A Parents Story About Helping Their Child With Autism

Having a child diagnosed with autism can be at once a blessing and a curse. Finally, you have a place to begin to find some help for your son or daughter, but you may find your hopes dashed that things will go back to the way things used to be. Some experts say that autism has no cure. The idea that your child will never be "normal" is heartbreaking, but make no mistakes. With early diagnosis and Autism Services, children with autism can and do develop and thrive.

Our son was 21 months when his doctor first mentioned autism. We thought she was crazy. He was acting just like his brother and sister did at his age. His sister didn't talk until she was three, at which point she'd started and never stopped. Besides, he was always interacting with us... or was he?

One of the assurances I clung to during the quiet months while we waited was the fact he would take our hands and lead us to do things he wanted. He wouldn't point at the milk. He would take my hands and put them on the fridge door, and once opened, he'd put them on the carton. To us, that was communication in lieu of speech. To the educational autism team, it was the sign he was using us as tools instead of interacting with us socially.

We have always homeschooled our children and the idea of using a set of autism strategies on our son - to trick him into doing things his teachers wanted - seemed alien. If it wasn't coming from him, how was it helping him? They told us that he would see the benefits of the skills, and be motivated to develop them on his own. We wanted him to talk, to see a reason to communicate and build relationships. We weren't sure the team's ideas would work, but regardless, we tried them.

ABA stands for Applied Behavioral Analysis. It's one of the oldest, most effective methods for treating autism, and relies on actions being rewarded. Bribes, in other words. For autism teacher training often focuses on compliance, and the easiest way to get compliance from a young child is offering them something in return.

At a base level, I didn't feel it was the right things to do because I couldn't see it's long-term success. I do not bribe my other children to do chores with gold stars, and I didn't think using M&Ms to convince my youngest to use words would keep him talking at age 8 or 12. The thing I realized over a few months is that at very young ages, these autism strategies work to build skills that will continue later without those motivations. Once the child picks them up, they see the benefits and continue to develop.

After a certain point, ABA stopped motivating our son and we moved on to other autism strategies - like picture sequencing. To teach him how to use the restroom, we illustrated the steps, laminated them and taped them to the bathroom door. To keep him focused during the day, we had a flipbook we used for helping move him from one task to the other. We added sign language and speech therapy to help with communication. Three years after our journey began, our son phased out of the services the system could offer.

I know the story we share is different from many families. There are children with severe autism who always need assistance, and do struggle all of their lives. We know we're lucky to say our son is happy, well-adjusted and relatively self-sufficient. He may be a few years behind in maturity, but he isn't thought of as "different". Early diagnosis and follow-up with Autism Services helped our son to the point where he would not be diagnosed as autistic today.

Maximum Potential specializes in online learning environments for ABA Therapy

Original article

Do Children With Autism Have Varying Degrees With Their Senses?

I want to learn out of curiosity, if children with autism have varying degrees with their senses. How would I determine the answer to my curiosity? Can it be done with all of the five senses that we have, for it to be accomplished?

What about the senses of smell, touch, and taste? They are just as important to us, as to what we see, hear and how we express ourselves.

I believe there are varying degrees individuals have, with autism. For example: To learn and express their senses. They may have difficulty understanding what their senses mean or what to do with their senses. There may be some correlation in this area, that could be considered to be dysfunctional in their behavior.

I have observed, some children who have the disorder of autism, are extremely sensitive to bright lights, texture, touch, certain sounds, loud, soft and high-pitched noises. In addition, to some smells and odors.

Therefore, I have observed some people with autism, have varying degrees with other senses, such as tastes, colors and flashing images.

Learning could be a challenge for autistic children, because of their varying degrees of trying to understand how they react to their senses and what they are expressing or trying to express through their senses, compared to other people who do not have autism.

I was in a classroom recently, that was teaching autistic children. I noticed, one child, put his head down between his knees and plugged his ears with his hands, to protect himself from hearing the noise, when an airplane flew over the classroom.

I noticed later, how this same child was struggling, when he was around a group of children that were noisy and participating in a game outside the classroom.

I approached the teacher, with a question to determine if this particular child, would be able to over come his fear of noise. If this was an option, will he do better in learning?

I continued my observation of another child who was using clay to construct and create an object. I noticed, she became oversensitive to the touch.

There were moments, she did not want to put the clay back on the table, because she felt the touch of it was a stimulus. Later, her actions indicated to throw the clay on the floor. I could see anger and frustration in her face.

Take interest in the senses of your child who have autism. Gather information about how he or she. is communicating through these senses.

What senses are shown to be strong? For example: Is touch, smell, noises, watching various objects, because of the color or movements, appear to be a strength? What is your child expressing with these varying degrees of senses? Does bright or flickering lights, create another area that your child might be expressing for his or her senses?

Bonita Darula's informational web sight==> http://www.autismintoawareness.com/ Take action and SIGN up to RECEIVE your FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER on Autistic TOPICS. For example: Senses of varying degrees, because you're autistic? Order your E-Books to identify symptoms of Autism.

Original article