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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.833553 MANAGEMENT OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN Kate Amodenu Anyanwu1, Jacob Filgona2i, Linus K. Sababa3 Federal College of Education, 1 Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria Government Day Secondary School, 2 Monduva, Mubi South LGA, Nigeria Department of Educational Foundation, 3 Adamawa State University, Mubi, Nigeria Abstract: Psychologists, therapists and other professionals that are concerned in the wellbeing of all creation are in the business of promoting and maintaining good health. The paper titled Management of “utistic Children’’ discussed how “utistic individuals and their parents can be helped with the emotional and psychological problems they are passing through. The paper highlighted the concept of Autism, its obvious characteristics in communication, social development and repetitive behaviour. Furthermore, it discussed how best to improve the management of Autistic individuals. The roles of parents and guidance Counsellors in the management of Autistic Children were highlighted. It was recommended that there should be testing of Autistic individuals to ascertain the particular learning style he/she is best suited for. Individual counseling of parents of the affected ones would also be of great help and encouragement to them. Keywords: autistic children; autism; management; aloneness; repetitive behaviour Introduction The Creator works in mysterious ways to perform His wonders to human and all other Creations. Any distortion of this may bring abnormalities of many types, which may affect development in visibility, mobility, mentality, communication, language, social Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 414 Kate Amodenu Anyanwu, Jacob Filgona, Linus K. Sababa MANAGEMENT OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN interaction with others and or a combination of a number of these. Chaste and Leboyer maintained that Autism is strongly associated with agents that cause birth defects . This condition obviously brings psychological trauma to persons concerned. Autism is found to be among such conditions of distorted creation. Much effort has been put in place for the management of children with Autism. This paper is aimed at discussing the characteristics of Autistic individuals, their management through the use of learning styles and roles parents and guidance Counsellors could play in the management of Autistic Children. What then is Autism? Autism as a concept had assumed various definitions. One of such ideas is that autism is a lifelong and complex developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates with people around him/her. Okwudire (2010) opines that it is a psychological condition present in a child from early childhood. It is characterized by difficulties in communication and formation of good social interaction with others. “utism means aloneness or living in one’s own world. “s earlier stated, “utism falls under developmental disability; which typically involves delay and impairment in language, behaviour and interaction ability in children. This may not be unconnected to the fact that neurosis which is a mild mental illness that does not occur as a result of organic disease is somehow affected. Matson and Nobel-Schwalm (2007) suggest that in children with intellectual disability, Autism is associated with aggression destruction of property and tantrums. Typical of Autism is that it is a spectrum disorder, which means that it has no rigid pattern in the way it is shown in children. Adams (2012) opines that some children may have speech, while others may have little or no speech. According to the author, some Autistic children that have normal speech may have other Autistic social and behavioural problems. Moreover, people with Autism may be severely impaired in some respects but normal or even superior in others. In another development, Autism is highly heritable. According to Chaste and Laboyer (2012), Autism risk factors are genes, environment and gene-environment. It is important to understand that Autism is a label for people who have a certain set of symptoms (impairments in social skills, language and behaviours). For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/915 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 8 │ 2017 415