Therapy, Case Study Example

The You Tube video depicts two young boys are in the midst of playing: one of them has substantially long curls while the other one has shorter cut hair. The main focus of the video is the one with shorter hair who is located in a box on the floor. The boy located in the box is in diapers, and at least at first glance, appears to be having a good time.  I would estimate that the boys are between the ages of 3-5 years old.  Initially, the boy in the box is in the kitchen playing with his male sibling.  The boy in the box is playing with a toy and starts to throw plates and other objects on the floor towards the end.   The mother is calling the name of the boy as the boy continues to play with abandon. There are others in the activity including what appears to be a young girl; however, they are primarily observing as the boy plays alone in the box. It is very difficult to use a traditional symptom rubric associated with autism and apply them to the boy in the box’s behavior in this video clip.  The child seems to be stuck in his own world which could indicate a problem communicating verbally and non-verbally; indeed, he fails to communicate with those around him.  Although the boy is clearly playing vigorously in this clip, there is a certain rigidity to his behavior and inability to communicate that may indicate greater developmental problems.

Once the initial scene ends, the video depicts two other clips.  Indeed, the scene then switches to an outdoors grass field.  Evy is watching someone rake, while there seem to be flower petals on his head.  Evy then begins to shred the petals while the mother is talking to him.  This scene is too short and episodic to evidence any symptoms of autism. That is, the video would seem to depict a normal little boy playing without substantial developmental impairment.

The third scene returns back to the house in which the child (Evy) is playing around the living room in diapers and ultimately moves to a table.  There is no one in the video besides the parent and the child.  The mother apparently has some type of pea pod in her hand and is trying to entice the child to look at the food by waving it in front of him.  The child, however, seems completely in his own world and will not pay attention to his mother or the shaking vegetable in front of him.

The last clip, unlike the first two clips, more forcefully shows a child that has some type of discernible developmental disorder.  For example, the child throughout the clip is not communicating with the parent at all- even though the parent is clearly providing a type of stimulus for the child.  In fact, except for a brief couple of seconds when his mother literally invades his space, the child is clearly in his own world without any reaction to what is happening around him.  Finally, there is no concerted attempt to communicate on the child’s behalf, and his face is stuck in an almost glassy calm that shows little or no emotion. Together, these clips would give one pause to think whether indeed this child has some type of developmental disability.