当婴儿长到初学走路的时候，他们开始和其他的孩子说话、玩耍。大部分的孩子这时已经开始学着理解人的面部表情，并猜测人们心里的想法。然而，有些孩子在这个过程中会得一种致使发育紊乱的疾病——自闭症。

注释：

autism n. 自闭症，儿童孤独症
toddler n. 初学走路的孩子
obsession n. 着迷，迷住
stigma n. 耻辱
prevention n. 防治，预防

文本内容:

Autism

CLAUDIA HAMMOND: As babies grow into toddlers they start chatting and playing with other children. They learn to interpret different facial expressions, and how to work out what other people are feeling, or most of them do. Some children have the developmental disorder, Autism, which means that they can find it hard to socialize or make friends, preferring instead to spend time alone. Parents, like Elizabeth Caleeber, are usually the first to notice. Her son Komo, was just a year old when she began to realize that he was different.

ELIZABETH CALEEBER: People began to notice that you know, that there was no speech, you know saying things like “Mommy” and “Daddy”. And then he did not like to, you know, interact with other children, he always wanted to be on his own; he had obsessions with certain things like cars. So people began to notice, especially my mother, that he you know I think he was different. So from that time on, I went onto the internet, I read books about what is it. So by the time he was diagnosed, it was like I already, you know, suspected it.

CLAUDIA HAMMOND: Elizabeth lives in Uganda with her four children. Komo is nine now, but it took him till he was four and a half to get a diagnosis. She told our reporter Sarah Granger about life with autism.

ELIZABETH CALEEBER: From my experience I have found that there is not much support. Disability here brings along a lot of stigma, people are most times ashamed or embarrassed to even admit that they have a child who has a kind of, any kind of disability. For most people you would find that they keep those kinds of children away from the society. So it is not easy.

SARAH GRANGER: Does it affect decisions you make about things that you do as a family?

ELIZABETH CALEEBER: Yes. Certainly, for a family wherever we go we have to you know consider that we have a child who is autistic. So if I’m going out with the other children, then I’ll…we’ll have to divide ourselves up, who is going to run after Komo, and you know how long can we stay out, because at a certain time, a certain environment would get to him, and he wants to go back to his routine. So we have to be very cautious of you know what kind of activities we engage in.

SARAH GRANGER: And how do other people react to Komo?

ELIZABETH CALEEBER: Well people’s reactions are really different. For some people he is really frustrating because they think he is being badly brought up and so as a result I always have to keep explaining myself. And for every opportunity I get I give off these leaflets, or if I have time I explain to people, “no he's not spoiled, he has a developmental condition.” It's quite hard.

SARAH GRANGER: Is there much prevention in terms of education for his development?

ELIZABETH CALEEBER: Services are still really lacking, the kinds of schools that are available are just a mixture of all kinds of conditions. And so it's for only that reason that I decided to start the Komo Center for understanding autism that can specifically address the needs of children who are autistic.

SARAH GRANGER: What are the biggest challenges for you as the mother of Komo, who is autistic?

ELIZABETH CALEEBER: He's going to be dependant on you know me for all his life. So sometimes I think about the future and I worry about if something happens to me? What if he gets worse? So I do have those kinds of mental challenges that I think about all the time.

CLAUDIA HAMMOND: Elizabeth Caleeber on autism.

自闭症

克劳迪娅•哈蒙德：当婴儿长到初学走路的时候，他们开始和其他的孩子说话、玩耍。大部分的孩子这时已经开始学着理解人的面部表情，并猜测人们心里的想法。然而，有些孩子在这个过程中会得一种致使发育紊乱的疾病——自闭症。自闭症通常表现为难以和其他孩子结交伙伴、内向孤僻。一般来说，父母应该是首先发现孩子有异常症状的人，比如伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔在她的儿子科莫一岁大的时候就发现了他与其他的孩子有所不同。

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：一开始，我们发现科莫几乎不说话，连“妈妈”、“爸爸”都很少叫。而且他经常宁愿一个人呆着也不和其他的孩子一起活动；他还对某些东西特别着迷，比如汽车。这引起了全家人的注意，特别是我母亲，大家都觉得他跟其他孩子有些不同。之后我试图从网上和书上寻找有关这种症状的信息，所以当医生告诉我科莫得了自闭症的时候，我已经开始怀疑了。

克劳迪娅•哈蒙德：伊丽莎白和她得四个孩子居住在乌干达。科莫现在已经九岁了，但直到他四岁半的时候才被诊断为自闭症。伊丽莎白跟我们的记者莎拉•格兰吉尔讲述了自闭症儿童的生活经历。

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：在我的经历当中，我没有得到很多帮助和支持。自闭症是一种残疾，在外人看来家里有一个残疾儿童是一种耻辱，承认自己的孩子有残疾是羞耻而且尴尬的事情。大多数人都会让这些孩子远离社会。所以我们过的很艰难。

莎拉•格兰吉尔：那么这对整个家庭的决定会有影响吗？

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：是的，当然有影响。不论我们去哪，我们都要顾忌到家里有个自闭症孩子。如果我和其他孩子一起出去活动，那么我们首先要明确分工，尤其是要安排好由谁来照顾科莫。我们还得计划好出行的时间，因为某一时间、环境会影响他，他会非常想回到他自己熟悉的生活。所以我们对参加哪种集体活动都会谨慎的考虑。

莎拉•格兰吉尔：其他人对科莫的表现反映怎样？

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：人们对科莫看法不一。有些人很讨厌科莫，他们觉得他没有教养，所以我经常要为自己辩解。一旦有机会，我就会给周围的人发小纸条，如果有时间我也会亲自向大家解释：“科莫并不是被惯坏了，而是遇到了心理发育不正常的问题。”这对我来说真的是很麻烦的事。

莎拉•格兰吉尔：在他的发展教育方面，有没有针对自闭症的防治机构呢？

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：这方面的服务机构的确很缺乏，类似的学校是把所有问题儿童都集中在一起。因此，我决定成立科莫中心，来促进人们对自闭症的理解，从而认识到自闭症儿童的需要。

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：你作为科莫这样一个自闭症儿童的母亲，对你来说最大的挑战是什么？

伊丽莎白•卡莉柏尔：最大的挑战恐怕是他这一生都必须依靠我了。所以每当我想到将来我就会很担心，如果我出了什么事的话，如果他的病会加重的话，该怎么办？所以我常常会有这种心理的挑战。

克劳迪娅•哈蒙德：感谢伊丽莎白关于自闭症的报道。