Case Study of a Child with Autism

Case Study of a Child with Autism

John, An only child, was born after normal pregnancy and delivery. As

an infant, he was easy to breast-feed, the transition to solid foods

posed no difficulties, and he also slept well. At first, his mother

and farther were delighted at how easy he was: he seemed happy and

content to lie in his cot for hours. He sat unsupported at six months

(this is with in the normal range), and soon after he crawled

energetically.

His parents considered him to be independent and wilful. However, his

grandmother was puzzled by his independence. To her mind, he showed an

undue preference for his won company: it was as if he lacked interest

in people.

John walked on his first birthday, much to the delight of his parents;

yet during his second year he did not progress as well as expected.

Although he made sounds, he did not use words indeed, his ability to

communicate was so limited that even when he was three years old his

mother still found her self trying to guess what he wanted. Often she

tried giving him a drink or some food in the hope that she had guessed

his needs correctly.

Occasionally he would grab hold of her wrist and drag her to the sink,

yet he never said anything like drink, or he would just point to the

tap.[IMAGE]

This was obviously a source of concern in itself: but at about this

time his parents became concerned about the extreme of his

independence. For example, even if he fell down, he would not come to

his parents to show them he had hurt him self. At times they even felt

he was uninterested in them, because he never became upset when his

mother had to go out and leave him with a friend or relative. In fact,

he seemed to be more interested in playing with his bricks than

spending time with people. He made long straight lines of bricks over

and over again.