Psychological and pedagogical study of children with disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere (with early childhood autism)
Additional
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Children with disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere are a polymorphic group characterized by various clinical symptoms and psychological and pedagogical characteristics. The most severe emotional disturbances occur in early childhood autism syndrome (ECA); in some cases, emotional disorders are combined with mental retardation or mental retardation. Emotional and volitional disorders are also typical for children and adolescents with schizophrenia.
Autistic children suffering from pervasive mental disorder are characterized by increased hypersthesia (increased sensitivity) to various sensory stimuli: temperature, tactile, sound and light. The usual colors of reality for an autistic child are excessive and unpleasant. Such influence coming from the environment is perceived by an autistic child as a traumatic factor. This creates increased vulnerability in the children’s psyche. The environment itself, normal for a healthy child, turns out to be a source of constant negative sensations and emotional discomfort for an autistic child.
A person is perceived by an autistic child as an element of the environment, which, like herself, is a super-strong irritant for him. This explains the weakening of the reaction of autistic children to people in general and to loved ones in particular. On the other hand, refusing contact with loved ones deprives an autistic child of truly human psychological support. Therefore, the child’s parents, and primarily the mother, often act as emotional donors.
A striking manifestation of the “social loneliness” of an autistic child and the deficiency of his needs for social connections is the lack of desire to establish eye contact and the presence of unmotivated, unfounded fears that arise during his contacts with society. The gaze of an autistic child, as a rule, is turned into emptiness; it is not fixed on the interlocutor. More often than not, this view reflects the internal experiences of an autistic child, rather than an interest in the outside world. Characterized by the paradoxical nature of an autistic child's reaction to a human face: the child may not look at the interlocutor, but his peripheral vision will definitely note everything, even the slightest movements, made by the other person. In infancy, the mother’s face, instead of a “revival complex,” can cause fear in the child. As an autistic child grows older, his attitude towards this emotional factor remains virtually unchanged. The human face remains a super-strong irritant and causes a hypercompensatory reaction: avoidance of gaze and direct eye contact and, as a result, refusal of social interaction.
It is known that the insufficiency of the first signaling system, manifested in an autistic child in the form of hyperesthesia, and its pronounced selectivity determine the presence of disturbances in the second signaling system. The lack of need for contact indicates that the communicative needs sphere of an autistic child is deficient and depends on the degree of perfection of both sensory and affective processes.
The insufficiency of the communicative-need sphere of an autistic child is also manifested in the peculiarities of his speech: both in mutism, speech cliches, echohalies, and in the immaturity of facial expressions and gestures - factors accompanying speech utterance. At the same time, the insufficiency of the structural components of the communicative sphere in autism is accompanied by an undeveloped motivation for communication in children.
The energy potential of the brain provides the psycho-emotional tone necessary for the functioning of the human body. In conditions of insufficient energy toning, autistic children experience a limitation of positive emotional contacts and develop special pathological forms of interaction with the outside world. Compensatory autostimulation acts as such a pathological form of interaction with the environment. They allow the child to neutralize uncomfortable conditions and artificially increase his psycho-emotional tone. Compensatory autostimulations manifest themselves stereotypically and are called stereotypies—sustained repetitions of monotonous actions.
The emergence of stereotypy is due to the need of an autistic child to adhere only to already familiar stable forms of life activity that do not cause him fears and fears. An autistic child protects himself from uncomfortable stimuli using various types of stereotypy. Such forms of compensation allow the child to exist more or less painlessly in the world around him.
Stereotypes can occur in almost all activities of an autistic child. In this regard, their manifestations are variable. For example, in the motor sphere, motor stereotypies arise in the form of monotonous movements and manipulations with objects that create pleasant sensations in the child (twirling objects; playing with only one toy; running or walking in a circle). Speech stereotypies arise in the form of repetitions of individual words, phrases, quotes borrowed from books, and obsessive thoughts. At the intellectual level, stereotypies manifest themselves in the form of manipulation of a sign (word or number), formula, concept.
Stereotypes also manifest themselves in the organization of space (spatial stereotypies) and everyday life in a school or home environment, when any rearrangement of furniture causes a violent protest in the child. An autistic child is stereotypical in his interactions not only with others, but also in his attitude towards himself. His behavior is permeated with stereotypical habits (behavioral stereotypies) and the rituality of observing the rules of interaction with others (the first lesson at school should always begin with a mandatory ritual - determining the class schedule, which under no circumstances can be changed). The clothes that an autistic child wears, as a rule, are as comfortable as possible and have little variety, that is, they are stereotypical (the child wears the same tights, jeans, boots, etc.). Selectivity in food, often inherent in autistic children, is also a variant of stereotypy (food stereotypy: a child eats only one type of soup or only chips, etc.). It is known that some autistic children suffer from metabolic disorders. As a result, they may develop food allergies. In particularly severe cases, autistic children may refuse to eat at all.
Stereotypy acquires special characteristics in the field of establishing communicative connections (socio-communicative stereotypy) and in verbal communication. So, for example, an autistic child can develop adequate relationships and the ability to communicate first with only one teacher, and then, gradually, as a result of long-term habituation, with other persons.
It should be noted that stereotypies arise from the very beginning of an autistic child’s life. They are a form of his interaction with the outside world and permeate all his activities. Stereotypes accompany an autistic child in the process of growing up, but do not completely disappear from his activities. Autistic teenagers and young men continue to perceive their surroundings stereotypically, including stereotypical forms of interaction in social connections and social life (they selectively and stereotypically relate to new acquaintances, structure their lives in stereotypical ways, etc.).
Developmental asynchrony in autism manifests itself in a special way in the motor sphere, when cognitive processes outstrip the development of motor ones, which violates the heterochronic principle. In general, there is a lack of development of gross and fine motor skills. The presence of muscle hypotonicity determines the characteristics and capabilities of the motor status of children. This manifests itself in awkwardness and impaired coordination of voluntary movements, special difficulties in mastering basic self-care skills, immature finger grip, small movements of the hand and fingers (they cannot fasten clothes and shoes).
There is an pretentious posture (with arms outstretched and on tiptoe), a “woody” gait when moving, and insufficient and poor facial movements. At the same time, the child may have well-developed impulsive running and the ability to “elude” adults, that is, to avoid uncomfortable stimuli and social contacts.
At the same time, with so many motor imperfections, an autistic child can, in a situation that is significant to him, demonstrate amazing dexterity and flexibility of movements, for example, unexpectedly perform actions that are “inconceivable” in complexity: climb a bookcase or cabinet to the very top shelf and fit there, huddled in a ball. From the point of view of an autistic child, wide window sills covered with window blinds, the top shelves of closets, and fire escapes in an institutional building may be very suitable for such purposes, from the point of view of an autistic child. The desire of an autistic child to hide and hide from prying eyes at the same time does not exclude his lack of a critical assessment of the real danger to his life. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly monitor the location of an autistic child and predict his possible actions.
These methodological recommendations are addressed to educational psychologists and practical psychologists working with children with RDA syndrome. The purpose of these guidelines is to provide methodological assistance to psychologists in choosing the most effective techniques and methods of work for the development and correction of the emotional-volitional sphere in autistic children.
Municipal budgetary educational institution
"Comprehensive school of psychological and pedagogical support No. 101"
Development and correction
emotional-volitional sphere
in students with RDA.
Compiled by:
Dyagileva M.S.,
Teacher - psychologist,
Highest qualification
Kemerovo
2016
Explanatory note.
Currently, RDA syndrome is attracting keen interest from teachers, psychologists and other specialists due to the high prevalence and great social significance of the problem.
