Autistically Gifted
From the dawn of time social interactions were a key to survival back in times of the developing man. From interacting about dangerous fruit, to predator warnings human kind are social beast who function off communication with one another with very few species with the same capabilities. We humans need social interaction now maybe a little different from the time of cave man and predators but more on a different level with relationships built by communication to help financially, emotional, and physically support. Social communication gives us the abilities to help one another with an everyday problem to something more severe and today is still a fundamental tool for survival in a now modern society. Now to be born without the ability for social interactions creates a large impairment in an individual and creates a major deficit in quality of life. Social studies has proven the more social peer groups you belong to the more happy you are, but being born without the ability to socially interact makes building up peer groups or even peer relationships for that matter much more difficult. Now I bring to light autism spectrum disorder a mental disorder effecting the nervous system impairing social interaction, difficulty communicating , repetitive behavior, and obsessive interest or focus. This topic I can touch base a little more closely than the rest being for the last 3 months I have done work with children with autism and let me be the first to tell you the current review of psychological literature does not come close to experiencing first hand some of the behavior you can experience with children with autism. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with the disorder more over then girls but we do see it is usually much more severe in girls than boys. Now I say boy and girls because the subject pool are usually diagnosed in youth and can last late in life to life entirety. There is no cure for autism but studies show therapy can reduce symptoms and increase quality of life in a patient. There is no link of causation for autism as much as the media wants to believe the flu shot and child vaccinations causes autism there is nothing in the current literature supporting the case So please do not avoid getting your child vaccinated! We do see some genetic heritability where families with parents with autism have higher probability to pass the genes down but research is still being conducted. Early signs of autism in children are trouble with social interactions such as avoided eye contact, social isolation, unawareness, and socially withdrawn from peer groups or any other social contact. Now I will give you a little insight in my experiences with autism. When I first started to deal with autism I was not sure what to expect. The only thing I had to get me by is what I learned from my psych classes so practically going in blind. When I first arrived at his home I was introduced and introduced myself the first thing he told me was that he liked my name. As the day went fourth I analyze his behavior the criteria was pretty spot on. He avoided me when he could he did not talk to me after the first initial interaction and would consistently repeat behavior. What I mean by that is say he wrote his name on a paper he would then tenuously write his name to the point where I would have to get his attention to make him aware of what he was doing. So as the day went by and I am watching this child unable to communicate to me how his day was or how he felt or what he wanted to do I felt that he was completely unaware of my existence in the room but then he blew me away on what happen next. In an attempt to gain his attention I began to ask him “hey do you like Frozen? “I then asked “do you know the song Let It Go?” He was still very unresponsive to me ignoring my ever intent so I began to play the song on my phone and to my astonishment he slides his chair to his piano and begins to play the song near perfect by ear from my iPhone. As the song comes to an end and he plays the last cord I began to clap not because he played a near perfect performance just by ear but because he noticed my presence and noticed I was there. This disorder really is something else maybe I am getting a little personal which is different from my recent blogs but I got to say that moment where he communicated to me through his music was something pretty special and I just would like to say for I believe everyone should take some time to interact with a child with autism. They will benefit from your presence more then you could imagine but I personally believe you will take something out of it as well. An experience so special I can not possibly put in words so maybe just maybe his piano could describe the feeling.
