Infantile Autism: Ways of Understanding and Assistance

Difficulties of the family bringing up an adolescent with autism spectrum disorders are presented. The nearest and dearest of the child do experience stress even in trouble-free cases due to the significant divergence of the child's intellectual development and advances in socialization. When the child approaches adulthood, their family faces a period not less severe than in the initial diagnosing, and such a family is in need of psychological support.

The review presents and anlyses extensive excerpts from books written by autistic adults about their lives, especially about their childhood.

The article is devoted to the methods and objectives of individual psychological follow-up of persons of teenage and youthful age suffering affective disorders (AD). The main directions of such follow-up are presented, including the features of interaction arranged in this paper.

The article written in "case analysis" genre reports on investigating intelligence of a 14-year-old autistic adolescent as part of WAIS Test. Those clarifications and minor changes are listed, which are advisable to be included in the testing procedures and performance measurement when dealing with such trial subjects. Characteristics of the intellectual profile of the trial subject are described and analyzed, possible constraints of the use of the profile thus obtained are discussed; concise recommendations for further psycho-correctional support of the adolescent on the basis of test results are provided.

Differentiated approaches to psychological and educational support to adolescents and young people with autism spectrum disorders are dealt with. General trends are outlined, approaches are differentiated, methods are determined to ensure support to autistic adolescents, both to those successful in social development and their less fortunate peers. Experience of special correctional work has been presented.

The article describes in detail the best practice of group meetings (the Club) held at the Institute of Special Education for many years for adolescents and adults with pervasive developmental disorders. Emotionally stimulating and developmental exposure of the Club members to the situation of communication has been analyzed, possible forms of Club work and specificity of moderators' performance have been described.