In children with autism, a predominantly distortion of the emotional-volitional sphere is observed. Such children are characterized by various fears, aggressiveness, inappropriate behavior, negativism, avoidance of communication even with close people, lack of interest and understanding of the world around them. There is a pronounced emotional immaturity of the child (“emotional” age may be significantly less than the real biological age), and a lack of adequate emotional response. And this happens due to the inability to distinguish the emotional states of people around them by their manifestations: facial expressions, gestures, movements.
Children with RDA syndrome need correction of the emotional-volitional sphere, aimed at establishing contact with an autistic child, overcoming sensory and emotional discomfort, negativism, anxiety, restlessness, fears, as well as negative affective forms of behavior: drives, aggression.
The main task of a teacher-psychologist when correcting the emotional-volitional sphere of children with RDA is to teach them to recognize emotional states, understand people’s behavior, see the motives of the actions of others, enrich emotional experience, and adapt to the team with the prospect of further socialization.
In my practical work, I encountered the problem of the lack of techniques and methods of work for the correction and development of the emotional-volitional sphere that would effectively work with autistic children. Therefore, the following task was set: to determine the most effective methods and techniques for correcting and developing the emotional-volitional sphere in children with RDA syndrome.
As a result of a long search and study of the literature on this issue, some methods and techniques of work were identified and tested in practice, making it possible to most effectively correct the emotional-volitional sphere in autistic children.
When working with autistic children, the main task is to involve the child in individual and joint activities for his further adaptation in society.
To achieve this task, it is necessary to get to know the child better, with his behavior and play. At the first meeting, difficulties may arise in work. The child's behavior may be unpredictable: the child either becomes tense and aggressive
, or does not pay attention to the presence of a new adult, and the second behavior option occurs most often. You need to be prepared in advance for such a reaction from an autistic child. The psychological reasons for this behavior are that the appearance of a new stranger introduces an element of uncertainty into the life of an autistic child, which causes him to feel fear and discomfort. The child will need some time to get comfortable in new conditions and get used to a new person.However, teachers should remember that the very first step when working with such children will be to establish initial contact, create a positive emotional climate for the child, a comfortable psychological atmosphere for classes, a sense of self-confidence and security, and only then gradually move on to learning new skills and forms of behavior. The adaptation period of work can take a long time, most often it stretches for a period from one week to several months.
During the adaptation period, it is necessary to try to establish emotional contact with the child and reduce his level of anxiety. One effective technique for establishing contact with an autistic child is the use of sensory play. The sensory component of the world acquires special significance for such a child, therefore, holding sensory games is a kind of stimulus for involvement in the game, a “temptation” for the child. The types of sensory play are varied.
Games with cereals . Pour, for example, millet into a deep bowl, put your hands in it and move your fingers. Expressing pleasure with a smile and words, invite your child to join you. In the following classes, you can use other cereals (buckwheat, rice, beans, peas, semolina, etc.).
Games with plastic material(plasticine, clay, dough). By offering the child various materials (plasticine, clay, dough), it is possible to find one that the child will like.
Games with paints (painting with brushes, sponges and especially with fingers) help relieve excessive muscle tension and develop fine motor skills of the fingers. For this purpose, working with sand, clay, millet, and water is also useful.
No less interesting are games with
water . Children especially like fiddling with water and pouring it; these games also have a therapeutic effect.Ice games . Prepare the ice in advance, squeeze the ice out of the mold into a bowl with your child: “Look how the water has frozen: it has become cold and hard.” Then warm it in your palms, it is cold and melts. During a walk in winter, you can draw your child’s attention to icicles, puddles, etc. They will be delighted with such changes in nature.
Games with soap bubbles. Children love to watch soap bubbles whirling in the air, how they burst, and are captivated by the very process of blowing soap bubbles.
Relaxation games, listening to calm music, finger games, play exercises with
candles . It has long been known that a burning candle attracts the attention of not only adults, but also children. Candles fascinate, calm, and take you into a wonderful world of calm and harmony. I will give several techniques of play activities that will contribute to the formation of emotions in a child.1. “Drawing with smoke.”
Holding an extinguished candle in your hand, we draw smoke in the air: “Look, what smoke is in the air! Can you smell it? Then we blow or wave our hands so that the smoke dissipates.
2. “Let’s blow on the light.”
We place the long candle firmly and light it: “Look, the candle is burning - how beautiful!” Remember that the child may get scared - then put the game aside. If the reaction is positive, we invite the child to blow on the flame: “Now let’s blow... Stronger, like this - oh, the flame has gone out. Look at the smoke rising." Most likely, the child will ask you to light the candle again. In addition to providing pleasure, blowing out a candle light is useful for developing breathing.
3. “Cold - hot.”
Fill a tablespoon with water and hold it over the candle flame, drawing the child's attention to the fact that the cold water has become warm. You can also melt a piece of ice, ice cream or butter. “You can’t touch the light - it’s hot! You might get burned. Let's hold a piece of ice over the fire. Look, the ice is melting!”
During such games, the child will gain trust in you, and it is in this case that we can talk about establishing emotional contact. Having established emotional contact with an autistic child, you can work on his behavior and emotions.
Target classes on correction of the emotional-volitional sphere:
Introduce children to basic emotions;
Teach children to distinguish emotions using schematic images - pictograms;
Learn to understand your feelings and the feelings of other people and talk about them;
Teach children to convey a given emotional state using various expressive means: facial expressions, gestures, movements;
Learn to listen and understand musical works.
As methods and techniques in the work of a development and correction psychologist
emotional-volitional sphere in autistic children, it is possible to use the following:
Game therapy (didactic games, games-exercises on emotions and emotional contact, games-dramatization);
Use of visual aids (photos, graphics, pictograms, symbols, drawings, diagrams);
Conversation on a given topic;
Psycho-gymnastics (studies, facial expressions, pantomime);
Examples of expressing your emotional state in drawing, music;
Elements of psychological training.
In correctional and developmental classes, children become familiar with the basic emotions: joy, sadness, surprise, fear, anger. Acquaintance with emotions takes place in a playful way, with the use of entertaining material, for example, poems, stories, fairy tales, etc. Thus, with the help of the poem “Clouds” by N. A. Ekimova, one becomes acquainted with emotions: joy, sadness, anger and surprise and becomes the conclusion is that all clouds are different, different from each other, just like people.
You can also introduce children to emotions using the game “Cube of Emotions.” Children are presented with two cubes: one cube is filled - there are round grooves on the sides of the cube, circles with cards depicting different emotions pasted on them are inserted into these grooves
- pictograms and a second cube – empty, and round inserts with pictograms for this cube. The adult asks the child to fill the second cube in the same way as the first, but at the same time draws his attention to the pictograms. They say out loud what emotion it is, and together with the child, trace parts of the face with a finger: eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, while drawing the child’s attention to how they are located.The second version of the game “Cube of Emotions”: we throw the child a cube, on each side of which there is a schematic depiction of a face expressing some emotional state. The child depicts the corresponding emotion. This version of the game promotes the development of expressiveness of movements, attention, arbitrariness, and strengthens the ability to identify emotions from schematic images.
The game “Choose a Girl” allows you to practice identifying emotions. The child chooses from the proposed cards with images of a cheerful, sad, frightened, angry girl the most suitable one for the text of each of the proposed poems by A. Barto. (The owner abandoned the bunny. The bull walks and sways. They dropped the bear on the floor. I love my horse.) After reading each verse, the adult asks the child a question:
Which girl abandoned the bunny?
Which girl was scared for the bull?
Which girl felt sorry for the teddy bear?
What girl loves her horse?
In the game “Halves”, based on the material of fairy tale characters, concepts such as good and evil are fixed, and the basic emotions characteristic of these fairy tale characters are determined.
The Masquerade game also reinforces knowledge about basic emotions. Using stickers, children lay out the faces of fairy-tale characters on a given topic, so that they get, for example, happy, sad faces, etc.
