Autism
The best way to get a sense of what a child with autism
is like, if you have never met one, is to read extracts
of Kanner's (1943) descriptions of the children in whom
he first identified the syndrome:
He seems almost to draw into his shell and live within
himself....
- When taken into a room, he completely disregarded the
people and instantly went for objects....
- When a hand was held out to him so that he could not
possibly ignore it, he played with it briefly as if it
were a detached object....
- He did not respond to being called, and did not look at
his mother when she spoke to him....
- He never looked up at people's faces. When he had any
dealings with persons at all, he treated them, or
rather parts of them, as if they were objects. He would
use a hand to lead him. He would, in playing, butt his
head against his mother as at other times he did against
a pillow. He allowed his boarding mother's hand to dress
him, paying not the slightest attention to her....
- ... on a crowded beach he would walk straight
toward his goal irrespective of whether this involved
walking over newspapers, hands, feet, or torsos, much to
the discomfiture of their owners. His mother was careful
to point out that he did not intentionally deviate from
his course in order to walk on others, but neither did he
make the slightest attempt to avoid them. It was as if he
did not distinguish people from things, or at
least did not concern himself about the distinction.
More recent examples follow:
- He never really seemed to look at anyone directly. Rather,
he would look at them only fleetingly or else not at all.
Despite this, John seemed to notice everything in minute
detail. He could ride his bicycle along the most crowded
pavements without knocking anyone over, and he spotted
car number plates with a figure four in them long before
anyone else had noticed. He would also do things his
parents found embarrassing, like grabbing and eating
sandwiches from a stranger's plate at restaurants.
- He was very good with his number work and took a great
delight in learning multiplication tables. He was also
still very quick at jigsaws and could manage even
difficult puzzles quite easily: at six years old, he did
a 200 piece jigsaw puzzle on his own, and a 100 piece one
upside down! Socially, however, he was unable to make any
friends whatsoever. He would attempt to join in a game
that he liked, but his approaches were so odd that other
children tended to ignore him. Most of the time,
John was to be found on his own, busying himself with one
of his special interests., more absorbed in counting lamp
posts than playing with other school children.
- She took great interest in the smell of everything,
sniffing food, toys, clothes and (to her parents'
embarrassment) people. She even tried to smell strangers
in the street. She also liked the touch and feel of
things-especially sandpaper. In fact, she insisted on
carrying around a small piece of sandpaper in her pocket.
Strangely though, she took no interest in the cuddly toys
she was given. Lucy's desire to touch and feel things was
also a source of embarrassment to her parents. She often
tried to stroke stockings on women's legs, even if they
were complete strangers. If they tried to stop her, she
would have a tantrum.
The Four steps of Baron-Cohen's
Mind-reading model
The Intentionality Detector (ID)
When a person or animal is seen moving or acting upon an
object it is assumed that that person has an intention. For
example, a person walking from A to B has the intention of
getting away from A and to arrive at B. There is a reason or
purpose for a person's movements.
The Eye-Direction Detector (EDD)
The ability to infer that if a person's eyes are directed at
an object then that person is looking at the object. This
involves detecting minute shifts in the eyes in order to work out
where the person is looking. Most people are very good at
calculating what other people are looking at. This mechanism is
not essential to understanding other people's minds (not being
autistic), as blind people would obviously not use such a
mechanism.
The Shared Attention Mechanism (SAM)
Understanding triadic representations. This means
understanding the relationships between an Agent (another person),
the Self, and a third Object. For example Tommy understanding
that when he and his mother is looking at the bus, they share the
same experience of looking at the same bus.
The Theory of Mind Mechanism (TOMM)
This mechanism combines all the information that is available
from the other mechanisms and from this information infers what
is going on in the observed person's mind. Appreciating that
others hold beliefs.
Possible causes of Autism and the link with MMR