Xiaoice (pseudonym) is almost 4 years old this year, and the white and fat little face looks very cute, but when the child is 3 years old, the family found that the child always does not look at people, holding toys will only repeat the straight line, so they took him to the hospital for examination and diagnosed loneliness spectrum disorder.
The family rushed to send the child for rehabilitation training, and the situation improved after half a year. But as the Spring Festival approached, Xiaoice long-term training classes during the winter vacation, and the situation in Xiaoice changed: at first, they just asked to go to class every day, and then they began to lose their temper for no reason, crying, and even self-harming behavior at the worst time, and they would hit the wall with their heads. Because parents can not find the reason for the child's emotional fluctuations, and it is difficult for the child to calm down, the parents of the Xiaoice took him to the Department of Pediatric Psychology of Hunan Provincial Brain Hospital (Hunan Second People's Hospital), hoping to get professional help.
Autism spectrum disorder, also known as autism, autism, is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deviations from normal social communication, interest behavior and other manifestations, usually appearing in the first three years of life.
In terms of individual impairment, autism spectrum disorder ranges from mild to severe, damage from milder to heavier, from high to low functioning, and each child's functional level and degree of defect are at different levels in the spectrum.
In terms of diagnostic criteria, there are roughly the following two aspects: first, social aspects, in a variety of settings, social communication and social interactions have persistent defects, and secondly, in terms of interests and behaviors, spectrum disorders will show restricted, repetitive behavior patterns, interests or activities.
Dr. Chen Xi of the Department of Pediatric Psychology at Hunan Brain Hospital (Hunan Second People's Hospital) told Xiaoice parents that because children with autism have adherence to the sameness, lack of flexibility, or ritualized verbal or nonverbal patterns of behavior, they will be prone to extreme pain for small changes and it is difficult to change rigid thinking patterns. Xiaoice will show a reluctance to be interrupted or changed in the behavior he insists on, such as he has formed a pattern of daily intervention courses, if a sudden situation from the outside world joins in and disrupts his arrangement, then his mood will fluctuate, and he may repeat the process of execution, or directly erupt emotional problems or even behavioral problems. Children with autism tend to experience impaired emotional function, individuals are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety and negative emotions, and they rely on poor or special strategies to cope with such problems, such as crying, avoidance, venting defenses, and so on.
Xiaoice language function is relatively good, can do some appropriate communication, for this pediatric psychology department of the rehabilitation department corresponding to the child set up different types of games for emotional training, such as the color of the paper person: the rehabilitator with the child on the white paper to depict a human body outline, and then use different colors and sizes of cardboard to express the child's emotional feelings, the child tries to paste these colored paper on or place in any part of the paper person, and then the rehabilitator and the child to discuss their choices, practice oral emotional expression, Replace behavioral attacks or vent defenses with expressions.
Through this type of game, guide children to identify their emotions, correctly express basic emotions, and have a smooth connection with the outside world, so that parents can accurately capture the child's emotional changes, as well as the possible triggers for emotional changes, in order to help children vent their emotions in time and solve the actual problems.
Dr. Chen Xi pointed out that because children with autism may encounter their own incomprehension or stereotypes are broken, resulting in emotional fluctuations, parents need to have sufficient patience to deal with the child's emotional outbursts at any time, and also need to carefully observe whether there are some changes before and after their emotional fluctuations. Sometimes very subtle changes for the general population, but for autistic children, it is a major blow, their symbol of their own space and inner world stability, if arbitrarily changed or broken, will produce a sense of loss of control, and it is difficult to deal with the resulting emotions alone, at this time they need more understanding and guidance from the family and the outside world. If you feel that your child's situation has affected your daily life or even safety, parents can also seek help from professionals in time to help their children out of the emotional storm.
Contributed by: Huang Fang, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Psychology, Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province (Hunan Brain Hospital).
Editor: Liu Yuchen
Image: From the Internet, intrusion and deletion