Translator: Aline Akemi Taba Reviewer: David DeRuwe Hi, my name is Mariella. I'm a psychologist, specialized in neuropsychology. I'm also a mother with two daughters.
With my older daughter, I experience all the joys and frustrations of typical development; with my younger daughter, who is six years old and on the autism spectrum, I experience something very special, challenging and passionate, both as a mother and as a psychologist. When people learn that I'm a psychologist and that I have a daughter on the autism spectrum, people usually say, "Oh, that's great! You're a psychologist.
You must have noticed this right away, have found out early. Do you do therapy with her at home? " No.
It's not at all like that. My daughter reached all the development milestones until she was a year and a half: walked, crawled - all at the expected times. At a year and a half, my husband and I noticed something different about her compared to our oldest daughter: She was very agitated, she didn't speak a word, she - and she seemed not to listen.
We called and called her - sometimes she responded; sometimes she didn't. Doctors, people, friends, everybody said, "No, that's normal. It's her personality.
Each person has their own rhythm. Because your first daughter talked when she was one and a half doesn't mean she will too. " And that’s how it went.
I never, ever suspected she had an autism spectrum disorder, even though I'm a psychologist - why? Because during university, I had a very different vision of autism. I had the idea that the child would have a problem bonding with their mother, that the child would close themself in their own world, and would do those repetitive movements, but that wasn't what I saw at home.
I had a cheerful, playful girl - super playful. The first time I suspected she could have an autism spectrum disorder was during a class in my specialization with professor Marcos Mercadante. I regard having found out through him as a privilege.
I felt fascinated during that class - fascinated and terrified at the same time because as he was speaking, I was recognizing my daughter. But at the same time, Dr Marcos had a very optimistic vision. I think this first sentence I wrote during his class is cool.
He said, "The kind of brain we have, that is the brain's design, is inherited, but it comes with great plasticity. " He talks a lot about this on this DVD, launched by this NGO that he idealized. As a neuropsychologist, I was trying to understand how the autistic brain works.
Nowadays, what we see the most, what we could say is the most popular theory, is that the brain connections in autism are different. So in a very brief summary, the long-distance connections, the ones which connect distant parts of the brain, are less efficient, or we could say they're weak. And there's also hyper-connectivity in particular areas.
So, with this long distance deficiency, we could ask if maybe this is where the cognitive deficits and the antisociality we see in autism come from. And what about the hyper-connectivity in specific regions? Maybe that explains a little about musical and mathematical talents?
So for us to talk a little about plasticity, it's good to understand how the brain normally develops. So the child is born, full of neurons wanting to connect to each other, and like Dr Marcos said in his class, there is a genetic component in the brain's format when it's formed - some pre-dispositions. But it's through experiences and interaction with the world that the connections are made.
That's why each brain is unique and each person is unique because no one has exactly the same experiences, in the same way, or in the same order. So the child is born, and through their relationship with their mother and the world, the connections will form paths inside their brain. I think everyone here must have heard that "children are sponges.
" Why? Because during the first five years of life, the brain is very plastic, very permeable. So it takes barely any exposition for the connections to form quickly.
That's why people say children are like sponges - they pick up everything from their surroundings really easily. So what happens in an autistic brain? This researcher from California, Dr Michael Merzenich, without meaning to, did research with animals in his lab, and he mapped neuron firing.
He could identify in the brain, for example, when the monkey moved his finger, and he could see what regions of the brain had neurons firing. And he mapped that out. And he was really studying neuroplasticity, but before this, people believed that this neuroplasticity only happened at the beginning of life, mainly during the first five years, and ended during adolescence.
Without setting out to do this in his study, he found out it was possible to modify a neural circuit, a group of connections, even in adults. So he started researching, and he was the first researcher to use the term "neuroplasticity" in scientific papers. Today, what he believes about autism is that the connections of people with autism spectrum disorders consolidate very early.
While in the development of neurotypical people. connections are consolidated sometimes up to - there are many moments, but I won't talk about it too much - around 20 years old, in autistic individuals, they consolidate when they're about two years old, or really early. Then the brain is full of connections that aren't very specific but are super reinforced.
That's why it's much harder for these kids to learn new things - it's like it is for us adults. Everyone must have noticed or must have heard about how it's harder to learn a second language as an adult or to learn a new sport. It's not impossible, but it demands much more effort and repetition.
It's a different way to learn. This is what he says: autistic individuals are able to learn, but in different ways than what we're used to. So going back, each brain is unique.
Like I said, the connections are forming from the experiences. So the biggest challenge for us as professionals and parents is to understand how our child's brain works. How does it process information best?
Visually? Verbally? In my daughter's case, she's very visual, and I think most autistic people are too.
Does it have great sensory sensitivity? Is it highly sensitive to sound? To touch?
Or the opposite, is it less sensitive? So it keeps looking for and smelling everything. This is my daughter's case as well.
So we must understand this to know how to reach and teach them. Within this panorama, for me, what makes the most sense and gives good results for my daughter is applied behavior analysis. Why?
Because it's a program that works ceaselessly with repetition. They establish an individualized education program using visual support, according to each child's needs. No program is the same for this or that child.
For my daughter, she's really, really visual. She doesn't talk yet, only few words, but when we show [cookie], for example, it's "Oh, I want to eat a cookie. " It’s lunch time.
If we say it like "No, you can't eat it," that doesn't work for her. Now, if I show her the picture and say, "First, you eat lunch, and then you can eat the cookie," she'll still be mad, but she understands. It works, right?
My message is one of hope. I think these new concepts of neuroplasticity, of neuroscience, bring us a lot of hope. It's not easy; we all know it isn't.
A lot of work needs to be done; there are a lot of new ideas. The thing about music too. It's about understanding the brain, how that child's brain works, how your child's brain works, and finding a path.
That's my message of hope.
