New York is looking for an autistic boy

New York is still looking for an autistic boy

20/10/2013

In New York, the missing boy, Avonte Oquendo, has still not reappeared. He is autistic, verbally barely understandable and has been missing for two weeks now.

Missed for two weeks
For the past two weeks, 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo has been missing in New York. The adolescent is autistic and verbally barely understandable. His mother told a US television station: „He needs one-to-one care around the clock.“ Your son would have the mental faculties of a seven to eight year old. A crime is not ruled out, but the police suspect that the railroad enthusiast boy since his disappearance in the New York subway system herumirrt.

Search so far unsuccessful
According to his mother, the boy, who disappeared from his school in Queens on October 4, did not know many everyday things: „I can be hurt in the street, someone can grab me and take me with me, afraid of something - he does not know all that.“ Hundreds of policemen use tracking dogs, helicopters and police boats in their search - so far unsuccessful. The rewards now totaled $ 70,000. To exclude completely according to police also not that the teenager with the Vorortzügen drove to the neighboring state of New Jersey.

Autism is not curable
Autism is mostly described as a congenital, incurable perception and information processing disorder of the brain. Symptoms and individual manifestations of the disorder can range from mild behavioral problems that are barely noticeable to severe mental disabilities. Common to all autistic disabilities is an impairment of social behavior. So there are difficulties to talk to other people, to correctly interpret what has been said, to use and understand facial expressions and body language.

Therapies can help
There are also therapies for autistic people. It is important that the therapist knows about the disability and does not want to try to train the disorder away. Rather, it's about teaching the autistic person to live with autism. With the help of occupational therapy, for example, impaired abilities can be improved, restored or compensated by manual, creative and playful exercises. Physiotherapy can help to reduce motor deficits and thanks to the speech therapy there are possibilities to normalize language abnormalities. There are no medicines for the unknown cause of autism, but some accompanying symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, aggressiveness, or obsessions, can be treated with medication. (Ad)

Image: Stephanie Hofschlaeger