高機能自閉症者のパニック軽減についての一考察 : 事例Kを通じて

Abstract

Autistic children and adults easily panic when they cannot handle a particular situation. Resulting panic behaviors repulse surrounding people such as classmates and neighbors, which may lead to isolation of the autistic individual. Therefore, reducing an autistic person's panic behaviors has the potential to make him or her more acceptable to society. As one method to reduce panic behaviors we chose to improve communication by introducing a cellular phone capable of e-mail communication. The case was a 26-year autistic man, who had graduated from high school. He had a high level of language skill although his conversational skill was quite limited (referred to as "K" hereafter). When K had trouble in crowd of people, he loudly asked for help if somebody who he knew was nearby. When K could not communicate well, he repeated the same words or question many times. In a panic situation K swung his arms widely and sometimes waved his hand so vigorously that the fingers bounced against one another and made a loud tapping sound. ((His therapists could do nothing but patiently listen to his explanation about these behaviors after he had calmed down.)) We arranged for K to use a cellular phone to communicate with his mother through e-meil when he had trouble or could not select among available items in a choice situation such as in a store. Six months later he began to communicate with his previous and current therapists, and his e-mail messages gradually became more comprehensible. Over one and half years after he started using the cellular phone, the following changes were noted : 1) Reduced incidence of panic behaviors, 2) More willing to talk or send e-mails about the cause of his panic behaviors, 3) Improved verbal and e-mail expression of feelings and emotional upset and 4) Increased frequency of approaching people using phrases such as "Would you like to・・・" or "I think it will be fun to・・・." Thus, we demonstrated that e-mail communication using a cellular phone may reduce panic behaviors and enrich language expression in high functioning autistic adults.