Help With Autism

Children with autism are more than capable of being taught, however it can be difficult to encourage them to focus.  To improve your autistic child’s awareness and attention, patience is the most important factor.  Rushing an autistic child will not benefit them or you as a teacher, so avoid becoming frustrated.  You will also want to take away distractions such as conspicuous objects with bright colors or textures, and prepare your lessons ahead of time with teaching materials.  Uniformity when teaching your child is key as it will help them to remember what has been taught.

Incorporating videos, toys, or games into autism education will enrich your time spent together and assist with your child’s learning.

A new study by UC Davis researchers about important autism news may have discovered why autistic children have trouble imitating others; they spend less time looking at the faces of people who are modeling new skills.

The study employed eye-tracking headgear and software that measures the point at which a child is looking when learning a task, according to medicalnewstoday.com. The study showed that autistic children focused on the action that was being demonstrated (and rarely looked at the face), while typically-developing children looked at the face often to check for information about what to do, or how to respond. The finding is considered significant because autistic children have trouble learning from others, and this may be a key as to why.

As parents know, one of the biggest challenges with an autistic child is getting them to sleep. PCM-Rx, an autism treatment bearing similarities to PCA-Rx, is being recommended as a good means to help your child do just that, and can also be used to simply help them calm down.PCM-Rx is a powerful detoxifier and helps the body get rid of toxins such as pesticides and heavy metals. It’s administered in a 30-ml oral spray bottle.

According to http://www.helpyourautisticchild.com, PCM-Rx contains the same detoxification qualities as PCA-Rx and is basically identical to it, but includes the additions of lemon balm, melatonin, SAMe (this is how it was spelled on the site) and withonia somnifera. The site describes the effects of the treatment as “calming,” and it’s been well-received among its readers.

Autism is not a condition that could be relegated to one symptom alone, but rather it is the conglomeration of a variety of symptoms.  There are certain characteristics of autism that are prevalent for most autistic case, however, such as social impairment.  Those with autism are also likely to have specialized interest and focus on those primarily with a tendency toward repetitive actions.

 There are many treatments for autism available for those with a loved one with the condition.  The support that is available for families has gone up since the recognition of autism has increased this past decade.

The VH1 Classic music television channel has developed a campaign called Rock Autism, intending to educate parents and build awareness about the disorder.  Musicians such as Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, Ronnie James Dio of Dio, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Roger Daltrey of the Who, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin appear in a public service announcement that runs frequently on the channel and on its parent channel, VH1.  The intention of the campaign is to help educate parents, providing them a forum while building autism awareness on the campaign website and their Facebook page.  Another primary focus of VH1 Classic Rock Autism is raising funds for autism research, advocacy, and support organizations.  VH1 Classic Rock Autism has consciously targeted the age-30-and-over demographic most strongly because this population is at the primary age to start families, and with autism rates still rising, education is the best defense for potential parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders.

VH1 Classic Rock Autism’s webpage lists many other resource groups and links to autism information and news about the disease and the campaign’s efforts as well as spotlighting the efforts of other cable channels to educate the public about this disorder.  MTV’s popular documentary program “True Life” has an episode entitled “I Have Autism”, and children’s channel Nickelodeon has broadcast a special Nick News report called “Private Worlds:  Kids and Autism”.   Clips for both of these shows can be accessed from the MTV and Nickelodeon websites and are also linked through the VH1 Classic Rock webpage.

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.