can fight obsessive movements by slapping hands and feet. I would like to disaccustom him to behave asocial, especially on the street.
There is a momentary illusion of the result: the child stops his actions. But this is only an appearance. After all, obsessive movements are primarily affected by autists with a cutaneous vector. Their skin is hypersensitive, and any blow to it causes overstress. As a result of such an impact at a long distance, it will be seen that the number of pretentious movements and gestures is only growing.
The right decision: create the conditions necessary for the development of the skin baby. This is a whole range of measures in each vector. For example, for a leather worker, this is discipline and daily routine, a sufficient amount of moving loads, skin stimulation (massages, water procedures, working with sand or clay, and much more).
These simple examples show that productive upbringing can only be built on the basis of a deep knowledge of the structure of the child's psyche.
Socialization of children with ASD
The socialization of autists in society is one of the most painful issues. It is always a balance between "develop" and "do no harm". On the one hand, the autistic sound specialist has a hard time in noisy groups, this causes additional pain. On the other hand, development is impossible without other people. How to find a compromise?
- Socialization of autists under 6: family and kindergarten
All sources of stress cannot be removed from the outside world. The question is how the child adapts it. A baby's resistance to stress entirely depends on how much the mother transfers her good psychological states to him, fills his psyche with a sense of security and safety.
Therefore, at the age of 6 years old, the issue of socialization of autistic children should be approached as follows:
- If a mother experiences any negative conditions, it is important for her to receive high-quality psychotherapeutic assistance.
- At first, choose small groups (or circles) for the child, later try visiting the garden for a part-time. Observe how the child adapts to the social burden, and add it only when ready.
- Remember that the environment shapes our psyche. If a child grows up in an environment of mentally retarded children, the possibility of his development is significantly limited.
- Socialization of autists from 6 to 17 years old: school
Adapting an autistic person to school requires:
- a competent approach on the part of school teachers (understanding of the child's psyche, presentation of material taking into account its properties);
- conditions of safety and security at school (strict prohibitions on the part of teachers for any bullying and aggression towards the weak);
- competent work of the class teacher on the moral education of children (the ability to instill the skills of empathy and helping a sick classmate).
There are practically no such ideal conditions for socialization of autists at school today. But on the basis of psychological competence, they can be created. Recommendations on inclusive education for parents of a child - here. Information for involved educators who are involved in inclusive education is here. Comprehensive information you can get at the training "System-vector psychology" by Yuri Burlan.
Support for parents and guardians: the reality of the picture and possible scenarios
Today, the diagnosis of autism is not a sentence for a child. Rehabilitation and socialization of autistic children is entirely in the hands of psychologically competent adults. For parents of a child, Yuri Burlan's training "System Vector Psychology" can help:
- To fully reveal the structure of the baby's psyche, to choose perfectly accurate methods of education and training.
- Understanding the psyche of any person - to choose such a school and such a teacher for a child that will give the best results in development.
- Mom will be able to receive high-quality psychological help, get rid of any psychological problems (anxiety, depression, irritability, resentment); become a stable source of protection and safety for the baby, fill his psyche with the best conditions.
This brings numerous results:
- if the child is under 6 years old - there is a great chance to completely remove the diagnosis of "autism";
- if the child is from 6 to 16 years old, his condition can be significantly improved.
For specialists
Any specialist involved in their work wants to see the real results of their efforts. Knowledge of the structure of the psyche will help to achieve unprecedented efficiency of work for everyone who is professionally engaged in the problem of development, rehabilitation and socialization of autists (psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers, educators). With this knowledge, you can:
- to recognize the psyche of the child at a glance;
- see the causes of primary and secondary violations, as well as the components of any complex problems;
- to choose the most effective methods and implement them with high results, to achieve the maximum possible development and socialization of children with ASD in each specific case.
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