Features of development of autistic children. Signs of autism in children

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What is autism?

Autism- This mental disorder, accompanied by a violation of communication with the outside world. Since there are several variants of this disease, the term most often used is autism spectrum disorder.
The problem of autism attracts not only scientists and psychiatrists, but also teachers, kindergarten teachers and psychologists. You need to know that the symptoms of autism are characteristic of a number of mental illnesses (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder). However, in in this case We are not talking about autism as a diagnosis, but only as a syndrome within the frame of another disease.

Autism statistics

According to statistics provided in 2000, the number of patients diagnosed with autism ranged from 5 to 26 per 10,000 children. After 5 years, the rates increased significantly - one case of this disorder accounted for every 250 - 300 newborns. In 2008, statistics provide the following data: out of 150 children, one suffers from this disease. Over the past decades, the number of patients with autistic disorders has increased 10-fold.

Today in the United States of America this pathology is diagnosed in every 88 children. If we compare the situation in America with what it was in 2000, the number of autism has increased by 78 percent.

There are no reliable data on the prevalence of this disease in the Russian Federation. According to existing information in Russia, one child out of 200,000 children suffers from autism, and, obviously, this statistics is far from reality. The lack of objective information about patients with this disorder suggests that there is a large percentage of children in whom it is not diagnosed.

Representatives of the World Health Organization state that autism is a disease whose prevalence does not depend on gender, race, social status and material well-being. Despite this, according to existing data in the Russian Federation, about 80 percent of autistic people live in families with a low level of income. This is explained by the fact that treatment and support of a child with autism requires large financial costs. Also, raising such a family member requires a lot of free time, so most often one of the parents is forced to give up work, which negatively affects the level of income.

Many patients with autistic disorder are raised in single-parent families. Large expenditures of money and physical effort, emotional distress and anxiety - all these factors cause a large number of divorces in families raising a child with autism.

Causes of autism

Research on autism has been carried out since the 18th century, but childhood autism was identified as a clinical entity only by the psychologist Kanner in 1943. A year later, the Australian psychotherapist Asperger published a scientific paper on the topic of autistic psychopathy in children. Later, a syndrome that belongs to autism spectrum disorders was named in honor of this scientist.
Both scientists already determined that such children main characteristic were problems of social adaptation. However, according to Kanner, autism is a congenital defect, and according to Asperger, it is a constitutional defect. Scientists have also identified other characteristics of autism, such as an obsessive desire for order, unusual interests, isolated behavior and avoidance of social life.

Despite numerous studies in this area, the exact cause of autism has not yet been elucidated. There are many theories that consider biological, social, immunological and other causes of autism.

Theories of the development of autism are:

• biological;
• genetic;
• post-vaccination;
• theory of metabolism;
• opioid;
• neurochemical.

Biological theory of autism

Biological theory views autism as a consequence of brain damage. This theory replaced the psychogenic theory (popular in the 50s), which argued that autism develops as a result of a mother's cold and hostile attitude towards her child. Numerous studies from both the last and present centuries have confirmed that the brains of children with autism differ in both structural and functional features.

Functional features of the brain
Brain dysfunction is confirmed by an electroencephalogram (a test that records the electrical activity of the brain).

Features of the electrical activity of the brain in autistic children are:

• a decrease in the seizure threshold, and sometimes foci of epileptiform activity in the associative parts of the brain;
• increased slow-wave forms of activity (mainly the theta rhythm), which is a characteristic of depletion of the cortical system;
• increasing the functional activity of underlying structures;
• delay in EEG pattern maturation;
• weak alpha rhythm;
• the presence of residual organic centers, most often in the right hemisphere.

Structural features of the brain
Structural abnormalities in autistic children have been studied using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron emission tomography). These studies often reveal asymmetry of the cerebral ventricles, thinning of the corpus callosum, expansion of the subarachnoid space, and sometimes local foci of demyelination (lack of myelin).

Morphofunctional changes in the brain in autism are:

• decreased metabolism in the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain;
• increased metabolism in the left frontal lobe and left hippocampus (brain structures).

Genetic theory of autism

The theory is based on numerous studies of monozygotic and dizygotic twins and siblings of autistic children. In the first case, studies have shown that the concordance (number of matches) for autism in monozygotic twins is tens of times higher than in dizygotic twins. For example, according to Freeman's 1991 study, the concordance rate for monozygotic twins was 90 percent, and for dizygotic twins it was 20 percent. This means that 90 percent of the time, both identical twins will develop autism spectrum disorder, and 20 percent of the time, both identical twins will have autism.

Close relatives of a child with autism were also studied. Thus, concordance among the patient's siblings ranges from 2 to 3 percent. This means that a brother or sister of a child with autism has a 50 times higher risk of developing the disease than other children. All these studies are supported by another study conducted by Lacson in 1986. It included 122 children with autism spectrum disorder who were subject to genetic analysis. It turned out that 19 percent of the children examined were carriers of the fragile X chromosome. Fragile (or fragile) X syndrome is a genetic abnormality in which one of the ends of the chromosome is narrowed. This is due to the expansion of some single nucleotides, which in turn leads to insufficiency of the FMR1 protein. Since this protein is necessary for full development nervous system, then its deficiency is accompanied by various pathologies of mental development.

The hypothesis that the development of autism is caused by a genetic abnormality was also confirmed by a multicenter international study in 2012. It included 400 children with autism spectrum disorder who underwent DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) genotyping. The study revealed a high frequency of mutations and a high degree of gene polymorphism in children. Thus, numerous chromosomal aberrations were discovered - deletions, duplications and translocations.

Post-vaccination theory of autism

This is a relatively young theory that does not have sufficient evidence. However, the theory is widely accepted among parents of children with autism. According to this theory, the cause of autism is intoxication with mercury, which is part of the preservatives for vaccines. The polyvalent vaccine against measles, rubella and mumps suffered the most. In Russia, both domestically produced vaccines (abbreviation KPK) and imported ones (Priorix) are used. This vaccine is known to contain a mercury compound called thimerosal. In this regard, studies have been conducted in Japan, the USA and many other countries on the relationship between the occurrence of autism and thimerosal. These studies revealed that there is no connection between them. However, Japan has abandoned the use of this compound in the manufacture of vaccines. However, this did not lead to a decrease in the incidence rate both before the use of thimerosal and after it stopped being used - the number of sick children did not decrease.

At the same time, despite the fact that all previous studies deny the relationship between vaccines and autism, parents of sick children note that the first signs of the disease are observed after vaccination. Perhaps the reason for this is the age of the child when vaccination is carried out. MMR vaccine is placed in one year, which coincides with the appearance of the first signs of autism. This suggests that vaccination in this case acts as a stress factor triggering pathological development.

Metabolism theory

According to this theory, the autistic type of development is observed in certain metabolic pathologies. Autism syndromes are observed with phenylketonuria, mucopolysaccharidoses, histidinemia ( genetic disease, in which the metabolism of the amino acid histidine is disrupted) and other diseases. The most common syndrome is Rett syndrome, which is characterized by clinical diversity.

Opioid theory of autism

Proponents of this theory believe that autism develops due to an overload of the central nervous system with opioids. These opioids appear in the child's body as a result of incomplete breakdown of gluten and casein. The prerequisite for this is damage to the intestinal mucosa. This theory has not yet been confirmed by research. However, there are studies showing a relationship between autism and a disordered digestive system.
This theory is partially confirmed in the diet that is prescribed to children with autism. Thus, autistic children are recommended to exclude casein (dairy products) and gluten (grains) from their diet. The effectiveness of such a diet is controversial - it cannot cure autism, but according to scientists, it can correct certain disorders.

Neurochemical theory of autism

Proponents of the neurochemical theory believe that autism develops due to hyperactivation of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems of the brain. This hypothesis has been confirmed by numerous studies that have shown that autism (and other diseases) is accompanied by hyperfunction of these systems. To eliminate this hyperfunction, drugs that block the dopaminergic system are used. The best known such drug used for autism is risperidone. This drug is sometimes very effective in treating autism spectrum disorders, which proves the validity of this theory.

Autism Research

The abundance of theories and the lack of a common point of view regarding the causes of autism has become a prerequisite for the continuation of numerous studies in this area.
A 2013 study by researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada concluded that there is a vaccine that can control the symptoms of autism. This vaccine is developed against the bacterium Clostridium bolteae. It is known that this microorganism is found in increased concentrations in the intestines of autistic children. It is also the cause of gastrointestinal disorders - diarrhea, constipation. Thus, the presence of the vaccine confirms the theory of the relationship between autism and digestive pathology.

According to the researchers, the vaccine not only relieves symptoms (which affect more than 90 percent of children with autism), but can also control the development of the disease. The vaccine was tested in laboratory conditions, and according to Canadian scientists, it stimulates the production of specific antibodies. The same scientists published a report on the effects of various toxins on the intestinal mucosa. Canadian scientists have concluded that the high prevalence of autism in recent decades is due to the effects of bacterial toxins on gastrointestinal tract. Also, toxins and metabolites of these bacteria can determine the severity of autism symptoms and control its development.

Another interesting study was conducted jointly by American and Swiss scientists. This study looks at the likelihood of developing autism in both sexes. According to statistics, the number of boys with autism is 4 times higher than the number of girls suffering from this disease. This fact was the basis for the theory of gender injustice regarding autism. The researchers concluded that the female body has a more reliable defense system against mild mutations. Therefore, men are 50 percent more likely to develop intellectual and mental disabilities than women.

Development of autism

Autism develops differently in each child. Even in twins, the course of the disease can be very individual. However, clinicians identify several variants of the course of autism spectrum disorders.

Variants of the development of autism are:

• Malignant development of autism– characterized by the fact that symptoms appear in early childhood. Clinical picture characterized by rapid and early collapse of mental functions. The degree of social disintegration increases with age, and some autism spectrum disorders can develop into schizophrenia.
• The undulating course of autism– characterized by periodic exacerbations, which are often seasonal. The severity of these exacerbations can be different each time.
• Regressive course of autism– characterized by gradual improvement of symptoms. Despite the rapid onset of the disease, the symptoms of autism gradually regress. However, signs of mental dysontogenesis persist.

The prognosis for autism is also very individual. It depends on the age when the disease debuted, the degree of decay of mental functions and other factors.

