The purpose of this paper is to discuss autism, its physiological and behavioral abnormalities, the difficulties in assessment and testing of autistic children, and teaching methods used on this condition.
An autistic child is largely unable to make contact with its environment. Aloofness is generally the result of this condition. The child does not respond well to external stimulation. For example, when the autistic child is picked up and cradled, the child does not cuddle or adapt himself to the other person. Many times, there is an insistence on "sameness" and an aversion to new things. This inflexibility of personality is frequently defined by temper tantrums or even rages. In autistic infants, the onset of walking and especially talking is frequently delayed. While many medical studies indicate a genetic basis for this illness, emotional factors have also been brought into play, particularly since the mothers of very young autistic children have been described as emotionally cool and aloof. Of course, this may be a reaction to the state of the child and the description may be invalid (Eredman, 1987, p. 485). What is known for certain however, is that autism is the most severe of the developmental disorders that affect children. In order to diagnose autism in a child, he (or she) must have a diagnosable case before the age of thirty-six months. There must be a lack of responsiveness to others, major deficiency of language (including no speech at all, delayed repetitions of language or mixing up or pronoun reversal, such as mixing up "I" and "you"), relatively bizarre responses to situations and
attachments to peculiar food objects or persons. The American Psychiatric Association's criteria for diagnosing a child with autism stipulates that the child must have the above symptoms within the first three years of life (McElroy, 1987, pp. 9-10).
Although the cause of this disorder is not well understood, symptoms ...