Autism Diagnosis

                

 

Autism is a condition that can be treated, this is the prime reason why in suspected autism cases it is best that the diagnose be made earlier than later, it must be pointed out however that autistic behavior is not a frequent thing among health communities and families, so this should not be a major concern for parents. Nevertheless it is always recommended to use experts to establish some kind of diagnosis as regards to behavioral abnormalities.

One of the many essential features concerned with children of autistic disorder is their tendency to create odd interests and poor attention and focus. Additionally, they also deficit in social interaction. Most authorities in this subject affirm that these features clearly indicate autistic factors yet they admit that these are not enough to diagnose autism among children younger than 3 years old.

Moreover, the inconsistency of symptom manifestation often hampers the proper diagnosis of autism more than the abnormality itself. There are virtually lots of factors affecting this inconsistency.

Autism can also be correlated with other conditions such as mental retardation, childhood psychoses, Asperger disorder and a couple of other neurological disorders.

Often, diagnosis begins through these three determining factors. Keep in mind though that evaluation of these three stages would not suffice the data so as to conclude that a child truly has autistic features.

Physical and neurological examinations
Examination of medical history including those that manifest through relatives. This also consists of birth history and developmental conditions, and
Medical tests to help rule out other diseases

Diagnostic criteria are used to formally determine if a child is truly subjected to autistic features. Comprehensive diagnosis can be done through routine developmental screening which concerns mostly all developmental features that are absent or deficient with autistic children.

After the recognition of these factors, the child may be given audiologic evaluation, screening test for autism and blood lead test.

During evaluation it is vital that the children are diagnosed by an experienced clinician. He must be well-learned with concerns pertaining to psychology and pediatrics.

For an initial evaluation, you as a parent can do the following:

Observation on social impairment which manifests through the following:
a. impairment of non-verbal interaction
b. weak ability to build peer relationship as observed during different developmental stages
c. lack of emotional and social reciprocity which is prone to isolation

Observation on communicational impairment which manifests through the following:
a.delay or lack of development in language facilities, more specifically the spoken language
b.lack of social plays suitable for each developmental stage
c.inability to maintain social conversation
d.idiosyncratic language or marked repetitive use of words

Noticeable patterns of activities, behaviors and interests manifested through the following:
a.continuous preoccupation with specific parts of an object
b.motor mannerism
c.limited patterns of interests
d.observance of rituals or non-functional habits

Due of course to the difficulty of diagnosing autistic features, it is best to subject the child to professional evaluation. It is not as easy though as with other diseases so be patient with findings means for efficient and effective diagnosis.
Autism is a major concern for parents and caregivers in the first few months of a baby?s development. Learn more about Autism Diagnosis at http://autism.advice-tips.com

Social Skills and Autism - Where's the Best Place for Socialization?

                

 

Your child has autism and you?ve been told that social skills deficits are to be expected. So what can you do to help your child learn how to behave properly, make friends, and get along in the world?

Like me, you may have been told that your child needs to be in a school setting with other children to be socialized. Let?s consider for a minute what kind of social skills a child with autism may learn in school.

1. In a school or classroom setting, your child is exposed to both positive and negative socialization. This isn?t really debated by any of us who have been in school. The question is whether or not the ?good? socialization outweighs the ?bad? socialization.

2. There are typically two placements for children with autism when it comes to schools. Each comes with its own drawbacks as far as social skills are concerned.

For those who are lower-functioning, there is the special ed classroom. If your child is placed in a special ed class, they may actually pick up negative behaviors from the other students. Children who have never said a bad word in their lives come home with all sorts of words that the parents know they didn?t teach their child. Or maybe a child who wasn?t aggressive previously starts imitating the hitting, biting, or screaming of a classmate. That?s not what I think most parents are hoping for when they are told to put their child in school to learn social skills.

If your child is higher-functioning, they may be mainstreamed in a regular ed classroom. Will the typical behaviors of their peers be the positive socialization you hoped for? Unfortunately, many times children with autism become an easy target for bullies who cause them physical and emotional harm. Other classmates, who may be nice enough themselves, may still go along with cruel jokes or name calling at the expense of a child with autism just because they don?t want to be ostracized from their peers. Whether it?s bullying, teasing, or isolation, children who are ?different? and don?t possess the same social abilities as their peers often experience great difficulties just trying to survive a day at school. These children often exhibit signs of tremendous stress and anxiety, depression, and some even contemplate suicide.

So are there any alternatives? Families who are concerned about the educational and social well-being of their children often choose to teach them at home. Home-schooling offers a better opportunity for positive socialization while drastically limiting the possibility of negative social experiences. Home-schooled children are not isolated or ?unsocialized?. Home-schooling simply provides the opportunity for parents to expose their children to a variety of social situations when they feel their child is ready to handle them. Most communities have home-school groups that offer park days, sports teams, special classes or lessons, as well as informal get-togethers for home-schooled children.