Factors influencing the course of autism are:

• speech development before 6 years of age is a sign of a favorable course of autism;
• visiting special educational institutions is a favorable factor and plays important role in the child’s adaptation;
• mastering a “craft” allows you to realize yourself professionally in the future - according to research, every fifth autistic child is capable of mastering a profession, but does not do so;
• attending speech therapy classes or kindergartens with a speech therapy profile has a positive effect on the further development of the child, because according to statistics, half of adults with autism do not speak.

Symptoms of Autism

The clinical picture of autism is very diverse. It is mainly determined by such parameters as uneven maturation of the mental, emotional-volitional and speech spheres, persistent stereotypes, lack of response to treatment. Children with autism differ in their behavior, speech, intelligence, and their attitude towards the world around them.

Symptoms of autism are:

• speech pathology;
• features of intelligence development;

• pathology of behavior;
• hyperactive syndrome;
• disturbances in the emotional sphere.

Speech in autism

Features of speech development are noted in 70 percent of cases of autism. Often, lack of speech is the first symptom for which parents turn to speech pathologists and speech therapists. The first words appear on average by 12–18 months, and the first phrases (but not sentences) by 20–22 months. However, the appearance of the first words may be delayed up to 3–4 years. Even if a child’s vocabulary by the age of 2–3 years corresponds to the norm, attention is drawn to the fact that children do not ask questions (which is typical for young children) and do not talk about themselves. Children usually hum or mutter something unintelligible.

Very often, a child stops speaking after speech has been formed. Although a child's vocabulary may expand with age, speech is rarely used for communication. Children can conduct dialogues, monologues, declare poetry, but do not use words for communication.

Characteristics of speech in autistic children are:

• echolalia – repetitions;
• whispering or, conversely, loud speech;
• metaphorical language;
• pun;
• neologisms;
• unusual intonation;
• reversal of pronouns;
• violation of facial expression;
• lack of response to the speech of others.

Echolalia is the repetition of previously spoken words, phrases, and sentences. At the same time, children themselves are not able to construct sentences. For example, to the question “how old are you,” the child answers, “how old are you, how old are you.” When asked “let’s go to the store,” the child repeats “let’s go to the store.” Also, children with autism do not use the pronoun “I” and rarely address their parents with the words “mom” or “dad”.
In their speech, children often use metaphors, figurative expressions, and neologisms, which gives a whimsical flavor to the child’s conversation. Gestures and facial expressions are very rarely used, which makes it difficult to assess the child’s emotional status. A distinctive feature is that, while declaring and chanting large texts, children can hardly start a conversation and maintain it in the future. All these features of speech development reflect disorders in communication areas.

The core disorder in autism is the problem of understanding spoken speech. Even with preserved intelligence, children have difficulty responding to speech addressed to them.
In addition to problems understanding speech and difficulty using it, autistic children often have speech defects. These may be dysarthria, dyslalia and other speech development disorders. Children often draw out words, put stress on the last syllables, while maintaining a babbling intonation. Therefore, speech therapy classes are a very important point in the rehabilitation of such children.

Intelligence in autism

Most autistic children exhibit peculiarities of cognitive activity. This is why one of the problems of autism is its differential diagnosis with mental retardation (MDD).
Studies have shown that the intelligence of autistic children is on average lower than that of children with normal development. At the same time, their IQ is higher than with mental retardation. At the same time, uneven intellectual development is noted. The general knowledge base and the ability to understand some sciences in autistic children are below normal, while vocabulary and mechanical memory are developed above normal. Thinking is characterized by concreteness and photographicity, but its flexibility is limited. Autistic children may show increased interest in sciences such as botany, astronomy, and zoology. All this suggests that the structure of the intellectual defect in autism differs from the structure in mental retardation.

The ability to abstract is also limited. The decline in school performance is largely due to behavioral anomalies. Children have difficulty concentrating and often exhibit hyperactive behavior. It is especially difficult where spatial concepts and flexibility of thinking are needed. However, 3 to 5 percent of children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate one or two “special skills.” These may include exceptional mathematical abilities, recreating complex geometric shapes, virtuoso playing a musical instrument. Children may also have an exceptional memory for numbers, dates, and names. Such children are also called “autistic geniuses.” Despite the presence of one or two such abilities, all other signs of autism remain. First of all, social isolation, impaired communication, and difficulties in adaptation dominate. An example of such a case is the film “Rain Man,” which tells the story of an already adult autistic genius.

The degree of intellectual delay depends on the type of autism. Thus, with Asperger's syndrome, intelligence is preserved, which is a favorable factor for social integration. Children in this case are able to graduate from school and receive an education.
However, in more than half of cases, autism is accompanied by a decrease in intelligence. The level of reduction can vary from deep to mild delay. More often (60 percent) moderate forms of retardation are observed, in 20 percent - mild, in 17 percent - normal intelligence, and in 3 percent of cases - above average intelligence.

Autism behavior

One of the main characteristics of autism is impaired communication behavior. The behavior of autistic children is characterized by isolation, isolation, and lack of adaptation skills. Autistic children, refusing to communicate with the outside world, retreat into their inner world of fantasy. They have difficulty getting along with children and generally cannot stand crowded places.

Characteristics of the behavior of children with autism are:

• auto-aggression and hetero-aggression;
• commitment to consistency;
• stereotypies – motor, sensory, vocal;
• rituals.

Auto-aggression in behavior
As a rule, elements of auto-aggression predominate in behavior - that is, aggression against oneself. A child displays this behavior when he is not happy with something. This could be the appearance of a new child in the environment, a change of toys, a change in the decor of the place. At the same time, the aggressive behavior of an autistic child is directed at himself - he can hit himself, bite, and hit himself on the cheeks. Auto-aggression can also turn into hetero-aggression, in which aggressive behavior is directed at others. This destructive behavior is a kind of protection against possible changes in the usual way of life.

The greatest difficulty in raising an autistic child is going to a public place. Even if a child does not show any signs of autistic behavior at home, “going out in public” is a stress factor that provokes inappropriate behavior. At the same time, children can commit inappropriate actions - throw themselves on the floor, hit and bite themselves, and scream. It is extremely rare (almost in exceptional cases) that autistic children react calmly to change. Therefore, before going to a new place, parents are recommended to familiarize their child with the upcoming route. Any change of environment must be carried out in stages. This primarily concerns integration into a kindergarten or school. First, the child must become familiar with the route, then with the place where he will spend time. Adaptation in kindergarten is carried out starting from two hours a day, gradually increasing the hours.

Rituals in the behavior of autistic children
This commitment to consistency applies not only to the environment, but also to other aspects - food, clothing, play. Changing dishes can be a stressful factor. So, if a child is used to eating porridge for breakfast, then suddenly serving an omelet can provoke an attack of aggression. Eating, putting on clothes, playing and any other activity is often accompanied by peculiar rituals. The ritual may consist of a certain order of serving dishes, washing hands, and getting up from the table. Rituals can be completely incomprehensible and inexplicable. For example, touch the stove before sitting down at the table, jumping before going to bed, going onto the porch of a store while walking, and so on.

Stereotypes in the behavior of autistic children
The behavior of autistic children, regardless of the form of the disease, is stereotypical. There are motor stereotypies in the form of swaying, circling around its axis, jumping, nodding, and finger movements. Most autistic people are characterized by athetosis-like movements of the fingers in the form of fingering, flexion and extension, and folding. No less characteristic are such movements as shaking, bouncing, pushing off from the tips of the fingers, and walking on tiptoe. Most motor stereotypies disappear with age and are rarely observed in adolescents. Voice stereotypies are manifested in the repetition of words in response to a question (echolalia), in the declaration of poems. There is a stereotypical account.

Hyperactivity syndrome in autism

Hyperactivity syndrome is observed in 60–70 percent of cases. It is characterized increased activity, constant movement, restlessness. All this may be accompanied by psychopath-like phenomena, such as disinhibition, excitability, and screams. If you try to stop a child or take something away from him, this leads to reactions of protest. During such reactions, children fall to the floor, scream, fight, and hit themselves. Hyperactivity syndrome is almost always accompanied by attention deficit, which causes certain difficulties in correcting behavior. Children are disinhibited, cannot stand or sit in one place, and are unable to concentrate on anything. For severe hyperactive behavior, drug treatment is recommended.

Emotional disturbances in autism

From the first years of life, children experience emotional disorders. They are characterized by an inability to identify one's own emotions and understand others. Autistic children cannot empathize or enjoy things, and they also have difficulty expressing own feelings. Even if a child learns the names of emotions from pictures, he is not able to subsequently apply his knowledge in life.

The lack of an emotional response is largely due to the child’s social isolation. Since it is impossible to experience emotional experiences in life, it is also impossible for a child to further comprehend these emotions.
Emotional disorders are also expressed in a lack of perception of the surrounding world. Thus, it is difficult for a child to imagine his room, even knowing by heart all the objects that are in it. Having no idea about his own room, the child also cannot imagine the inner world of another person.

Features of the development of children with autism

Peculiarities one year old child often manifested in delayed development of crawling, sitting, standing, and first steps. When the child begins to take his first steps, parents note some peculiarities - the child often freezes, walks or runs on tiptoes with his arms outstretched (“butterfly”). The gait is characterized by a certain woodenness (the legs do not seem to bend), impetuosity and impulsiveness. It is not uncommon for children to be clumsy and baggy, but gracefulness can also be observed.

The assimilation of gestures is also delayed - there is practically no pointing gesture, difficulties in greeting-farewell, affirmation-denial. The facial expressions of children with autism are characterized by inactivity and poverty. Often there are serious faces with drawn features (“the face of a prince” according to Kanner).

Disability in autism

For a disease such as autism, a disability group is assigned. It is necessary to understand that disability involves not only monetary payments, but also assistance in the rehabilitation of the child. Rehabilitation includes placement in a specialized preschool institution, for example, a speech therapy garden, and other benefits for children with autism.

Benefits for children with autism who have been certified as disabled are:

• free visits to specialized educational institutions;
• registration in a speech therapy garden or speech therapy group;
• tax deductions for treatment;
• benefits for sanatorium-resort treatment;
• the opportunity to study according to an individual program;
• assistance in psychological, social and professional rehabilitation.

