The Many Faces of Autism

What does Autism look like? What is it? How does one acquire it? What causes it? Although Autism has many faces, it has two common elements: delayed language and impaired social skills, all in varying degrees.

People ask: Why has the incidence of Autism increased so over the last 10-15 years? What causes it? Is it environmental? Is it genetic? Is it caused by routine infant/toddler vaccinations? Is there a cure? The typical answer to these questions is...We aren't exactly sure.

The many faces of Autism? As a career special education teacher and school psychologist, I have seen many, many faces... There was Cathy, a moderately mentally disabled child who had no expressive language. She would momentarily fixate her eyes on an object, i.e., a person's hand or arm, prior to a very sharp bite... Trevor, also moderately mentally disabled, said only one word, "blue." This was said during a preschool evaluation with me. His mother cried when she heard him speak. It was his first and only word... There was Cory, mild to moderately mentally disabled, who had never spoken a word at school and in the same school system for his entire school career. His mother told his teachers that he talked all of the time at home. "Sure, sure," they all thought. No one believed her. In the tenth grade, the special education teacher visited the home. There was Cory---talking! Lesson learned? Listen to the mothers... There were the twin brothers, John and Ron, both mildly mentally disabled. Their mother cried and told me that she believed she had caused it. She thought she had held them and rocked them too much as babies because they were so fretful...Stephen was very, very quiet, rarely making eye contact. He would not initiate a conversation with someone, but would respond in short phrases when spoken to. Stephen entered the talent show at school and sang karaoke.

Then there was Julian; we called him Jules for short. Jules struggled so desperately to make sense of his confusing world. Why did that fire alarm ring so loudly and scare him? He did not know that it was going to ring. That is why he screamed and ran out into the hall and out of the building. One day his teacher held up a paper that he had left on his desk and asked, "Julian, what should we do with this paper?" Jules casually replied, "Oh, give it to my locker." Jules danced an Irish jig with a local celebrity at a restaurant on St. Patrick's Day. He cried when another student jokingly wrote "Pooper" on his paper. He loved the theater and musicals. His English class was delighted when he voluntarily stood in front of the class and recited his rendition of Phantom of the Opera with sound effects. He received a standing ovation from his class. He wrote a note to his teacher one day that she had hideous hair. Another day at lunch, a student accidentally bumped into him, causing him to drop his lunch tray. He screamed. The other student was equally upset. It was an accident. She came and sat by him the next day during lunch. He looked at her and said, "Isn't there something that you want to say to me?" She smiled, said she was sorry and gave him half of her roll. He smiled back.

May God bless the children.