No parent ever wants to hear that there
may be something wrong with their child. Sometimes we're
over-vigilant and see problems that aren't really there but,
unfortunately, sometimes our worst fears are confirmed when the
doctor tells you that there *is* a problem to be dealt with. I'll
admit I don't have any experience with autism, but millions of
parents are perplexed as to how they can detect and treat such a
problem in their children early on. There are so many variables that
it can be very difficult to differentiate autism from some other
disorder, particularly in very young children. However, doctors have
developed a system that may be able to detect autism during infancy.
Here's an ABC news segment about it:
The test works under the assumption that autistic children don't look people in the eye. Basically, it attempts to follow the child's gaze as it watches a television puppet show. The children whose eyes divert from the TV host's face the most often have been found to have a stronger tendency toward autism than other children. It's not a certainty that the child will develop autism, but these children have had higher instances of showing up on the autistic spectrum.
As the doctor said, it's not a
fail-safe system; while it's been pretty accurate so far, there's
still a lot of research to be done. Hopefully, though, this will give
parents the early “heads up” that can help them learn how to deal
with an autistic child.
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