Mark Haddon wrote a wonderful book that became a bestseller and won both the Whit bread Book of the Year and the Whit bread Novel Award.
It is said that Mark Haddon himself exclaimed, "Who on earth would want to read about a fifteen-year-old boy with a disability?"
when writing this book.
Little did he know that it was this very fifteen-year-old boy with a disability who made his book a bestseller and won awards.
The book is called "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, and the boy's name is Christopher." Christopher is an autistic savant.
He can name all the countries in the world and their capitals.
He has a photographic memory and is a genius at math and science.
Despite his unusual intelligence, he can not imagine anything, does not understand idioms, and can not take jokes.
He also dislikes places with lots of people and people touching him.
People who are autistic savants have characteristics common to both people with autism and those with savant syndrome.
Autism is a developmental disorder that belongs to the autism spectrum disorder group.
This condition is primarily characterized by impaired socialization, imagination, and communication.
Savant syndrome is characterized by very low general intelligence but exceptional limited intelligence, usually in the areas of math, music, art, and memorization.
In the story, Christopher's parents live apart.
His mother has decided to leave Christopher and his father because she can no longer cope with the demands of having an autistic child.
Parents caring for special children like those with autism are likely to have higher stress levels than most parents.
This is mainly because their children have special needs, unusual behaviors, and different abilities than other children of the same age.
These children probably have a hard time communicating, which leads to unusual reactions.
An example of this is when an autistic child cries for no apparent reason and starts hitting himself.
Most likely, he or she is upset about something, but can not communicate what it is because he or she does not know how.
Some autistic children with sensory integration problems are either hypersensitive or hyposensitize to touch, pressure, movement, and sounds.
They exhibit certain behaviors that are sometimes difficult to understand, such as avoiding certain types of food and drink, pinching or hitting, repetitive movements, and crying.
Some of them may also show strong adherence to certain routines and fear of new places or people.
Responding to the needs of these children and managing their behavior is not easy and can therefore cause a lot of stress.
Autism can severely limit a child's world.
They thrive in safety, and anything they perceive as a threat to their safety should be avoided.
However, many factors, situations, and demands of society unsettle them, and the compulsion to deal with them usually makes them very anxious.
Unconsciously and unintentionally, children with autism have a constant feeling of fear of everything that is new or strange to them.
Just like in the book, when Christopher had to go outside his familiar area of the city, he felt physically sick and scared.
Unlike most children, people with autism cannot easily adapt to new environments or situations.
The process of understanding and accepting something that was previously unfamiliar to them leads to higher levels of anxiety.
Despite the seemingly difficult task of adapting to and coping with autistic children, much research has already been done and published on the proper way to deal with them that will not only reduce the anxiety of the children, but also the stress of the parents.
Certain methods such as cognitive behavior modification, behavior modification techniques, and environmental modification techniques have proven to be effective in changing the inappropriate behaviors and improving the learning skills of children with autism.
Some children who have other conditions in addition to autism may require additional treatment as recommended by their physicians.
Autistic children who also suffer from manic depression because they are unhappy about being involuntarily trapped in their self-protective behavior may need more therapy than what has already been mentioned.
In this situation, it is highly advisable to consult a psychiatrist, and further medication may be prescribed.
Christopher's story ended with him overcoming the challenges that caused him too much anxiety, and his mother decided to return and take care of him.
Just like in this fictional novel, the same can be accomplished in real life when it comes to managing stress and anxiety in families coping with this condition.
Through proper management, medication, or treatment, stress and anxiety can be effectively addressed in parents and autistic children.
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