In order to register a disability, it is necessary to be examined by a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and most often, inpatient treatment is required (to stay in a hospital). You can also be observed in a day hospital (come only for consultations), if there are any in the city. In addition to inpatient observation, it is necessary to undergo examination by a speech therapist, neurologist, ophthalmologist, otorhinolaryngologist, as well as a general urine test and blood test. The results of specialist consultations and test results are recorded on a special medical form. If a child attends a kindergarten or school, a characteristic is also required. After this, the district psychiatrist observing the child refers the mother and baby to medical commission. On the day of the commission, you must have a reference for the child, a card with all the specialists, tests and diagnosis, parents’ passports, and the child’s birth certificate.

Types of autism

When determining the type of autism, modern psychiatrists in their practice are most often guided by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
According to the international classification of diseases of the tenth revision, childhood autism, Rett syndrome, Asperger's syndrome and others are distinguished. However, the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Illness (DSM) currently addresses only one clinical entity—autism spectrum disorder. Thus, the question of the variants of autism depends on what classification the specialist uses. Western countries and the United States use the DSM, so the diagnosis of Asperger's or Rett syndrome no longer exists in these countries. In Russia and some post-Soviet countries, ICD is more often used.

The main types of autism, which are designated in the International Classification of Diseases, include:

• early childhood autism;
• atypical autism;
• Rett syndrome;
• Asperger's syndrome.

Other types of autism, which are quite rare, are classified under the heading “other types of autistic disorders.”

Early childhood autism

Early childhood autism is a type of autism in which mental and behavioral disorders begin to appear from the first days of a child’s life. Instead of the term “early childhood autism,” medicine also uses “Kanner syndrome.” Out of ten thousand infants and young children, this type of autism occurs in 10–15 children. Boys suffer from Kanner syndrome 3 to 4 times more often than girls.

Signs of early childhood autism can begin to appear from the first days of a baby's life. In such children, mothers note impaired response to auditory stimuli and inhibited response to various visual contacts. In the first years of life, children have difficulty understanding speech. They also have a delay in speech development. By the age of five, a child with early childhood autism has difficulties with social relationships and persistent behavioral disturbances.

The main manifestations of early childhood autism are:

• autism itself;
• the presence of fears and phobias;
• lack of a stable sense of self-preservation;
• stereotypes;
• special speech;
• impaired cognitive and intellectual abilities;
• special game;
• features of motor functions.

Autism
Autism as such is primarily characterized by impaired eye contact. The child does not fix his gaze on anyone's face and constantly avoids looking into the eyes. It’s as if he’s looking past or through the person. Sound or visual stimuli are not capable of causing the child to perk up. A smile rarely appears on the face, and even the laughter of adults or other children is unable to cause it. Another prominent feature of autism is a special relationship with parents. The need for a mother practically does not manifest itself in any way. Children with a delay do not recognize their mother, so when she appears they do not begin to smile or move towards her. There is also a weak reaction to her care.

The appearance of a new person can cause pronounced negative emotions - anxiety, fear, aggression. Communication with other children is very difficult and is accompanied by negative impulse actions (resistance, flight). But sometimes a child just completely ignores anyone who is near him. Reaction and response to verbal treatment is also absent or severely inhibited. The child may not even respond to his name.

Presence of fears and phobias
In more than 80 percent of cases, early childhood autism is accompanied by the presence of various fears and phobias.

The main types of fears and phobias in early childhood autism

Types of fears	Main objects and situations that cause fear
Overvalued fears (related to an overestimation of the significance and danger of certain objects and phenomena)	loneliness; height; stairs; strangers; darkness; animals.
Fears associated with auditory stimuli	household items – vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, electric razor; noise of water in pipes and toilet; the hum of the elevator; sounds of cars and motorcycles.
Fears associated with visual stimuli	bright light; flashing lights; abrupt change of frame on TV; shiny objects; fireworks; bright clothes of surrounding people.
Fears associated with tactile stimuli	water; rain; snow; things made of fur.
Delusional fears	own shadow; objects of a certain color or shape; any holes in the walls ( ventilation, sockets); certain people, sometimes even parents.

Lack of a strong sense of self-preservation
In some cases of early childhood autism, the sense of self-preservation is impaired. 20 percent of sick children have no “sense of edge.” Children sometimes dangerously hang over the side of strollers or climb over the walls of the playpen and crib. Often children can spontaneously run out onto the road, jump from a height or go into the water to dangerous depths. Also, many people do not consolidate the negative experience of burns, cuts and bruises. Older children lack defensive aggression and are unable to stand up for themselves when they are offended by their peers.

Stereotypes
With early childhood autism, more than 65 percent of patients develop various stereotypes - frequent repetitions of certain movements and manipulations.

Stereotypes of early childhood autism

Types of stereotypes	Examples
Motor	rocking in a stroller; monotonous movements of the limbs or head; long jumping; persistent swinging on a swing.
Speech	frequent repetition of a certain sound or word; constant recounting of items; involuntary repetition of heard words or sounds.
Behavioral	choosing the same food; ritualism in choosing clothes; unchanging walking route.
Sensory	turns the light on and off; spills small objects ( mosaic, sand, sugar); rustling candy wrappers; sniffs the same objects; licks certain objects.

Special speech
In early childhood autism, the development and acquisition of speech is delayed. Babies begin to pronounce their first words late. Their speech is unintelligible and not addressed to a specific person. The child has difficulty understanding or ignores verbal instructions. Gradually, the speech is filled with unusual words, commentary phrases, and neologisms. Speech features also include frequent monologues, self-dialogues and constant echolalia (automatic repetition of words, phrases, quotes).

Impaired cognitive and intellectual abilities
In early childhood autism, cognitive and intellectual abilities are delayed or accelerated in development. In approximately 15 percent of patients, these abilities develop within normal limits.

Impaired cognitive and intellectual abilities

Special game
Some children with early autism toys are completely ignored, and there is no play at all. For others, play is limited to simple, similar manipulations with the same toy. Often, the game involves foreign objects that are not toys. At the same time, the functional properties of these items are not used in any way. Games usually take place in a secluded place alone.

Features of motor functions
More than half of patients with early childhood autism experience hyperexcitability (increased motor activity). Various external stimuli can provoke severe motor activity– the child begins to stomp his feet, wave his arms, and fight back. Waking up is often accompanied by crying, screaming or chaotic movements. In 40 percent of sick children, the opposite manifestations are observed. Reduced muscle tone is accompanied by low mobility. The babies suckle sluggishly. Children react poorly to physical discomfort (cold, moisture, hunger). External stimuli are not capable of causing adequate reactions.

Atypical autism

Atypical autism is a special form of autism in which clinical manifestations may be hidden for many years or be mild. With this disease, not all the main symptoms of autism are identified, which complicates the diagnosis at an early stage.
The clinical picture of atypical autism is represented by a variety of symptoms that can manifest in different patients in different combinations. All the many symptoms can be divided into five main groups.

Characteristic groups of symptoms of atypical autism are:

• speech disorders;
• signs of emotional insufficiency;
• signs of social maladaptation and failure;
• thought disorder;
• irritability.

Speech disorders
People with atypical autism have difficulty learning language. They have difficulty understanding other people's speech, taking everything literally. Due to a small vocabulary that does not correspond to age, the expression of one’s own thoughts and ideas is complicated. While learning new words and phrases, the patient forgets information learned in the past. Patients with atypical autism do not understand the emotions and feelings of others, so they lack the ability to empathize and worry about their loved ones.

Signs of Emotional Insufficiency
To others important sign Atypical autism is the inability to express one's emotions. Even when the patient has internal experiences, he is not able to explain and express what he feels. It may seem to others that he is simply indifferent and unemotional.

Signs of social maladaptation and failure
In each individual case, the signs of social maladaptation and failure have varying degrees of severity and their own special character.

The main signs of social maladaptation and failure include:

• tendency to loneliness;
• avoiding any contact;
• lack of communication;
• difficulties in establishing contact with strangers;
• inability to make friends;
• Difficulty making eye contact with your opponent.

Thought disorder
People with atypical autism have limited thinking. They find it difficult to accept any innovations and changes. A change in the environment, a disruption in the established daily routine, or the appearance of new people causes confusion and panic. Attachment can be observed in relation to clothing, food, certain smells and colors.

Irritability
At atypical autism the nervous system is more sensitive to various external stimuli. From bright light or loud music, the patient becomes nervous, irritable and even aggressive.

Rett syndrome

Rett syndrome refers to a special form of autism in which severe psychoneurological disorders appear against the background of progressive degenerative changes in the central nervous system. The cause of Rett syndrome is a mutation in one of the genes on the sex chromosome. This explains the fact that only girls are affected. Almost all male fetuses that have one X chromosome in their genome die in the womb.

The first signs of the disease begin to appear 6 to 18 months after the birth of the child. Until this time, the growth and development of the baby does not differ in any way from the norm. Psychoneurological disorders develop through four stages of the disease.

Stages of Rett syndrome

Stages	Child's age	Manifestations
I	6 – 18 months	the growth of individual parts of the body slows down - hands, feet, head; diffuse hypotension appears ( muscle weakness); interest in games decreases; the ability to communicate with the child is limited; Some motor stereotypes appear - swaying, rhythmic bending of fingers.
II	1 – 4 years	frequent attacks of anxiety; sleep disturbance with screaming upon awakening; acquired skills are lost; speech difficulties appear; motor stereotypes become more numerous; walking becomes difficult due to loss of balance; seizures with convulsions and convulsions appear.
III	3 – 10 years	The progression of the disease is stopped. The main symptom is mental retardation. During this period, it becomes possible to establish emotional contact with the child.
IV	from 5 years	loss of body mobility due to muscle atrophy; scoliosis appears ( rachiocampsis); speech is disrupted - words are used incorrectly, echolalia appears; mental retardation worsens, but emotional attachment and communication are preserved.

Due to severe motor impairments and pronounced psychoneurological changes, Rett syndrome is the most severe form of autism that cannot be corrected.

Asperger's syndrome

Asperger's syndrome is another type of autism that is classified as a general child development disorder. Among the patients, 80 percent are boys. There are 7 cases of this syndrome per thousand children. Signs of the disease begin to appear from 2 to 3 years of age, but the final diagnosis is most often made at 7 to 16 years of age.
Among the manifestations of Asperger's syndrome, there are three main characteristics of a violation of the psychophysiological state of the child.

