Early childhood autism.
Communication Disorders
For the development of speech, the correct emotional development of the child and the desire and need to communicate with others are important.
Communication disorders in children are quite common. The reasons are multifaceted. Negative conditions of upbringing and environment, psychological trauma due to fear, sudden separation of the child from the family due to hospitalization, and similar situations can lead to neurotically conditioned communication difficulties. One of the forms of such violations is mutism – the child’s refusal to communicate – the child interacts with individuals, for example, with a teacher, someone close, etc. It can be general or selective when not making contact. Communication disorders in the form of fear of speaking can be seen in children with stuttering.
If all these disorders occur, the child should be shown to specialists.
Early childhood autism.
In addition to these forms of violations of the ability to communicate in children, there are specific persistent violations that occur for no apparent reason and dominate the entire behavior of the child. These are children with the so-called early childhood autism (from the Latin autos – “self”, autism – immersion in oneself). A child with autism has a special violation of mental development. These children avoid communication even with close people, are not interested in the world around them, their fears and behavior patterns are clearly expressed. They are characterized by a preserved and often even beyond biological intelligence and increased difficulties in the formation of social and everyday skills.
Childhood autism is a specific form of mental development, with the disordered formation of various mental functions with distinctive emotional, behavioral, speech, and sometimes mental disorders.
A distinctive feature of children with autism is monotonous (stereotypical), often ritualistic behavior, which is manifested in the monotonous repetition of the same simple movements or more complex ritual actions. Many of these children are also characterized by excessive psychomotor excitability, motor disinhibition, often combined with impulsivity and aggressive behavior.
Others, on the contrary, are passive, inhibited, weakly responding to external stimuli.
Children with autism, starting from the first months of their life, are distinguished by the characteristic features of psychomotor development. First of all, such a child avoids any interaction with adults at an early age: when his mother takes him in his arms, he does not hug him, does not stretch out his hands, and does not reach out to him in a healthy way. the doll does not look into the eyes, avoiding looking directly. Peripheral vision is usually dominant (out of the eye, convulsive gaze); they may also be unresponsive to auditory stimuli, often leading to the suspicion that these children have hearing impairments that do not actually exist.
Already from the first months of life, when communicating with an adult, a child lacks expressive facial expressions, a smile, cheerful laughter, which are so characteristic of the first communicative behavior of a healthy baby. Sleep disorders are noted, cleaning skills are almost never formed. All these features are combined with inadequate responses to various environmental influences. An autistic child does not seem to notice it even when communicating with adults. Inadequate emotional response to the mother can be replaced by dependence on her: separation from the mother leads to various protest behaviors.
The behavior of an autistic child is often extremely contradictory: on the one hand, he often has inadequate fears (fear of any of the most common objects, sometimes even the light of a desk lamp), on the other hand, he may not. a real sense of danger. You can run to the street’s carriageway, climb the high eaves, drive away from the house, etc.
An autistic child’s social interaction with others is hampered by negativity, which is a constant desire to oppose the wishes and desires of those interacting with the child. Parents, who do not understand the real situation of the child, often see this as stubbornness and try to force him to comply with their demands, using force and sometimes physical punishment.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilarom Demiralay