The Challenges of Autism

The three main characteristics of autism are
- Difficulty with social interaction
- Trouble wit verbal and nonverbal communication
- Repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests

The main symptom that is reported by most parents is impaired social interaction. As early as infancy, parents may notice the baby is unresponsive to people or they focus intently on one item to the exclusion of others. It can also occur that a child will appear to be developing normally and ten withdraw and become indifferent to external stimuli.

Autistic children usually fail to respond to their name, will avoid eye contact, and have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can not understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and they are usually not watching the person's face to notice these expressions anyway. Autistic children do not have empathy.

M any autistic children will engage in repetitive movements such as rocking and twirling. They will also at times show self abusive behavior such as biting themselves or banging their heads. They also usually speak later than other children and will often speak in the third person referring to themselves by name instead of I or me.

They don't know how to play or share with other children, they actually have little interest in the interests of the other child.

Often you will notice an autistic child is less sensitive to pain, but super sensitive to sound or touch. This may explain one of their behavioral symptoms of resisting cuddling or being hugged.

Some very devastating conditions appear to have a higher than normal risk for autistic children. This would include fragile X syndrome (which causes mental retardation) tuberous sclerosis (in which tumors grow on the brain), epilepsy, tourette syndrome, learning disabilities, ADD and ADHD. It is not understood why but about 20-30% of children with autism develop epilepsy by the time they reach adulthood.

M usical therapy is a relatively new treatment method for autism patients, but one that should not be overlooking when discussing options. Patients who receive musical therapy often showed great improvement in temperament and learning skills. Music connects to the non-verbal part of our brains, making it a perfect therapy for disorders in which the patient has trouble communicating, such as autism. Research this innovative treatment method if you are looking for some help with autism and haven't had much luck in the past.

Musical therapy is effective because it can be used in conjunction with learning social skills. Music is a very non-threatening medium for patients, and many games can be played using music to help improve social and behavioral skills. By encouraging eye contact while singing or using instruments that need to get close to the face, musical therapy can help autistic individuals break social barriers.

T he number one way that musical therapy can help children, as well as older autistic patients, is by helping with the development of speech skills. Music is a way to connect the verbal and non-verbal functions in the brain. Autistic individuals may have various forms of speech problems. Some can only hum, grunt, or make other non-word noises, while others babble nonsensical phrases or cries. Still others gain the capability to put together phrases and sentences to communicate with the world, although these usually lack emotion. Autistic people are known for monotone voices. However, no matter how skilled the individual is with speech, he or she can participate in musical therapy by clapping rhythms, humming along, or doing simple echoing songs.

Autistic individuals are commonly found to be particularly good at music. Some, for instance, have perfect pitch. Others can play a particular instrument very well, with little instruction. Even if he or she shows no genius musical ability by normal standards, you may find that a particularly hard to deal with autistic person has abilities in music that exceed his or her other abilities. A musical therapist can use music as a way to link this kind of learning with other kinds of learning, not only as speech development and social behavioral development as previously discussed, but also as a way to communicate emotions and develop memory.

By using all of these techniques in conjunction with one another, musical therapy can work wonders with people who are autistic. Trained professionals can use music to teach children and others how to communicate in nonverbal ways, making it easier for patients to learn. Research the musical therapy option to provide you or your child with another choice when treating autism.