Help With Autism

Child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan developed a treatment for autism known as Floortime. Both a method and a philosophy, Floortime gets its name because the parents get down on the floor with the child in order to encourage communication with him at his level. The Floortime method does not focus on speech, motor, or cognitive skills, but emphasizes emotional development because they are all interrelated.  Greenspan believes that an autistic child can build a larger circle of interaction accompanied by an adult who engages the child at his most current developmental level, participates in the child’s activities and following his lead, building on the individual strengths of the child.  Once Floortime becomes a mutally shared process between parent and child, the parent is instructed how to move the child toward the milestones, known as “opening and closing circles of communication”. 

The ultimate goal of Floortime is to help the child achieve the six basic milestones necessary to master emotional and intellectual maturity for her level.  Greenspan defines the six milestones as: self-regulation and interest in the world; intimacy and love for the world of human interpersonal relations; two-way communication; complex communication; emotional ideas; and emotional thinking.  The autistic child has a challenging time achieving these rites of developmental passage without treatment, due to difficulty processing and responding to sensory information, and sometimes poor physical control.
 

Rett syndrome symptoms include cognitive impairment and difficulty with socialization, which generally improves by the time the child enters school.  The rate of head growth is slower in those who have Rett’s and may include microcephaly (a very small head) as well as small hands and feet with repetitive hand movements such as wringing.  Girls with Rett syndrome are prone to stomach problems and up to 80% also have seizures.  About half of females are not ambulatory.  Scoliosis, failure to grow, constipation, and lack of verbal skills are also very common manifestations of Rett’s syndrome, which occurs much more commonly in girls.

Rett syndrome is one of the disorders commonly identified as being under the umbrella of autism, along with Asperger’s syndrome, sensory integration disorder, and several others. 
Autism treatments are always changing as autism awareness becomes more prevalent.

Autism information begins with the first published academic paper identifying autistic children.  The paper was published in 1943 by Leo Kanner and was titled “Autistic Disturbance of Affective Contact”.  Before Kanner’s observations were recorded, such children were being classified as emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded.  Kanner’s work pointed out that these children often demonstrated potential that did not allow them to fit comfortably into either prior diagnosis.  His response was to invent a new diagnostic category called Early Infantile Autism, sometimes called Kanner’s Syndrome.  Hans Asperger essentially made the same discoveries at the same time independently of Kanner in his academic paper “Autistic Psychopathy in Childhood”.  The difference in the subjects being studied by these two pioneers was that Asperger’s subjects had speech, so Asperger’s Syndrome is often still used today to classify autistic people who have speech.

The word “autism” already had a meaning before Kanner coined it as a diagnosis:  “escape from reality”.  It is speculated that Kanner appropriated this word because he believed that the classified children were either actually trying to escape from reality or gave that impression.  Other terms have applied to what we now call autism:  childhood schizophrenia, infantile autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Kanner’s Syndrome, and other autism spectrum disorders have also been identified, such as Sensory Integration Disorder.

NEW YORK — Parents, children and care providers gathered on the steps of City Hall Wednesday protesting budget cuts which could end programs provided for children with autism.

Council Member David Weprin says that autism has reached epidemic proportions. The Centers for Disease Control states that 1 in 150 children are now born with autism.

“While we cannot offer autistic children and their families a cure for the disorder, with this initiative, we can ensure that they can enjoy a better quality of life by providing them with year-round services that support their educational and social needs,” said Weprin.

The City Council’s “1 in 150″ Autism Services Initiative offers about $1.5 million in funds that provide services for children with autism who otherwise do not qualify for publicly funded programs, and educate thousands of parents and caregivers through conferences and workshops.

The program has given 230 children after-school programs, weekend respite, a basketball league, holiday activities, parent and teacher training, bilingual services, a crisis-intervention program, kids clubs, autism workshops, and outreach and awareness activities.

Parents fear if budget cuts are approved their children will lose these programs and will suffer a blow in autism education.