In classes on the development of the emotional sphere, it is necessary to select cartoons for viewing with characters whose facial expressions are understandable. The child is asked to guess the mood of cartoon characters and fairy tales (for example, using a freeze frame), and then portray it himself.
When “game therapy”, you should use games with clearly established rules, and not role-playing games where you need to talk. Moreover, each game must be played many times, accompanying each action with comments, so that the child understands the rules, and the game is not a kind of ritual for him, which autistic people love so much.
Thus, through play therapy and immersion of children with RDA syndrome in a correctional and developmental environment, changes occur in their emotional sphere. Their views on the world and relationships with others change. They learn to recognize basic emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise. Their ability to recognize and control their emotions increases.
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Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
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Introduction
In the first year of a child’s life, it is impossible to consider his mental development outside of his constant interaction with loved ones, first of all, his mother, who is the mediator and organizer of almost all of his contacts with the environment. A number of works, both domestic and foreign, are devoted to the analysis of interaction in the mother-child dyad and the description of its dynamics at different age periods. autism childhood communication
In the early stages of development, a child is dependent on his mother. We depend not only physically, as on the source of fulfillment of all his vital needs for satiety, warmth, safety, etc., but also as on the regulator of his affective state: she can calm him down, relax him, invigorate him, console him, increase his endurance and tune him to complication of relationships with the outside world. The most important condition for this is the ability to synchronize their emotional states: contagion with a smile, syntony in mood and experience of what is happening around them. The central moment in the mental development of a child in the first months of life, as is known, is the formation of individual attachment. Within the framework of this emotional community, the child’s individual affective mechanisms mature and develop - his ability in the future to independently solve life problems: organize himself, preserve and maintain activity in relations with the world. As the child develops, he is successively faced with a series of increasingly complex life tasks, and in order to solve them at each stage there arises the need to actively include in the work a new way of organizing behavior. The first vitally important task is the mutual adaptation of the baby and mother to each other in ordinary situations of interaction - feeding, bathing, swaddling, putting to bed, etc. They are repeated day after day and the baby develops in them the first affective stereotypes of behavior, his first individual habits. These are his first effective mechanisms for organizing behavior, and this is how adaptation to fairly uniform, stable environmental conditions occurs. The assimilation of these stable forms of life, common with a loved one, is the child’s first adaptive achievement.
Things are completely different for children with early childhood autism syndrome. As is known, early childhood autism syndrome is fully formed by the age of 2.5-3 years. At this age, the mental development of an autistic child already has pronounced features of distortion (Lebedinsky V.V., 1985), the violations are pervasive and manifest themselves in the characteristics of motor, speech, and intellectual development. Currently, it is becoming increasingly clear that distortion of mental development is associated with a general violation of the child’s ability to enter into active interaction with others. Such a violation may be a consequence of difficulties in the formation of affective mechanisms that shape both the behavior and the child’s very perception of the world. In such a child they develop rather in order to protect and protect him from contact with the world.
Traditionally, the most obvious features of the already established childhood autism syndrome are defined as follows:
Impaired ability to establish emotional contact;
Stereotyping in behavior, which manifests itself as an expressed desire to maintain the constancy of the conditions of existence;
Intolerance to the slightest changes;
The presence of monotonous actions in the child’s behavior: motor (swinging, jumping, tapping, etc.), speech (pronouncing the same sounds, words or phrases), stereotypical manipulations of any object; monotonous games; predilections for the same objects; stereotypical interests that are reflected in conversations on the same topic, in the same drawings;
Very special disorders of speech development (lack of speech, echolalia - reproduction of heard words and phrases in an unchanged form, speech cliches, stereotypical monologues, absence of the first person in speech), the essence of which is a violation of the ability to use speech for communication purposes.
All researchers emphasize that childhood autism is primarily a disorder of mental development caused by special biological reasons, which manifests itself very early.
The opinion of experts about the specific behavior of such children at an early age is confirmed not only by the memories of their loved ones, but also by home video recordings, which have now become not uncommon, which clearly show that the peculiarities of the affective development of autistic children could be detected already in the first year of their life.
1. Features of the emotional development of children with RDA
What is the qualitative uniqueness of emotional development in early childhood autism?
1. Increased sensitivity (sensitivity) to sensory stimuli is observed in a child with this type of development already at an early age. It can be expressed in intolerance to household noises of normal intensity (the sound of a coffee grinder, vacuum cleaner, telephone call, etc.); in dislike of tactile contact, such as disgust when feeding, and even, for example, when drops of water come into contact with the skin; intolerance to clothing; in aversion to bright toys, etc. It should be noted that unpleasant impressions in such a child not only arise easily, but are also fixed in his memory for a long time.
The peculiarity of reactions to sensory impressions is manifested simultaneously in another, very characteristic, developmental tendency that manifests itself in children already in the first months of life: with insufficient activity aimed at examining the surrounding world and the limitation of various sensory contact with it, a pronounced “captivity” is observed, “ fascination” with certain specific impressions (tactile, visual, auditory, vestibular), which the child strives to receive again and again. Often there is a very long period of fascination with one impression, which after some time is replaced by another, but equally stable. For example, a child’s favorite pastime for six months or more may be rustling a plastic bag, leafing through (a book, magazine), playing with his fingers, watching the movement of a shadow on the wall or reflection in a glass door, contemplating wallpaper patterns. It seems that the child cannot tear himself away from the impressions that enchant him, even if he is already tired.
As was shown above, being “captured” by rhythmic, repeating impressions is generally characteristic of an early age and is normal. The behavior of a child under one year of age is dominated by “circulating reactions,” when the baby repeats the same actions many times in order to reproduce a certain sensory effect - knocking with a toy, a spoon, jumping, babbling, etc. However, as already mentioned, a child with a healthy affective develops with pleasure including an adult in his activities. If an adult helps, reacts emotionally to the child’s actions, plays along with him, the baby gets more joy and engages in similar manipulations much longer. So, he would rather jump on his mother’s lap than alone in the playpen. In the presence of an adult, attracting his attention, he will walk with great pleasure, repeat sounds, and manipulate any toy or object.
On the contrary - and this is a fundamental difference - with an autistic type of child development, a loved one practically does not manage to connect to the actions that absorb the child. The more the child seems “captured” by them, the more he resists the adult’s attempts to interfere in his special activities, offer his help, and even more so, switch him to something else. The baby can only withstand the passive presence of someone close to him (and in some cases, he urgently demands this), but active interference in his actions obviously spoils his pleasure from the manipulations performed and from the sensations he receives. Often in such cases, parents begin to think that they are really bothering their child, that the activities they offer are not as interesting to him as his own - not always understandable, monotonous manipulations. Thus, many attentive and caring relatives of the child, not receiving the necessary response from him in their attempts to establish interaction with him - a positive emotional response to their intervention - become less active and more often leave the child alone. Thus, if, with normal emotional development, the child’s immersion in sensory stimulation and contact with a close adult go in one direction, with the second dominating, then in the case of early childhood autism, violations of this development, the baby’s sensory hobbies begin to isolate him from interaction with loved ones and, as a result, , from the development and complexity of connections with the outside world.
2. The peculiarities of the interaction of an autistic child with loved ones and, above all, with the mother, are already revealed at the instinctive level. Signs of affective distress are visible in a number of the infant’s earliest reactions that are significant for adaptation. Let's look at them in more detail.
a) one of the first adaptively necessary forms of response of a small child is adaptation to the mother’s arms. According to the recollections of many mothers of autistic children, they had problems with this. It was difficult to find some kind of mutually comfortable position for both mother and child when feeding, rocking, and caressing, since in the hands of the mother the baby was not able to take a natural, comfortable position. It could be amorphous, that is, it seemed to “spread” on the hands, or, conversely, overly tense, inflexible, unyielding - “like a column.” The tension could be so great that one mother said her “whole body hurt” after holding her baby;
b) another form of the earliest adaptive behavior of an infant is fixation of gaze on the mother’s face. Normally, a baby shows interest in the human face very early; as you know, this is the most powerful irritant. Already in the first month of life, a child can spend most of his waking time in eye contact with his mother. Communication using gaze is, as mentioned above, the basis for the development of subsequent forms of communicative behavior.
