Things to know about autistic children

Having children watching television all day, having a child only likes to play alone, a toy . That child may have had a condition called autism.

Caring for autistic children at the Central Children's Hospital There are children who only watch every "advertisement" on TV without caring about anything else. Young people like to play alone, scrutinizing a certain object like a scientific researcher, even if the child is only 3 years old.

There are young people who only speak "whispering" but cannot speak Vietnamese. There are also children who only play one kind of toy, but only play one style and never think of another type of play. There are children who never share sadness with their parents and relatives, limbs that are "still" unconsciously .

All of these phenomena are signs of children with "autism syndrome". This is a newly emerging "disease" in Vietnam about 10 years ago and has become increasingly strong.

Autism syndrome: A developmental disorder

According to Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha, Deputy Head of the Department of Rehabilitation - National Hospital of Pediatrics, there is currently no research on autistic children because for us this is a new problem.

From 2000 onwards, children with autism appeared more and more crowded, 2.3 times higher in the previous year.

That does not mean that the number of children with autism in Vietnam has more than doubled, which means a big change in disability patterns.

In the United States, people studied in the state of California found that children with autism were 240 times more likely to die in the previous year, a rate considered horrible.

Some people call it autism, but it's actually called "autism syndrome" exactly.

"Autism syndrome" is one of the developmental disorders syndrome in children.

Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha, Deputy Head of the Department of Rehabilitation - National Pediatric Hospital: "If detected and intervened early, 30% of autistic children have a chance to completely recover. The remaining 70% of children can be distributed. " In the previous classification of the World Health Organization, people classified it as a mental illness, but today it is separated as a Development Disorders Syndrome.

- Autism syndrome in children is expressed in the following 3 types of behavior:

Disability of social relations:

Children with autism are very limited in social communication. For example, in communication, autistic children do not communicate with their eyes, do not have "non-verbal" communication with body gestures. Emotion is very limited even for parents and family members. Do not share sad and happy feelings, do not care about activities around children.

Making mistakes in using language in communication

Slow, even slow to speak or say, is unknown. There are children who can speak but only a few sentences like "grandma", "mother" . the rest are silent, these children do not know how to express aspirations in language.

Play fantasy:

Children with autism often do not like to play with friends, but prefer to play alone. Not varied in the way of choosing games, only in a motif. Limited play skill, repeat l repeat a move. Play unusual objects such as toothpicks, chopsticks, TV control . Nearly 100% of autistic children watch too many ads on television, limbs or twists, or walk around without purpose

If an autistic child is discovered and intervened early, 30% have a chance to get out completely, the remaining 70% is generally good, maybe a child can communicate verbally or cannot communicate by words, but be aware of behavior and independence of life.

Currently the world is still studying the cause of autism.But it can be said that the following three basic causes are given:

Physical brain injury: May occur before birth, because the mother is infected with the virus in the first 3 months of pregnancy and other diseases during pregnancy. Or occur during childbirth such as: Infants born prematurely, suffocated or yellow skin. Or babies after birth: Children with respiratory distress must breathe, oxygen . This cause is quite large

Genetics : Research through treated patients found that genetic factors are also one of the causes of autism. The reality of treatment at the National Institute of Pediatrics has two cases of autism in the same family. Or having a family, grandmother and aunt were suicidal, they were congregated. Having a family, 6 men in the house do not talk to each other, being miserable like shadows and having a child with autism .

Environment: This is also the cause of the gathering.Maybe due to environmental pollution such as chemicals, smoke . Some families have too modern lifestyles such as lack of attention of parents, children must stay with maids most of the time during the day, children are not allowed to communicate outside but only at home watching television . it is pollution of lifestyle

Children with autism are not detected early, or detected early but families do not accept intervention and fall into severe conditions, accompanied by mental retardation, which will later lead to mental disorders. Considering the disease classification table of the World Health Organization very likely later, autistic children will become mental patients.

Autism: There is a cure

In order to overcome autism in children, professionals must use 'early intervention' measures. Calling 'early intervention', not called 'treatment' to avoid misperception, will give children medicine to overcome autism. In fact, professionals will combine different measures such as health, education to intervene, impact on children's psychology.

In Vietnam, the Department of Rehabilitation of the National Pediatric Institute has designed a comprehensive early intervention model, including special education and personal therapy.

In individual therapy, there is a US behavioral intervention program (ABA). This program is specially designed for children with abnormal behavior, which is autistic children.

Professionals will intervene in children's therapy on language issues, training daily living skills. At the same time, combined with using some drugs called brain tonic, stimulating concentration, in terms of language, communication.

Currently, the Central Institute for Pediatric Rehabilitation treats many autistic children as well as other disabled children.

In addition, Hanoi Children Relief Association established the Hope Center No. 1 (house 35, lane 84 Tran Quang Dieu, Dong Da, Hanoi) and the ABCD pediatric clinic (29 - Giang Van Minh - Kim Ma - Ba Dinh - Hanoi).

These are the three locations in Vietnam using the most modern American regimen. These centers are almost charitable because the cost of examination and treatment is very small.

Viet Tung