It must be noted that children with autism do not learn social skills simply by being with typical peers regardless of the setting -- school or home. In order to master social skills, autistic children require specific instruction and opportunities to practice skills first in settings with one other child, then with two children, then in small groups, and then in large groups. To place a child with autism into a classroom situation (or any group situation) and assume that they will learn beneficial social skills just because other children are present is not supported by research or real life (See point #4 in the open letter from Dr. Ivar Lovaas, autism expert, at http://featbc.org/why_lovaas/letter.html).

Common sense tells us that we don?t teach a child with autism to swim by throwing them into the deep end of a swimming pool and telling them to start swimming. Likewise, if we want children with autism to ?swim? in the social world, we can?t just put them in a situation that virtually ensures their failure. We must teach them step-by-step and give them plenty of time to practice their social skills in a supervised setting. We can accomplish this via one-on-one play dates with peers, social skills small groups, sibling/parent relationships, community outings, etc.

So the next time someone suggests that you should put your child with autism in school simply because of their need for socialization, consider exactly what that means for your child. There?s not much compelling evidence to suggest that inclusion in school settings is accomplishing positive socialization or excellence in education for most children, especially children with autism. We can do better at home.

Mary Gusman is an educational consultant and an expert in the area of home-schooling children with autism. With over 8 years of personal experience home-schooling her own son with autism, she offers nationwide educational and home school consulting services to families with special needs children. Mary can be contacted via her website at http://www.ochomeschooling.com/specialneeds

Managing Tantrums In Autism Spectrum Disorders When Consistency

                

 

When dealing with tantrums and difficult behaviors in autism spectrum disorders, using behavioral approaches alone can sometimes fail. What is the missing piece to managing these behaviors that a behavioral approach alone may not address?

To start, we need to look at the reasons for behavior. According to behavioral approaches, most of the behavior we see results from one of three reasons: a request, seeking attention, or a sensory reason. Let's look deeper at these three reasons for behavior and the ways we currently handle them.

Handling a request is fairly straightforward. To put it very simply, a request is usually something externally controlled by both reinforcing appropriate requests and not reinforcing inappropriate ones, such as a tantrum.

For negative attention-seeking behaviors, we can eliminate the behavior by not giving the negative behavior attention and give attention for desired behavior - very straightforward, and again, usually externally controlled.

The sensory reasons arise from both the external and internal events that a child experiences through the five senses, and may or may not be externally controlled. In all of these situations, our internal responses - our feelings and thoughts about events fire us into action. In stressful situations, the resulting "knee jerk" reactions are often difficult to manage with a purely behavioral approach for a few reasons:

1. Thoughts and feelings are often lightning-fast, internally-controlled events, therefore difficult to manage through external behavioral modifications.

2. Thoughts and feelings can't be measured, and as a result, behavioral approaches simply don't address them. It doesn't mean that these things don t exist or aren't important. It just means that they're left out of the equation.

3. Behavioral approaches address the cause and consequence of behaviors the beginning and the end. But internal responses (i.e. thoughts and feelings) happen in the moments between the cause and the consequence. By not dealing with thoughts, feelings and solutions at these moments, we leave a child to figure out solutions on his or her own.

4. Children on the autism spectrum have a limited ability to adapt to new or changing situations, solve problems, compare past to present, or see possibilities. Because of this, if a child never learns how to think through a challenging situation during the emotional moments, when faced with it again, the same behavior will probably repeat itself, no matter what the consequence, or how many times they've been through it before.

This situation calls for tools to deal with overwhelming thoughts, feelings and strategies in the moment before the tantrum, not just consequences after.

In the book The Explosive Child, Ross Greene talks about this situation. This book applies to any disorders that have limitations in problem solving and executive thought, including all PDDs, such as Asperger's Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and all autism spectrum disorders. ADD, ADHD, and various other developmental disabilities also share these problem-solving / executive thought issues and can benefit from using this approach, according to Dr. Greene.

In the book, first we pick our battles carefully, and then talk through our thought process out loud. This way our children can hear us think through situations before tantrums. This also creates a memory of how they triumphed in the situation without resorting to negative behaviors.

Progress is made in small increments, but as time goes on, tantrums should decrease, and you can even start to ask your child to contribute ideas about solving problems during those emotional moments. In doing this, you help your child learn how to solve problems and become confident about handling new, changing, or challenging situations. You'll combine the best of all worlds, to the benefit of your child.
 Sandra Sinclair is a parent of a child with PDD-NOS. Sandra assists parents of children with autism spectrum disorders to create a life that they love - life by design, not demands - through her 6-step program. She is also author of Newly Diagnosed Autism Spectrum - A free mini-course with 7 clear steps you can take to help your child with Aspergers, Autism, PDD-NOS, and other autism spectrum disorders. http://www.autismvoice.com/blog/7StepstoHelpChildrenwithAutism