Check out these related links:
Or these books:
- Autism: Exploring the Enigma (Cognitive Development) - Frith
- Autism: Nature, Diagnosis and Treatment - Danson
- Behavioral Intervention for Children with Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals - Maurice
- Children with Autism: A Developmental Perspective - Sigman & Capps
- Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders - Cohen & Volkmar
- Keys to Parenting the Child with Autism - Brill
- Teaching Children with Autism: Strategies fir initiating Positive interactions and Improving learning Opportunities - Koegal & Koegal
- Understanding and Teaching Children with Autism - Jordan & Powell
Call for more info.........
National Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities - 800-695-0285
Families for Early Autism Treatment
916-843-1536
Autism Society of America
800-3AUTISM
- What is Autism?
- Symptoms of Autism
- Behavioral Modification Programs
- Cause
- Learning Enhancement
- Check Yourself
Autism is a lifelong ailment that usually appears within the first three years of life. The DSM IV defines autism as one of the Pervasive Developmental Disabilities. Most behavioral effects are seen in the areas of socialization and communication. A student with autism, it says, may resist attempts to interact. The student may have no speech or odd speech. The severity of autism can vary from child to child and the specific behavioral manifestations can also take different forms.
Imitation of other people's motor actions is difficult for children with autism. Yet, autistic kids show a pattern of performance on other types of imitation skills similar to that seen in children not suffering from autism. For example, autistic children show better performance on object imitation tasks relative to body imitation tasks.
Autistic children have sensory perception problems. These problems may cause challenges and distress to many sufferers. In different people, different sensory channels are affected. Parents typically see signs of autism in their children at very young ages. However, initial concerns are not usually specific to autism. Roughly two thirds of parents are worried about speech rather than social behavior.
All children with autism share a pattern of symptoms in three areas:
* social deficits - difficulty participating in social interactions
* communication impairments - understanding language and communication is limited
* repetitive activities and interests - more restrictive, repetitive play, and routines
Symptoms in all three areas must be present.
More specifically, symptoms of autism are as follows:
- slow development or lack of physical, social, and learning skills
- immature rhythms of speech, limited understanding of ideas and use of words without attaching the usual meaning to them
- abnormal responses to sensations (sight, hearing, touch, pain, balance, smell, taste, the way a child holds his body - any one or a combination of these)
- abnormal way of relating to people, objects and events
- fails to show a preference for parents over other adults
- does not develop friendships with other kids
- language skills and facial expressions and gestures not used in a communicative manner
- may show unusual or extreme responses to objects, either avoidance or preoccupation
- moving objects hold great fascination (ex. fans)
- tendency towards repetitive activities of restrictive range, rhythmic body movements such as arm flapping
Up to forty-seven percent of students with autism can become blended with the community if identified early enough. Behavioral improvements do not occur as significantly if children are older. This is probably because of the plasticity of a younger child's nervous system. An older child is more fixed.
In the "Young Autism Project," preschool age students with autism received forty hours per week of behavioral analytic therapy. Forty-seven percent were able to blend with the population and joined classmates. Ten percent made limited gains. Forty percent made gains enough to reach classes for delayed children. In a similar program called the Lovaas Program uses forty hours a week of behavior modification to get through to the child in his or her home. The key for success in any behavior modification program for autistic children is early intervention.
A diagnosis of autism is based on behavior, but it may have many different etiologies (causes). Autism encompasses at least ten to twenty disorders that are not entirely known about yet. The only thing know for sure about the cause of autism is that it is not caused by psychological environment.
Children with autism tend to think in the following ways:
- think in pictures
- play a video in their minds that takes time to retrieve
- have difficulty with long sequences of verbal information
- unable to hold one piece of information in their minds while using another
- use or attend to only one sensory channel at a time
- have difficulty with generalizing
- experience inconsistencies in perceptions
Teachers must use structure on learning to be successful with autistic children. It is recommended to use organized materials, clear instructions, and a hierarchal system of prompts. Structure tends to be enhanced by routines and visual aids, not language. Three types of routines are most successful with autistic children:
* spatial - associate location with activities
* temporal - associate time with activity
* instructional - associate social and communicative behaviors
When teaching social interaction to autistic children, to enhance the learning use:
- predictable sequence of interactions
- planned set of conversational scripts
- messages mixed with ongoing activity
- messages linked to what the child is doing
- high degree of repetition
- complexity of messages which match the child's level of comprehension
- simultaneous use of speech and visual cues
- a pause technique
- exaggeration
Autistic children need to be taught all skills in order to behave in accordance to accepted social standards and to become independent if able. Successful education of these children will increase their understanding of language, as well as develop working habits and allow them to acquire academic and occupational skills.
Check
Yourself...
1. Behavioral modification for autistic children can be successful
no matter when it begins.
A. True B. False
2. The cause of autism tends to relate to psychological environment.
A. True B. False
3. Children with autism show symptoms in
A. Social Deficits B. Communication Impairments C. Repetitive Activities and Interests
D. Symptoms in all three areas must be present.
1. B, 2. B, 3. D
Sources:
- An Approach to Teaching Autistic Children, Margaret P. Everard, 1976
- "Learning Styles of Students with Autism," Gary B. Mesibov, Ph.D., TEACHH, http://www.autism-society.org/packages/edkids_learning -styles.html
- "Autism," CSAAC, http://www.erols.com/csaac/autism.html
- "Methods to Enhance Learning," Lisa Ruble, http:www.autism-society.org/packages/edkids_conference.html
"Early Identification of Children with Autism," Wendy L. Stone, http://kc.gptc.vanderbilt.edu/articles/stone_autism.html
- "Frequently Asked Questions...," The Childhood Learning Center, http://www.tclc.com/faq.html
- "Autistic Children and Education," Home and Family, http://homeandfamily.com/features/parent/autism.html
- "Facts for Families," AACAP, http://www.aacap.org/web/aacap/factsfam/autistic.htm