To cry is not an ending, but rather an beginning. Often our happiest or saddest moments are accompanied with crying. As if it’s an equation held firmly in place ever since genesis.
Crying in general has been long associated with brain development and modern scientist is studying the link of crying to autism in a much more in depth manner. The core belief of every research is to study for a potential understanding for a further benefit or control over a situation. Research has proven that the type of cry is also an indication of the brain type, or the personality type or even of an much serious issue of a complex neurodevelopmental delay or deficiency. Hence crying is now an important area under study. Babies who are born premature or have suffered birth trauma tend to have higher-pitched cries, while those with Down’s often make weaker, lower-pitched sounds. Older children with autism are most often observed to make atypical sounds — more sing-songy, for example— and researchers wondered whether it might be possible to observe unusual sounds in infants at risk of autism.“Cries are clues to what’s going on neurologically, but they hadn’t been looked at in relation to autism,” says Stephen Sheinkopf at the Brown Center for Study of Children at Risk. As children grow, either ASD or NT or other special needs, the magic of crying should continue and evolve into a fashion that’s symbolic of an emotional maturation.
At RDI with the core belief based on Dynamic Thinking , I have observed some of the children indicating a variation in crying not on basis of age, but on a maturation or a more Dynamic Thinking development basis and this forms a ground for believing that RDI + Dynamic Thinking + Crying are indeed a good method to evidence development. Whilst I do not encourage unnecessary crying, crying as a spontaneous method is welcome to say the least as it definitely encourages neural pathways and the premise of Dynamic Thinking is fulfilled as the child at large is needed to adapt to the environment via the crying. Subsequently you may observe that the child's cry eventually changes to denote the pathway being formed and being utilized.
Therana Mamachan is a RDI Certified Consultant and also a Assistant Head of Department for Psychology & Social Work for a leading Special Needs school based in Dubai, UAE and can be reached on taranaraje@hotmail.com . She also holds a MS in Psychotherapy & Counselling and has completed basic courses in HANDLE and Carbone Clinic.