Mark Haddon wrote an amazing book that became a bestseller and won both the Whitbread Book of the Year and Whitbread Novel awards. It was said that Mark Haddon himself said, "Who on earth would want to read about a fifteen-year-old disabled boy?", when he was making this book. Little did he know that it was the same fifteen-year-old handicapped boy who made his book stand out, win an award and become a bestseller. The name of the book is "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and the Boy is Christopher."
He can name all the countries of the world and their capitals. He has a photographic memory and a talent in math and science. Despite his unusual intelligence, he cannot visualize, understand figures of speech. People with autistic-savant display characteristics of both those with autism and those with savant syndrome. Autism is a developmental disorder among the group of autism spectrum disorders. This condition is primarily characterized by impairments in socialization, imagination, and communication. Savant syndrome is characterized by very low general intelligence, but typically exceptionally narrow intelligence in the areas of math, music, art, and memorization.
Christopher's parents get separated in the story. His mother decides to leave Christopher and his father because she cannot cope with the demands of being an autistic child. Parents who care for special children such as autism may have higher stress levels than most parents. This is mainly because their children have special demands, unusual behavior and different abilities compared to other children of the same age. These children will most likely have difficulty communicating, thus, resulting in abnormal responses. An example of this is when an autistic child cries for no apparent reason and starts hitting himself. Most likely, something has bothered him, but can't tell what it is because he doesn't know how. Some autistic children with sensory integration problems may be either hypersensitive or hypersensitive to touch, pressure, motion, and sound. They will display behaviors that are sometimes difficult to understand such as avoiding certain types of food and drink, nipping or hitting, making repeated movements and howling. Some of them may also follow certain routines and fear new places or people. It is not easy to adjust to the needs of these children and to cope with their behavior and hence, there can be a lot of stress.
Autism can greatly limit a child's world. They thrive on security and should avoid anything that threatens their safety. However, a lot of factors, situations and demands of the society make them vulnerable and being forced to deal with these makes them very anxious most of the time. Consciously and unconsciously, children with autism have a constant feeling of anxiety for anything that is new or foreign to their understanding. As in the book, when Christopher had to leave an area of the city that was familiar to him, he felt physically ill and scared. Unlike most children, those with autism cannot easily adapt to new environments or situations. The process of learning to understand and accept what is previously unknown to them results in a high level of anxiety.
Although adjusting to and coping with autistic children may seem a difficult task, much has already been studied and published about proper management, which will not only reduce the anxiety of the children but also their parents. Will also reduce the stress of. Some methods such as cognitive behavior modification, behavior modification techniques, and environmental modification techniques have been shown to be effective in changing inappropriate behavior and improving learning skills of children with autism. Some, complex conditions other than autism, may require additional treatment as advised by doctors. Autistic children who also have manic depression due to their unhappiness of involuntarily engaging in self-protective behaviors may require more treatment than previously described. In this situation it is highly advisable to consult a psychiatrist and other medicines may be prescribed.
Christopher's story ends with him being able to overcome the challenges that caused him so much worry and his mother deciding to return to take care of him. Like in this fictional novel, the same can be achieved in real life in terms of dealing with the stress and anxiety among families who need to cope with this situation. Through proper management, medication or therapy, stress and anxiety between parents and autistic children can be effectively addressed.
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