【World Autism Awareness Day】Caring for the children from the stars with all our heart

The China Association of People with Mental Disabilities and Their Relatives and Friends has released the theme of the 15th World Autism Day in 2022: Focus on Autism Services: Build a Social Security Mechanism and Promote High-Quality Development of Service Institutions. On this special day, let us learn about autism, and accept, understand, tolerate and care for people with autism.

There is a group of children around us who look like ordinary people, but they are deaf and blind to the information around them, have no emotional attachment to anyone, and live completely in their own world. They are children with autism, also known as "star children". Some people think that autistic children are geniuses and have extraordinary talents in certain aspects, while others think that autistic children will hurt themselves and others and stay away from them. Therefore, in order to raise people's attention to autistic patients, get rid of misunderstandings, and strengthen relevant knowledge and research, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in December 2007, designating April 2 of each year as "World Autism Awareness Day" from 2008. The full name is "World Autism Awareness Day".

Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental disorder that begins in early life, with clinical manifestations such as social interaction and communication disorders, repetitive and narrow behaviors and interests, and may also be accompanied by language development disorders, intellectual disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, epilepsy, etc. According to the "China Autism Education and Rehabilitation Industry Development Status Report", there are currently more than 10 million autistic patients in my country, including more than 2 million children aged 0-14.

The main symptoms of autism include social communication disorders: lack of communication with others, lack of a secure attachment relationship with parents, etc. Language communication disorders: delayed language development, or language regression after a period of normal language development. Repetitive stereotyped behaviors: manifested as certain repetitive movements or compulsive behaviors. Intellectual abnormalities: About 70% of autistic children have intellectual disabilities, 20% have intelligence within the normal range, and about 10% have supernormal intelligence. These children may have strong abilities in certain aspects. Sensory abnormalities: manifested as dull pain perception, special fear or preference for certain sounds or images, etc. For children with autism, the earlier the discovery and the earlier the intervention, the more obvious the effect, so it is also very important to understand the early signs of autism. When a child has the following phenomena, you need to be vigilant and seek medical attention in time:

At 4 months old, he will not smile at other people’s faces;

No obvious happy emotions at 6 months;

At 12 months, the baby has no hearing problems but lacks response when his name is called;

No language at 16 months, no words;

At 18 months old, the baby will not point at things; his eyes will not follow the pointing of others; and he will not play "pretend" games.

Most autistic children have varying degrees of intellectual disabilities, language disorders or movement disorders, so rehabilitation training for autistic children should focus on education and behavior correction, mainly to train their basic self-care abilities and necessary social skills.

1. Children with autism usually have sensory abnormalities and have difficulty distinguishing and processing external information. They need to learn sensory perceptions such as sight, touch, smell, hearing, and proprioception to help them reduce their abnormal perceptual reactions.

2. Some autistic children have problems such as poor muscle control, poor balance, and poor coordination. Some sports activities can be arranged for them accordingly.

3. You can add activities such as building blocks, puzzles, and bead stringing to cultivate children's fine motor skills, while also training their attention.

4. Create a language environment, talk to your child as much as possible, and correct their incorrect pronunciation. Language training must first establish children's ability to understand words. You can start with understanding common nouns, verbs, and simple instructions. After they have mastered the meaning of words, you can then train them to express their ideas and wishes.

5. Teach children basic self-care skills such as feeding, dressing, washing, and going to the toilet. Simple and clear instructions, coordination of environment and actions, let children actually do it, and repeat the teaching and reinforcement until the child can complete the whole process independently.

6. To promote children's social skills, we must establish positive, socially acceptable behaviors and reduce inappropriate behaviors and negative emotions.

Because autistic children are closed in their own world for a long time and have communication and language barriers, these simple trainings also require parents and therapists to have great patience to repeatedly reinforce and implement them step by step to achieve the desired results.

I hope that after learning more about autism, everyone will have less misunderstandings and more care for these children from the stars!