Children of a lesser God : Mumbai

Children with autism or hyperactivity must be diagnosed early and made to undergo behavourial therapy.

*****************************************************

A large spectrum of such disorders comes under the term learning disability

*****************************************************

I have no words to describe the anguish of the young woman sitting in front of me. She is stressed, worried and her face reflects sadness. She has come to see me with a special child. During the course of her half an hour with me, she has had to restrain her hyperactive child every five minutes and I wonder how she manages through the day. She is here to consult for the possibility of heavy metal toxicity as a cause of her child's disorder.



Children afflicted by this condition are bright but have difficulty in assimilating information. Imagine our frustration if adults like us were put into a room as an audience and given a lecture with instruction which we have heard and seen in visual presentation, but unable to act on it. More so, in a child, whose whole life is dependent on school, peers, teachers and parents. He realises that he is lagging behind his peers.



There is now voluminous literature on the illeffect of metals on the heath of a child. Mercury from the mothers dental fillings may enter breast milk. The possibility of the effect from mercury on the child whose enzyme systems are not mature enough to detoxify heavy metals remains a source of controversy. Links between autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder with metal toxicity abound in medical literature.



One spectrum of this disorder is learning disability disorders that parents face. Most such children are not really backwards, but can be as smart as other children, except their brains are wired a little differently.



The sensory stimulation of sight and sound are interpreted differently by the brain, and thus receiving and processing information is different.


Alarge spectrum of disorders comes under the term learning disability and it is important that parents pick up a disorder easily. In preschool if children have difficulty in pronouncing or finding the right word or have trouble with alphabet or numbers, or learning days of the week, the parents should see get alert.



In addition, trouble with crayons and colouring between the lines, and trouble with zippers or learning to tie shoe laces, should also caution them. As the child grows between five and 10 years of age if he has difficulty connecting between letters and sounds or in learning math, or confuses the basic words while reading or has difficulty telling the time or is slow to learn new skills, the parent should be vigilant.



From the various learning difficulties that are seen in a practice are disability in reading called dyslexia, where the child has difficulty between sounds, letters and words.



Learning disability with figures in mathematics is called dyscalculia and such effected children have difficulty in simple addition or difficulty telling the time. Learning disability with writing is known as dysgraphia. In such a condition the child has difficulty framing words and letters and has difficulty at times expressing his organised thoughts on papers.



Other learning disabilities with reversing letters and numbers or inability to judge depth and distance are disorders with visual processing. Similarly, the ability to hear normally but difficulty in processing what is heard impacts the ability to read, write or spell.



Autism is characterised by impaired social and verbal interaction, and non-verbal communication as well. There is repetitive or stereotyped behaviour. This is a genetic predisposition to autism, and there has been a marked increase in the diagnosis of autism since the 1980s. This has been associated with better diagnostic techniques, but skeptics put it down to the increase of heavy metal toxicity.



The autism spectrum disorder causes several diagnostic syndromes and the diagnosis is made on the behaviour of the child.



The other illness is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which often manifests before seven years of age or between seven and 12. The child has problem of attention and hyperactivity and acts impulsively not appropriative for age.



Today, many of these disorders are managed better than they were a decade ago. The cause of the problem is that these children of a lesser god must be diagnosed early and so, mothers if you have doubts seek help, since many of the symptoms blend well in the early stages with normal children.


Source : Mumbai Mirror , 17th Dec 2013