- Have a plan for moving self help out of the house- going to the bathroom at public restrooms, serving self at a buffet restaurant, getting dressed in a different place.
- Don't baby your child. This I think is a syndrome. Parents feel sorry for their children so they think they will keep" helping them dress". But really you are not helping them, you are hindering their development.
- Self help training should be going on 24/7. Whether it is learning to walk side by side without holding some one's hand, or more direct potty training or dressing independently, you should always have an active target(s) in self help.
- Because self help has to be 24/7, your team cannot do this. Yes, your team can practice self help skills, but all of these are really time sensitive- you get dressed in the morning, you take a bath at night...whatever. Therapists are not there. The parent has to become consistent at having targets through out the day, then setting knew targets once mastery is achieved. Parents have to learn good prompting skills, knowing how to fade prompts and give their child independence.
- DON'T HELP (over prompt)! If a child has mastered a skill, don't help them. You can make them prompt dependent. Something as simple as always telling a child to hurry up in the bathroom can become a prompt. You have to fade that prompt as soon as possible.
- Observe typical children. Make a list of independent skills you see in children just observing them for 30 minutes. Note: I know this can be depressing but it can serve as a wake up call that more self help needs to be focused on, not that your child can't do it.
- Self help has to be consistent. Once a target is established, you can't target it half of the time. You have to target their independence every time they engage in that activity.
- Remember that just teaching beginning self help skills is not enough. You have to continue to add targets. E.G. Once your child can dress himself, can he dress himself with you out of the room?
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Tips on helping autistic child
How to help your autistic child? I think the below tips are useful.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Autism treatment in Malaysia
Autism treatment by Early Autism Project (EAP) of Malaysia is described below. EAP is based in Kuala Lumpur.
EAP’s treatment philosophies:
Focuses on fun; the child is smiling, laughing and motivated to learn
Personalizes curriculum based on each child’s needs
Values the input from parents
Presents new material in an interesting way that’s easy to learn
Collaborates with other professionals to make a cohesive program
Places high importance on incorporating play
Staff knowledgeable in other treatment approaches to best tailor program for individual child.
EAP’s curriculum addresses:
Understanding and using language
Communicating with people and making friendships
Building age appropriate and symbolic play skills
Increasing conceptual thinking and cognitive skills
Developing school readiness skill.
Extracted from: http://www.autismmalaysia.com/about.htm
Autism treatment, I personally is best commenced at the age of 3. Early autism treatment or intervention will have a higher chance of greater success of treatment. An autistic child who is successfully treated could go to normal school.
EAP’s treatment philosophies:
Focuses on fun; the child is smiling, laughing and motivated to learn
Personalizes curriculum based on each child’s needs
Values the input from parents
Presents new material in an interesting way that’s easy to learn
Collaborates with other professionals to make a cohesive program
Places high importance on incorporating play
Staff knowledgeable in other treatment approaches to best tailor program for individual child.
EAP’s curriculum addresses:
Understanding and using language
Communicating with people and making friendships
Building age appropriate and symbolic play skills
Increasing conceptual thinking and cognitive skills
Developing school readiness skill.
Extracted from: http://www.autismmalaysia.com/about.htm
Autism treatment, I personally is best commenced at the age of 3. Early autism treatment or intervention will have a higher chance of greater success of treatment. An autistic child who is successfully treated could go to normal school.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Autistic children may have more health problems
1 in 152 school aged children are now being diagnosed with autism. This does not include those with less intense, yet still related disorders such as ADD, ADHD, PDD or Asperger's Syndrome.
Children with autism are very sick and in pain. They suffer from a number of digestive problems, chemical toxicity, metal toxicity, viral, bacterial and parasitic overloads, auto-immune problems, etc.
Many studies have implicated the role of vaccines in general, and certain vaccines such as the MMR, in particular as contributors to autism. Additionally, there has been a great deal of evidence that environmental toxins may be contributing in a large way to some children's autism.
Autism truly is a multi-factorial problem, not a mental disease. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, MD, described autism as "a primary gut disorder with secondary brain symptoms." This has been consistent with what we see as we have focused on many of the problems of the digestive tract with "our" kids. In other words, what happens in their gut affects their behaviors in many ways. Natural health and healing modalities have long focused on the health of the colon as paramount to good health.
Autism is a complex biomedical condition, not a psychiatric, psychological or developmental flaw. Homeopathy Center of Houston's homeopaths have combined many different homeopathic approaches to address the many physical and emotional issues behind autism and autistic spectrum disorders. We work with homeopathic remedies, and a very small number of herbal remedies, instead of drugs, for detoxification and healing of the symptoms of and causes behind autism. Our results are speaking for themselves.
Literally. Our children detoxify, eliminate, release, one layer at a time, as we work backward through their individual histories.
How to recognise an autistic child?
How to recognise an autistic child?
What are the signs/symptoms of an autistic child?