The main characteristics of Asperger's syndrome are:

• social disorders;
• features of intellectual development;
• sensory (sensitivity) and motor impairments.

Social disorders
Social disorders are caused by deviations in nonverbal behavior. Due to their unique gestures, facial expressions and mannerisms, children with Asperger syndrome are unable to establish contact with other children or adults. They cannot empathize with others and are unable to express their feelings. In kindergarten, such children do not make friends, stay apart, and do not participate in common games. For this reason, they are considered to be self-centered and callous individuals. Social difficulties also arise due to intolerance to other people's touches and visual eye-to-eye contact.

When interacting with peers, children with Asperger's syndrome try to impose their own rules, not accepting other people's ideas and not wanting to compromise. In response, those around them no longer want to come into contact with such children, exacerbating their social isolation. This leads to depression, suicidal tendencies and various types of addiction in adolescence.

Features of intellectual development
Asperger's syndrome is characterized by relative preservation of intelligence. It is not characterized by severe developmental delays. Children with Asperger syndrome are able to graduate from educational institutions.

Features of the intellectual development of children with Asperger syndrome include:

• normal or above average intelligence;
• excellent memory;
• lack of abstract thinking;
• precocious speech.

In Asperger's syndrome, the IQ is usually normal or even higher. But sick children have difficulties with abstract thinking and comprehending information. Many children have phenomenal memory and broad knowledge in the area of ​​interest to them. But often they are not able to use this information in the right situations. Despite this, children with Asperger's become very successful in areas such as history, philosophy, and geography. They are completely dedicated to their work, becoming fanatical and obsessing over the smallest details. Such children are constantly in some kind of their own world of thoughts and fantasies.

Another feature of intellectual development in Asperger syndrome is rapid speech development. By the age of 5–6 years, the child’s speech is already well developed and grammatically correct. Speech rate is slow or accelerated. The child speaks monotonously and with an unnatural timbre of voice, using many speech patterns in a bookish style. A story about a subject of interest can be long and very detailed, regardless of the reaction of the interlocutor. But children with Asperger syndrome cannot support a conversation on any topic outside their area of ​​interest.

Motor and sensory disorders
Sensory impairment in Asperger syndrome includes increased sensitivity to sounds, visual stimuli, and tactile stimuli. Children avoid other people's touches, loud street sounds, and bright lights. They develop obsessive fears of the elements (snow, wind, rain).

The main motor impairments in children with Asperger syndrome include:

• lack of coordination;
• clumsy gait;
• difficulty tying shoelaces and fastening buttons;
• sloppy handwriting;
• motor stereotypes.

Excessive sensitivity also manifests itself in pedantry and stereotypical behavior. Any changes in the established daily routine or routine cause anxiety and panic.

Autism syndrome

Autism can also manifest itself as a syndrome within the structure of a disease such as schizophrenia. Autism syndrome is characterized by isolated behavior, isolation from society, and apathy. Autism and schizophrenia are often called the same disease. This is because although both diseases have their own characteristics, socially they share certain similarities. Also, a couple of decades ago, autism was hidden under the diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia.
Today we know that there are clear differences between schizophrenia and autism.

Autism in schizophrenia

A characteristic of schizophrenic autism is a specific disintegration (disintegration) of both the psyche and behavior. Studies have shown that symptoms of autism can mask the onset of schizophrenia for a long time. Over the course of many years, autism can completely determine the clinical picture of schizophrenia. This course of the disease can continue until the first psychosis, which, in turn, will already be accompanied by auditory hallucinations and delusions.

Autism in schizophrenia, first of all, manifests itself in the behavioral characteristics of the patient. This is expressed in adaptation difficulties, in isolation, in being “in your own world.” In children, autism can manifest itself in the form of “oversociality” syndrome. Parents note that the child was always quiet, obedient, and never bothered his parents. Often such children are considered “exemplary”. At the same time, they practically do not respond to comments. Their exemplary behavior cannot be changed; children do not show flexibility. They are closed and completely absorbed in the experiences of their own world. It is rarely possible to interest them in something, to involve them in some kind of game. According to Kretschmer, such exemplary behavior is an autistic barrier from the outside world.

Differences between autism and schizophrenia

Both pathologies are characterized by impaired communication with the outside world and behavioral disorders. In both autism and schizophrenia, stereotypies, speech disorders in the form of echolalia, and ambivalence (duality) are observed.

A key criterion for schizophrenia is impaired thinking and perception. The former manifest themselves in the form of fragmentation and inconsistency, the latter - in the form of hallucinations and delusions.

Basic symptoms of schizophrenia and autism

Schizophrenia	Autism
Thought disorders – discontinuous, inconsistent and incoherent thinking.	Impaired communication – failure to use speech, inability to play with others.
Emotional disorders - in the form of depressive episodes and bouts of euphoria.	The desire for isolation - lack of interest in the world around us, aggressive behavior towards change.
Perceptual disorders - hallucinations ( auditory and rarely visual), nonsense.	Stereotypical behavior.
Intelligence is usually preserved.	Delayed speech and intellectual development.

Autism in adults

The symptoms of autism do not diminish with age, and the quality of life of a person with this disease depends on the level of his skills. Difficulties with social adaptation and other characteristics characteristic of this disease provoke great difficulties in all aspects of the adult life of an autistic person.

Personal life
Relationships with the opposite sex are an area that causes great difficulties for autistic people. Romantic courtship is unusual for autistic people, as they do not see the point in it. They perceive kisses as useless movements, and hugs as an attempt to limit movement. At the same time, they may experience sexual desire, but most often they are left alone with their feelings, since they are not mutual.
Without friends, autistic adults get a lot of their information about romantic relationships from movies. Men, having watched enough pornographic films, try to put such knowledge into practice, which frightens and repels their partners. Women with autistic disorders are informed more by TV series and, due to their naivety, often become victims of sexual violence.

According to statistics, people with autism spectrum disorders are much less likely than others to create full-fledged families. It should be noted that recently the opportunities for an autistic adult to arrange his personal life have increased significantly. With the development of the Internet, various specialized forums began to appear where a person diagnosed with autism can find a partner with a similar disorder. Information technologies that make it possible to establish contact through correspondence are helping many autistic people meet and develop friendships or personal relationships with others like themselves.

Professional activity
The development of computer technology has significantly increased the opportunities for professional self-realization of autistic people. One solution that is popular is remote work. Many patients with this disease have an intelligence level that allows them to cope with tasks of a high degree of complexity. Not having to leave their comfort zone and interact face-to-face with work colleagues allows autistic adults not only to work, but also to develop professionally.

If skills or circumstances do not allow remote work via the Internet, then standard forms of activity (work in an office, store, factory) cause great difficulties for an autistic person. Most often, their professional success is significantly lower than their real abilities. Such people achieve the greatest success in those areas where increased attention to detail is required.

Life conditions
Depending on the form of the disease, some autistic adults can live independently in their own apartment or house. If the patient underwent appropriate correctional therapy in childhood, then as an adult he can cope with everyday tasks without assistance. But most often, autistic adults need support, which they receive from their relatives, loved ones, medical or social service. Depending on the form of the disease, an autistic person may receive financial benefits, information about which should be obtained from the relevant authority.

In many economically developed countries there are homes for autistic people, where special conditions have been created for their comfortable living. In most cases, such houses are not only housing, but also a place of work. For example, in Luxembourg, residents of such houses make postcards and souvenirs and grow vegetables.

Social communities
Many autistic adults are of the opinion that autism is not a disease, but a unique life concept and therefore does not require treatment. To protect their rights and improve their quality of life, autistic people unite in various social groups. In 1996, an online community was formed, which was called NJAS ( Independent living on the autism spectrum). The main goal of the organization was to provide emotional support and practical assistance to autistic adults. Participants shared stories and life advice, and for many this information was very valuable. Today there are a large number of similar communities on the Internet.

Before use, you should consult a specialist.

Understanding the psychological picture as a whole allows a specialist to work not only on individual situational difficulties, but also on normalizing the very course of mental development.

It should be emphasized that although the “center” of the syndrome is autism as an inability to establish emotional connections, as difficulties in communication and socialization, no less characteristic of it is a violation of the development of all mental functions.

In modern classifications, childhood autism is included in the group of pervasive, i.e., all-pervasive disorders, manifested in the abnormal development of all areas of the psyche: intellectual and emotional spheres, sensory and motor skills, attention, memory, speech.

The disorder in question is not a simple mechanical sum of individual difficulties - here we can see a single pattern of dysontogenesis, covering the entire mental development of the child. The point is not only that the normal course of development is disrupted or delayed, it is clearly distorted. The paradox is expressed in the fact that with occasional manifestations of the ability to perceive complex forms, such a child does not strive to use his capabilities in real life.

We are talking about a pathological change in the entire style of interaction with the world, difficulties in organizing active adaptive behavior, in using knowledge and skills to interact with the environment and people.

Violations in the affective sphere entail changes in the direction of the development of the child’s higher mental functions. They become not so much a means of active adaptation to the world, but rather a tool used for protection and obtaining impressions necessary for autostimulation.

Thus, the development of motor skills is delayed in the formation of everyday adaptation skills and the development of ordinary actions with objects necessary for life. Instead, the arsenal of stereotypical movements and manipulations with objects is actively replenished, which allows one to receive the necessary stimulating impressions associated with contact, changing the position of the body in space, feeling one’s muscle ligaments, joints, etc. Such a child is extremely awkward in any objective action. He cannot imitate, grasping the desired pose; poorly controls the distribution of muscle tone: the body, arm, fingers may be too sluggish or too tense, movements are poorly coordinated, and their temporal sequence is not learned. At the same time, he can unexpectedly show exceptional dexterity in his strange actions.

In the development of such a child’s perception, one can note disturbances in orientation in space, distortions of the holistic picture of the real objective world and a sophisticated isolation of individual, affectively significant sensations of one’s own body, as well as sounds, colors, and shapes of surrounding things. Stereotypical pressure on the ear or eye, sniffing, licking objects, fingering in front of the eyes, playing with highlights and shadows are common.

