“Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that predominantly affects the brain. Its effects can be seen in the communication and behaviour of a person,” Charlene Marie Samuel, 36, founder and director of the Autism Behavioral Centre, told FMT Lifestyle recently.
“Often, what we see is an individual with delayed communication or one who struggles with social communication. In terms of behaviour, we see rigid or repetitive behaviours,” she added.
According to Samuel, the number of autism cases is rising. “In America, one out of every 36 children has autism. Two years ago, it was one in every 44 children.”
The root cause of autism, she added, remains unknown. “But what we tend to see is that signs of autism are prominent when a child reaches around two years old. At this age, there are a lot of development milestones.”
For example, children should be able to know the difference between “mummy” and “daddy” and call their parents accordingly. “When a child does not develop these skills or if regression happens, it’s usually very common in autism,” she said.
Elaborating on the regression of skills, she cited examples of families she works with whose babies could initially identify them by 18 months old but lost the skill by the time they reached 24 months.
She added that because autism is a spectrum disorder, there is a wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms that autistic people experience.
Interestingly, autism is more prevalent among males. “Generally, developmental delays affect more boys, and this is true even with dyslexia.”
However, “autism masking” is more common among females.
“Essentially, they suppress certain behaviours or characteristics of autism to be like everyone else. This usually happens in those aged seven and older,” she shared, adding that research indicates that this can lead to anxiety and depression.
According to Samuel, autism can be diagnosed by doctors or clinical psychologists. Time, she emphasised, was of the essence and early intervention was key.
“Although autism it’s not curable, it is treatable. We can improve quality of life and we can teach children to communicate.”
When it comes to treatment, there are several options available, including applied behaviour analysis (ABA).
“Currently, it’s the gold standard in autism treatment as there are longitudinal studies that prove its effectiveness.”
Behavioural intervention using ABA aims to improve an autistic person’s speech, communication and social skills as well as behaviour, independence and school readiness skills.
“Essentially, ABA is based on reward and motivation. Its principles apply to us every day. For example, how many of us would go to work if we didn’t get a pay cheque at the end of the month?
“So, in teaching autistic children, often, rewards in the form of their favourite things are given immediately upon a correct response. So, what we’re doing here is shaping behaviour based on the principles of reinforcement.”
In Malaysia, Samuel said improvements should be made to the regulation of autism services.
“With ABA specifically, there are many people who are applying the science or calling themselves ABA therapists, but they are doing it with either no supervision or training. Sometimes, what they are practising is not even ABA. I think this has also given ABA a bad name,” she said.
As such, she shared that having a regulatory body is key to ensuring that ABA therapists have received the necessary training and have the required competency.
“More importantly, I think there has to be a database. If you insert a person’s name and IC, you can see where they work and if there were any disciplinary actions taken against them. To create this database, I believe that both the government and private sectors must work together.”
Visit the Autism Behavioral Centre’s website for more information, or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.