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Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome – these are the most common pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders, which belong to the so-called autism spectrum. The brains of people with autism work in a slightly different way than the brains of people without autism. It perceives information differently and processes information differently, and this has an impact on the perception of the world and interaction with other people. The constant increase in the number of people diagnosed with autistic disorders is worrying. Why is this happening?
Joanna Grochowska, a psychologist, answers, vice president of the SYNAPSIS Foundation
– Today we know much more about autism than we did 20 or 10 years ago and we are able to recognize this disorder better. But this does not explain such an increase in the number of people diagnosed. There must have been additional factors, possibly environmental ones, that activate the genetic predisposition to develop autism. Scientists take into account, among others the later age we become parents, the increase in environmental pollution, more and more processed foods. This regularity applies not only to autism spectrum disorders, but also to immune disorders, ADHD, and allergies. The incidence of all these groups of diseases has increased over the past 20 years.
What is the diagnosis of autism?
– Autism is one of the most common developmental disorders we encounter in children. It is associated with the malfunction of the central nervous system and affects all areas of a child’s development. It appears very early, already before the age of three. If a child is not treated early enough, the consequences for their development can be very serious and lead to severe disability. We are currently trying to diagnose autism in the youngest children possible, during the first 3 years of life. The diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association determine what symptoms must appear in order for autism to be diagnosed. In order to make a diagnosis, parents must be interviewed in detail about their child’s development so far and carefully monitored. Only on this basis, a team of specialists (most often a psychiatrist, psychologist, educator) makes a diagnosis. No blood, urine, MRI, or CT scans will show whether it’s autism or not. They can only rule out other health problems.
The symptoms of autism vary from person to person. On the one hand, we have people with very serious autistic disorders (who do not speak, also do not communicate through gestures and body language, people who have huge problems in relationships with other people), and on the other hand, autism can be experienced by people who speak very well, but cannot read between the lines , not catching additional, especially figurative meanings. They will understand what we are saying very literally. Such people may also have problems with making contacts and are treated by the environment as a bit strange, different. Between these extreme forms of autism there is a whole spectrum, a whole range of varieties of this development disorder.
— Why is it important to recognize autism early?
– The SYNAPSIS Foundation has a very experienced team of specialists. Sometimes we can notice disturbing symptoms in one-year-old children, and we can certainly diagnose them even before the age of two. At this age, the symptoms of autism are not very severe, they have not had time to become permanent, and more importantly, they have not had time to develop secondary symptoms. For example, if a child does not speak and does not know any other way of communicating, then in order to communicate something to the environment, he screams and can be aggressive. In very small children, this type of behavior is relatively rare, not intensified. We can react quickly to the first symptoms, start appropriate development stimulation and try to stop the symptoms from getting worse. As a result, an increasing number of children diagnosed with autism function much better than before. Even 20 years ago, both in Poland and in the world there were such a situation that proportionally there were a lot of people with profound autistic disorders. However, now there is a growing group of children in whom these disorders are not so severe and who are much better in life. 10-15 percent have a chance of quite a lot of independence in adulthood. The rest of the group will need help, but I hope these proportions will change favorably in the years to come.
However, even those children in whom we manage to improve their functioning must receive support in kindergarten, and then at school due to the different way of processing information. Very often, education at school is based on verbal communication, with which children with autism have more problems due to difficulties in communication and literal understanding of speech. It is easier for them to talk about particulars and facts, but if the lesson deals with very general issues, it is much more difficult for them.
– What is the treatment of autistic children at the SYNAPSIS Foundation?
It is a therapy focused on working directly with the child on the one hand and working with parents on the other. We show parents how to look after their children, how to play with them, and how to refer to them in order to strengthen those skills that are the most important in the symptoms of autism. Attention is drawn to the need to exercise eye contact with the child. We teach the child various forms of communication, e.g. by gesturing, pointing at something with a finger, we teach how to play with toys to develop the child’s imagination. Play is the basic activity of a young child and therefore plays an important role in therapy. We work to make the child learn to imitate, because a large part of what we learn in life is to imitate. In children with symptoms of autism, imitation is very much impaired.
– What is the structure of the SYNAPSIS Foundation at the moment, after more than twenty years of operation?
SYNAPSIS Foundation was established in 1989. It is a public benefit organization with several institutions. We run Diagnostic Centerwhich diagnoses children, especially the youngest. They are also children with other developmental deficits, e.g. blind, deaf, and cerebral palsy, in whom we additionally detect symptoms of autism. We also diagnose adults. We also have Therapeutic Centerin which we conduct consultations for parents, we arrange therapeutic and educational programs to be implemented with the child at home, in kindergarten or at school, children participate in individual therapy and group activities. We currently provide consultancy care for about 300 people. Besides, we run Therapeutic kindergarten (28 autistic children), social enterprise in Wilcza Góra – Things workshop Different – in which 24 adults with autism spectrum disorders work. Our activities also include many adults who, thanks to projects carried out by the SYNAPSIS Foundation (currently including. the ‘Hire AS’ project) can get help in getting a job.
The foundation also runs Information and Legal Centeranyone can call, write and get legal advice. It can be a parent, teacher, social worker. It also works with the Foundation Ombudsman People with Autism, which deals with, among others. legislative changes concerning this group of people. This is a very important activity. Thanks to it, for example, it was possible to increase the educational subsidy for children with autism in schools and kindergartens. A separate autism code has been introduced into the disability certification system, which will allow the registration of people diagnosed with autism (in a few years we will know how many such people are in Poland). Thanks to the Ombudsman’s efforts, the level of financing health services for our charges has also increased.
In addition, we also deal with the promotion of the problem of autism. We conduct a lot of training throughout Poland. I think that over 20 years of activity, about 12 people in our country participated in our trainings and conferences. They are mainly psychologists, educators, parents, employees of care institutions, those who have direct contact with people with symptoms of the autism spectrum. We also conducted many educational campaigns aimed at the society. The last of them, “Autism my whole life”, with the participation of actor Bartek Topa, caused a great stir and caused a lot of talk about autism for several weeks. That’s good.
– Thank you very much for the interview.
More information about autism at: www.synapsis.org.pl