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Having a child with autism, hearing that first diagnosis, or questioning some of the early behavioral issues, for a parent, can be a trying and often isolating time. Sifting through the voluminous information on causes, treatments, and therapies can also be quite overwhelming, especially with no one to offer guidance.

To begin with, if you’re a parent, or know someone, who has a concern about atypical behaviors in their child, you should begin by receiving a medical evaluation by your family practitioner. If a concern is noted regarding PDD/NOS (some of the characteristics of autism) or autism spectrum disorder, the family or parents can request that their school district provide a comprehensive psychological-educational evaluation that identifies the need for fine/gross motor, socio-emotional, academic, and speech language supports. Continue reading ‘How to Help Children With Autism’ »

Services is a term that is used with people with Autism and other disabilities. It is a term used to describe the types of help that people who support people with disabilities may be able to access. The term ’services’ is usually used to describe types of help which are accessed through the assistance of public agencies. The term services is short for Home and Community Based Services. Home and Community Based Services is designed to keep our loved ones with Autism and other disabilities at home or maybe in their own home. Services are used to keep people with Autism from having to be institutionalized when they do not need to be.

Many people with disabilities need a little support to be able to live on their own. Some people with disabilities need a lot of support to be able to live on their own. Parents may also need support to be able to keep their children with disabilities at home. Support services can be a person to help with supervision when a parent is at work. It can be assistance with cooking and washing clothes for an adult with Autism. That adult can be living in their own home or in their parents home.

Sometimes services are financial help that may be available to the person with a disability. Of course as with any type of support this is usually limited. Once again though, people with disabilities like Autism may need only a little support to continue to live in the community. Continue reading ‘What Are 'Services'?’ »

Inclusion is a philosophy that many parents of children with Autism have taken into their value system. It can be applied to education or to the community. There is a lot of research behind the benefits to all people of inclusion.

Basically inclusion means that people with any disability including people with Autism live, work, play, and do anything else with non-disabled peers. For children this means the same school that other children in the neighborhood attend. It also means that the child goes to the same classes the children his or her age go to.

For adults this means that people with Autism and more severe disabilities can and should work at the same jobs as other people. They should go to the same church and the same stores. They also should go to the same stores.

It is really a simple concept. It is also a concept that people with disabilities have embraced. Although many people originally thought that parents who were requesting inclusion in the school system were misguided research has supported those very same parents. Continue reading ‘What is Inclusion?’ »

Social skills are one of the areas a child with Autism will have the most trouble in. It is an area a lot of people have problems with but when you complicate it with the communication deficits it is even more difficult. Social skills are a combination of verbal and non-verbal cues which require interpretation.

Children with Autism have problems with communication and do not even seem to realize that there are social rules. When you figure social rules change for different environments and different people it is even more confusing. Another consideration is that different social skills work better for different people.

Then there is the whole issue of non-verbal communication. Typical people can tell by the tone of a voice or the look on someone’s face whether they are sincere, cynical, or making fun of a person. This is extremely difficult to teach a child with Autism.

There are different techniques that can and are successfully used to teach people with autism the social rules. There are also different ways to teach social skills. Many people with Autism can and do learn the way to navigate through these situations. Techniques, to compensate for the lack of non-verbal understanding, is also a possibility for parents and professionals that work with children with Autism. Continue reading ‘The Relationship Between Social Skills and Autism’ »

Do you want the autism symptoms checklist or want to see an autistic child then look at the children who you pass by, but there is not specific symptom you can identify in a child having this disorder.

Observe the children who reside around your place and observe every child you walk past on the street. These children may be having autism disorder. There is no striking symptom that a child is affected by this type of disorder.

Autism is a typical neurological disorder that no body will be able to identify it easily unless you tell them that he or she is autistic. I know parents who have an autistic child and whenever they take their son to a shop or physician, they used to receive looks of disgust to his unusual behaviour. Parents often used to get upset at the criticism from the people who don’t know that autism is the reason behind it. Many times parents dare to fight with people who comment or scold the children with this disorder. But finally the only thing left is to educate people about this problem. Continue reading ‘How to Detect the Symptoms of Autism – The Autism Symptoms Checklist’ »

Many refer to it as an epidemic now that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every 110 children born in the United States is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, also known as ASD. For boys the numbers are even more alarming, standing at one in 70.

Some suggest this is the result of better diagnosing and record-keeping–plus, in the past, only severely affected children were identified. Moreover, the definition of autism has been expanded to include a range of milder, related conditions, and recently the American Psychiatric Association officially moved Asperger’s into the autism category.