Speech development autistic child reflects a similar trend. With a general violation of the development of purposeful communicative speech, it is possible to become fascinated with individual speech forms, constantly playing with sounds, syllables and words, rhyming, singing, reciting poetry, etc.

Like motor ones, speech stereotypies (monotonous actions) also develop, allowing one to reproduce the same things over and over again. necessary for the child impression.

In the development of the thinking of such children, enormous difficulties are noted in voluntary learning and purposeful resolution of real-life problems. Experts point to difficulties in symbolization and transfer of skills from one situation to another, linking them with difficulties in generalization and with limitations in understanding the subtext of what is happening, the one-dimensionality, and literalness of its interpretations. It is difficult for such a child to understand the development of a situation over time, to distinguish causes and consequences in the sequence of events. This is very clearly manifested when retelling educational material and completing tasks related to plot pictures. Researchers note problems with understanding the logic of another person, taking into account his ideas and intentions.

Children with RDA are not able to actively process information and actively use their abilities in order to adapt to a changing world.

A special place among the characteristics of an autistic child is occupied by behavioral problems: violation of self-preservation, negativism, destructive behavior, fears, aggression, self-injury. They increase with an inadequate approach to the child (at the same time, autostimulation increases, fencing him off from really occurring events) and, on the contrary, decrease with the choice of forms of interaction available to him.

Thus, autistic child goes through a difficult path of distorted development. In the big picture, you need to learn to see not only its problems, but also its opportunities and potential achievements.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that childhood autism is not a problem of childhood alone. Difficulties in communication and socialization change shape, but do not go away over the years, and help and support should accompany a person with autism all his life.

Questions for self-control:

1. Give a description of the psychological picture of RDA.

2. Characterize persistent disorders in RDA.

Bibliography

1. Autistic child: problems in everyday life / Ed. S.A. Morozova. - M., 1998.

2. Baenskaya E.R. Help in raising children with special emotional development. Junior school age. – M., 1999.

3. Childhood autism / Under. Ed. L.M. Shipitsina. – St., 2001.

4. Lebedinskaya K.S., Nikolskaya O.S. Diagnosis of early autism. - M., 1991.

5. Lebedinskaya K.S., Nikolskaya O.S. and others. Children with communication disorders. - M., 1989.

6. Lebedinsky V.V. Mental development disorders in children. – M., 1985.

7. Lebedinsky V.V., Nikolskaya O.S., Baenskaya E.R., Liebling M.M. Emotional disorders in childhood and their correction. – M., 1990.

8. Nikolskaya O.S., Baenskaya E.R., Liebling M.M. Autistic child. Ways of help. - M., 2000.

9. Nikolskaya O.S. Affective sphere person. A look through the lens of childhood autism. – M, 2000.

10. Schopler E., Lanzind M., L. Waters. Support for autistic and developmentally delayed children. - Minsk, 1997.

Children who do not tend to show emotions are called autistic. They do not realize the importance of other people, being antisocial individuals. But children with such pathology may have glimpses of genius, high intelligence(However, not all).
The main task of parents in psychological and pedagogical correction is to teach a special child to interact at least a little with the outside world. It’s impossible to do without developing speech skills.

What is this strange disease?

Autism was diagnosed as a mental disorder in the early 20th century. Psychiatrists observed a patient who practically did not show his feelings, lived in his own reality, and perceived the people around him as a threat to his own life.
Autism is a mental disorder. It is not curable. In the easiest version, this is the development of significant abilities in a certain field: painting, poetry, physics, computer science and other fields (this includes Albert Einstein and Marie Curie).
But the most unpleasant option for parents is a low level of intelligence, concomitant nervous diseases, and hormonal dysfunction.
Such children appear in the world infrequently - about 200 people per million. The cause of autism is not known. Scientists have only come to the conclusion that the root of the problem lies in intrauterine development. But why brain pathology suddenly appears is a mystery.
The main symptoms of autism are:

• Lack of emotions. While still an infant, the baby may not smile or reach for toys.
• Constant monotonous action according to a certain algorithm. A child can turn on and off the light, light and put out a fire, and pour liquid from one container to another.
• Lack of speech. Moreover, some little autistic people are talkative until they are 3 or 4 years old, and then suddenly become silent.
• Perception of people as inanimate objects - there is no desire to turn to them, they can only irritate or cause fear, as a response - an attack of aggression.
• Rocking from side to side, angular movements.
• Lack of self-preservation reflex.

Important! That is why it is necessary to develop the speech of the little “unsociable”. In cases with advanced mental illness, such a child (or even a teenager) needs the constant presence of parents or a specially trained nanny-educator. But often there is no trust in her. The burden of responsibility still falls on the shoulders of mom and/or dad.
To understand what an autistic child needs, you need to understand his requests, which he sometimes does not consider necessary to voice.
Sometimes a child is talented in something. To develop it in this direction, we also cannot do without a communicative component.

Strategies for success

Before getting close to the development of speech of a special, but dear and beloved child, especially in need of a loved one, You need to learn 7 simple tips on what parents can do and what they can’t.

Slow letter-by-letter reading or even the inability to read creates for today's first-graders serious problems. Besides, learning to read at the age of seven...

1. "Yes!" social interaction. Let mom remember children’s nursery rhymes like “magpie-crow” and “okay-okay.” This development of motor skills and language skills, a sense of rhythm, will definitely help. Playing with a doll, robot or stuffed animal will not be superfluous either. It is enough for a special child to have a favorite toy that resembles a living creature. Mom can turn to her with requests, and she will supposedly fulfill them. The child will learn to understand what is wanted from him and how he should act in response.
2. Do what the baby does. He drives the car, and so does Mom. He sorts the dolls by the color of their clothes - let the parents practice their skills. This will help establish contact.
3. Communicating with gestures. Nothing stops mom from nodding her head when she agrees in a conversation with dad. When showing your son or daughter a star or moon in the sky, you can point at it with your finger and say the name. Then the baby can point in this way to a high-standing object and voice its name (not with the word “drink” for a cup or “eat” for a spoon, but say “cup”, “spoon”). Non-verbal communication is part of verbal interaction.
4. Don't rush to answer. When a special child hears a question, he begins to think about it. This may take 10 seconds or more. There is no need to automatically negotiate for him. This “silent patience” is extremely important for a baby. He will answer and will be grateful that his peculiarity is treated patiently.
5. Easier to say! There is no need for parents to make requests in long sentences filled with auxiliary constructions. It is enough to simply say: “bring the doll” or “give me your hand.” Later it will be possible to add 1 word to its phrases. It will not interfere with understanding, but will expand the vocabulary of the younger family member.
6. Play HIS games. Here the parents were even a little lucky. There is no need to worry about how to keep your beloved child occupied. The child himself will point out an activity that interests him. It is enough to understand the rules and principles of his game in order to discover something new in yourself to understand the child’s motivation, and then show that the parent is “one of his own” and can be trusted. Then mom and dad will be able to bring elements of simple everyday communication into the game.
7. "Pictures, images with sound." This principle is characteristic of some gadgets with touch control, toys with buttons, after clicking on the images of which a word or sound is pronounced.

Difficulties in the speech development of a little autistic child can be overcome by simple patience and attention from parents, which is what these strategically important moments are designed for.

Emphasis is on speech development

The main thing is to learn to talk through fulfilling ordinary requests. You should not use short words of agreement (“yes”) or denial (“no”) yourself in the presence of the baby, just as you should not encourage them in your child. They will “discourage” him from speaking in longer sentences.
Rules for constructing speech:

At a certain period of his life, namely in early preschool age, the child begins to strive to discuss work with the people around him...

• Place the items that the mother asks for in the baby’s field of vision. Even better - at eye level.
• Parents need to voice every object they pick up. In general, the habit of stipulating and articulating everything - on the street, in a store, in a zoo - is a great way to inform. The audio perception of an autistic person can be used for developmental purposes.
• Important! There is the Tomatis audio method. Through specially selected recordings, the brain is influenced by influencing the eardrum.
• First, the “stimulus-stimulus” technique is used. The child receives the treasured toy (his incentive) after he says its name (mom’s incentive).
• There is no need to be afraid to give tips to a special child. But as he begins to speak better, the prompts should decrease.

The main speech exercises should be graded - from simple to more complex:

1. You can give your child his favorite fruit after he names it (naturally, without speculating on the baby’s feeling of hunger). She said “banana”, she might get it. He said it wrong, and then corrected himself - don’t give it. He said the right thing - put it in the child’s hands.
2. You can choose a set of simple physical exercises on the Internet or for any short children’s song. For example, include stretching, squats, and bending to the sides. The same “Teddy Bear” can be “supplemented”: he walks through the forest - stomping in rhythm with his mother, collects pine cones - bends over and imitates putting pine cones in his pocket, etc.
3. Don't neglect simple but effective games. This is building towers from cubes, solving a Rubik's cube, tracing cut out animal figures with pencils.
4. Develop fine motor skills and habitual actions, which can be classified as “art”. Fastening buttons and stringing beads in a certain (as the child wants) sequence. You can weave “braids” from laces and pull them through specially made holes in the board.

Even on the street, without additional equipment, you can help your baby adapt to the world. It is enough to ask him to show how his cheeks puff out (imagine yourself inflatable balloon). How does a cat close its eyes when it sleeps? How does a dog bare its teeth if another dog takes a bone from it?

As for practicing sound, you need to use the following articulation exercises:

• Inhale air through your nose and exhale through your mouth, but in the form of a certain sound (both vowels and consonants).
• Play the radio, when the baby pronounces the sound quietly at first, and then, when the mother “presses the remote control button,” makes it louder and louder, reaching the limit. Then you can perform this procedure in the opposite direction.
• You can, with an older child, try to assemble the correct word from the “shifter” word (“amma” and “mama”, “anog” and “leg”).
• But such children often suffer from coherent speech.

Auxiliary pictures will help for its development. You can read a single-plot fairy tale (for example, “Ryaba Hen”) to your son or daughter, based on the pictures.
The next step will be a story based on any chosen drawing. A special child still remembers something; a visual cue will help him reproduce what he heard. Then there will be a story based on the recorded plan, then an independent retelling based on the images. Gradually, the child will learn to independently tell a whole story without extraneous supporting elements.

childhood autism social rehabilitation

The early development of an autistic child generally falls within the approximate normal time frame; At the same time, there are two options for the general peculiar background against which development occurs. In the first case, from the very beginning such a child may show signs of weak mental tone, lethargy, low activity in contacts with the environment, unexpressed manifestations of even vital needs (the child may not ask for food, tolerate wet diapers). At the same time, he can eat with pleasure, love comfort, but not so much as to actively demand it, defend a form of contact that is convenient for himself; He leaves the initiative in everything to his mother.

