7 misconceptions about autism in children

Misconceptions about autism can cause great harm not only to children but also to families and society. Understanding the Autism Spectrum will help find appropriate methods for treating and caring for children.

Myth 1: Autism is a disease

Truth:

Autism is a syndrome, not a disease, and is not contagious. However, many people still call autism a disease. This understanding leads to misconceptions about the concept and treatment of autistic children.

When autism is called a disease, people will implicitly understand that since it is a disease, there will be a cure and the child can fully recover. Therefore, many parents have taken their children to find doctors everywhere, giving them "rare supplements" without paying attention to effective intervention methods that have been scientifically proven. This leads to the condition of autism in children becoming more and more severe.

Myth 2: Autism can be cured

Truth:

Currently, there is no cure for autism. However, if mild autism is detected and intervened early, children with autism can still develop relatively normally and integrate into the community. In more severe cases, intervention measures can only help children stabilize and learn to communicate better.

Myth 3: Autism occurs due to lack of attention from parents.

Truth:

Many parents are extremely distressed when they learn that their child has autism. They often tend to blame themselves for not knowing how to care for, nurture, or pay attention to their child, leading to their child having autism.

However, experts have proven that autism is a congenital developmental disability. This means that from birth, children have symptoms of this syndrome, or children have latent autism from within, at a certain age (usually from 2 to 3 years old) it begins to manifest.

Therefore, the notion that children are autistic is due to parents not caring enough, not being close to them, and not talking to them is completely wrong. In fact, these are just factors that can make autism worse.

Myth 4: Autistic children are often taciturn and do not like to make friends.

Truth:

Children with autism do not play and interact, communicate with other children not because they "don't want to", but because they "don't know how to play together". They only understand games with fixed patterns and repetitive movements. Other children must invite the autistic child to play together and understand their shortcomings, but cannot expect change and acceptance from day to day.

Myth 5: All autistic children show the same symptoms.

Truth:A child with autism spectrum disorder often has difficulty with social skills, communication, unusual behavior and interests. Autism can be considered a form of communication disability. According to Master Nguyen Thi Nha Trang, a special education specialist who manages the Early Detection of Autism project (funded by the US Embassy), all autistic children have the three main problems above. However, the symptoms appear differently with different severity in each individual child. No two autistic children have exactly the same symptoms.

Myth 6: All autistic children are mentally retarded.

Truth:

According to statistics, about 70-80% of autistic children have below average IQ. Many children are mentally retarded. The rest have average IQ or above.

However, there are still autistic children who are geniuses (have outstanding abilities in a certain field) accounting for 1 to 2%. Physicist Isaac Newton (UK), physicist Albert Einstein (USA), composer Ludwig van Beethoven (Germany), writer George Orwell (UK), musical genius Mozart (Austria), writer Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) are talents who have some manifestations of autism.

Myth 7: Autistic children cannot speak or make eye contact.

Truth:

Between 40 and 50 percent of children with autism have little or no language; this is often due to severe intellectual disability. However, if autism is detected early and intensive speech therapy is given, up to three-quarters of children with autism will develop speech.

Many children with autism make eye contact. It may be less or different than typical children, but they do look people in the eye, smile, and show a lot of other nonverbal communication.

According to PNVN