The life of an autistic child is a difficult one. Growing up is hard enough for the rest of us, can you imagine what they go through? The constant frustration and reminders of being academically behind, unable to communicate, and socially impaired, are the day-to-day factors in an autistic child's life. Continually, these children have to encounter rude behaviors, unfair treatment, and misunderstanding assumptions. All of these factors added together are the cause of the most frowned upon issue with autistic children: behavior.
A lot of people associate the term autistic with demeaning terms like “retarded” or “stupid.”
Just because a child is classified as Autistic, that doesn't mean they are “retarded.” Actually, a lot of autistic children are geniuses! Though some of them are academically behind, many high-functioning autistic children are brilliant.
Most of their time is spent observing the world around them, watching the people closest to them.
Temple Grandin, a well known doctor of animal science, and a high-functioning autistic person, is a prime example of an Autistic genius. At the age of 2, Dr. Grandin was diagnosed with autism. She was then enrolled into a special nursery school. She also attended speech therapy through out her childhood.
By the age of 4, Grandin began talking. She continued down a progressive road through out elementary, middle, and high school. Proving just how brilliant she was, Dr. Grandin graduated from multiple colleges with multiple degrees including a bachelors in psychology and a masters and doctorate in animal science.
Temple Grandin is just one of the many autistic children in U.S. history who have grown up grown up to make a big difference, not only for themselves, but for the thousands of misunderstood autistic children around the world. She is living proof that we can't make assumptions about the autistic spectrum.
By the age of 5, a mainstream (non Autistic) child should be able to speak 1,000 to 2,000 words and use full sentences.
Brendan is a 5-year -old, high functioning, autistic child. He is classified as two years behind because of his lack of communication. This is a key element in an autistic child's life.
The main reason a child is diagnosed as autistic is because of their lack of social, speech, and communication skills. Most autistic children lack the ability to communicate on a level that others can understand them. This also is why many autistic children have no social skills; because they can't communicate with other children their age.
Sometimes the other children also intimidate them, therefore influencingand reinforcing the common shyness found when one speaks with an Autistic child. The common issue with communication in an autistic child is not that they do not know how to communicate, it is that they go to say something, but the words never make it out of their mouth.
With their lack of communication skills, many autistic children become frustrated and this causes their behavioral issues. Autistic children are known for their fits and temper tantrums, and that is usually why a lot of people want nothing to do with them.
What a lot of people don't know is that the main cause of their fits and behavioral issues, is their frustration with the fact that they try so hard to communicate but no one can understand them. This constant frustration causes them to throw things, hit, and shout. Sometimes they get so frustrated that they cause physical pain to themselves .
They hit their heads against walls, they scratch themselves to the point where they draw blood, and they sometimes they even throw themselves back.
Usually these are the most extreme cases, by this point the child is in a complete meltdown, but it is fairly common. For the most part, autistic children are calm and tend to keep to themselves, but even they have their breaking points. With their academic, communication, social, and behavioral challenges, these children go through a lot. When you add it all together, it seems like too much for one child to have to go through, but they manage.
They make do with what they can by attending special schools, therapies, and doctors.
Though they throw fits and shout when they don't understand something, all it really comes down to is the lack of communication.
It takes a special kind of person to give an autistic child the love and care that they need to progress towards the mainstream level. With that comes an emotional roller coaster, but in the end it is worth going through all those hard times.
To be able to say that you helped bring that child out, that is what living with autism is all about.
Editor's Note: Sources used by the blogger include 1. works Cited Wikipedia.com “Temple Grandin” biography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin, and 2. Nancy McBride, experience and stories on Brendan McBride and Autistic behavior.