The TV series "You from the Stars" must have seen many mothers, but have you heard of "Children of the Stars"?
The name comes from a "one-dollar painting" public welfare event held in August 2017, which featured works by special groups of people, including children with autism. These paintings are amazing, and once they are exhibited, they have attracted a lot of attention, and many people who do not understand them have issued the amazement of "autistic people are artistic geniuses", and also given a beautiful name to children with autism: children of stars.
In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 2 April as World Autism Day, hoping to raise awareness of people with autism and related research and treatment. "Children of the Stars" is a beautiful and romantic name, but in medicine autism is called autism, just like the name, lack of attention, lack of understanding.
According to the 2016 "Report on the Development of China's Autism Education and Rehabilitation Industry", there are more than 10 million autistic patients in China, of which more than 2 million are children under 14 years old, and the overall prevalence is about 1%. However, in contrast to this huge number, the number of children with autism who can go to formal institutions for rehabilitation training is very small, and as of September 2016, 98.7 patients do not receive effective rehabilitation training.
Looking at this data, I can't help but think of a news I saw on the Internet before, a mother who committed suicide by burning charcoal at home after determining that her husband would not come home from work at night, with a 3-month-old fetus in her womb and her 7-year-old autistic son.
From the child was found to have autism when he was 2 or 3 years old, the family of the average couple found a lot of ways to treat the child, after several years of treatment, finally the child's autism from moderate to mild. But when a 7-year-old goes to a regular kindergarten, the child's social and cognitive impairments still make everything difficult.
The child has no malicious behavior, but in the kindergarten, he is frequently sued by other parents, and even called "school bullying" by a small number of parents, and the child can only withdraw from school. The couple tried all the ways to get their children to school, found social workers and institutions, called many departments such as the Education Bureau, but still could not be solved.
The disheartened mother chose to die with her child after making sure that her husband would not return home. When I read this article, I have mixed feelings, we can't simply say who caused the mother's suicide, but in real life, autistic children and parents are often in various difficulties.
And many of these difficulties come from the society's lack of understanding of this special group, what is autism? How does autism develop?
First, what is autism
Autism is a lifelong developmental disorder caused by a neurological disorder that affects brain function, and its manifestations include abnormal social skills, communication skills, interests, and behavioral patterns. Most of the patients are children and symptoms usually appear before the age of 3 years. Once a child develops autism, the nerve perfection function will stagnate, 2-6 years old is the best intervention and recovery period, missing this stage is likely to have an impact on the child's neurological function recovery.
Second, what are the factors that cause autism?
The formation of autism is not caused by a single factor, but by a combination of genetic, biological and environmental factors.
1. Genetic factors
Studies have shown that the older parents are when they have children, the higher the risk of autism in their children, and grandparents who have children late also increase the risk of autism in the third generation.
There are also studies of autistic twins and family members, some patients have a clear susceptibility, if there is one person with autism in the same egg twin, then the probability of the other is as high as 60-90%, while if one of the heterotopian twins has autism, the prevalence of the other is only 5%.
2. Environmental factors
Some heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, boron, cadmium and manganese, in addition to pesticides, pesticides, additives and other substances, enter the human body, will cause harm to the human body, and poison the human nervous system.
3. Psychological factors
Early autism researchers found that for children whose parents are "refrigerator-type", they will be emotionally far away from their parents and dare not be close to their parents, and they are more likely to suffer from autism.
Third, some misunderstandings about autism
1. Is autism a psychosis?
Many people treat autism as a mental illness, look at people with autism differently, and even refuse to associate with them. In fact, people with autism are simple and kind, but sometimes they may express themselves in a different way than normal people.
2. Autistic patients cannot go to school normally
The best intervention time for autistic patients is 2-6 years old, as long as it is found in time, early scientific intervention, and formal treatment and rehabilitation training, autistic children can go to school normally.
3. Are children with autism geniuses?
The actual situation is that less than one in a thousand people with a certain talent in the autistic population, about 50% of autistic children have different degrees of intellectual disorders, early detection, early intervention, early treatment, more love and understanding for autistic children is the best for children.
4. Will Autism grow up to be better?
Some parents who lack a sense of autism may have this idea and miss the best time for treatment when their child is young. The truth is that autism not only does not get better on its own with time, but if it is not treated in time, as we age, certain manifestations will only become more and more serious, eventually making the child gradually lose the ability to take care of itself. Once parents find that their children have this tendency, they must take their children to seek professional treatment at the first time.