So what is autism?

Autism is a neurological developmental disorder of information processing and dynamic intelligence

The core deficits of autism include;

Experience sharing; this is the unique aspect of human interaction, we want to share our feelings, perceptions, thoughts, plans, past, emotional reactions, intended actions. People with autism find this very difficult.

Appraisal; how we find meaning in every day life and finding the best fit solution.  People with autism may get stuck on information that is not meaningful.

Episodic memory; this is a personal representational memory of an event tied with emotions and unique meaning for a person.  People with autism usually have a better procedural and factual memory than episodic memory.

Self awareness; sense of own personality and identity and how your actions and thoughts have an impact on others.  This needs constant monitoring and evaluation to achieve greater emotional awareness and control of self.  People with autism tend to have poor self regulation.

Creative, flexible thinking and problem solving; the ability to integrate different ideas and perspectives to find the best fit, good enough solution to real life problems.  People with autism find it difficult to think flexibly.

The RDI® Programme is the only intervention available that actually aims to remediate autism and each of its core deficits individually, step by step and help a child learn how to live in a dynamic world. 

                                   

History of Autism

Autism first recognised by Leo Kanner (1946) has developed largely due to amazing research studies.

Kanner's triad of impairments for autism;

Lack of communication;

Lack of language;

Deficits in socialising.

Since the triad of impairments there have been many other characteristics in autism e.g. no speech, non speech sounds, delayed speech, echolalia (mimicing words without any understanding of meaning), pronoun confusion, frustration with lack of speech, lack of peer interaction, lack of eye contact, seemingly, unaware of other people, treateing people as objects, parallel play rather than interactive, lack of imaginative play, not interested in being picked up/ cuddled, preoccupied by hand movement, flapping hands (especially when excited or stimulated), spinning, balancing, tiptoe walking, aggressiveness towards others, lack of interest in "normal" toys (often preferring kitchen tools), obsessive toward patterns, repetition in behaviour (such as rewinding one section of a movie on the VCR to watch many times), lining things up, self injury, needing to live with a routine that does not vary, dislike of certain sounds, textures and/ or tastes, dislike of being touched, very passive or very active behaviour, nervousness, unaware of various physical stimuli such as pain, covering ears at loud noises, "blanking out" in active environments, often seem to be uncomfortable in extreme temperatures.

Having all these characteristics in mind we are able to claim that there are several core deficits of autism; this includes and elaborates on Kanner's triad of impairments and accounts for many of the common characteristics found in individuals with autism.