Living with autism

Children with autism are not all alike. In fact they can be as different from each other as any other child. There is an ‘autistic spectrum' and children may be on different points of it. Some children have difficulties alongside their autism, which may affect their education and their overall emotional and social development. Other children may be able to learn as well as, or even better than, children of the same age who don't have autism. Very rarely, a child with autism may truly shine at one or two particular skills such as maths, music or art.

What is Autism?

Autism affects the ability and desire to connect with other people, and so autism in children affects the child's ability to form relationships with others.

Most children with autism look as ‘normal' as any other child, though their behaviour or possibly their speech, may make them seem different. It may or may not be obvious to people outside the family that a child has autism. At first there is probably no real sign of it. In fact, some children with autism are not diagnosed for a while, as the symptoms of autism are not always clear-cut.

What children with autism do have in common, is a serious communication difficulty, and often this only becomes clear as they emerge from babyhood. A toddler can develop normally, and then he may start to ‘go backwards', stopping learning to talk, for instance when he had been making progress.

What can you do to help your autistic child?

A child with autism has problems understanding the ways of the world, and other people's behaviour. There is no actual cure for autism, though some people do develop ways of living independently, and overcoming some of the most problematic aspects of the condition. ‘We have just done a survey of all our members, mainly parents of autistic children' says Richard Mills, director or research at the National Autistic Society. ‘We discovered that the majority of respondents said their child had other problems - ADHD, dyspraxia, mental health problems, were just some of the conditions we heard about.'

The very individual nature of autism is one of the reasons why treatment or therapy is such a challenge. Other conditions may be complicating the pictures as well as the fact that autism can be different in every child. ‘We know of twins, both with autism where one was helped by therapy and the other one wasn't,' says Richard Mills. ‘It can be very hard to evaluate therapies, and in fact, there is very little evidence base for many therapies. But absence of evidence doesn't mean the therapy is of no value. It just means the research hasn't yet been done.'

Therapies for Autism

Interventions for children with autism range from communication-based approaches such as PECS (Pictorial Exchange Communication System) and TEACCH (Treatment of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children) to more traditional techniques. These are designed to teach basic learning skills, and they include techniques such as ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis). Some more unusual approaches are exercise, swimming with dolphins, massage, and aromatherapy.

The NAS asked parents what they felt had been helpful. ‘We were astonished that about 45 per cent of parents had tried some sort of dietary treatment for their child's autism' says Richard Mills. ‘For the majority, dietary changes seemed to have positive benefits. Just as importantly, no one said that diet changes had made things worse. This wasn't  the case with medication - while some people felt it had helped, there were others who felt their child was worse as a result.'

Research into children with autism

Research needs to improve, so treatment can be based on what is likely to help the majority of children with autism. Structured educational programmes, where the child can be helped to understand in advance what's going to happen, are normally helpful.

Autistic children dislike change, and prefer routine. Therapies and interventions that acknowledge this are more likely to be effective.