This kid sounds medicated? He screams all day and assaults people. He sounds like he is in need of some minimal medication.
Meds cause most of the most objectionable behavior. Moodiness, spikes of rage, extreme depression, are all typical of over-medicated kids.
Yes, he could be. Autistic children when given medications that don’t suit them have been known to get depressed and psychotic. It is possible he is medicated improperly. Again, this would take some baseline experience and knowledge with this disorder before making assumptions. *rolls eyes*
If you or anyone else is interested, one of the things I have found that has helped and it happened by chance in our case is not letting an autistic child fall into too much routine. I know that challenges some common notions on autism, but because my son has not had as much routine at home he seems better equipped to deal with changes in his environment. Again, the difficult part of this is that because of the attitudes expressed here many parents of children with autism DO isolate themselves and the children then miss out on the exposure to everyday frustrations of dealing with other people and other situations and their life becomes too routine to where it isolates more and *I believe* makes it more likely they will lash out at a changing environment.
If any of you are interested further to get into the mind of a child with autism. My son is 7. This is the first year that he was able to sit through a doctor’s appointment without crying. We even got height, bp, and weight. I think those of us with normal children just take it for granted how this becomes easy from the age of 3 or so to take a child to the doctor and expect them to behave a certain way. For an autistic child, the unfamiliar persona and the uncertainty with what is going to happen can be overwhelming. He was the same way with haircuts and is getting better with that too. All this said to say this is the first year where I’ve really seen a maturing in him and seen him find other ways to handle himself when he gets overwhelmed. A natural process that most children get in half the time is a painstaking learning process for children with neurological disorders like autism—the way they process stuff is just not normal and it overwhelms the hell out of them. I don’t know, but I can hope, that this may give you insight into the mind of a child like this. I expect many here did not realize that even mundane things like doctor’s appointments could be that difficult and probably could not then further understand the whys that they are. I think knowing some of those things though gives you a view into how stimulus can quickly overwhelm a child with autism.
And as I’ve said many times, I don’t agree in always segregating them since autistic children all vary in their sensitivities. Should someone like my son who can compose himself on a playground and take direction be denied the enrichment of interacting with typical peers because another child can not handle that? Again, one size fits all is an issue in schools, but not just with autistic children. And again, I realize just how fortunate I have been that my son has not been thus far treated that way.