ABOUT AUTISM

Autism is a complex disability. It first manifests itself in early childhood and its symptoms become more obvious as children grow up. Four times more boys are affected by autism than girls while eight times more boys are affected by Asperger Syndrome than girls..

Autism is now recognised as comprising a spectrum of disorders which vary in severity from one child to another. A child with so–called classical autism – first identified as a syndrome by the American psychiatrist Leo Kanner in the 1940s – is likely to have little or no speech (although able to respond to spoken commands), is unlikely to play normally, is unlikely to interact with other children and is likely to have sleep disturbances and feeding problems. It is not uncommon that children with autism have temper tantrums due to frustration at not being able to communicate.

Several co-morbid symptoms can exist alongside autism such as epilepsy, hyperactivity, short attention span and cognitive disability. People with autism also experience serious sensory abnormalities and this is often seen when children put their fingers in the ears if a loud noise is present or when parents think their child is deaf because they do not react normally to sound.
At the other end of the spectrum of autism, a child may have normal or near-normal speech development and few other symptoms except difficulty in establishing normal social relationships. Some of these children can cope in a mainstream setting although an understanding school is paramount to intervention.

At home, children throughout the autistic spectrum place heavy demands emotionally, spiritually and physically, on parents.
The kinds of specialised education and therapy such as music therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and play therapy provided at The Key and similar schools, bring about considerable improvements as the child gets older, especially an improvement in behaviour, social skills and communication skills.