A Glance At Severe Autism

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Today my psychology professor was teaching about classical and operant conditioning, and he revealed an interesting experience he had in graduate school. His advisor, him, and other grad students were asked to help nine of the most severely autistic children in the state. The children were non-verbal and engaged in serious self-destructive behaviors. One boy constantly banged his head against a wall, and a girl chewed the skin off her fingers down to the knuckle. My professor and the rest of his team noticed that the kids engaged in more self-harm while other people were around. So they told the staff at the treatment center to leave the room as soon as the children started to harm themselves. The staff found it very difficult not to intervene, but realized it was necessary to help. They were then told to come back into the room when the behaviors stopped. Next, the grad school team found what treat the children liked (cereal, candy, etc.) and gave it to them whenever they showed any positive behaviors not involving self-mutilation. Well it worked; the children decreased the harm by 96% in only 36 hours. However, since rapid conditioning also leads to rapid extinction of the learned response, the staff were told to give the treats at a fixed variable rate. So the autistic children never knew when they'd get the treat, making it more likely they'd behave well. In psychology, we find a fixed variable ratio is the most effective and most resistant to extinction. A year later, the conditioning stuck.

Unfortunately there is no happy ending. By two years into the study, 7 of the 9 children had died due to complications such as brain damage. Some time later, the other two died as well. The reason I tell this story is because it makes me realize that it could always be worse. In no way am I making light of what you guys with autism might experience. It's just that I imagine their sensory issues were magnified by a ton. We're making it by, some better than others, but these children truly couldn't cope.

Self harm might be done as a indicator of distress by those who have no other means to communicate, however it may also be done compulsively.

I can't proclaim to understand the perspectives of the severely autistic person but I speculate what is being called the same disorder is not.

I'm not sure what your point really is. No matter what plight one is enduring, there are almost always others suffering worse. I can see if we didn't know, it might be enlightening, but most of us already know. And knowing doesn't help us to better understand what to do about our own situations.

For example, there are folks all over the world who don't have enough food to feed their families.

It could be worse. They could be dead.

True, of course, but knowing it doesn't really help them feed their families.

I have a pretty standard response for the "It could be worse" advice.

"Of course it could be worse. And that's a pretty scary thought if you think about it."