Should you worry about autism in your child?

Every 2nd day of April, the world commemorates Autism day set aside to bring awareness to the condition that renders sufferers incapable of understanding even the simplest of the social gestures such as making basic friendships.
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability, it affects how a person communicates with and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them.
This year, the United Nations celebrated the day under the theme “Autism and the 2030 Agenda: Inclusion and Neurodiversity”.
In the US, statistics show that one in 68 eight-year-olds has the illness and that white children are more prone to being diagnosed with autism as opposed to black children, according to the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM).

Most prone
In its report titled ‘A snapshot of autism spectrum disorder’, ADDM shows that boys are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease than girls although does not explain the reason behind this school of thought. In addition, the report showed that the disease has been slightly on the rise for the past four years.
In Uganda, Emmanuel Mwebe, the head of therapies at Teens and Tots Neuro Development Centre agrees that there has been an increase in the number of autism cases countrywide.
“When you look to the past years, there were limited cases of autism and a few health centres used to take this as a serious condition; but this has changed. Now there are several centres in Uganda working with people with autism, an indicator that the number of such individuals is on increase in Uganda,” Mwebe explains.

He cites an example of the Neuro-Development Centre which he says admits at least five to six new children per school term but adds that this term; they received eight new students aged between three and 10 years.
“We started operating in 2013 and we started with only 10 children but at the end of 2015, we had up to 39 children. The centre has capacity for 40 children and we cannot exceed that number; parents bring their children and others take them away choosing to believe that they are better off in other centres that is why the number keeps on fluctuating,” Mwebe adds.

Accounting for the numbers
With the increase, one would wonder what exactly causes autism. World Health Organisation says there are several genetic and environmental factors that can contribute to the onset of autism spectrum disorders by influencing early brain development. Autism Society adds that there is no single cause for the spectrum disorder though it is generally accepted that it is caused by abnormalities in brain structure or function.
“Brain scans show differences in the shape and structure of the brain in children with autism compared to in neurotypical children. Researchers do not know the exact cause of autism but are investigating a number of theories, including the links among heredity, genetics and medical problems,” Autism Society writes regarding the cause of the disease.

Causes
However, scientists have a theory that the disorder could have a genetic basis. They cite that some children have irregular segments of genetic code although the theory has not been proven. Other scientists claim some children are born without the normal but are susceptible to the disorder although they have not identified what triggers it to develop.
It is also more common in people who have certain medical conditions such as a fragile X syndrome. This is also known as Martin-Bell syndrome, which is known to cause of inherited intellectual disability and cause intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Tuberous sclerosis which causes benign tumours to grow in the brain and other vital organs such as the kidney and eyes, congenital rubella syndrome which is caused by a rubella virus infection during pregnancy and untreated phenylketonuria (PKU) among others.
Despite the warning signs, Mwebe says parents and communities should not worry about the illness but instead equip themselves with information regarding the disease.
He says instead of seeking services of witchdoctors to cast away the illness, once a child has been identified with it, parents should take the children for occupational therapy, speech therapy and other forms of interventions.

“Autism is majorly characterised by difficulties in communication and social interaction and the absence of these skills in an individual usually brings about socially unacceptable behaviours in such an individual.
Taking care of an individual with Autism is expensive because this individual will need different interventions such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, behavioural interventions, special needs education and nutritional therapy among others to become semi-independent,” Mwebe says.

What you need to know

Parents who have a child with ASD have between two per cent and 18 per cent chance of having a second child who is also affected.
About 10 per cent of children with autism are identified as having Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, or other genetic and chromosomal disorders.
Not all children with ASD have a low IQ.
Children born to older parents are at a higher risk for having ASD.
A small percentage of children who are born prematurely or with low birth weight are at greater risk for having ASD.

[email protected]