What is Autism? (Part 1)

[In recognition of April 2nd being International Autism Awareness Day I have written two very special awareness posts]

I still get asked this question more than I expected to so maybe it's time to clarify.

It is a neurological disorder, which means there's a problem with that person's brain. It isn't curable, despite what all the Jenny McCarthy nutbags of this world will tell you, there is currently no cure for Autism. It is possible however to 'recover' from Autism to a point where the person can easily blend in to mainstream society, get a job, live independently etc.

Not all Autistic children are 'little geniuses', quite often higher functioning Autistic and Aspergers children will have a passion,  a subject that they know everything about and can list off every single fact imaginable, but not every Autistic child.

Not every Autistic child is unaffectionate or can't stand being touched. While it was very well demonstrated in the movie Temple Grandin that even her own mother could not hug her, this is not every Autistic child. Our son loves cuddles and kisses.

Not every Autistic child is completely unable to speak. While there are non-verbal Autistic children, a large percentage can communicate to some degree. The Autistic diagnosis does in fact require a language delay, where for example a 4 year old may have the language skills of a 2 year old, but the language is not necessarily absent.

Autistic people don't necessarily 'stim' all the time and not all 'stimming' looks the same. Self stimulatory behaviour such as rocking, hand flapping, spinning is a very common Autistic trait, and they may do that some of the time, but they don't necessarily do it constantly. Autistic children can play with cars, trains, playdoh but it maybe a little different to other NT kids.

Not all Autistic people have an Intellectual Disability. There seems to be widely varying statistics (anywhere from 25 to 80 percent) on the number of Autistic people who have an ID, but if they do not have an ID, it doesn't mean they're not Autistic. Conversely, the majority of Autistic people do have a Learning Disability, where they can learn, but it might take 3 times as long for the information to sink in, or they can only learn in a certain way eg. Can learn visually with picture cards, but not just using words.

Not all Autistic people have gut problems. It is common that people with Autism do have additional GI tract problems which often result in their child needing to have Gluten free, Casein free, Dairy free diets, or just one of the above, but it is a select percentage which are affected, not all.

Not all Autistic people are anti-social. Some may enjoy social interaction. They may not understand the social 'rules' or be able to read body language. They may even prefer to interact with adults, rather than children their own age, but they are not necessarily anti-social.

Not all Autistic people are violent. While most Autistic children do have some behavioural problems, not all of them kick, bite, punch etc. A lot of Autistic children do 'resort' to violent behaviour out of sheer frustration of not being able to communicate, but Autistic doesn't automatically equal violent.

So then, what IS Autism? Part Two will be next Monday.