With signs of autistic development, avoidance of eye contact or its short duration are noted quite early. According to numerous recollections of loved ones, it was difficult to catch the gaze of an autistic child, not because he did not fixate it at all, but because he looked, as it were, “through”, past. However, sometimes you could catch a fleeting but sharp glance from a child. As experimental studies of older autistic children have shown, the human face is the most attractive object for an autistic child, but he cannot fix his attention on it for a long time, therefore, as a rule, there is an alternation of phases of quickly looking at the face and looking away;
c) normally, a natural adaptive reaction of a baby is also to adopt an anticipatory (anticipating) pose: the baby extends his arms to the adult when he leans towards him. It turned out that in many autistic children this position was unexpressed, which indicated their lack of desire to be in their mother’s arms and discomfort from being held;
d) a sign of a child’s successful affective development is traditionally considered to be the timely appearance of a smile and its address to a loved one. In all children with autism, it appears almost on time. However, its quality can be very peculiar. According to the observations of parents, a smile could arise not from the presence of a loved one and his address to the baby, but from a number of other sensory impressions pleasant to the child (braking, music, lamp light, a beautiful pattern on the mother’s robe, etc.).
Some autistic children at an early age did not experience the well-known phenomenon of “smile contagion” (when another person’s smile causes a child to smile in return). Normally, this phenomenon is already clearly observed at the age of 3 months and develops into a “revival complex” - the first type of directed communicative behavior of an infant, when he not only rejoices at the sight of an adult (which is expressed in a smile, increased motor activity, humming, increased duration fixation of gaze on the adult’s face), but also actively demands communication with him, gets upset if the adult’s reaction to his appeals is insufficient. With autistic development, the child often observes an “overdose” of such direct communication; he quickly becomes fed up and withdraws from the adult who is trying to continue the interaction;
e) since the close person caring for the baby, both physically and emotionally, is a constant mediator of his interaction with the environment, the child, from an early age, is good at distinguishing the different expressions of his face. Typically, this ability occurs at 5-6 months of age, although there is experimental evidence indicating the possibility of its presence in a newborn. If the child’s affective development is unfavorable, there is difficulty in distinguishing the facial expressions of loved ones, and in some cases there is an inadequate reaction to one or another emotional expression on the face of another person. An autistic child may, for example, cry when another person laughs or laugh when another person cries. Apparently, in this case, the child is more focused not on a qualitative criterion, not on a sign of emotion (negative or positive), but on the intensity of irritation, which is also typical for the norm, but at the very early stages of development. Therefore, an autistic child, even after six months, may be afraid, for example, of loud laughter, even if a person close to him is laughing.
To adapt, the baby also needs the ability to express his emotional state and share it with loved ones. Normally, it usually appears after two months. The mother perfectly understands the mood of her child and therefore can control him: to console him, relieve discomfort, cheer him up, calm him down. In the case of poor affective development, even experienced mothers with older children often recall how difficult it was for them to understand the nuances of the emotional state of an autistic child;
f) as is known, one of the most significant for the normal mental development of a child is the phenomenon of “attachment”. This is the main core around which the child’s system of relationships with the environment is established and gradually becomes more complex. The main signs of the formation of attachment, as mentioned above, are the separation of “friends” from the group of people around him, which occurs at a certain age stage, as well as the obvious preference of one person caring for him (most often the mother), and the experience of separation from her.
Severe disturbances in the formation of attachment are observed in the absence of one constant loved one in the early stages of the infant’s development, primarily in the event of separation from the mother in the first three months after the birth of the child. This is the so-called phenomenon of hospitalism, which was observed by R. Spitz (1945) in children raised in an orphanage. These children showed pronounced mental development disorders: anxiety, gradually developing into apathy, decreased activity, preoccupation with primitive stereotypical forms of self-irritation (rocking, shaking the head, thumb sucking, etc.), indifference to an adult trying to establish emotional contact with him. In prolonged forms of hospitalism, the emergence and development of various somatic disorders was observed.
However, if in the case of hospitalism there is, as it were, an “external” reason causing a disturbance in the formation of attachment (the real absence of the mother), then in the case of early childhood autism this disturbance is generated by the laws of a special type of mental and, above all, affective development of the autistic child, which does not reinforce the natural attitude of the mother on the formation of attachment. The latter sometimes manifests itself so weakly that parents may not even notice any trouble in their relationship with the baby. For example, he can, according to formal deadlines, begin to single out loved ones on time; recognize mother; prefer her hands, demand her presence. However, the quality of such attachment and, accordingly, the dynamics of its development into more complex and developed forms of emotional contact with the mother can be completely special and significantly different from the norm.
2. The most characteristic variants of the formation of attachment in the autistic type of development
Dosage of manifestation of signs of attachment. With this form of developing emotional connection with the mother, the child can early begin to single out the mother and sometimes show a super-strong, but very time-limited positive emotional reaction towards her, solely on his own impulse. The baby can show delight and give his mother an “adoring look.” However, such short-term moments of passion and vivid expression of love are replaced by periods of indifference, when the child does not respond at all to the mother’s attempts to maintain communication with him, to emotionally “infect” him.
There may also be a long delay in identifying one person as an object of affection; sometimes its signs appear much later - after a year or even after a year and a half. At the same time, the baby demonstrates an equal disposition towards everyone around him. Parents describe such a child as “radiant”, “shining”, “going to everyone’s arms”. However, this happens not only in the first months of life (when the “revival complex” is normally formed and reaches its peak and such a reaction of the child, naturally, can be caused by any adult communicating with him), but also much later, when normally a stranger is perceived by the child with caution or with embarrassment and a desire to be closer to mom. Often such children do not develop the “fear of strangers” characteristic of the age of 7-8 months; it seems that they even prefer strangers, willingly flirt with them, and become more active than when communicating with loved ones.
3. Difficulties in interacting with others associated with the development of forms of a child’s address to an adult
a) in a number of cases, parents recall that the child’s requests were not of a differentiated nature; it was difficult to guess what exactly he was asking for, what did not satisfy him. Thus, the baby could monotonously “moo,” whine, scream, without intonationally complicating his sounds or monotonous babble, without using a pointing gesture and without even directing his gaze to the desired object;
b) In other cases, children formed a directed gaze and gesture (extending their hand in the desired direction), but without attempting to name an object, desire, or turning their gaze to an adult. Normally, any very young child behaves this way, but later on this basis he develops a pointing gesture. It is characteristic, however, that this does not happen in an autistic child - and at later stages of development, the directed gaze and gesture do not transform into pointing. And for many older children with autism, it remains characteristic when expressing their specific desire to silently take an adult by the hand and place it on the desired object - a cup of water, a toy, a video cassette, etc.
4. Difficulties in the child’s voluntary organization
These problems become noticeable when the child reaches one year of age, and by the age of 2-2.5 years they are fully realized by the parents. However, signs of difficulties in voluntary concentration, attracting attention, and focusing on the emotional assessment of an adult appear much earlier. This can be expressed in the following, most characteristic trends:
a) the absence or inconsistency of the baby’s response to the address of loved ones to him, to his own name. In some cases, this tendency is so pronounced that parents begin to suspect their child has hearing loss. At the same time, attentive parents are puzzled by the fact that the child often hears a weak but interesting sound (for example, the rustling of a plastic bag), or by the fact that the child’s behavior makes it clear that he heard a conversation that was not addressed directly to him.
