Autism

[WilDive4Food]

After reading quite a bit of the post concerning ADD, I am still left to ask about autism.
Whether it be my lack of comprehension or that it wasn't covered. Please be kind to my ignorance of the medical field. :huh:

My situation is this:

My son was diagnosed with a "mild" case of autism at the age of 3. His condition pretty much only limits his speed of learning and/or understanding. He functions well with others and through multiple attempts can reach his goal. Beyond spending longer periods of time studying the task, once he learns it, it is locked in. He is Extremely precise when it comes to procedures and deviency to the original plan is not taken well.
Ex... The movie "Rainman", when clothing was bought from a store other than Kmart, Hoffman had a fit.
This was a rather severe case, yet it serves as a good example. Jeffrey gets upset when things break the pattern. Along with this concept, he pays amazing attention to details and as I said, once it is learned it locks into his memory forever. This attention to detail makes we wonder if he could learn to dive, while my concern comes with the reaction of how he will react when a "unexpected situation" happens at depth.

He is only 5 1/2 yrs old at present, but I want to do all the research I can to prepare for his coming of age. What I may have to tell him if he cannot, while Dad gets to go dive.
Might I add that he would live in the swimming pool if he had gills. The kid swims like a fish! Has no problem being underwater at all, but how he reacts when those not so good things occur is what worries me.

Thank you for any and all help you may give, and if I can give any needed info to help, just say so.

Jeff....

 

[TSandM]

I doubt that, at age 5 1/2, you can really tell what he will be able to do later.

The inability to cope with the unexpected would be a big concern for me regarding somebody's ability to dive safely.

I would think a reasonable approach would be, when he is old enough to think about learning, to take him to an instructor you like and respect and who is familiar with the issues of autism and have him do an evaluation. By that time, you may also know from other data whether it is even reasonable to consider having him learn this.

 

[WilDive4Food]

TSandM
I understand it is still too early to know what his condition may be when he comes of age, I was just wondering if others had dealt with this situation and what the outcome was.

Yes, the inability to clearly accept "situations" is the major "fear factor".

I found a post by "Bobbin-along" yesterday, after posting this, that described a situation with Autism and diving. http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154909
The patience alone taken in this situation deserves mentioning and many "Thank You's!". I say that being a parent of a diagnosed child, yet I am also saying it to commend another diver of helping those in need. That is what makes this sport so enjoyable for me. I have very seldom found a diver that, if they were more experienced, would not make the effort to help those with less. SB is full of such divers and I thank all on here for their support and info to those of us in need.

Ok.. I got a little sappy there... sorry .. LOL

Agreed that his condition will most likely be completely different when he is old enough. And I hope that it is. He has improved quite a bit since first diagnosed and I can only hope that it continues to do so.
Thank you again.

...Jeff

 

[NadMat]

I know little about autism, but I would think that since good diving includes a 'plan' that should cover what to do when 'unplanned' things happen, maybe that would help him resolve that issue. Maybe experiment a bit and find out with planning regular events like you would a dive by creating a comprehensive plan for them that includes contingency planning for things that might but hopefully won't happen. That way you get a chance to see how a planned contingency happening does affect him when in a safer enviroment and also perhaps help him to get used to the idea of planning for the 'unplanned'. I think it is great that you are looking ahead like you are and wish you all the best for you and him in the future.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi WilDive4Food,

A lay colleague just sent this to me. It's seems appropriate given that scuba may be fairly characterized as a complex task. BTW, the study's senior author, Dr. Nancy J. Minshew, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is a neurologist who is very well known for her work in autism.

"A recent study provides evidence that autism affects the functioning of virtually the entire brain, and is not limited to the brain areas involved with social interactions, communication behaviors, and reasoning abilities, as had been previously thought. The study, conducted by scientists in a research network supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that autism also affects a broad array of skills and abilities, including those involved with sensory perception, movement, and memory.

The findings, appearing in the August "Child Neuropsychology", strongly suggest that autism is a disorder in which the various parts of the brain have difficulty working together to accomplish complex tasks.

People with autism tend to display 3 characteristic behaviors, which are the basis of the diagnosis of autism, explained the study's senior author, Nancy Minshew, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. These behaviors involve difficulty interacting socially, problems with verbal and non-verbal communications, and repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests. Traditionally, Dr. Minshew said, researchers studying autism have concentrated on these behavioral areas.