And later such a child does not seek to actively explore the environment. Parents often describe such children as very calm, “ideal,” and comfortable. They can be left alone without requiring constant attention.

In other cases, children, on the contrary, already at a very early age are characterized by special excitability, motor restlessness, difficulty falling asleep, and special selectivity in food. It is difficult to adapt to them; they may develop special habits of going to bed, feeding, and grooming procedures. They can express their dissatisfaction so sharply that they become dictators in developing the first affective stereotypes of contact with the world, single-handedly determining what and how to do.

It is difficult to hold such a child in your arms or in a stroller. Excitement usually increases as the child ages. When such a child begins to move independently, he becomes completely uncontrollable: he runs without looking back, behaves with absolutely no “sense of edge.” The activity of such a child, however, is of a field nature and is in no way connected with a directed examination of the environment.

At the same time, both parents of passive, submissive children and parents of excited, difficult-to-organize children often noted anxiety, fearfulness, and a slight onset of sensory discomfort in children. Many parents report that their children were especially sensitive to loud sounds, could not tolerate household noise of normal intensity, had a dislike for tactile contact, and characteristic disgust when feeding; in a number of cases, aversion to brightly colored toys was noted. In many cases, unpleasant impressions were recorded for a long time in the child’s affective memory.

The unusual reaction to sensory impressions manifested itself in other ways. In an attempt to limit sensory contact with the world, with insufficient focus on examining the environment, the child was noted to be captivated and fascinated by certain stereotypical impressions - visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive. Having received these impressions once, the child again and again sought to reproduce them. Only after a long period of fascination with one impression was it replaced by an addiction to another.

The difficulty of distracting a child from such impressions is typical, for example, a nine-month-old child stretches an expander to the point of complete exhaustion, another child falls asleep over a construction set.

Being captivated by rhythmic, repeating impressions is generally characteristic of early childhood. Until one year of age, it is natural for the behavior of “circulating reactions” to dominate, when the child repeats the same actions in order to reproduce the effect - knocking with a toy, jumping, closing and opening the door. A child with normal development gladly includes an adult in his activities.

In the case of early childhood autism, it is practically impossible for a loved one to join in the activities that absorb the child. Special sensory hobbies begin to isolate him from interaction with loved ones, and therefore from the development and complication of interaction with the outside world.

The origins of the problems in forming a bond between an autistic child and his mother:

A normal child tends to develop socially almost from birth. The baby very early shows a selective interest in social stimuli: a human voice, a face. Already in the first month of life, the child can spend a significant part of his waking hours in eye contact with his mother. It is contact through gaze that has the function of launching and regulating the communication process.

Many mothers of autistic children report that their child did not fixate his gaze on the adult’s face, but looked past, “through.”

Clinical observations and studies of older autistic children have shown that a person, his face, is the most attractive object for an autistic child, but he cannot focus his attention on it for a long time, his gaze seems to hesitate, there is a desire to come closer, and a desire to leave.

Adult contact is attractive to an autistic child, but social stimulation is not within his comfort range.

The first smile, according to the parents, appeared in such a child in time, but it was not addressed to an adult and arose as a reaction both to the approach of an adult and to a number of pleasant impressions for the child (braking, the sound of a rattle, the mother’s colorful clothes, etc.) . Obvious “smile contagion” was observed only in some children (according to F. Volkmar - in a third of the observed cases).

Along with the disruption of the development of the first stereotypes of everyday interaction, the formation of stereotypes of emotional contact is disrupted.

If normal by 3 months. a stable “revitalization complex” appears - the child anticipates the situation of contact, in which he becomes its active initiator, demanding attention, emotional activity of the adult, the baby takes an anticipatory pose, stretches out his arms towards the adult, then such manifestations are not typical for small autistic children. In the mother's arms, many of them feel uncomfortable: they do not take a position of readiness, the child's indifference, or his tension, or even resistance is felt.

The ability to differentiate facial expressions and intonations usually occurs during normal development between 5 and 6 months. Autistic children are less able to recognize the facial expressions of loved ones and may even react inappropriately to a smile or a sad expression on their mother’s face.

Thus, in the first half of life, an autistic child experiences disturbances in the development of the initial phase of communication skills, the main content of which is the establishment of the ability to exchange emotions and the development of common emotional meanings of everyday situations.

By the end of the first - beginning of the second half of life, a child developing normally has a clear differentiation of “us” and “strangers,” and among “friends,” the greatest attachment arises to the mother as the main caregiver or a person replacing her, which indicates sufficient development of individual stereotypes of emotional communication.

According to developmental histories, many autistic children still identify someone close to them in the second half of life. Based on the results of the experiment, M. Sigman and her colleagues conclude that attachment is formed because an autistic infant reacts to separation from the mother in the same way as other children.

The attachment of an autistic child, however, most often manifests itself only as a negative experience of separation from the mother. As a rule, affection is not expressed in positive emotions. A child, however, can rejoice when loved ones bother him and entertain him, but this joy is not addressed to his loved one, the child does not strive to share it with him.

Such attachment has the character of a rather primitive symbiotic relationship between a child and his mother, when the mother is perceived only as the main condition for survival.

The insufficiency of the development of emotional connections and the development of individual stereotypes of communication with loved ones is also manifested in the absence of “fear of strangers”, which is characteristic of many autistic children, which is normally observed at the end of the first year of life. Such children can, with the same indifference, go into the arms of both loved ones and strangers.

By the end of the first year, a normal child usually develops differentiated stereotypes of relationships with different family members, with his own people and with strangers. In autistic children, symbiotic attachment to one person usually increases and is accompanied by difficulties in contact with other loved ones.

After six months of normal development, thanks to the development of stereotypes, communication rituals, games, in the interactions of a child with an adult, it becomes possible to mutually focus attention not only on each other, but also on external objects. After some time, the child himself begins to use the pointing gesture and vocalization not only as a response, but also as an active attraction of the mother’s attention to an event or object that interests him. P. Mundy and M. Sigman consider the inability to unite attention, to generally concentrate on an object, as one of the earliest obvious manifestations of childhood autism.

Activity disturbances, sensory vulnerability, insufficient development of affective interaction stereotypes, emotional contact - all this pushes the child to search for additional autostimulation, leading to the development of hypercompensatory mechanisms that allow the child to drown out and reduce the feeling of affective discomfort. At a level accessible to him, he develops sophisticated methods of autostimulation of sthenic affective states. The obsessive desire of autistic children to constantly reproduce the same stereotypical actions that cause pleasant sensations makes a great contribution to the development of their monotonous behavior. These hypercompensatory actions, while providing temporary relief, only increase the child’s overall maladjustment.

Normally, by the age of one and a half years, signs of true imitation and imitation appear, which are expressed in the child’s delayed reproduction of intonations, gestures, and behavior patterns characteristic of those close to him. In an autistic child, the development of these forms is delayed for a long time

Such severe damage to affective development also causes the formation of a special distortion in the child’s intellectual and speech development.

Underdevelopment of the affective mechanisms of selective and voluntary concentration becomes an insurmountable obstacle to the development of higher mental functions. Under these conditions, even with the highest prerequisites for intellectual development, an autistic child cannot cognitively master the environment. Its development here seems to change its direction and goes mainly in line with the affective assimilation of impressions for the needs of hypercompensatory autostimulation. Such a child masters ways of obtaining certain stereotypical motor, sensory, speech and even intellectual impressions. The intellectual development of these children is extremely diverse. Among them there may be children with normal, accelerated, sharply delayed and uneven mental development. Both partial or general giftedness and mental retardation are also noted.

In stories about such children, the same circumstance is constantly noted: they never look into the eyes of another person. Such children avoid communication with people in any way. They seem to not understand or not hear at all what is being said to them. As a rule, these children do not speak at all, and if this happens, then most often such children do not use words to communicate with other people. Another feature of their speech is noted in their manner of speaking: they do not use personal pronouns; an autistic child speaks about himself in the second or third person.

There is also such a noticeable feature as a great interest in all kinds of mechanical objects and extraordinary dexterity in handling them. On the contrary, they show obvious indifference to society; they have no need to compare themselves with other people or with their own “I”.

However, the extreme antipathy of autistic children to contact with other people is tempered by the joy they often experience when they are treated like very little children. In this case, the child will not shy away from affectionate touches until you insist that he look at you or talk to you.

Autistic children complain much less often than their healthy peers. On conflict situation They, as a rule, react by shouting, aggressive actions, or take a passive defensive position. Recourse to elders for help is extremely rare.

Many of these children suffer from severe eating disorders. Sometimes they refuse to eat at all. (The parents of a four-year-old girl tried everything to whet her appetite. She refused everything, but at the same time she lay down on the floor next to the dog, took the same position and began to eat from the dog’s bowl, taking food only with her mouth). But this is an extreme case. More often you have to deal with a preference for a certain type of food product.

Also, autistic children may suffer from severe sleep disorders. It is especially difficult, and sometimes impossible, for them to fall asleep. The period of sleep can be reduced to an absolute minimum, in addition, there is no regularity of sleep. Some children cannot fall asleep alone; their father or mother must be with them. Some children cannot fall asleep in their own bed; they fall asleep on a certain chair and only in a sleepy state can they be transferred to bed. There are also children who fall asleep only by touching their parents.

These strange characteristics of children with RDA may be associated with some obsessions or fears, which occupy one of the leading places in the formation of autistic behavior in children. Many ordinary surrounding objects, phenomena and some people cause them a constant feeling of fear. Signs of intense fear in these children are often caused by reasons that seem inexplicable to a superficial observer. If you still try to understand what is happening, it turns out that often the feeling of fear arises as a result of an obsession. For example, children are sometimes obsessed with the idea that all things should be placed in a strictly ordered manner in relation to each other, that everything in the room should have its own specific place, and if they suddenly don’t find this, they begin to experience a strong feeling of fear and panic. Autistic fears distort the objectivity of perception of the surrounding world.

