Understand what is autism in simple terms. Internationally renowned and one of the most experienced homeopaths in treating autistic children, Dr. Manish Bhatia discusses what is autism, what are the 3 main symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder, what are the 5 types of autism, how you can check whether your child has autism or not.

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Transcript – What is Autism – Dr. Manish Bhatia

Hello Friends!

I am doctor Manish Bhatia. Your friend and guide from doctorbhatia.com, your resource for homeopathy treatment of autism.

Today we are going to discuss what is Autism?

The word Autism is derived from the Greek word “Autos”.

Autos mean self.

Autism is a condition in which a person is limited to himself. The person is not able to relate to the world outside or so it appears.

It is a neural development disorder which affects the person at multiple levels.

The three primary areas that get affected are social development, cognitive development and behavioural patterns are affected.

So what we primarily see is that an autistic child is unable to relate with others; it appears as if the autistic child is in his or her own world; as if for the autistic child, the world outside does not exist.

The child is not taking any cues from the social environment and is not responding to the social cues given to it by the parents or the caretakers.

Now the degree of severity may vary. In fact, what we understand as autism today is a spectrum. Till Dsm 4 it was a part of five different conditions.

One was Autism, in which the social development is affected, cognitive development is affected and the patient has special behavioural patterns.

The second thing was Asperger’s syndrome, in which the symptoms are much milder, the cognitive development is usually not affected. Only social development is primarily affected.

Today we call it as high functioning autism where the cognitive function is normal, the child’s mental abilities are good and in fact, sometimes they are better than average people. But still, social interaction remains restricted.

Then there were other two things like Rett syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder in which the children develop normally for a certain period of time.

Then they seem to regress as if they lose their abilities that they have developed for a certain period of time. This regression used to occur between the age of two to ten. And today these two syndromes are again clubbed in as autism. And they are called regressive autism.

So these are the different types of disorders and then there was another type of disorder call Pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified.

All these five classes were called Pervasive development disorder it was an umbrella term.

Now all these five different types of Pervasive development disorders are part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder.

So what happens when the child becomes autistic or when the child is labelled as autistic?

The primary deficit areas that the parents notice or the paediatrician notices or the teacher notices is that the child is not interacting with other children. The child is not even interacting with the parents as he or she should.

The language development is usually delayed in these children, often delayed or absent.

So there is a child who is not communicating, the child is not responding to social cues, the child is not showing any needs, the child is not developing language and then, later on, seems to be lost in his or her own world and later on the child develops very significant behavioural patterns like the spinning of objects, looking at rotating objects, switching on and off the buttons, toe walking, hand flapping and lining different object in a particular way.

So they develop different ticks and behavioural patterns and this group of symptoms, where the child is socially not interacting with others, the child is not responding emotionally, the child sometimes is not even able to bond emotionally with parents, the child is not able to do meaningful play with other children. The child prefers to sit alone with his or her toys or in a corner doing nothing.

But again that is one extreme. As I have said, autism is a spectrum disorder and there will be other autistic children who are relatively normal emotionally and socially. But the language development is delayed.

Some other children are born with other conditions like there are autistic children sometimes born with mental retardation also, there are autistic children who are suffering from epilepsy, there are autistic children who suffer from gastrointestinal disorders.

So again there are no two autistic children who are alike. They are children with different symptoms, with different intensity of symptoms, but there is a common denominator and the denominator is that in the majority of cases the ability to perceive social cues, to have a meaningful social life and social interaction with family, with peers, with friends and the society, is significantly lacking and at the same time there are special behavioural patterns in different degrees present in most of these children. And the language development is usually delayed and restricted.

So this, my friends, describes the Autism Spectrum Disorder in very brief.

In our next videos, we will cover this spectrum disorder in far more detail. We will be discussing when you should be concerned about your child, whether your child is autistic or not? when you should be going to the GP or the paediatrician to have an opinion about your child’s development?

We will be covering all these different topics in future videos.

So stay tuned.

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If you have any questions regarding the treatment of your child, regarding your diagnosis, treatment options, what homeopathy can do for you, what other therapies can do for you, visit doctorbhatia.com.

And you can send me your questions. I will be happy to respond to your queries and be of any assistance that I can provide.

Thank you.