Is your child anti-social? Check out for autism
Aug 26, 2007
SAMSON Gwanyi is an active two-year-old who lives with his mother, two aunts, and a grandmother in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb.
By Halima Shaban
SAMSON Gwanyi is an active two-year-old who lives with his mother, two aunts, and a grandmother in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb.
Like many other boys his age, he is fascinated by cars, toys and watching television. However, there is something that makes Gwanyi different from most other boys.
He was diagnosed with autism when he was a year old. Autism is a developmental disorder, characterised by lack of social interaction, problems with communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests.
Dr Jamiir Mugalu, a paediatrician at Abii Clinic in Wandegeya, says children with autism (called kasilu in Luganga), withdraw from society, into their own private worlds.
The disorder goes undetected in most children until they are three to five years old, but the signs can appear as early as six months without the parent noticing them.
Elizabeth Kaleeba, the director of Komo Centre for Autism in Entebbe, says the disorder mainly occurs in children between 4-10 out of 10,000 children in Uganda with about four affected boys to every affected girl but doctors do not know why this is so.
Kaleeba, who is a social worker, says she was forced to start the centre because her child had autism and would not fit in any society.
“It is disheartening to explain to people that my son is autistic and they go on to say ‘oh so he is a ‘kasilu’,†she says. Her centre cares for autstic children at a cost of sh120,000 per term.
Gwanyi’s mother noticed that he was not progressing like most children his age. He would not speak clearly, would not interact with others, would not make eye contact and would bang his head –– a self-abusive behaviour common in autistic children.
Dr Angelina Kakooza Mwesige, a pediatrician working at the neurology clinic at Mulago hospital, says children with autism often cannot make connections like other children.
For example, when someone smiles, you know the smiling person is happy or being friendly. But a child with autism may have trouble connecting that smile with a person’s happiness.
Causes and risks
Although there has been some promising research into genetic and environmental factors, the definitive cause of autism is unknown and there is no known cure.
Kakooza says studies are looking out to environmental factors like stress, level of exercise, diet, air pollution, conditions of the mother during pregnancy and delivery, and infections during the child’s infancy and early childhood as possible causes of autism.
However, Kakooza says non of these has been proved.
However, risk factors include complications during pregnancy and at the time of delivery, use of antibiotics during pregnancy, measles and mumps infections.
Kakooza says doctors, therapists and special teachers can help children with autism overcome or adjust to many difficulties. The earlier a child starts treatment for autism, the better.
What family and friends can do to help
Kakooza advises that parents inform other family members and friends about the child’s disorder so as to avoid calling a child derogatory names like ‘Kasilu’
Teach the siblings about autism to enable them understand a child with the disorder. Plan a play date with your child and a child with autism.
Give a child with autism a small task instead of a big one. Children with autism learn better by breaking big tasks down to smaller ones this is the most common way of teaching such children.
Join an Autism group and talk to other parents with autistic children so as to learn helpful information.
Kakooza says there is an Autism Parents Association of Uganda that meets once a month at FOCUS offices in Mulago and needs the public’s support.
SAMSON Gwanyi is an active two-year-old who lives with his mother, two aunts, and a grandmother in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb.
Like many other boys his age, he is fascinated by cars, toys and watching television. However, there is something that makes Gwanyi different from most other boys.
He was diagnosed with autism when he was a year old. Autism is a developmental disorder, characterised by lack of social interaction, problems with communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests.
Dr Jamiir Mugalu, a paediatrician at Abii Clinic in Wandegeya, says children with autism (called kasilu in Luganga), withdraw from society, into their own private worlds.
The disorder goes undetected in most children until they are three to five years old, but the signs can appear as early as six months without the parent noticing them.
Elizabeth Kaleeba, the director of Komo Centre for Autism in Entebbe, says the disorder mainly occurs in children between 4-10 out of 10,000 children in Uganda with about four affected boys to every affected girl but doctors do not know why this is so.
Kaleeba, who is a social worker, says she was forced to start the centre because her child had autism and would not fit in any society.
“It is disheartening to explain to people that my son is autistic and they go on to say ‘oh so he is a ‘kasilu’,†she says. Her centre cares for autstic children at a cost of sh120,000 per term.
Gwanyi’s mother noticed that he was not progressing like most children his age. He would not speak clearly, would not interact with others, would not make eye contact and would bang his head –– a self-abusive behaviour common in autistic children.
Dr Angelina Kakooza Mwesige, a pediatrician working at the neurology clinic at Mulago hospital, says children with autism often cannot make connections like other children.
For example, when someone smiles, you know the smiling person is happy or being friendly. But a child with autism may have trouble connecting that smile with a person’s happiness.
Causes and risks
Although there has been some promising research into genetic and environmental factors, the definitive cause of autism is unknown and there is no known cure.
Kakooza says studies are looking out to environmental factors like stress, level of exercise, diet, air pollution, conditions of the mother during pregnancy and delivery, and infections during the child’s infancy and early childhood as possible causes of autism.
However, Kakooza says non of these has been proved.
However, risk factors include complications during pregnancy and at the time of delivery, use of antibiotics during pregnancy, measles and mumps infections.
Kakooza says doctors, therapists and special teachers can help children with autism overcome or adjust to many difficulties. The earlier a child starts treatment for autism, the better.
What family and friends can do to help
Kakooza advises that parents inform other family members and friends about the child’s disorder so as to avoid calling a child derogatory names like ‘Kasilu’
Teach the siblings about autism to enable them understand a child with the disorder. Plan a play date with your child and a child with autism.
Give a child with autism a small task instead of a big one. Children with autism learn better by breaking big tasks down to smaller ones this is the most common way of teaching such children.
Join an Autism group and talk to other parents with autistic children so as to learn helpful information.
Kakooza says there is an Autism Parents Association of Uganda that meets once a month at FOCUS offices in Mulago and needs the public’s support.