Autistic children also have unusual preferences, fantasies, and drives, and they seem to completely capture the child; they cannot be distracted or taken away from these actions.

Their range is very wide. Some children swing, fiddle with their fingers, fiddle with a string, tear paper, run in circles or from wall to wall. Others have unusual preferences for traffic patterns, street layouts, electrical wiring, etc.

Some have fantastic ideas of transforming into an animal or a fairy-tale character. Some children strive for strange, unpleasant actions at the usual glance: they climb into basements and trash heaps, constantly draw cruel scenes (of executions), show aggressiveness in their actions, and reveal sexual attraction. These special actions, addictions, and fantasies play an important role in the pathological adaptation of such children to the environment and to themselves.

Distortion of development in autistic children can manifest itself in a paradoxical combination, ahead of age norms, the development of mental operations and, on their basis, one-sided abilities (mathematical, constructive, etc.) and interests and, at the same time, failure in practical life, in mastering everyday skills, methods of action, and special difficulties in establishing relationships with others.

Some children with autism, when thoroughly tested, may produce results that are significantly outside their age range; but with some children testing is simply impossible. So, you can get an IQ in the range between 30 and 140.

The monotonous and one-sided nature of the development of these children’s abilities and hobbies is noteworthy: they like to re-read the same books and collect monotonous objects. Based on the nature and content of the relationship of these hobbies to reality, two groups can be distinguished:

Isolation from reality (composing meaningless poems, “reading” books in an incomprehensible language)

Associated with certain aspects of reality, aimed at productive activities (interest in mathematics, languages, chess, music) - which can lead to further development abilities.

Play activity significantly determines the mental development of a child throughout his childhood, especially in preschool age, when plot-based role-playing play comes to the fore. Children with autism traits on none age stage They do not play story games with their peers, do not take on social roles, and do not reproduce in games situations that reflect real life relationships: professional, family, etc. They have no interest or inclination to reproduce this kind of relationship. The lack of social orientation generated by autism in these children is manifested in a lack of interest not only in role-playing games, but also in watching films and television shows that reflect interpersonal relationships.

In autism, the phenomena of asynchrony in the formation of functions and systems are most clearly manifested: the development of speech often outstrips the development of motor skills, “abstract” thinking is ahead of the development of visually effective and visually imaginative.

Earlier development is formally - logical thinking enhances the ability to abstract and promotes limitless possibilities for mental exercise, not limited by socially significant assessments.

Psychological diagnosis of such children should in no way be reduced to an assessment of mental abilities. Data on intellectual development should be considered only in the context of the characteristics of his general mental development. The focus should be on the interests of the child, the level of formation of voluntary regulation of behavior, and, first of all, regulation associated with orientation towards other people, and social motives.

The question of opportunities and forms of training is complex, but it should be noted that individual training recommended only in exceptional cases.

Features of speech development

The use of vocalizations for communication begins long before a child is able to produce words. Normally, the following stages of prelinguistic development are distinguished:

1) 0-1 month. Undifferentiated crying. The first reaction to the environment, the result of a total bodily response;

2) 1-5.6 months. Differentiated crying. Hungry crying, crying associated with abdominal pain, etc.;

1) 3-6.7 months. Booming. Vocal playing stage. The child listens to the sounds around him and produces them himself. However, spectrographic analysis of these sounds showed that they are objectively different from the sounds of adult speech, even when the mother tries to imitate the baby's hum;

4) 6-12 months. Babbling, repetition of audible sounds, syllables;

5) 9-10 months. Echolalia. Repetition of sounds that the child hears. The difference from babbling is that the child repeats what he directly hears from another individual.

Early development in autism is characterized by the following features of prelinguistic development: crying is difficult to interpret, humming is limited or unusual (more like a squeal or scream), and there is no imitation of sounds.

Speech disorders are most clearly visible after 3 years. Some patients remain mute throughout their lives, but even when speech develops, it remains abnormal in many respects. In contrast to healthy children, there is a tendency to repeat the same phrases rather than construct original statements. Delayed or immediate echolalia is typical. Pronounced stereotypies and a tendency towards echolalia lead to specific grammatical phenomena. Personal pronouns are repeated in the same way as they are heard, and there are no answers such as “yes” or “no” for a long time. In the speech of such children, rearrangements of sounds and incorrect use of prepositional constructions are not uncommon.

Language understanding is also limited in children with autism. Around 1 year of age, when healthy children love to hear people talk to them, autistic children pay no more attention to speech than to any other noise. For a long time, the child is unable to follow simple instructions and does not respond to his name.

At the same time, some children with autism demonstrate early and rapid speech development. They listen with pleasure when they are read to, remember long pieces of text almost word for word, and their speech gives the impression of being unchildish due to the use of a large number of expressions inherent in the speech of adults. However, opportunities for productive dialogue remain limited. Understanding speech is largely difficult due to difficulties in understanding figurative meaning, subtext, and metaphors. Such features of speech development are more typical for children with Asperger syndrome.

Features of the intonation side of speech also distinguish these children. They often find it difficult to control the volume of their voice; speech is perceived by others as “wooden,” “boring,” or “mechanical.” The tone and rhythm of speech are disturbed.

Thus, regardless of the level of speech development, in autism, the ability to use it for communication is primarily affected. In addition, it should be emphasized that deviations from normal ontogenesis are observed already at the stage of prelinguistic development. The spectrum of speech disorders varies from complete mutism to advanced (compared to the norm) development.

Nonverbal communication

Observations of healthy infants reveal relationships between specific hand movements, gaze direction, vocalizations, and facial expressions. Already at the age of 9-15 weeks, hand activity in a certain sequence is associated with other behavioral patterns. For example: pointing posture before or after vocalization during face-to-face interaction with the mother, clenching the hand during vocalization, spreading fingers - in those moments when the baby looks away from her face. It is interesting that some manual acts are characterized by right-left differences. The results of experimental studies of healthy children show a connection between the development of gestures and the level of speech development. Obviously, in cases where there is no humming and limited opportunities for eye contact, which is typical for autism, this preparatory stage will proceed abnormally, and this cannot but affect the development of a number of mental functions. Indeed, at an older age, obvious difficulties in non-verbal communication are revealed, namely: the use of gestures, facial expression, and body movements. Very often there is no pointing gesture. The child takes his parents by the hand and leads him to the object, approaches its usual location and waits until he is given the object.

Thus, already at the early stages of development, children with autism show signs of distortion of specific innate behavioral patterns characteristic of normal children.

Peculiarities of perception (Lebedinskaya K.S., Nikolskaya O.S.) Visual perception.

Looking “through” the object. Lack of eye tracking of an object. "Pseudo-blindness." Focusing the gaze on a “non-objective” object: a spot of light, a section of a shiny surface, a pattern of wallpaper, carpet, flickering shadows. Fascinated by such contemplation. Delay at the stage of looking at your hands, fingering your fingers near your face.

Examining and fingering the mother's fingers. Persistent search for certain visual sensations. A persistent desire to contemplate bright objects, their movement, spinning, flickering pages. Long-term induction of stereotypical changes in visual sensations (when turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, moving glass shelves, spinning wheels, pouring mosaics, etc.).

Early color discrimination. Drawing stereotypical patterns.

Visual hypersynthesis: fright, screaming when turning on the light, opening the curtains; desire for darkness.

Auditory perception.

Lack of response to sound. Fears of individual sounds. Lack of habituation to frightening sounds. Desire for sound autostimulation: crumpling and tearing paper, rustling plastic bags, swinging door leaves. Preference for quiet sounds. Early love for music. The nature of your preferred music. Its role in the implementation of the regime, compensation of behavior. Good ear for music. Hyperpathic negative reaction to music.

Tactile sensitivity.

Changed reaction to wet diapers, bathing, combing hair, cutting nails and hair. Poor tolerance of clothes, shoes, desire to undress. Pleasure from the feeling of tearing, stratifying fabrics, paper, pouring cereals. Examination of the surroundings mainly through palpation.

Taste sensitivity.

Intolerance to many foods. The desire to eat inedible things. Sucking inedible objects, tissues. Inspecting the environment by licking.

Olfactory sensitivity.

Hypersynthetic to odors. Inspecting the surroundings using sniffing.

Proprioceptive sensitivity.

Tendency to autostimulation by tensing the body, limbs, hitting oneself on the ears, pinching them when yawning, hitting the head against the side of the stroller, the headboard of the bed. Attraction to play with an adult, such as spinning, spinning, tossing .

The search for the causes of this disorder of mental development went in several directions.

The first examinations of autistic children did not provide evidence of pathology in their nervous system. In this regard, in the early 50s, the most widespread hypothesis was about the psychogenic origin of suffering. In other words, disruption of the development of emotional connections with people and activity in mastering the surrounding world was associated with early mental trauma, with the wrong, cold attitude of parents towards the child, with inappropriate methods of education. Here you can note the following characteristic feature, - it was generally accepted that a child with autism had a typical family background. RDA often occurs in intellectual circles and in the so-called upper strata of society, although it is known that this disease is not limited to one or another social group. Thus, responsibility for the violation of the mental development of a biologically full-fledged child was placed on the parents, which very often was the cause of severe mental trauma to the parents themselves.

Further comparative studies of families of mentally retarded children and children suffering from early childhood autism showed that autistic children suffered no more traumatic situations than others, and parents of autistic children are even more caring and devoted to them than is usually observed in the family of a child with mental retardation .

Currently, most researchers believe that early childhood autism is a consequence of a special pathology, which is based on a deficiency of the central nervous system.

This deficiency can be caused by a wide range of reasons: congenital abnormal constitution, congenital metabolic disorders, organic damage to the central nervous system as a result of pathology of pregnancy and childbirth, early onset schizophrenic process. More than 30 different pathogenic factors which can lead to the formation of Kanner's syndrome.

Of course, the actions of various pathological agents introduce individual features into the picture of early childhood autism syndrome. It may be complicated varying degrees mental retardation, severe speech underdevelopment. Different shades can have emotional disturbances. As with any other developmental anomaly, the overall picture of a severe mental defect cannot be directly deduced from its biological underlying causes alone.

