Two Faces of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Stop it!

[CRYING AND SCREAMING]

It's OK, Jamsie. Shall we sing a song? (SINGING) Show me the way to go home--

[CRYING]

It's OK, Jamsie. No.

[CRYING]

No, no, no. (SINGING) Wherever I may roam, you'll always find me singing this song. Show me the way to go home. Hooray!

Well, James is 11 now, and we've known he's been autistic since the age of 2. And he's quite severely autistic. He's got no language, and he's got quite severe learning difficulties. So he's on the extreme end, the most severe end of the spectrum, really.

But he's a lovely boy, and he's usually very happy and very affectionate. But sometimes he gets very frustrated, and I think perhaps because of his difficulty in communication, he will injure himself. And then if you try and stop him, he will sometimes get quite aggressive.

Ready.

Can you press play? Good boy.

Lawrence is 11 now, and we've known he's had autism since he was about 3.

Look. Wind it up. Wind it.

Wind it. Wind it.

If something goes wrong--

[CHILD YELLING]

-like this. [? No, ?] [INAUDIBLE]

No! No! No! No! [YELLING]

There. There.

[INCOHERENT YELLING]

There.

Well, he's rewound this this much, but it is more or less had it, these video. But he doesn't under that, and as far as he's concerned, I'm not fixing it.

Because I haven't been able to help him with his video now, he's cleared off. He's gone downstairs because I'm no more use to him at the moment.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Lawrence and James both have autism. Autism is not one disease. It's thought to be a spectrum of disorders ranging widely in severity. But there are three features that are common to all children with autism, the so-called triad of impairments.

One is a lack of the capacity for social engagement, forming social relationships, indeed really even recognizing that other people are human beings. He's not interested in other people. He's only interested in other people to get things for him, really.

I think that's why they don't look at you. Lawrence can't be bothered to make a lot of eye contact because he's interested in what he's doing. He doesn't want to know what you're doing.

The second part of the triad is a problem with language, and in the most severe cases, no language at all.

Good boy.

[JABBERING]

Never had any concept of language. I suppose the earliest manifestation of that sort of problem was not pointing things out to show people things.

The third part of the triad is a lack of imagination.

He's not able to role play or anything like that, and I think you don't appreciate the imagination of a child until you have a child with no imagination.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Autism is a lifelong condition for which there is no cure, and what frightens many parents is that increasing numbers of children are now being diagnosed with it.