Even though there are millions of
challenges in life for different people to fight and survive from. Children
with autism have challenges to survive everyday. It may not be a life or death situation,
but they have struggles in a world that they see as abnormal. Children who suffer from Autism Spectrum
Disorder (Autism) survive by having Occupational Therapy that no child should
have to go through.
There are
a lot of people in this world that are unaware about autism, so I’m going to
tell them a little about autism and how common autism can be in small children.
What is Autism? Autism is a general term for a group of complex disorders of
the brain development. According to autismspeaks.org, children with autism have
intellectual disabilities in motor coordination and attention and physical
health issues; however they excel in visual skills, music, math, and art. From
personal experience my cousin Cameron excels at all four of these traits, he is
a genius when it comes to math and multi cultural in different genre of music;
rock, rap, hip hop, country. According to the autismspeaks.org website, autism
occurs in 1 of every 88 children that are born. Autism is 3 to 4 times more
common in boys than girls. An estimated 1 out of 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls are
diagnosed with autism in the United States alone. Autism grows more and more
each year and I would not be the least bit surprised to see the number of
children born with autism grow in the next few years. Hopefully a few of these
facts helped you know and understand more about autism.
As
a cousin to a child with autism I have found that helping a child cope with
autism can arduous. After conducting
an interview with Amanda Stephens I found that a child with autism has their
own set ways of living their everyday life. One out of many ways that Cameron
copes with his autism has been to play to video games, to listen to music, or
to play with different toys or clothing or even carpet just for the texture and
feeling of these items. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have
listened to the same song or watched him beat the same video game over and over
again. Thankfully however over the past couple of months we have been able to
get him to go outside and play with the other children in the neighborhood.
According to the WebMD website and the interview I conducted with Amanda
Stephen, I learned that some features of autism are social withdrawals and
rigid and repetitive behavior. Social withdrawals are when Cameron shuts down
when he is around a huge crowd of people he doesn’t know, or if he is playing
with another child and another child walks up and wants to play he will walk
off and play by himself. His rigid and repetitive behaviors are playing the
same song or video game for hours on end. He gets into trouble for the same
things over and over again after we just got on to him 5 minutes ago for that
very thing.
In
the recent interview I conducted with Amanda Stephens, I found that doctors and
therapist have said repeatedly that Cameron would not be able to function in a
public school environment. I see each and every single day that he can function
in a school setting and he gets great help from the teacher and staff of his
school West Magnet Elementary and his occupational therapist that he gets an
hour of each day. His math comprehension’s at a second grade level and his
reading comprehension’s at a fourth grade level. A child with autism has to
survive in a world that’s different that they see as normal people living an unwonted life style. Just like Buck in
the novel Call of the Wild by Jack
London, has to survive going from a spoiled life style to living in a voracious natured life style of brumal weather.
In conclusion I challenge you the
reader to donate some of your time in spending with a child with autistic
complications or participate in a walk for autism or just make a donation to
fund more research at Autismspeaks.org. Trust me it will put a huge smile on
your face as well as the child’s face to know that they’re not alone in the
battle of autism.
Works
Cited
"What Is Autism?" Autism Speaks. Web. 30 Apr.
2012.
London, Jack. Call
of the Wild. New York: Prestwick House, 1903. Print
Stephens, Amanda
C. "Coping With Autism." Interview by Brett A. Ruyle. Print
"Parenting
a Child With Autism." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 18 May 2012.
<http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/children-with-autism-coping-skills-for-parents
