Education of Children

The clinical connections between schizophrenia (SCZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have long been recognized. More than a century ago, Bleuler ascribed 4 primary symptoms to the group of disorders he termed “schizophrenia”:   1)   autism (turning inward to oneself) 2)   ambivalence 3)   affective disturbance 4)     and loosening of associations   In 1933, Potter described childhood SCZ as including:        1) loss of interest in the environment        2) dereistic thinking        3) thought disturbance        4) difficulties with emotional rapport        5) decreased or distorted affect        6) behavioral alterations , such as markedly increased or   decreased activity, perseveration, or stereotypies. A decade later, when Leo Kanner published his seminal case s...

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is a neurobiological disorder, have features that are apparent in early childhood. The most obvious feature of ASD is difficulty with social interactions (cf. Kuoch & Mirenda, 2003). On one side of the spectrum are children who wish to be alone and avoid other people ; on the other side are those who wish to communicate with others but do not know how to initiate and maintain communication , and thus, their communication is usually inappropriate. More specifically, individuals with ASD have difficulty using and understanding eye contact, facial expressions, body language, and different tones of voice when communicating with others (Baron-Cohen, 2008; Kuoch & Mirenda, 2003). In addition, studies have reported that the children with ASD cannot interpret the thoughts and feelings of others , or predict social events; they have difficulties initiating interactions, responding to others, and maintaining conversation; they show ...

A video has been made to convey the experience of living with autism . The video highlights the sensory overload experienced by many autistic people during everyday activities. Understand autism, the person and what to do. The short film, entitled 'Can you make it to the end? ', was released by The National Autistic Society to coincide with World Autism Awareness Day, April 2nd. Mostly shot in first person, i t was made to highlight the sensory overload that can affect people with autism, as part of the society’s Too Much Information campaign. It follows a report by the group which found around half of all autistic people - of which there are  700,000 in the UK -  and their families sometimes don’t leave the house because they worry about how people will react.  The video – best watched with headphones and on full screen - shows an autistic boy, played by 10-year-old Alexander Marshall, walking into a shopping centre with his mother. While the trip starts normally,...

(Picture: Daniella Birtley for metro.co.uk) These are just a few things that no parent of an autistic child needs to hear. 1. He’ll grow out of it No, he won’t. He’ll get older and possibly learn to manage his autism, if he gets all the help and support he needs. But he will always be autistic. 2. He looks normal to me That’s the thing – if my son is in what (to him) is a safe environment, he will appear no different to a neuro-typical child. Give it five minutes and he’ll be screaming the house down because his fringe touched the side of his face and frightened him. 3. Why can’t he get on the train, cross the road, be left home alone for a while at his age? Because he’s autistic. How he reacts today is no indication of how he will act tomorrow. Today he’s perfectly capable of crossing that main road alone – tomorrow he might walk out in front of a lorry without a second thought. 4. Just make him do it! Have you tried arguing with an autistic child? They have a built in...