Barbados outlines some facts about Autism on World Autism Awareness Day

Barbados: Barbados Council for the Disabled outlined the checklist for observing World Autism Awareness Day. On the special occasion of Autism Awareness Day, the authorities of the Caribbean country have shared information about the symptoms and treatment of Autism.

The authorities have outlined an informal checklist for parents and caregivers and stated that Autism is a common symptom; here’s following what to look for:

Parents have usually noticed that one child may have missed some of their developmental milestones.

• Were they are late talkers, beginning well after they pass 12 months?
• Are they nonverbal or very slow to pick up language skills?
• When very young, about three years old, do they seem not to notice or hear you when trying to catch their attention?
• When they play as infants, do they appear to be self-absorbed in whatever they do? Do they love to play alone? And is the child a boy?

Are they any clues?

What are some clues that a child or adult is on the autistic spectrum? How do I recognize them?

• There is a mix of clues that everyone will notice when meeting somebody on the spectrum, and by the way, we always say they “are on the spectrum,” as this describes a range of disabilities and alerts that there may be others.
• One clue is this: when having a conversation with anyone, “regular” people look at you, make eye contact, wait for you to stop speaking, answer, finish, start speaking again, and so on.
• A person on the spectrum commonly misses social cues when talking to you; they usually don’t make eye contact; perhaps they look away, down or right and left. And they also tend to miss their turn in the conversations; they many innocently but in with their own chat, which may not have anything to do with the subject. They don’t do this negatively or think it is wrong it’s just their way to attempt to chat.
• To them, it’s OK. To you, it may seem odd, but don’t think of their way of chatting as a negative; they may have come a long way to reach this stage in the first place. Understand them.

Treatment

There is no cure for Autism, but the treatment of children with autism centres around six goals:

• Stopping the inappropriate behaviours that prevent the child from relating and communicating with others.
• Increasing the attention span, joint attention with communicative partners, and perceptual skills are needed to improve learning.
• Helping the child learn self-care skills.
• Providing opportunities and support for the child to learn how to socialize with others.
• Enriching the quality and quantity of language and communication skills.
• Educating parents to empower them to take an active role in their child’s educational and social skills development.