Diagnosis of early childhood autism is the scourge of our time. Since 2008, the world has been celebrating Autism Awareness Day on April 2 every year. Diagnosis of RDA in a child - what is it?
An incurable mental illness, the manifestations of which become noticeable from about two to three years of age. The causes of the onset of the disease have not yet been precisely established, and the number of registered sick autistic children is growing every year, like a snowball. From this article you will learn the symptoms of early childhood autism, which doctor deals with this pathology, what is the treatment and what the parents of such an unusual child experience.
First five years of life
Here a great joy came to the young family: the long-awaited baby was born. He was born strong, he althy and handsome. According to the APGAR scale - at least nine points. The baby is growing well, he always has an excellent appetite. All vaccinations areplan. He practically does not get colds or gets sick very rarely.
Parents and doctors are overjoyed at such a baby. But at about a year and a half, the mother develops a vague feeling of anxiety … The kid avoids direct eye contact. The babbling has stopped, and the child does not seek to replenish his vocabulary. In some cases, he can only make lowing sounds that vaguely resemble human speech (in psychiatry, this phenomenon is called vocalization).
Anxious parents turn to a neurologist. As a rule, at the age of two years, a child receives a diagnosis of psycho-speech developmental delay. The neurologist prescribes a standard set of nootropics in such a situation: Cortexin (intramuscular injection), Pantogam, Gliatilin, Phenibut. Parents are advised to take their child to a psychiatrist. But turning to a psycho-neurological dispensary for many becomes a difficult step. As a result, competent diagnosis is delayed up to three or four years.
At the age of five, it's hard not to notice that something is clearly wrong with the child. He stands out from the crowd of his peers. New parents have a question about what kind of RDA diagnosis?
Autism, schizophrenia or mental retardation?
It is very easy to confuse the diagnosis of RDA with similar diseases. In the Soviet years, the diagnosis of autism simply did not exist. Although in Europe and the United States in those years, studies were already carried out on its phenomenon. But in the USSR, children were givenstamp for life - "schizophrenia".
Parents often have a question about the diagnosis of RDA with a decrease in intelligence - what is it? It is important to distinguish between mental retardation and autism. These are different diseases that pass through the ICD under a different code. Often, autistic people not only have normal intelligence, but also have some talents (excellent musical ear or math ability, excellent topographical orientation in the area).
At what age is autism diagnosed? Most often it is three or four years. If parents had turned to a psychiatrist in a timely manner, then the diagnosis would have been completed at about the age of two.
The problem with autistic people is their inability to communicate. Often they don't speak at all. They simply do not need the communication that is familiar to all of us - these children seem to be from another planet. Often, instead of words, they make lowing sounds that do not carry any semantic load. Surrounding children and adults, this behavior is frightening. As a result, autistic children often receive stamps of "schizophrenics", "idiots", "mentally retarded" in society. Peers are often afraid of them and avoid them, and parents forbid playing with autistic children. In fact, such a child cannot harm anyone - he simply does not notice people or animals around him. Anger and aggression are unfamiliar feelings for him.
Which doctor should I contact?
For an accurate diagnosis, consultations of the following specialists are needed:
- psychoneurologist;
- child psychiatrist;
- clinicalpsychologist (reception in urban PND);
- clinical speech therapist (he accepts both in regular clinics and in PND);
- audiologist (to rule out hearing problems).
New parents often ask what kind of RDA diagnosis is this? To understand this, it is not enough to read articles from the Internet. This is a difficult psychiatric diagnosis. Outwardly, the child is perfectly he althy. Moreover - autists often differ in beauty. But when communicating with such a child for three minutes, it becomes clear that, roughly speaking, he "hovers somewhere in other worlds." An experienced psychiatrist can make an accurate diagnosis after only half an hour of observing a child's behavior.
Who diagnoses autism, which doctor? This is the competence of the child clinical psychiatrist. Neither a neurologist nor a speech therapist is able to make such a definitive diagnosis.