Many, even the main manifestations of early childhood autism can be regarded in this sense as secondary, arising in the process of mental dysontogenesis.

The mechanism of formation of secondary disorders is most obvious when considering the clinical picture through the prism of abnormal mental development.

Mental development not only suffers from biological inferiority, but also adapts to it as to external conditions.

An autistic child evaluates most situations of interaction with others as dangerous. Autism in this regard can be presented as the main one of the secondary syndromes, as a compensatory mechanism aimed at protecting from a traumatic external environment. Autistic attitudes are the most significant in the hierarchy of reasons that shape the very abnormal development of such a child.

The development of those aspects of the psyche that are formed in active social contacts. As a rule, the development of psychomotor skills is impaired. The period from 1.5 to 3 years, which is normally the time for mastering the skills of neatness, dressing, eating independently, and playing with objects, for a child suffering from autism, often turns out to be a crisis and difficult to overcome. At the same time, unlike other categories of children with motor defects, autistic people have no or almost no independent attempts to compensate for these difficulties.

However, for children with early childhood autism syndrome of various etiologies, the main points of the clinical picture, the general structure of mental development disorders, and the problems facing families remain common.

The manifestations of early childhood autism change with age. The clinical picture develops gradually by 2.5-3 years and remains most pronounced until 5-6 years, representing a complex combination of primary disorders caused by the disease and secondary difficulties arising as a result of incorrect, pathological adaptation to them by both the child and adults.

If you try to trace how difficulties in the mental development of an autistic child arise, most researchers doubt that such children have even a short period of normal development. Although the pediatrician, as a rule, evaluates such a child as healthy, his “specialness” is often noticeable from birth and already in infancy, initial signs of developmental disorders are noted.

It is known that in infancy, pathologies of physical and mental development are intertwined especially closely. Already at this time, autistic children show disturbances in the simplest instinctive forms of adaptation to life (mentioned above): difficulties falling asleep, shallow intermittent sleep, distortion of the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. There may be difficulties in feeding such children: sluggish sucking, early breast refusal, selectivity in taking complementary foods. Digestive function is unstable, often disrupted, and there is a tendency to constipation.

Such children can be either overpassive, unresponsive, or excitable, with a tendency to panic reactions. However, the same child can demonstrate both types of behavior. It is possible, for example, that there is no reaction to wet diapers, or complete intolerance to them. Some children, who react little to their surroundings, are suspected of blindness and deafness, while others scream for hours in response to an unusual loud sound and reject bright toys. So, the boy, the envy of all mothers, sits calmly on a blanket, while other kids crawl uncontrollably across the lawn; as it turned out, he was afraid to get off it. Fear inhibits his activity and curiosity, but outwardly he seems calm.

It must be added that once experienced, fear can be fixed in such children for a long time and, after months and even years, influence their behavior. Thus, one girl, who, after a fright that occurred at the age of 3 months, when her mother left home for a short time and they tried to feed her from a bottle for the first time, began screaming every day for several months at precisely this time.

Peculiarities in establishing emotional contact between autistic children and loved ones also appear in the first year of life. Passivity in relationships with relatives is often noted: such a child weakly expresses joy when a loved one appears, asks little to be held, and does not adapt to being held. However, according to observations, in most cases, an autistic child at an early age may not be as active as a healthy child, but he is able to establish a simple emotional connection with loved ones. The only exceptions are the most severe cases, possibly complicated by mental retardation. But in most cases, an autistic child enjoys emotional contact and loves being played with, spun around, and tossed around.

When a child begins to walk, his character changes: from calm he becomes excited, disinhibited, does not obey adults, learns self-care skills with difficulty and with great delay, he has difficulty concentrating on what is happening around him, it is difficult to organize him or teach him something.

For the first time, the danger of a particular delay in the child’s mental development begins to appear.

The main reasons for this distortion of mental development, according to researchers (K.S. Lebedinskaya, E.R. Baenskaya, O.S. Nikolskaya) are the following:

1. Painful increased sensitivity, vulnerability of the emotional sphere with poor tolerance to ordinary environmental influences, a tendency to fixate on unpleasant impressions, which makes the autistic child prone to anxiety and fears;

2. Weakness of general and mental tone, causing a low ability to concentrate attention, the formation of arbitrary forms of behavior, and increased satiety in contact with others.

Leontyeva Anna Vladimirovna, teacher of the 1st qualification category, Yaroslavl, MDOU “Kindergarten 209”.
This article will be useful for teachers of all ages to become familiar with and apply in practice the acquired knowledge. age groups, parents facing the problem of early childhood autism. The article presents the characteristics of children with early childhood autism, the peculiarities of communication with them, and provides recommendations to parents. The material can be used in the form of a presentation at an introductory meeting of parents or teaching staff when forming a compensatory group, in particular a group of children with early childhood autism, to familiarize themselves with the problem and generalize existing knowledge.

Early childhood autism (Leo Kanner syndrome)

Leo Kanner is an Austrian and American psychiatrist, known for his first description of childhood autism in 1943 and subsequent work in this area.
Early childhood autism, or “Leo Kanner syndrome” is a special form of impaired mental development with uneven formation of various mental functions, peculiar emotional - behavioral, speech and intellectual disorders.
Autism(from Greek autos) - himself. That is, an autistic child is, as it were, on his own, he is fenced off from the main world by a wall, cut off from reality and cannot respond adequately to it. Hence, speech and motor disorders, stereotypical activity and behavior, leading such children to social maladjustment. IN pure form autism is extremely rare. More often it is combined with speech, intellectual and behavioral disorders.
Autism is a congenital disorder of mental development that affects communication with other people, perception and understanding of the world around us. You cannot get sick from it, and you cannot recover from it. There is also no cure for autism.
Autism- this is the result of the influence of many factors that act at the stage of development and affect many, or all absolutely functional brain systems. This is why autism cannot be cured. It is only possible to make individual adjustments to the behavior of autistic people and their ability to live relatively independently.
There are many causes of autism. But, according to psychiatrists, they lie in genetic failures. The autistic brain is overloaded and cannot cope with the flow of information.
For example, the thinking of one person is similar to the work of a computer microprocessor, which is simultaneously responsible for executing several programs. We can simultaneously do several things in parallel: prepare and think about tomorrow's event; go shopping with your child and plan your evening.
Autistic people have a different brain structure - they cannot think and react to several things at the same time. They need specifics!!!
Features of children with early childhood autism.
A clear manifestation of early childhood autism appears between the ages of two and five years; individual manifestations may occur earlier.
Severe insufficiency or complete absence of the need for contact with others.
Already infants do not have a “revival complex”; they do not smile when they see their parents; sometimes missing indicative reactions(visual and auditory). And this can be taken for a defect in the sensory organs. Some experience intermittency, difficulty falling asleep, appetite disorders with a decrease and special selectivity, lack of hunger, general anxiety and causeless crying.
Emotional coldness (affective blockade).
Children do not give an adequate, emotional reaction to the appearance or departure of adults. Facial expressions are poor and inexpressive; characterized by an empty, expressionless gaze, as well as a glance past, or “through” the interlocutor. Sometimes children lack the ability to differentiate between people and inanimate objects.
Monotonous behavior with a tendency to stereotypical movements.
Children can spend hours performing the same actions that vaguely resemble a game: pouring water into a dish and pouring it out; pour, sort through pieces of paper, strings, move them from place to place, place them in a certain order. Such manipulations indicate a pathology of drives, close to the violations of instincts that are characteristic of these children.
General motor impairment.
Peculiar stereotypical movements. Psychomotor disorders are characteristic, which manifest themselves in general motor failure: angularity, disproportion voluntary movements, clumsy gait, absence friendly movements; and peculiar stereotypical movements that appear in the 2nd year of life: flexion and extension of fingers, jumping, rotation around its axis, walking and running on tiptoes.
Delay in the formation of basic self-care skills.
As a rule, there is a significant delay in the formation of basic self-care skills (eating independently, washing, dressing and undressing, etc.)
Speech disorders.
Children often do not answer questions asked to them. Self-talk may appear. Characterized by echolalia - automatic repetition of words heard in someone else's speech.
Violation of the sense of self-preservation with elements of self-aggression.
Autistic people may suddenly run out onto the roadway; there is no “sense of edge”, the experience of dangerous contact with sharp and hot things is poorly consolidated.
Fear of novelty, of any change in the environment.
Communication with an autistic child.
The most important thing in communicating with an autistic child is a smooth emotional background. You need to talk in a calm tone, because... Any increase in voice can cause anxiety and restlessness in an autistic child.
When building your speech, you need to use clear, structured phrases. Speech should be functional and as understandable as possible.
When communicating with an autistic child, you need to express yourself as clearly as possible. Use the simplest words that do not cause difficulties for children to understand.
It is advisable not to use the particle -not- in formulations.
You can use special cards or schematic images. Use drawings.
The conversation should begin not with a question, but with a statement (for example: what a beautiful house you built).
Choose right time for conversation. Try to talk when the child is calm. At the moment of relaxation, children are more receptive to information.
Environmental conditions are also important; there shouldn’t be a lot going on around you at the same time, because... Too many inputs can confuse the child.
Talk about what interests your child. Pay attention to him.
Unusual abilities of autistic people.
Intellectual disability is not necessary for early childhood autism. Children may show talent in certain areas. At the same time, the autistic orientation of thinking is preserved.
Autistic people with intact intelligence, immersed in their world, focus their attention on one activity. It is this quality of deep knowledge of a narrow focus that allows people with autism to achieve high results in their work.
According to statistics, only 10% of autistic people have unusual abilities. However, this is the exception rather than the rule. Among the famous autists are: Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci.
Recommendations for parents of children with autism.
Accept and love a child with early childhood autism for who he is;
Strictly adhere to a certain rhythm of life and the child’s routine, observe certain rituals;
Learn to pick up verbal and non-verbal signals indicating his discomfort;
Leave the child alone as little as possible;
Explain to the child the meaning of his activities using clear visual information (diagrams);
Avoid overtiring the child;
Patiently establish contact, cuddle, stroke, take in your arms.
Talk to your child as often as possible.
The problem of autism has become widespread throughout the world. Therefore, autism can be called a problem of the 21st century. Autism Awareness Day is held on April 2 each year.

Presentation on the topic: Early childhood autism