Autism causes are still, for the most part unknown but what is known is that there has been a mysterious increase in over 287% of reported cases, which cannot be explained.

There is evidence to suggest the problem could be down to genetic make up or even environmental factors and much evidence has been cited to indicate vaccine damage, interestingly, cases of autism have been found to occur in clusters. The truth is that no one knows for sure that it can be put down to any one thing.

What we can do is to see each individual in the own light and listen to what they are saying about their world. When we work with the child in focus and not the label we can start to breakdown the barriers.

The symptoms of autism hold huge costs for the child or adult concerned who may be placed on a scale referred to as the ‘Autistic Spectrum’ depending on how severe the condition is affecting them.  Others may be suffering minor symptoms or indications of autism but they are able to cope albeit with difficulties in situations for example that may involve interacting socially with other people, or have less severe versions of this type of condition like Asperger’s Syndrome. In terms of human costs we are looking at the type of symptoms, which can vary on a level of severity but can include:

Difficulty in communicating and holding focused attention or eye contact; Spending time in a world outside of their here and now, sensitivities to touch, sound, colour, taste etc, repetitive type behaviours or habits, rituals or fixations and being inflexible in change of routines and so on...  the list is endless but scores on certain scales of criteria would indicate an autistic spectrum disorder and it’s severity.

Apart from someone being unable to reach their true potential with these challenges in their life it can be extremely difficult for family and friends to cope with the impact of this.

All of this is apart from the cost to society in terns of providing access to suitable education, support and the necessary resources to deal with the problems.

The Holistic Educational Therapy ( HET) programme, popularised in England has been highly successful in supporting people with Autistic traits and their families. It is an approach which focuses on completely natural methods, that layer by layer provide individual help. As everyone is different and the way they live with and show their autistic traits, is going to be individual to them. 

The beauty of this programme is that it does not pose the risk of medication side effects in that the worse thing the approach can do is “ Not work” but it  has been proven that in over 85% of cases over the last 10 years, that  it does work extremely effectively.

The pioneer of this programme is able to be contacted for advice and support  and training in these approaches is available.

Linda Porter,  ( BA., Cert.Ed.,MIPTI, MFSHG, BFRP,MACTA, Dip.Phy. ASSOCIAT reg.) is the founder of the Holistic educational therapy Programme, a  specialist in behavioural psychology and Education and  natural and safe approaches to working with the impact on lives that  autism causes.

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