It is characterised by an inability to relate to others, physical activities of a repetitive nature, the spinning of objects or the rocking backwards and forwards and pronounced difficulties in speech. Autistic children do not respond to the normal affectionate embraces or hugging. They avoid looking you in the eye and there is a distinct failure to smile.

The normal development of speech is lacking and generally develops into meaningless recitation or a repeating of the heard word or sentence. The memory is not affected so that this repeating of words can go on endlessly. Reading appears to develop normally but unfortunately the child cannot grasp the meaning of what he or she reads. Normal intelligence may be present but unfortunately mental retardation is frequently an associated condition.

Autism affects boys more than girls and fortunately is a rare condition.

Some individuals may be able to achieve a degree of personal responsibility in adult life but the outlook for the majority of cases is poor especially if mental retardation also exists.

Treatment of autism is not very satisfactory.

Medication is directed at the child’s behaviour and behavioural education programs have to often be on a personal one to one basis. The family understanding of the problem is terribly important and group support for the family is also very necessary.

There are support groups in each state which can be found in your telephone directory.