Padmini Sivarajah, TNN Nov 26, 2012, 05.14AM IST
MADURAI: Mohamed, Srirish and Kumar are first rankers in their respective classes in different schools in and around Madurai. There is nothing surprising about this, except for the fact that they were declared autistic about four years ago before being enrolled in a special training centre which helped them come out of their problem.
Dr Rani Chakkaravarthy, a psychologist who has been working with these children for about two years, says what made this phenomenal change possible was the fact that all these children were detected early and enrolled in classes below the age of three. She said the degree of autism in children was determined using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).
Three-hundred children who attended her training centre were assessed during the study period. The effectiveness of the REACH method was studied by 13 children who were regularly attending the training centre in a period of time. The autism score was measured before and after their training in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training imparted by the child guidance centre.
Asma (name changed), the mother of one boy who is topping his class in a regular school, had tears in her eyes when she said she went into seclusion and refrained from interacting with family because her son became the topic of discussion among relatives, who started giving advice on how he should be treated. "However, when I attended a wedding in Chennai last month and the same boy was the cynosure of all eyes for his behaviour and intelligence, it was a divine feeling," she said.
Similarly, Chellam, a mother of a six-year-old boy who is also a class topper said she had been worried when her second son did not start talking by the age of two like his elder sibling. "I consulted many doctors, who said that delayed speech was common, but I came across an article on autism and decided to seek help. There has been no looking back," she said. These mothers say one of the first signs of autism is when your child doesn't make eye contact and when he or she does not answer to their names.
The mothers of these children say they are now on the lookout in buses and trains to see if they can find any child with autistic signs. "We ask them to seek help on time," they said.
Rani Chakkravarthy, who has been monitoring these children and their parents for the last few years, says one aspect that helped her reach out to her students easily was the fact that both parents of these children were educated. Seventy-four percent of the fathers were degree or diploma holders and 65 percent of the mothers were graduates.
What was surprising was the fact that none of the children taken for study were born out of consanguineous marriages and 77.1 percent of the parents did not have a family history of autism or related disorders. Over 98 percent of the parents had arranged marriages.
Most of these children also had a normal neonatal history. A majority, that is 88.6 percent of these children, were males, keeping up with the universal sex ratio of 8:1 for children with autism. As most of these children came for training within the age group of 2 to 4, they were fit to be enrolled in regular school by the age of seven.
"What I tell my parents is that their children should have their undivided attention at home after they go back from the training centre. We spend about two hours, three days a week, for about two years with these children. But it is the mothers who have the major responsibility to follow our rules," she said.
Sharada, a mother whose child has also started behaving normally after completing a year at the centre, says mothers of such children should understand that medicines will not be the solution. "My son is not even on vitamins, but I entrust most of my daily chores like folding clothes, arranging shelves and answering the door to him as per the advice of a doctor. There is a remarkable change," she said.
These mothers also started taking their children out and walking uninvited into marriage functions so that these children could learn to mingle with crowds. "In the early stages, there may be some embarrassment, because one thing these children detest is a crowd. But they also learn to accept it very slowly," said Nandhini, a mother of a six-year-old girl. Such training is based on the REACH method which comprises instructions that enable a child to assimilate skills and learn day-to-day activities.
Rani Chakkaravarthy feels paediatricians who are amongst the first to encounter children should always keep a lookout for autistic signs in children above two years, because early identification can help them come out of it completely.
Autism should not be misconceived for mental retardation and the government should launch awareness campaigns for the same among the public.
She said the educational sector also needs to be sensitized to the needs and abilities of children with autism. Children with autism should not be deprived of admission in normal schools, because these children have above average intelligence as proved by her students.
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