Challenges facing autistic patients

Challenges facing autistic patients

By Ghadeer Ghloum

KUWAIT: Autism is a spectrum that makes people think quite differently than others. Hence, dealing with their lives and socializing with others becomes an uneasy task that needs assistance. To further understand autism, Kuwait Times spoke to Dr Moudi Abdullah Al-Ajmi, Specialist at Autistic Behavior School, for more information on autism and autistic individuals.

Kuwait Times: What are the challenges that people with autism mostly confront in their life?

Dr Moudi Al-Ajmi: One of the prominent obstacles that people with autism confront is deficiency in social skills, including the ability to recognize and respond to the emotions of other people, read nonverbal clues and navigate social rules. Problems with language development and communication are common obstacles faced by adolescents with autism. These challenges are sometimes intricately entangled with issues related to socializing, because a significant portion of human socialization is related to verbal and non-verbal communication.

Students with autism may have trouble figuring out what their senses are telling them, so they may avoid or seek out sensory input. Some students will find it hard to finish tasks or plan ahead, and others may find it hard to break out of a pattern of thinking to look at a problem in