Tests and examinations, hospital treatment
Often, parents make a number of typical mistakes. Many rush to examine the child comprehensively: blood tests, genetic tests and much more. Huge sums of money are spent on this. Don't panic. Here are a number of tests and studies that are really worth going through:
- MRI of the brain - to rule out the possibility of organic brain damage;
- EEG monitoring - to rule out epilepsy;
- surveillance monitoring - to rule out deafness and hearing problems in a child;
- get a consultation from a competent clinical speech therapist to determine the degree of speech underdevelopment.
In hospital treatment, a child can receive a courseintramuscular injections of nootropics "Cortexin" and "Cerebrolysin". Also, in a hospital setting, you can get an MRI of the head and EEG monitoring free of charge. The problem is that it is scary and unusual for a small autistic person to be in a hospital setting. Unfamiliar conditions terrify him, cause severe panic. This can provoke a series of tantrums, withdrawal, dysphoria, a rollback in speech development.
ABA therapy and other psychological methods of influencing a sick child
Fortunately, Russian psychiatry has come a long way in the last decade. Today in our country it is not difficult to get competent advice in a children's psycho-neurological dispensary.
It has long been known that drugs do not help with autism. Yes, tranquilizers will help relieve anxiety, and antipsychotics will make you sit and lie still. But there is no cure for autism. It's just a different warehouse of the psyche, these patients are "from another planet." And they will forever remain so.
World psychiatry has developed a whole science of behavioral therapy for autistic people. This development is called - ABA therapy (Applied behavior analysis).
Be careful, this is not a cure for autism. This is a method of psychological correction, according to which working with a sick child will help him better adapt to the world of neurotypical people. Alas, even with hard work on the ABA correction method, many children will never be able to conduct a full-fledged verbal dialogue. So for the rest of your life and will experiencehorror in crowded places. Some of them will never be able to fully serve themselves in everyday life.
Today, there are hundreds of certified ABA specialists in the Russian Federation. They took special training courses on working with sick children. But let's be honest: there is practically no sense in these activities. An autistic child is different, and he will never become like everyone else - neurotypical. And "ABA specialists" set huge price tags for the academic hour of their work (from a thousand rubles and more). For families with a disabled child (where the mother is forced to leave her job to care for a sick family member), these are unbearable amounts.
Alternative treatments
In the past ten years, forums and sites on alternative, non-scientific methods of curing autism have grown like mushrooms on the Internet. No matter how many doctors repeat: the diagnosis of RDA is not treated, it can only be corrected - parents believe in a miracle and carry their money to charlatans.
The sale of American and German food supplements, detox pills, half-made and distorted chelation procedures are all alternative methods with unproven effectiveness.
Feeding your child with untested dietary supplements from another country, the parent takes full responsibility for the he alth and condition of the baby. Alas, in our country there are still many people who are ready to do "business" on families with disabled children. Parents need to show wisdom and patience and accept the child's diagnosisas a matter of course, do not buy uncertified medicines from the hands and through the Internet.
Disability procedure for a small autist
RDA code according to ICD10 - F84/0. Deciphering the diagnosis of RDA - "early childhood autism". The child cannot lead a full life with this disease, one of the parents is forced to leave work. Therefore, it makes sense to apply for disability in order to receive additional payments.
- After the diagnosis is established, it is necessary to ask the attending psychiatrist for a "slider" for specialist doctors. This is an ophthalmologist, otolaryngologist, surgeon, audiologist, clinical psychologist, speech therapist. You will have to consult with each of these specialists. With an autistic child, this is very difficult and sometimes almost impossible. But without these consultations, disability cannot be achieved.
- Undergo examinations advised by a psychiatrist: EEG, MRI of the brain. For this, most likely, you will have to go to the hospital. Or go through research in paid diagnostic centers for money. Children undergo an MRI under general anesthesia. It is impossible to explain to an autistic person that one cannot move in a capsule - so anesthesia is a necessary measure.
- Go and get the result of a complete urine blood test at the city clinic.
- Take an extract from the outpatient card from the attending pediatrician about the history of childbirth and growing up.
- Make two photocopies of each statement, conclusion, test results. You will also need a copy of the birth certificate, parents' passports, SNILS of the child, registration card (registration).
