Have you heard of this severe kind of autism?

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My husband and I were talking on the way to Spokane today and I was saying there should be more funding and research into autism so kids with it get the help they need and families too so they aren't suffering because of the lack of support and services. He said there should be a cure to people who can't move their bodies so they can't walk or talk or eat or do anything and I told him I don't think you can fix that because they are paralyzed and that can't be fixed? He said some kids are so severely autistic, they can't move their bodies because they are so locked into their own world, they have to be in a wheelchair. He said he saw it on TV and I told him I have never heard of that kind of autism. The severe case I have seen was where they had no language and all they do is scream all day and you can't get through to them when you talk to them or when you tell them don't do this or don't do that and they are tearing your house apart they are like animals.


So anyone ever heard of that kind of severe autism where kids have to be in a wheelchair because they are so locked into their own world, they can't walk and do anything?

All I can think of is autistic catatonia.

yes i work with those type of autistic kids at the hospital i volunteer at, i honestly thought something else is wrong with him why he cant move his legs or walk at all, all he does is squeal and screech, hes 5 and in a wheelchair, they put him in a stander every now and then, all he can do is soemwhat crawl, not really crawl jus slowly manuever his body around without moving his legs much, if you wheel him over to the wall he loves to play the push away game a lot, and only loves things sensory related, 90% of the time hes headshaking and screeching. Loves to clap hands and peel off tape. I consider him profoundly autistic. He giggles a lot, and is usually happy but we never know if its reaction to certian things or is he really happy, but does show hes upset he cries. Hes my fav and my bfs fav as well, hes soo cute! I never ever see many autistics like him though, only at the hospital i volunteer at, theres a couple. Hes the one im always around though.

That is not autism. That is cerebral pares.

Its lameness.

Both autist and neurotypical person could suffer from cerebral pares.

Got someone like that coming into are school next year he has a dog doesn't talk much and i don't really think any of the paras in are program are qualified to help him.

I bet your friend saw people with some other type of disability in addition to autism.

I can see how autistic people might have a difficult time moving sometimes. It does take effort, and takes up brain power. You guys who are dyspraxic--you have to think hard to make sure you don't trip over your own feet; you probably have to use more concentration to move gracefully than most do. That's evidence that autism does sometimes overlap into the area of motor skills. Stereotypically, it does so with Asperger's most of all, and vanilla autism generally not; but I would not be surprised to find quite a few people who have sensory-motor problems that involve the judgment of where you are in space, how your body is positioned, and how you have to move to reach your goal, all while interpreting the information from the world around you and re-calculating every fraction of a second as you move. It's kind of complex, if you think about it.

Spokane_Girl,

They couldn't diagnose autism if the person couldn't move. Think about it. ALSO, if the person DID have autism, who would care? Autism would be like a speck of dust to the paralysis' atomic bomb explosion! TRIVIAL!! !! !! !

(double post)

Last edited by Callista on 22 Jun 2009, 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Uhh... What? There are plenty of people who are paralyzed and obviously not autistic. It's hardly anybody who is truly unable to move ANYTHING--even people almost totally unable to move anything communicate by eye gaze. It's possible to create a communication device that can actually read where your eyes are pointing, so you can look at pictures, symbols, letters, and words. It's slow, but it's communication.

No, they could diagnose it. It would just be difficult. Autism + paralysis isn't actually the most difficult diagnosis; autism + profound mental retardation poses the most problems.

seconds this.

dont know if its along the same issue,but am have temperary [up to a day] physical paralysis from waist down as a result of sensory overload,the ld services am in have always refused to send for wheel chair assessment based on the fact it's not a physical/solid cause [it's likely nerves being cut off to legs by overload to brain but that is no reason to use a hierachy of impairment],having to wait to move into new service to get assessed.
Autism being a part in someones mobility impairment may be seen under autistic 'complex needs' rather than part of autism directly [at least it is for self].

you are strange. cerebral palsy is not the same as profound autism.
profound autism is the deepest and most severe grade of autism, and all people who are autistic are a version of this to a variably diluted degree. asperger people who are almost "NT" (i do not like that term any more) are the most dilute. they have a "pinch" of autism only. profoundly autistic people are profoundly affected.

they have IQ's below 25 and they are extremely incapable of every aspect of life.
they are always wheelchair bound because they can not walk. their motor coordination is little better than a baby's coordination. they have not one scintilla of connection with other conscious beings.

they do not seek comfort from any one, and they can not control their instinctive behavior at all.
most people have the advantage of an "ego" to advise them on proper logical ways to go about dealing with impulses (if they are really lucky they have a super ego to advise them on the "ethics" of their logical actions as well).
people with profound autism lack this mechanism of ego where fundamental logic and association exist, and they live in the world of crude unrestrained and instinctual desire which is the "id". it is the most subjective place in a consciousness. we all have "id's", but we have layers of functional developments built upon the id. i have a poorly formed super ego i believe, but my ego (not self appreciation but just rational situational analysis) is satisfactory for my requirements.

the most profoundly autistic people have nothing but crude impulse and they are not aware of any external reality. they can not feed or toilet themselves.

thankfully i have only a mild "dusting" of autism compared to them. i am more severe than many people here on this site though, but i am not profoundly afflicted and i am happy i am not profoundly autistic (although i think if i was i would not care anyway).

b9,
profoundly autistic people are not 'wheel chair bound',some may be wheelie users,but am have lived with,about to live with,and go to an autie day centre with- many profoundly autistic adults and not one of them has ever been a wheelie user,in fact will find some prof. autistic adults who do sport like anyone else,and am know quite a few able bodied profound auties that go to a sports club at wythenshawe park called 'wheels for all'.this isn't to say this represents all of profound autism,but being physically disabled is not a default side effect of being profoundly autistic either,and IQ is suspect because they are the hardest group of all to test.

Autism isn't a singular disease, it's actually usually a secondary effect of other disorders that effect how the brain functions. When we speak of autism, we are only talking about the observable effects of a primary disorder. Autism in this sense is analgous to a diabetic having low blood sugar.

There are plenty of people out there with autism who cannot move, or have their movements impaired.

I know of a couple of children with classical who can't walk because the whole learning to walk just doesn't work out because of their autism. They need a lot of focus to work together with others to try walking. Everybody thinks they can (and sometimes they do it) but at other times the whole sensory overstimulation and the communication deficits interfere totally with movements and mastering these complex movements such as walking (on-time).

i am sorry and i want to respond, but i can not understand your way of writing well.
i guess you are saying that profoundly autistic people are not profoundly disabled. i think they are.
i do not think the people to which you refer are truly "profoundly autistic".

but i am not an authority. i just say what i think and i am not surprised when i find i am wrong.

i am going to go to sleep now.

What he say is accurate your information is wrong. Cerebral palsy is a common co morbid (I know someone with both), but autism itself does not make you immobile.