Teaching autistic children how to read can be challenging, but it’s worth the effort. There is no single thing that helps autistic children learn to read. Experts often disagree on how to approach learning, and every child is different and learns differently. Autism can range in severity from very moderate and highly functioning to very severe and barely functioning. Because the child has special needs, patience, determination and creativity are of the utmost importance. It is essential that a person planning on pursuing autism education can understand the characteristics and needs of an autistic child.

Autistic kids are visual thinkers. The easiest way to teach autistic children reading is to demonstrate words that aren’t concrete. For example, a noun is typically concrete and easy for the autistic child to picture. A word such as “boy” is easy to relate to a mental image. However, words such as “up” are harder for the autistic child to picture. When teaching such words, the teacher should show the word by acting it out. Saying the word “up” and lifting the arm goes a long way toward helping the autistic child understand.

Reinforce what the child is reading with repetition. Read books out loud, act them out, create visual aids and watch movies based on books. Don’t be afraid to try new things and be patient. It may take a while when teaching autistic children reading to find the methods that work best for each individual child.

As we discussed in an earlier post regarding yoga, physical activity can help an autistic child learn focus; it can also help improve their behavior.  This form of autism therapy can require a lot of research, but there are some basic factors to consider: the severity of the child’s behavior and the how simple or complicated the activity is.

Ideally, you’ll want to choose an activity that is rhythmic: running, hopping, or jump-roping.  In addition to yoga, aerobics can also be a great activity.  Many parents have suggested taking aerobic techniques and renaming them to kid-friendlier names and making a game of them. 

A Las Vegas man built a web browser for his autistic grandson after he realized that the models provided by other companies only frustrated the boy.

John LeSieur took particular interest when computers seemed mostly useless to his 6-year-old grandson, Zackary.

LeSieur tried to find online tools that could guide autistic children around the Web, but he couldn’t find anything satisfactory. So he had one built, named it the Zac Browser For Autistic Children in honor of his grandson, and is making it available to anyone for free for anyone who wants to enhance autism education with a computer.

The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like a virtual aquarium.

Children using the Zac Browser select activities by clicking on bigger-than-normal icons, like a soccer ball for games and a stack of books for “stories.” The Zac Browser also configures the view so no flashing distractions appear.

TACOMA – Washington Academy of Music is now offering a program for special needs kids after an instructor taught an 8 year old autistic boy how to play guitar.

The instructor said that the boy, educationally, had a high success rate following that.  This is a first in autistic education at the school.  The school is insistent on the fact that they’re not only offering lessons, but they are role models as well.

CALIFORNIA – New technologies are helping autistic children communicate like never before. At the Pacific Autism Center for Education in Santa Clara, each morning begins with a Power Point presentation, launching a day filled with technology and a new type of autism therapy.

Two out of every three students at the center are non-verbal, but thanks to a voice output device 12-year-old Alex is able to get the snacks he craves.

Malique also uses the device to “talk” for him.

“The largest benefit is the ability to give them a voice, gives them a voice that offers a breadth of options and the third benefit is the social interactions that come from having the ability to speak,” explained the center’s Kurt Ohlfs.

Technology also makes communicating less cumbersome. Imagine trying to carry around a book with pictures of everything you wanted to convey in a day.

Now the students have all that information at their fingertips; 21-year-old Daniel is using a more advanced, hand held device that offers him a menu with hundreds of icon options. He selects the ones he wants and the computer talks in sentences, conveying his thoughts.

“It’s amazing when we’ve given some of this technology to our students and it’s opened up that door and now the students are surprisingly prolific when it comes to expressing their thoughts,” said Ohlfs.

In Canada, kids who suffer from autism and whose families cannot afford the costly treatment are subject to a wait list where there is a current backlog of over 1,100 children.  One parent is fighting back in a show of non-violent protest.  Stefan Marinoiu, the father of a 15 year old autistic boy, started his hunger strike nine days ago with several more parents ready to join him.

Another concern is that the autism therapy offered by the public schools lack the proper one-on-one therapy that a child would need.  Parents are also demanding better financial assistance from the government.  The Court of Appeals will release their decision this summer.