- With all this packagedocuments to go to the attending psychiatrist. He will draw up the patient's personal file for the commission.
- Sign up for a commission that will make a decision on assigning the status of a child with a disability to the baby.
- The last step - after receiving the certificate, go with it to the Pension Fund, and then to the social. residential protection. Employees will complete all the necessary documents, and the pension will be transferred monthly to the card of the selected bank.
Average payment per month will be about fifteen thousand. The mother receives five thousand five hundred rubles as compensation for caring for a disabled child. Of course, this is not enough for a normal rehabilitation of a son or daughter. But even this amount is a good help for a family with a sick baby.
Varieties of early childhood autism
Depending on the characteristics of the course of the disease, psychiatry distinguishes the following subspecies:
- Kanner's syndrome of early infantile autism (a classic variant of behavior in early childhood autism);
- Asperger's autistic psychopathy;
- residual-organic variant of autism;
- autism with Rett syndrome;
- autism of unknown origin.
Asperger's and Kanner's syndromes are common in boys. Autism retta - for girls. In their manifestations, these diagnoses are not much different. Asperger's syndrome is one of the milder manifestations of the disease, but it does not allow the child to "be like all normal children."
Regardless of the classification, it is worth remembering that children with autism -soft, vulnerable, defenseless. Their inability to habitual verbal and verbal communication frightens and repels those around them. Meanwhile, autistic people often suffer from panic, horror, pain and cannot even tell their own parents about it. In addition, they are forced to endure the prejudiced environment of "he althy and normal" neurotypical people throughout their lives.
Typical behavior of an autistic child
There are a lot of rumors around the diagnosis of RDA. In fact, there is nothing terrible or physically repulsive about these children.
Characteristics of children diagnosed with autism:
- They are often beautiful or cute in appearance. Their gaze is directed "to nowhere", in some cases it is clearly defocused and does not bear signs of intellectual thought.
- Due to the lack of need for communication, many of these children will never master human speech (in some cases they can speak in simple sentences).
- Some of them have a slight mental retardation, some are intellectually developed like all children (but due to the impossibility of communication, their intelligence undergoes some subjective changes).
- They tend to have stereotypical behaviors, such as shaking their heads from side to side, or staggering like cubs. When they are scared, they may jump up or scream loudly. In stereotypy, autistic children collapse from fatigue and discomfort, fear.
- Vocalizations are babbling and humming that have nothing to do with speech. It's simplephysiological contraction of the vocal apparatus.
Given that every year impartial statistics on the registration of new children with disabilities reports an increase in children with autism by 3-4%, we can talk about an epidemic of autism. If the disease continues to spread at the same rate, in two hundred years every 21-22 resident of economically developed countries will be autistic.
After reading this article, the answer to the question, the diagnosis of autism in children - what is it, you know. Now you know that if an adult child is silent or cries loudly, or shrinks into a corner in fear, this does not mean that he has not been brought up. Maybe he just needs help.
The most common myths about autism
For ten years, in connection with the international epidemic of autism, a day of information about this disease has been covered annually by the press. Despite this, there are many myths about this disease among the people.
- Autistic kids are mean and crazy. Yes, they really are "not like everyone else." But certainly you should not expect aggression from them - in most cases they are afraid and suffer insults from the world of "normal" people.
- Autistic children follow themselves. No, this is not so - they learn to use the toilet later than their peers, but they are clean and understand why you need to retire in the toilet room.
- They have an unbridled sexual instinct and should be feared. That's a myth, that's a myth! If the autist is true (the diagnosis is correct), then he has no interest in sexual relations and the instinct of reproduction throughout his life. It is a characteristic feature of this disease thatany psychiatrist will confirm.
- Autistics are born to parents who are alcoholics and drug addicts. This is a common myth. Medicine still does not know the exact reasons for the birth of children with a diagnosis of RDA. They can be born both in a family of blue blood and in disadvantaged conditions. The diagnosis is not affected by social status, nationality, or age of the parents.
- If one child is sick, then the second will be born the same. This is a myth: studies have shown that the likelihood of having two autistic parents from one parent is quite small. It is about 5%.