Such children often later do not begin to fulfill the simplest requests: “Give me,” “Show,” “Bring”;
b) lack of gaze following the direction of the adult’s gaze, ignoring his pointing gesture and words (“Look at...”). Even if, in a number of cases, initially following the mother’s instructions takes place, it can gradually fade away, and the child stops paying attention to what she points to, unless it coincides with the object of his special interest (such as a lamp, a watch, a car). , window);
c) lack of expression of imitation, more often even its absence, and sometimes a very long delay in formation. Parents usually remember that it was always difficult to teach their child anything; he preferred to figure everything out on his own. It is often difficult to organize such a child for even the simplest games that require elements of demonstration and repetition (such as “hands”), it can be difficult to learn the “bye” gesture (with a pen), nodding the head as a sign of agreement;
d) the child is too dependent on the influences of the surrounding sensory field. As was shown above, at the age of about a year, almost all children with normal development go through a stage when they “get captured” by field tendencies and adults have real difficulties in regulating their behavior. In the case of early childhood autism, “captivity” in the sensory flow emanating from the surrounding world is observed much earlier and comes into competition with the orientation towards a loved one. Often an adult, without emotional contact with the child, acts only as a “tool” with the help of which the child can receive the necessary sensory stimulation (an adult can rock him, spin him, tickle him, bring him to the desired object, etc.). If parents show great persistence and activity, trying to attract the child’s attention to themselves, he either protests or withdraws from contact.
In such conditions, when emotional contact with loved ones is not formed, the moment of physical separation of the baby from the mother at the age of about a year is especially difficult. Often associated with this time is the impression of parents that there is a sharp change in the child’s character: he completely loses his sense of edge, becomes completely uncontrollable, disobedient, uncontrollable. The baby may demonstrate a catastrophic regression in development, losing that minimum of emotional connections, forms of contact, skills that were beginning to take shape, including speech, which he was able to acquire before he learned to walk.
Thus, all of the above features of the relationship of an autistic child with the world around him in general, and with close people especially, indicate a disruption in the development of ways of organizing active relationships with the world and the prevalence in his development from an early age of a pronounced tendency - the predominance of stereotypical autostimulation activity (extraction sensory sensations using surrounding objects or one’s own body) over truly adaptive (aimed at active and flexible adaptation to the environment).
Bibliography
1. Lebedinskaya K.S., Nikolskaya O.S., Baenskaya E.R. and others. “Children with communication disorders: Early childhood autism”, Moscow 1989.
2. Lebedinsky V.V. “Disorders of mental development in children” Moscow 1985.
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AUTISM(from the Greek autos - himself) - a special anomaly of mental development, in which there are persistent and peculiar violations of communicative behavior, the emotional relationship of the child with the outside world, which represents a separation from reality, a fence off from the real world.
As the main symptoms of autism They call difficulties in communication and socialization, inability to establish emotional connections, impaired speech development, but it should be noted that autism is characterized by abnormal development of all areas of the psyche: intellectual and emotional spheres, perception, motor skills, attention, memory, speech.
Despite the commonality of mental disorders, autism manifests itself in different forms. Thus, the English researcher Dr. L. Wing divided such children according to their ability to enter into social contact into “lonely” (not involved in communication), “passive” and “active-but-ridiculous”. In her opinion, the prognosis for social adaptation is most favorable for the group of “passive” children. The authors of the book propose as a basis for classification the ways autistic children develop to interact with the world and protect themselves from it and identify four main forms of manifestation of autism.
1. Complete detachment from what is happening. Children with this form of autism completely refuse active contacts with the outside world, do not respond to requests and do not ask for anything themselves, and they do not develop goal-directed behavior. They do not use speech, facial expressions or gestures. This is the most profound form of autism, manifested in complete detachment from what is happening around.
2. Active rejection. Children of this group are more active and less vulnerable in contact with the environment, but they are characterized by rejection of most of the world. For such children, it is important to strictly adhere to the established rigid life stereotype and certain rituals. They should be surrounded by a familiar environment, so their problems become most acute with age, when it becomes necessary to go beyond the boundaries of home life and communicate with new people. They have many motor stereotypes. They can use speech, but their speech development is specific: they learn, first of all, speech cliches, strictly linking them to a specific situation. They are characterized by a chopped telegraph style.
3. Preoccupation with autistic interests. Children of this group are characterized by conflict, inability to take into account the interests of others, and absorption in the same activities and interests. These are very “verbal” children, they have a large vocabulary, but they speak in complex, “bookish” phrases, their speech produces an unnaturally adult impression. Despite their intellectual talent, their thinking is impaired, they do not feel the subtext of the situation, and it is difficult for them to simultaneously perceive several semantic lines in what is happening.
4. Extreme difficulty in organizing communication and interaction. The central problem of children in this group is the lack of opportunities to organize interaction with other people. These children are characterized by difficulties in mastering motor skills, their speech is poor and grammatical, and they can get lost in the simplest social situations. This is the mildest form of autism.
According to statistics, profound autism occurs in only one child out of a thousand. In everyday practice, in kindergarten or at school, we, as a rule, encounter children who have only isolated autistic characteristics. Autism is 4-5 times more common among boys than among girls.
The causes of autism are currently not fully understood. Most authors include intrauterine development disorders and debilitating diseases of early childhood among them. In autistic children, brain dysfunctions and disturbances in biochemical metabolism are more common than usual. Autism is often combined with other mental disorders.
Under schizophrenia should be understood as a chronically ongoing mental illness, a mental disorder, as a result of which mental reactions are disrupted and inappropriate behavior is observed. Since the child is characterized by early development, parents do not see anything alarming in his behavior, while peculiar manifestations may indicate the development of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is accompanied complex symptoms: false perceptions (hallucinations), false beliefs (delusions), disorganization in behavior, motor dysfunctions, which manifests itself in mood swings - from overexcitation to complete indifference, inadequate and impoverished emotional reactions, impaired social functioning. Periods of improvement are followed by severe relapses, the child moves from one thought to another without any logical sequence, delusions and paranoia are observed. It happens that a child is convinced of his superpowers, or that he is under constant surveillance. Attacks can be unpredictable - the child may be prone to aggression and suicide.
Unlike autism, schizophrenia is characterized by the presence of delusions and hallucinations as one gets older, problems later in life, remissions and relapses, but intellectual development and social interaction are not impaired. The disease progresses gradually. Schizophrenia usually develops in later adolescence.
Schizophrenia in early childhood should be considered a severe form of this disease. Symptoms of childhood schizophrenia are as follows:
- Problems with concentration;
- Sleep disturbance;
- Difficulties in learning;
- The child avoids communication;
- You can hear incoherent phrases from the child;
- The child concentrates on frightening things;
- The patient sees and hears what is closed to the perception of others.
Children suffering from schizophrenia enter an emotionless state, experience social isolation, and lose self-care skills.
Between the ages of 1 and 3 years, that is, at an early age, schizophrenia most often manifested by various disorders (monotonous excitement, walking in a circle or from side to side, impulsiveness, unmotivated laughter and tears, running in an uncertain direction, etc.). In late preschool age, thinking disorders are noted in the form of fantasy, divorced from reality, filling the child’s entire consciousness ( delusional fantasizing). When in the clinical picture of behavioral disorders the main place is occupied by personality changes in the form of emotional coldness, indifference, helplessness and lack of initiative, they speak of simple schizophrenia. Fears and anxiety are considered early manifestations of schizophrenia. The child becomes suspicious. In addition, the child’s mood changes quickly, activity is disrupted, obsessive movements appear, he becomes passive and lethargic, and often complains of boredom.