AUTISM FACTS:

• If one identical twin has ASD, there’s a 60%-90% chance that the other will be affected.

• In non-identical twins, if one child has ASD, there’s a 2%-8% chance the other will, too.

• The median age of an ASD diagnosis is between 4.5 and 5.5 years.

• 51% to 91% of the time, developmental concerns are noted before the 3rd birthday.

• Diagnosis is up 10% to 20% annually.

• About 40% of affected children do not talk at all.

• 25% to 30% affected children have some words at 12 to 18 months and then lose them.

• Some children may speak, but not until later in childhood.

• Studies suggest that the cost, over the lifetime of an ASD-diagnosed child, is $3.2 million.

So, of course, we worry. What’s “normal” anyway? Aren’t all kids kind of quirky? Plus, everyone knows you shouldn’t compare one child with another, so… Continue reading ‘Info 101 – Autism Spectrum Disorder’ »

Autism is a neural advancement condition and is characterized by damaged communication and social interaction. Out of every one thousand children, up to six could possibly be autistic. In an c, the information processing capabilities of the brain are altered. How this specifically happens, then again, is not still entirely understood. Due to this fact, parents are concerned. What is the actual reason behind autism- That yet remains unknown. However, many specialists do come to an understanding that there is genetic together with environmental factors involved. Even though genetic factors such as rare mutations are strong reasons for the source of autism, questionable environmental causes such as pesticides and heavy metal have in addition been blamed for autism.

There are many signs which suggest that autism is observed in the kid. Most of the time these symptoms are observed by the time the child is 3 years old. According to a study, the signs of autism cannot be identified in children who are under six months old. Only by the time the kid reaches the age of two or three are the signs established. It’s right that there’s no cure for autism, yet. Nonetheless, you can find a lot of intervention techniques and methods which you can use to assist your baby. With the help of these strategies, your baby will be able to develop social and communication abilities. Continue reading ‘6 Signs Or Symptoms of Autism’ »

Some of the most upsetting behaviors to parents of children with Autism are self injurious behaviors. They are so hard to understand. We do not like anyone hurting our children. When they are hurting themselves it is even more confusing.

My first reactions to my child’s self injurious behaviors were that she must be in pain herself. Eventually I began to realize it must be something else. That is when I started to search for reasons.

Sometimes I realized my child was hitting herself because she was frustrated. She thought she had made a mistake. She also would hit herself for attention.

Biting herself was a little harder. She could bite herself and leave an imprint of every single one of her teeth in the bruise she left. Biting herself usually happens when she gets so upset that she is screaming. After time, I have gotten better at getting to her before she actually bites. Continue reading ‘Autism Behaviors – Why Do Our Children Use Self Injurious Behaviors?’ »

A Circle of Support is a concept that some parents have used with their child that has Autism. The Circle fulfills different needs at different times in the child’s life. It can collapse and another one start or some people’s circle evolves.

Children with Autism need a group of people to help in a variety of ways. This group of people is sometimes called a Circle of Support. The group can be a formal group that meets on a regular basis. It might be a group that is less formal and does not ever really meet.

This group of people may include paid people in a child with Autism’s life and unpaid people. Ideally the unpaid people out number the paid people but this is not always so in the beginning. That issue may be one that the group decides to work on.

In the beginning when a child with a disability is young, the adults may start the group. It may be a parent or a teacher. The idea is to find three or four other children in that age group and invite them to help the child with Autism. If this little group meets on a weekly basis they can talk about what needs to be done. Continue reading ‘What is a Circle of Support?’ »

Autistic teaching can be a challenging topic for parents who have recently received a diagnosis for their child and have stepped into exploring the expansive world of autism and what it means. This short article aims to help you overcome that feeling of overwhelming emotion and give you some direction for planning your child’s teaching program.

When you first receive the diagnosis of “Autism Spectrum Disorder” you probably go through a mixture of feelings and have a ton of questions. One of the big questions in the background is that of teaching. How will your child be able to learn if he or she has problems with the basic skills needed to learn? Here are ten important points you should understand and explore as it applies to your child. These ten points not only help with autistic teaching, they help you better understand your child’s needs.

1. Autistic children are visual. They like nouns. Verbs are more of a challenge and must be demonstrated. This is an important point in autistic teaching.

2. Charts and sequence learning helps. If your child is able to read, use written steps to teach tasks. Write down anything with more than three steps. Continue reading ‘Autistic Teaching – An Eight Point Primer For Parents of a Child With Autism’ »