Within the last 20 years, however, researchers began studying other aspects of thinking and brain functioning in autism, discovering that people with autism have difficulty in many other areas, including balance, movement, memory, and visual perception skills.

The major implication of the finding is that when seeking to understand autism, researchers need to look for a cause or causes that affect multiple brain areas, rather than limiting their search to brain areas dealing with the three characteristic behaviors involving social interactions, communication, and repetitive behaviors or obsessive interests.

This paper strongly suggests that autism is not primarily a disorder of social interaction, but a global disorder affecting how the brain processes the information it receives -- especially when the information becomes complicated.

In the current study, Dr. Minshew and her colleagues administered a comprehensive array of neuropsychological tests to a group of children with autism. The researchers tested 56 autistic children, and compared their responses to those of 56 children who did not have autism. The children with autism were classified as having higher functioning autism-- an I.Q. of 80 or above, and the ability to speak, read, and write.
All of the children in the study ranged in age from 8 to 15 years.

The researchers found that, across the entire series of tests, the children with autism performed as well as -- and in some instances even better than -- the other children on measures of basic functioning. Uniformly, however, they had trouble with complex tasks.

For example, regarding visual and spatial skills, the children with autism were very good at finding small objects in a cluttered visual field, on tasks like finding Waldo in the "Where's Waldo" picture books series. However, when asked to perform a complex task, like telling the difference between the faces of similar looking people, they had great difficulty.

Although their memory for the detail in a story was phenomenal, the children with autism had great difficulty comprehending the story. Many were highly proficient at spelling and had a good command of grammar, but had difficulty understanding complex figures of speech, like idioms and metaphors.

If you use an expression like 'hop to it,' a child with autism may literally hop.

Other complex tasks were also difficult for them. The children with autism either had poor handwriting, or wrote very slowly. Many had difficulty tying their shoes and with using scissors."

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[WilDive4Food]

tysm Doc,

I can definitely relate with this considering I've seen it first hand.

"Although their memory for the detail in a story was phenomenal, the children with autism had great difficulty comprehending the story."

"For example, regarding visual and spatial skills, the children with autism were very good at finding small objects in a cluttered visual field, on tasks like finding Waldo in the "Where's Waldo" picture books series. However, when asked to perform a complex task, like telling the difference between the faces of similar looking people, they had great difficulty."

This is my greatest concern, as in.... what happens when you get a free-flow reg, even though he understood it supplies his needed gas, would he panic and not understand what is happening and what to do next.

Obviously questions that will drive me nuts, just for the curiosity of them, and the long wait to see how his abilities progress in the years to come. I am going to begin discussing this with his Dr. soon and also check into forums or sites soley on diver med issues.

Thank you again for your time and research. Always appreciated!


...Jeff

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Jeff,

My pleasure. I appreciate how difficult your situation is and am glad to contribute what little I can.

Bear in mind that your son, now age 5 1/2 years, has much maturation yet to come. He may show gains in some of the areas that now so concern you. It would be in everyone's best interests to take it slow and build on their strengths and work around their limitations.

If it turns out that your son is better suited to snorkeling than scuba, this activity still is one which you can share and will allow him to marvel at the underwater world.

Easy does it.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[DiveMaven]

I am an educator of Autistic students and I would really urge you to take things slowly with your son. If you aren't already hooked up with a Speech Language Pathologist who specializes in Autism, I'd really recommend that you find someone to start working with your son as soon as possible. Unless your local school district is really on the cutting edge, it's likely that their speech folks won't have the specialized understanding required to maximize your son's potential.

As a short anecdote, I had a student (who just graduated) who had nothing but behavior problems, all related to his poor language processing and lack of understanding of social situations. We were lucky to get him hooked in with an amazing Speech person who immediately recognized the problem. She taught us exactly how to teach and work with this student, and not only did he complete a very challenging year doing vocational training (in a General Education program), he is working to get his driver's license, and is more independent than his family ever thought possible.

Although I'm proud to take some of the credit for the 5 years of hard work and teaching I did with this student, a huge chunk of credit goes to that Speech Pathologist who saw exactly what was needed, taught us what to do, and continued to offer support even after leaving our school district.

Don't wait to get the right help, get it NOW while he's young and maximize his potential. Who knows where my student would have been had people been working with him in the right fashion from 1st grade.