After 12 years, schizophrenia occurs more often with hallucinatory-delusional manifestations, although these symptoms may appear at an earlier age. The most severe form is characterized by alternating periods of motor excitation and immobilization with the breakdown of speech. In adolescence, there is a form characterized by foolishness, ridiculous “clown” behavior and intermittent speech. Children with this form of schizophrenia fantasize wildly. At the same time, fantasies contain fears or desires, which often develop into hostility towards people and loss of love for others. Such children love no one but themselves. Their devastation increases, coldness towards their relatives manifests itself, and emotional ties are lost.
Children with schizophrenia are characterized by dulling of emotions - their voice and facial expression do not change in situations that involve an emotional response. Events that make a healthy person laugh or cry may not cause any reaction in patients with schizophrenia. With indolent variants, signs of schizophrenia in children are manifested by somatic features in endocrine insufficiency, underdeveloped motor skills, including angular movements, clumsiness, and lack of emotion on the face.
Symptoms of schizophrenia are noticeable in the hobbies and interests of children. For example, instead of children's literature, they like to read reference books and dictionaries. They are especially interested in the problems of the universe, questions of astronomy, and antiquity. They start asking philosophical questions too early. Their games are quite monotonous and pretentious, and the nature of the games may remain virtually unchanged for a long time.
Psychopathy
This is a character, albeit a pathological one, i.e. resulting from congenital or early acquired biological inferiority of the nervous system caused by hereditary factors, parental alcoholism (“Saturday’s children” of French psychiatrists), birth injuries, and serious illnesses of early childhood. Unfavorable environmental conditions, mental trauma, and difficult material and living conditions have a great influence on the formation of psychopathy. Incorrect upbringing is of particular importance. There are four options for such education:
1) overprotection - parents pay excessive attention to the child, constantly impose their opinions on him, suppress his independence, trying to make him a “prodigy” or a “righteous person.” The great Polish teacher and Holocaust victim Janusz Korczak wrote: “Out of fear that death will take the child from us, we take the child from life. Not wanting him to die, we don’t let him live”;
2) hypoprotection - clearly insufficient attention from the parents: the child is left to himself most of the time, he is raised from time to time, he is homeless;
3) “family idol” - the child is “loved”, all his whims are fulfilled, all his actions are justified, he is praised, and is not taught to work life;
4) “Cinderella” - a child is deprived of affection and attention from elders, he is bullied, beaten, and pitted against other children.
Let us turn to specific forms of psychopathy.
Excitable(explosive) psychopaths are characterized by short temper and lack of restraint. Demanding of other people, they do not tolerate critical comments addressed to them. At the slightest provocation, they may have an inappropriately strong reaction: blinded by anger, they shout at those around them, showering them with insults, throw objects, and swing at the offenders in a frenzy. Having cooled down, they repent of their behavior, and all this sincerely, often with pathos. Their reactions occur as an “irritation-response” short circuit; the phase of discussion and struggle of motives falls out of their actions. These are people of strong passions, powerful, stubborn, touchy, and gambling. They easily move from delight to despair and in the latter sometimes make things worse for themselves by resorting to drinking alcohol. They are characterized by great persistence and stubbornness in achieving goals. Asthenic Psychopaths, unlike excitable ones, suffer primarily from their character traits. These are mimosa-like natures, overly sensitive, vulnerable and proud. Cowardly, they flinch at the slightest surprise, are afraid of the dark, and faint at the sight of blood. They are afraid of everything new and have a hard time experiencing life’s adversities. Trouble literally knocks them off their feet. Meek, quiet, they cannot stand arguments, they react painfully to the rudeness and tactlessness of others, they get lost when their voices are raised at them, and they are very upset by the relatively harmless jokes of their comrades. Suffering from a feeling of inferiority, they feel especially bad among unfamiliar people. In such an environment, they become silent, angular, even more timid, embarrassed, cannot put two words together, and do not know what to do with their hands. Asthenics find it difficult to get along with people; they slowly get used to a person, but once they get used to it, they become firmly attached. They feel bored when alone and are burdened by company. For asthenics, evaluation of their activities is of great importance. They need encouragement and patronage.
Psychasthenics. In many ways similar to asthenic psychopaths, psychasthenics differ from them by a constant tendency to doubt and anxious suspiciousness. Busy with “mental chewing gum,” these people are rarely satisfied with themselves. The endless self-analysis of a psychasthenic, reflection, which prevents him from making a decision and acting, are perfectly expressed in Hamlet’s monologue. To ease the need for choice, a psychasthenic often turns to close people for advice, often tyrannizing them with his anxieties and fears. Whether there is a new case coming up, whether a loved one is late at work - the psychasthenic does not find a place for himself; his helpful imagination paints him pictures one more terrible than the other. Being very worried without sufficient reason, a psychasthenic is sometimes surprised at his inappropriate calm in the event of a real disaster. One of our psychasthenic patients, caught in a snowstorm with a group of climbers, was the only one in the group who did not lose his head and calmly led everyone out of the danger zone. Psychasthenics often complain that positive feelings, for example, love for children, do not bring them proper joy. But the illness of children upsets them to the fullest. The emotionality of psychasthenics is mainly spiritual, internal, imbued with reflection. They are characterized by a subjectively painful loss of the “sense of the real.” They no longer experience actual facts, but events described in literature. Due to their great shyness, silence in society and restraint, they can give the impression of being proud, arrogant, dry, and only those close to them know their softness, delicacy and vulnerability. Whatever happens to him, the psychasthenic only blames himself. They are characterized by a heightened sense of responsibility and duty. Despite their broad outlook and often extraordinary abilities, they often cannot achieve a position corresponding to their abilities due to indecision and self-doubt. They compensate for their failures in life with dreams and fantasies. They do not tolerate harsh remarks or negative assessments well. On the contrary, moral encouragement has a beneficial, stimulating effect on them.
In preschool age (3-4 years), such children exhibit fears, anxious concerns that easily arise for any reason, and fear of the new and unfamiliar. Obsessions and extreme indecisiveness make adaptation extremely difficult. At school age, hypochondria manifests itself - fear for one’s health and the health of loved ones. As a compensatory formation associated with anxiety in front of everything new and unknown, painful pedantry arises.
Hysterical. In childhood, these are “family idols.” Egocentric, thirsty for recognition, hysterical psychopaths strive to appear to themselves and others as more significant than they really are, and always try to be in the center of everyone's attention. The surprises and delights of others create for them the atmosphere in which they feel like a fish in water. To attract attention to themselves, they do not stop at fabrication, false testimony, and self-incrimination. For the same purpose, everyone makes fake attempts at suicide, framing them in such a way as to create the impression of an innocent victim, misunderstood suffering, noble departure; putting on the mask of martyrs, they resort to persistent refusal to eat, to the image of weakness, serious illness. If a hysterical person does not receive attention and adoration, then he quickly fades away, becomes petty picky, capricious, and angry. This is often how they are at home in a familiar and uninspiring environment. Having started a business, they quickly abandon it if it does not cause delight and immediate fame. The behavior of hysterical psychopaths is theatrical, demonstrative, and designed for external effect. They do not laugh, but laugh, they do not cry, but weep. Despite their expansiveness, the emotions of the hysterical are superficial and unstable. The transition from “boundless” love to “burning” hatred can happen within a few minutes. In a dispute, they quickly deviate from the essence of the issue and get personal. In life, people often act according to their mood rather than their conviction. Their judgments are distinguished by their lightness, although they are often pronounced with a thoughtful look and a very respectable voice. If convicted of bias, they will defend their opinion with childish stubbornness. They are insinuating when communicating with people, and do not miss an opportunity to introduce themselves as charming. To achieve their goals, they can do anything, regardless of the morality that they themselves preach, or the principles of human coexistence.
