Doubt, anguish and uncertainty until the diagnosis, finally. Elizabeth Tchoungui, who presented the show Les Maternelles from 2009 to 2011, took a long time to put words on the behavior of her son Alexandre, who is autistic Asperger. At Christophe Hondelatte on Wednesday, she returns to the path of her child and the difficulties encountered.
>> From 14h to 15h, it is Hondelatte tells Europe 1. Find the replay of the program of Christophe Hondelatte here
Different. As soon as he is very young, Alexandre presents behavioral disorders. He does not like being kissed, he forgets the waking games and is fascinated by one thing: electric trains. When he is two years old, during a picnic, his godmother notices that Alexandre has a particular approach, as if the right side was out of step. Elizabeth Tchoungui does not pay particular attention to it. But soon, in kindergarten, the signs accumulate. Alexandre is very shy, always in his corner, he does not interact with his comrades, does not enter the apprentices as other children. Aware that there is a problem, Elizabeth Tchoungui decides to consult a specialist. The beginning of a real marathon.
"They are smarter than us." First there was the ophthalmologist, who detects a non-existent hyperopia. Then the ENT, which does not detect that Alexander has hyperacusis. There is also the pediatrician who assures Elizabeth Chungui and her husband that Alexander is only "in his bubble". "Everything will be fine," she says. One night, as she walks websites Internet sites, she thinks that she may have to discover where the troubles of Alexander: Asperger's autism. A particular form of autism, sometimes called "high level" because the child does not have intellectual disability, on the contrary. "Yes, I think they're smarter than us, they have incredible memories," said Elizabeth Tchoungui.
Elizabeth Tchoungui continues her marathon with the idea that Alexander is autism sprinkle. She consults a spawn of child psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The latter assures him that Alexander is not autistic. His behavior would come from traumas related to early childhood. In total, Elizabeth Tchoungui will consult twelve specialists before obtaining a clear diagnosis. "This points to the lack of training of general practitioners in autism," she says.
The "psychoanalytic lobby". It is finally a child psychiatrist (the twelfth specialist consulted) who quickly establishes that the child indeed has an Asperger syndrome, but a rather light form. The little family finally has an answer to their questions. "Having been diagnosed earlier, Alexandre would have been two years without anxiety, brain plasticity is optimal until the age of 10, so earlier we diagnose children, the faster they will make progress," says the journalist. "France has a real delay in diagnosing autistic children, especially because there is this psychoanalytic lobby that always starts by investigating Freudian causes and pointing the finger at the 'toxic mother'," says Elizabeth Tchoungui.
Elizabeth Tchoungui decides to school Alexander in the classical school circuit, in CP. It will still take six weeks, the couple, before finding a school aide, to supervise Alexander at school. Today, the little boy is going to college. Some doctors had announced that Alexander would be unable to read and write ...
>> Find below the integral of Hondelatte Raconte, "Elizabeth Tchoungui and the autism of her son":