Autism Diagnosis: The Critical Step

Experts are of the opinion that autistic children can be brought back from their personal world into reality if they are diagnosed as early as possible. There have been reports that showed promising results where the autism diagnosis has been done before the child is three years old. 

Therapy Depends on the Age of Autism Diagnosis

This disorder has no cure known to modern science. However, where repetitive and intensive highly specialized treatment is sustained over a long period of time, the autistic child responds to some degree to love and direct communication. The process is very slow and extremely expensive, which adds to the trauma for the parents whose child undergoes the treatment.

The treatment often involves long periods of total separation from parents so that the specialists can observe and document the behavior patterns of the autistic child. Unfortunately, even though each child may share the autism diagnosis, each case is different and the treatment, to be effective, has to tailor-made. 

The Silver Lining

There are many cases where it was found that the autistic child's intelligence can verge on genius. Though generally autistic children do not study or try to learn anything from their environment or books, there are cases where the autistic children take to computers like ducks to water and they master the concepts in astonishingly small periods of time. There is a great affinity towards working with numbers, though there have been cases where autistic children created literary masterpieces as well.

It is heartening to see that the autism diagnosis does not mean 'mentally retarded,' a label that traumatizes these children's parents to no end. It is clear from here that the autistic child actually suffers from a neurological disorder due to which they lose interest in the outside world. This is why they refuse to study or take interest in any type of interaction (teacher-student, mother-child, brother-sister and so on-- they remain backward in their knowledge, not because they do not have the capacity for it.

Modern therapies following early autism diagnosis involve searching for the things that still interest them and then building bridges to the outside through that avenue. Finding out that interest involves sometimes months and even years of continuous reaction-less interaction by the medical workers. It is a nerve-wracking, monotonous job that that drives many into deep despair and disappointment. However, when one of these children makes a comeback, the joy of that success knows no bounds. It is like a new life for the child and his/her family.