Paranoid. These people are distinguished by their penchant for extremely valuable education. Fanatical inventors, reformers, narrow-minded doctrinaires, unrecognized “geniuses,” obnoxious debaters, litigators, suspicious jealous people belong to this circle of psychopaths. Selfish, ambitious, they experience a constant conflict between increased self-esteem and non-recognition of their “merits” from others. They have a very characteristic appearance: a proudly raised head, skeptical disdain for everything, non-recognition of authorities, exaggerated criticism. They declare their special opinion and have ready-made answers to everything. Anything that does not agree with their point of view is wrong, a mistake. Anyone who disagrees with them is simply a fool. They are often interesting conversationalists. In order to somehow stand out, they study unusual areas of knowledge and acquire various intriguing information. They strive to dictate their will, but often do not reach great social heights because of their one-sidedness, straightforwardness, and rigidity of thinking. Gloomy and vindictive, often rude and tactless, ready to see an ill-wisher in everyone, they scare away even their loved ones. Rarely does anyone manage to establish good relationships with them for a long time, which are usually complicated by constant conflicts, harassment, and the fight against imaginary enemies. There are also selfless fighters for truth among them. They delve into the essence of the most varied little things in life and find flaws in everything. Such psychopaths with hypersocial tendencies often attract the sympathy of others.
Hypothymics(constitutionally depressed). These are born pessimists. They are silent, gloomy, sad, dissatisfied with themselves and those around them. “However, behind this gloomy shell usually glimmers great kindness, responsiveness and the ability to understand the emotional movements of other people; in a close circle of loved ones, surrounded by an atmosphere of sympathy and love, they become clearer” (P.B. Gannushkin).
Hyperthymics- usually unbridled optimists, carefree and cheerful people. Some of them are prone to deceit and boasting and do not pay any attention to their shortcomings, while others are dominated by pronounced conceit and irritability. These are people who do not tolerate restrictions on their freedom, who do not take into account the opinions of others, who cannot tolerate criticism of themselves. Often responsive and versatile, they give the impression of being brilliant and gifted, but they are too superficial and frivolous. Sociable, what is called the “soul of society,” they are the constant organizers of dances, picnics, and initiators of dubious adventures. They are enterprising, resourceful, talkative.
Unstable. These are people of the environment. Weak-willed, suggestible and pliable, they easily fall under the influence of their environment. In bad company they quickly become drunkards, become gamblers, swindlers, etc. In favorable social conditions, they acquire positive work attitudes and outwardly do not differ in interests and behavior from those around them. True, in such cases they are characterized by capricious instability of mood, which can manifest itself in quick inspiration, followed by laziness, sloppiness and disorganization. You can't rely on them. They constantly require a mentor who would encourage and correct their behavior.
Epileptoids. So named because their personality traits are similar to those of epilepsy. Epileptoid psychopaths are despotic, capricious, domineering, explosive, and self-centered. They blame others for everything. Relatives often say about them: “harmful,” “petty,” “evil,” “they’ll break up over a trifle, they’ll fight, they’ll swear, they won’t calm you down for several hours.” They are capricious and demand that their loved ones babysit them. “With bestial force” they punish three children, and wives for sloppiness. Gloomy, callous, vindictive, cowardly, hypocritical, obsequious, stubborn, power-hungry. Because of self-interest, they can curry favor with the strong, and become tyrants with the weak. They are characterized by pedantry, hoarding, and cleanliness.
Already in early preschool age, such children are characterized by violent and protracted affective reactions. At an older age, aggressiveness and vindictiveness come to the fore. In a children's group they are difficult not only because of their affective outbursts, but also because of the constant conflict associated with the desire for self-affirmation and cruelty. The younger the age at which it manifests itself, the more severe the consequences, especially in adolescence. Teenagers prone to demonstrative behavior (attempting suicide in front of everyone) have a strict attitude towards an idle life - living only in the present, without plans for the future; they are sexually perverted and have no emotional attachments.
Schizoids. They are characterized by emotional paradox. That is, a combination of increased sensitivity and emotional coldness with simultaneous alienation (a combination of “wood and glass”). They are able to subtly feel and react emotionally to imaginary images. Pathos and readiness for self-sacrifice for the sake of the triumph of abstract ideas are combined with a complete inability to understand and respond to the grief and joy of loved ones. They are closed, secretive, detached from reality. In life they are usually called originals, eccentrics, strange, eccentric. The whimsicality of their intellectual activity is manifested in unexpected conclusions, resonant reasoning and a penchant for symbolism and obscure schematic constructions. Their attention is selectively directed only to issues that interest them, beyond which they show extreme absent-mindedness and a complete lack of interest. “Impractical”, “unadapted” - their relatives say about them. Suggestibility and gullibility incomprehensibly coexist with pronounced stubbornness. Passivity in the implementation of pressing everyday tasks and, as a contrast, enterprise in the implementation of a goal that is especially significant for them.
A child with this type of psychopathy has features of autism; his emotional sphere is characterized by a disharmonious combination of increased sensitivity and vulnerability in relation to his own experiences. In the elementary grades, these children have difficulty mastering motor writing skills. Despite their often high intelligence, they are often the subject of ridicule from classmates due to lack of contact, emotional inadequacy, and poor orientation in a specific situation. Many children with schizoid psychopathy are characterized by the early emergence of intellectual interests; at school they are attracted to the exact sciences - mathematics, physics, etc.
Psychopathy is not a disease. The combination of drug therapy with a variety of methods of modern psychotherapy, sociotherapy and spiritual support helps a person cope with the problems that have arisen. Treatment can be carried out on an outpatient basis or in a hospital setting, in sanatorium departments.
8) children with multiple disorders (a combination of 2 or 3 disorders). Children with a complex defect include children with developmental anomalies of sensory functions (vision, hearing) in combination with intellectual disability (mental retardation, mental retardation). Currently, the following groups of children with complex defects are distinguished:
mentally retarded people who are deaf or hard of hearing;
mentally retarded visually impaired or blind (partially sighted);
deaf-blind;
deaf and visually impaired.
In defectology practice, there are also children with multiple defects - mentally retarded, deaf-blind, children with musculoskeletal disorders combined with hearing or vision impairment.
Often in schools for visually impaired children, especially in the primary grades, children with mental retardation are identified, who can sometimes be classified as visually impaired oligophrenics and who also need comprehensive study and special methodological approaches to teaching.
The learning process becomes much more difficult when it comes to a child with a complex disability. A complex defect is not simply the sum of two (and sometimes more) defects; it is qualitatively unique and has its own structure, different from the anomalies that make up the complex defect.
In connection with this, the most important stage in the education and upbringing of children with complex defects is their study in order to differentiate them from other groups of anomalies, determine the structure of the defect and, on the basis of this, develop appropriate methods of correctional and educational work.
The complexity and peculiarity of teaching these children is as follows. Blind children, with properly organized special education, quite successfully master dot-relief font in the early years of education, which, in turn, allows them to successfully master reading, literacy, writing and counting. In mentally retarded blind people, this process is not nearly as successful and takes much longer. This is due to a number of reasons. Firstly, due to organic damage to the central nervous system, the compensatory capabilities of a mentally retarded child are significantly reduced and the mechanisms of tactile and auditory analyzers are not included in compensatory activity without special work. Secondly, to form ideas, concepts and, finally, generalizations at the word level when teaching normally sighted mentally retarded people, visual aids are widely used, and when teaching intellectually fully-fledged blind people, words and special typhlographic visual aids are used. In both cases, successful assimilation of educational information requires a fairly high level of abstract thinking, analysis and generalization. Namely, these mental functions are primarily impaired in the mentally retarded.