1. Inappropriate laughing or giggling.
2. No real fear for danger.
3. Apparent insensitivity to pain.
4. May not want cuddling.
5. Sustained unusual or repetitive play; Uneven physical or verbal skills.
6. May avoid eye contact.
7. May prefer to be alone.
8. Difficulty in expressing needs; May use gesture.
9. Inappropriate attachment to objects.
10. Insistence on sameness.
11. Echoes on words or phrases.
12. Inappropriate response or no response to sound.
12. Spins objects; Spins himself/herself.
13. Difficulty in interacting with others.
If the child display more than 6 of the above symptom, he/she should be brought to the pediatrician for diagnosis and check.
What are the signs/symptoms of an autistic child?
1. Inappropriate laughing or giggling.
2. No real fear for danger.
3. Apparent insensitivity to pain.
4. May not want cuddling.
5. Sustained unusual or repetitive play; Uneven physical or verbal skills.
6. May avoid eye contact.
7. May prefer to be alone.
8. Difficulty in expressing needs; May use gesture.
9. Inappropriate attachment to objects.
10. Insistence on sameness.
11. Echoes on words or phrases.
12. Inappropriate response or no response to sound.
12. Spins objects; Spins himself/herself.
13. Difficulty in interacting with others.
If the child display more than 6 of the above symptom, he/she should be brought to the pediatrician for diagnosis and check.
source of graphics: www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/autism%202.gif
Signs and Symptoms of Autism
There are three distinctive behaviors that characterize autism.
Autistic children have:
(1) difficulties with social interaction,
(2) problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and
(3) repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests.
These behaviors can range in impact from mild to disabling.
The hallmark feature of autism is impaired social interaction. Parents are usually the first to notice symptoms of autism in their child. As early as infancy, a baby with autism may be unresponsive to people or focus intently on one item to the exclusion of others for long periods of time. A child with autism may appear to develop normally and then withdraw and become indifferent to social engagement.
Children with autism may fail to respond to their name and often avoid eye contact with other people. They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can’t understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and don’t watch other people’s faces for clues about appropriate behavior. They lack empathy.
Many children with autism engage in repetitive movements such as rocking and twirling, or in self-abusive behavior such as biting or head-banging. They also tend to start speaking later than other children and may refer to themselves by name instead of “I” or “me.” Children with autism don’t know how to play interactively with other children. Some speak in a sing-song voice about a narrow range of favorite topics, with little regard for the interests of the person to whom they are speaking.
Many children with autism have a reduced sensitivity to pain, but are abnormally sensitive to sound, touch, or other sensory stimulation. These unusual reactions may contribute to behavioral symptoms such as a resistance to being cuddled or hugged.
Children with autism appear to have a higher than normal risk for certain co-existing conditions, including fragile X syndrome (which causes mental retardation), tuberous sclerosis (in which tumors grow on the brain), epileptic seizures, Tourette syndrome, learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorder.
For reasons that are still unclear, about 20 to 30 percent of children with autism develop epilepsy by the time they reach adulthood. While people with schizophrenia may show some autistic-like behavior, their symptoms usually do not appear until the late teens or early adulthood. Most people with schizophrenia also have hallucinations and delusions, which are not found in autism.
source: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm
Autistic children have:
(1) difficulties with social interaction,
(2) problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and
(3) repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests.
These behaviors can range in impact from mild to disabling.
The hallmark feature of autism is impaired social interaction. Parents are usually the first to notice symptoms of autism in their child. As early as infancy, a baby with autism may be unresponsive to people or focus intently on one item to the exclusion of others for long periods of time. A child with autism may appear to develop normally and then withdraw and become indifferent to social engagement.
Children with autism may fail to respond to their name and often avoid eye contact with other people. They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can’t understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and don’t watch other people’s faces for clues about appropriate behavior. They lack empathy.
Many children with autism engage in repetitive movements such as rocking and twirling, or in self-abusive behavior such as biting or head-banging. They also tend to start speaking later than other children and may refer to themselves by name instead of “I” or “me.” Children with autism don’t know how to play interactively with other children. Some speak in a sing-song voice about a narrow range of favorite topics, with little regard for the interests of the person to whom they are speaking.
Many children with autism have a reduced sensitivity to pain, but are abnormally sensitive to sound, touch, or other sensory stimulation. These unusual reactions may contribute to behavioral symptoms such as a resistance to being cuddled or hugged.
Children with autism appear to have a higher than normal risk for certain co-existing conditions, including fragile X syndrome (which causes mental retardation), tuberous sclerosis (in which tumors grow on the brain), epileptic seizures, Tourette syndrome, learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorder.
For reasons that are still unclear, about 20 to 30 percent of children with autism develop epilepsy by the time they reach adulthood. While people with schizophrenia may show some autistic-like behavior, their symptoms usually do not appear until the late teens or early adulthood. Most people with schizophrenia also have hallucinations and delusions, which are not found in autism.
source: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm
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