Tips on helping autistic child

How to help your autistic child? I think the below tips are useful.

• 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?

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.

Graphics>> an autistic child

This is a simplistic way to describe an autistic child.

Source: http://www.lionsreach.net/

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

Increasing incidence of autism

Genetics played an important role in causing autism! No doubt genetics do play an important role in some cases of autism. Neither is there any doubt, despite the strange skepticism of Leventhal and many others, that the prevalence of autism is increasing at an alarming rate in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere in the world (see graph).

The only open question is the role vaccines may play as a potential causal agent in the autism epidemic. There is no plausible alternative to vaccines as the most likely cause. I have never heard of a genetic epidemic disease.

Rising rates of autism in California (long curve) and in U.K. (short curve). Start of MMR vaccination shown by arrows (CA, 1978; U.K., 1988).
That said, let us look more closely at the vaccine issue, which has been presented to the public in a grossly distorted fashion. First note that the billion-dollar medical establishment, including the huge drug companies, powerful governmental agencies and medical schools, and most physicians, want us to believe that the vaccines are both perfectly safe and highly effective.

Those, like me, who question vaccine safety are said to be wild-eyed radicals who want to abolish vaccinations. Not true! What I believe is that:
Vaccines are by and large effective, although not nearly as effective as their proponents would have us believe. (ARRI, 12/1).

Because vaccines probably do more good than harm, vaccinations should not be abandoned.
Vaccines, as they are presently manufactured and used, do cause a great deal of underreported harm, including many cases of autism and other disabilities. Therefore, the production and use of vaccines should be conducted much more cautiously and rationally.

The link between vaccines and autism is far stronger than the medical establishment is willing to admit, and very careful and well-reasoned research is an urgent priority.

Extracted from: http://www.autism.com/ari/editorials/ed_explosion.htm

Extracted from: Autism Research Review International, 1999, Vol. 13, No. 2, page 3

Possible Causes of Autism

Autism is a complex disorder with many contributing factors.

While there are many theories as to the cause of the increase, ARI (Autism Research Institute) believes environmental factors—including unprecedented exposure to toxic substances and over-vaccination of infants and young children—are the key factors triggering this devastating epidemic. Emerging research supports this fact, making it clear that autism is a whole-body illness triggering a biological brain disorder and ARI continues investigating various possible causal factors.

While we don't have all the answers yet, you can decrease the risk to younger siblings and future pregnancies by protecting your family from known dangers like environmental toxins.

source: http://www.autism.com/triggers/index.htm

Definition & Symptoms of Autism

The word ‘autism’ comes from the Greek words – ‘aut’, which means ‘self’ and ‘ism’, which implies ‘orientation or state’. Autism is then the condition of somebody who is unusually absorbed in himself or herself. It is a life-long disability seemingly affecting areas of the brain that control understanding, emotion, speech and gesticulation, and the general ability to interact socially.

The signs or symptoms of autism generally appear during early childhood. Autistic children, if unattended, can become so withdrawn that they have difficulty in developing normal social and emotional relationships with the people around them, and in comprehending and being fully aware of their environment as a result of their mental deficiencies. Normal development of communication is inhibited and speech is delayed or developed abnormally.

As a result of this failure to cope with people and situations, the child is slow in play and social interaction. When the development of social skills is retarded, the autistic child appears to be odd in the areas of self-growth, family orientation and interaction in society.

source: http://lionsreach.net/autism.htm

7 Facts about Autism

1 Features of autism usually appear during the first three years of life.

2 Autism affects 10 to 15 of every 10,000 births of all racial, ethnic and social backgrounds.

3 Autism is four to five times more common in males than females.

4 Approximately 75% of autistic children are mentally retarded.

5 Females with autism exhibit more severe mental retardation.

6 About a third of all individuals with autism develop seizures – it can also occur with other conditions such as deafness, Down Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome.

7 People with autism vary widely in abilities, intelligence levels and behavioural characteristics.

source: http://lionsreach.net/autism.htm