The category of children with complex defects also includes deaf-blind children. Naturally, this category of children is the most difficult. This includes children not only completely deprived of vision, hearing and speech, but also with partial damage to hearing and vision: blind with such hearing loss that prevents the acquisition of speech by ear, and deaf with such vision loss that prevents visual orientation. The peculiarity of these children is that, due to a biological defect, they are almost completely deprived of the opportunity to receive information about the environment through natural channels and do not develop intellectually without specially organized training. Together With Thus, potentially deaf-blind children have the opportunity for full intellectual development. At the same time, increasingly complex forms of communication are created and developed in a deaf-blind child - from elementary gestures (perceived through touch) to verbal speech. This allows deaf-blind children to successfully master the secondary school curriculum, and some of them even graduate from higher educational institutions. An example of this is the life and work of Olga Ivanovna Skorokhodova. In early childhood she lost her sight and hearing, and then her speech. She was brought up and studied at a school-clinic for the deaf-blind, headed by the outstanding Soviet defectologist, Professor I. A. Sokolyansky. She wrote two unique books, “How I perceive the world around me” (1947) and “How I perceive and imagine the world around me” (1956). In 1961, Olga Ivanovna successfully defended her thesis for a candidate of pedagogical sciences and until the end of her life (1982) she worked as a senior researcher at the Research Institute of Defectology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR. In 1972, Olga Ivanovna published her third book - “How I perceive, imagine and understand the world around me.” This trilogy (and all three books are united by one idea - the idea of the unlimited cognitive abilities of the human person and the amazing compensatory capabilities of the human body) brought the author wide fame both in our country and abroad. The third book of the trilogy was awarded a prize by the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences.
In recent years, the practice of teaching and educating deaf-blind people, as well as scientific and methodological developments, have made it possible for a certain part of these children to receive education in a mass school and then successfully obtain higher education.
The day before yesterday I held a discussion after watching the film Temple Grandin.
On the one hand, it was a very interesting experience, because in addition to me, three more autistic people participated in the discussion, who helped me a lot.
On the other hand, it was not so simple. There were too many tasks ahead of me. I had to make sure that people weren't interrupting each other. I needed to comment on where I disagree with Temple Grandin. I needed to talk about the mistakes in the film and how most women experience autism differently than Temple. I had to comment on the words of another presenter and answer questions. There were many questions, they were very different and some were quite unexpected. We discussed everything from the peculiarities of the emotional perception of autistic people to the ethical problems of building slaughterhouses.
Now I want to once again draw attention to issues concerning emotions, and perhaps explain some things more clearly than I was able to explain then.
Ability to feel
1) So, autistic people can feel. They can experience emotions. And, dear listener, whose name I don't know, they experience the same emotions that non-autistic people experience. At least that's what I think. Autists and non-autists experience the same emotions, to the extent that two people, regardless of their neurotype, can experience the same emotions.
2) The ability to describe emotions and the ability to experience them are not the same thing. Many autistic people find it difficult to describe their emotions in words. Some autistic people may confuse a mental state with a physical one. For example, my girlfriend, as a teenager, confused anxiety with symptoms of purely physiological health problems.
3) The ability to understand words denoting emotions and the ability to experience these emotions are not the same thing. Many autistic people have trouble understanding abstract concepts, including emotion words. I understood the meaning of the word “rage” at the age of 15, but my first experience of rage was in early childhood.
4) Autistic people, like neurotypical people, are capable of empathy.
5) Autistic people, like neurotypical people, are individuals. They feel differently, remember and express their emotions differently. And, of course, the same event can cause different reactions in different autistic people.
Expressing emotions
1) Autistic people may express emotions differently than non-autistic people.
Non-autistic people almost always get it wrong when they try to tell from my face or voice what I'm feeling and what I'm thinking. Very often I was told that I looked sad when, in fact, I was happy. I was told that I was angry when I was simply excitedly talking about a topic that interested me, and I experienced rather positive emotions. I was told that I was indifferent when I was very afraid of something.
It is also extremely difficult for me to recognize emotions in the face and voice of a neurotypical interlocutor. As a child, I was constantly scolded for not noticing how tired my mother was. To be honest, I don't notice it until now. And I don’t understand how others see it.
But for me, like many other autistic people, it is easier to recognize the emotions of other autistic people.
Most autistics do not have “problems understanding other people’s emotions,” just as most neurotypicals do not have such problems. Both autistics and neurotypicals have problems understanding the emotions of people with other neurotypicals. There are more neurotypicals than autistics, so the fact that neurotypicals have problems recognizing autistic emotions goes unnoticed.
2) Autistic and non-autistic ways of expressing emotions are equally valuable. For example, shaking your hands and smiling are equivalent ways to express joy. It's just that smiling is a socially acceptable way to express emotions, while shaking your hands (some autistics' way of expressing emotions) is not.
3) IQ and speaking ability are not related to the ability to understand emotion words. Moreover, from personal observations, I have noticed that non-verbal autistic people often have an easier time understanding emotion words than those who have always been able to speak. And, to be honest, I don’t know what this could be connected with.
Increased emotionality?
1) Autistic people do not “react to everything with more emotion.” It's just that, more often than not, autistic and neurotypical people care about different things. As my girlfriend says, she will never be able to understand teenagers who worry that their clothes are not fashionable enough. But at the same time, these teenagers will most likely never be able to understand why it is so difficult for her to tolerate a change of plans.
I was less concerned about the very fact of the creation of the DPR than all my Donetsk acquaintances. But at the same time, I was more worried than most of my friends about how much people’s consciousness had changed after the information war. Propaganda caused me only rejection, and I did not understand how it could win someone’s sympathy. I was more worried than all the members of my family about the change of plans when moving, but I was less afraid of the fact that tanks were driving through the streets.
2) Don't forget that the environment we live in was created with neurotypicals in mind. We live in cities adapted to the sensory perception characteristics of neurotypicals. Moreover, autistic people with increased sensory sensitivity find it extremely difficult to be in most establishments.
Teachers, doctors, human resources specialists, psychologists, even waiters - they were all taught to work with neurotypical people, evaluate people by neurotypical standards, and consider the needs of neurotypical people in their work. Many of us find it more difficult to get quality medical care, go to the store, enroll in a university, get a job, etc.
This may cause some of us to be more emotional. Not because autistic people are “brain-wired that way,” but because we live in a world where our needs are not taken into account. If you were in a world where everything was geared towards autistic people, you would have a hard time too.
3) This point is directly related to the previous one. The fact is that autistic people are a discriminated minority. Most autistic people have experienced discrimination. Most autistic people have been unaccepted and misunderstood by members of their own families. Most autistic people have been bullied and abused at school.
We face both intentional and unintentional ableism all the time. Most people don't want people like us to be born in the future. Many people justify killing people like us. Our way of thinking and the way we perceive the world is considered a “disease” and an unfortunate mistake. Moreover, most people are unaware of our way of thinking, and we almost constantly interact with people in a state of culture shock.
And now I don’t even write about the experiences of those autistic people who also belong to other discriminated minorities.
So yes, we have good reason to be more emotional. But this, again, does not happen because our brain is structured incorrectly. What I described in this paragraph is called “minority trauma.” Representatives of all discriminated minorities experience such trauma. And, if you look at the statistics, you will see that black people living in the United States have more mental problems than white people. The reason for this is the very trauma of the minority, and not the color of their skin (despite the fact that fifty years ago many “psychiatrists” thought otherwise).
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So, I hope you no longer have any questions about the emotional perception of autistic people.
True, my questions remained unanswered. I wonder when people will finally stop talking about autism as a problem. When they stop wondering what is wrong with us, and instead are ready to listen and accept any position of autistic people themselves, including those based on the fact that the problem is not in us, but in the world around us. When will they finally admit that we are people too, and stop assuming that we experience different emotions, or that we have some special, purely autistic attitude towards life and death, or making up other such nonsense?
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