Understanding and Managing Autism

1. Understanding and Managing Autism Teaching Workshop for Parents and Professionals

2. Introduction • Welcome and Thanks. • My level of expertise, personal to professional to compassion & passion. • Evolution of Autism, and rapidly changing concepts.. • Simplify the issues and empower you with knowledge and confidence.

3. Workshop Outline • Early Signs Level of alertness not labels or panic. • Understanding Behaviors If you can understand the cause, you can fix it.. • Visual Adaptations Picture Exchange Communication System.

4. Autism Spectrum Disorder Develop normally during the first year. Some delays in the second year in the following areas: • Language Development • Communication Skills • Social Interaction • Play Skills

5. Red Alert Signs • _ Does not babble, point, or make meaningful gestures by 1 year of age • _ Does not speak one word by 16 months • _ Does not combine two words by 2 years • _ Does not respond to name • _ Poor eye contact • _ Doesn't seem to know how to play with toys • _ Excessively lines up toys or other objects • _ Is attached to one particular toy or object • _ Doesn't smile • _ At times seems to be hearing impaired

6. No Cure?? Why Bother ?? • No magic bullet, miracle therapy for instant and on going affects. • Early alertness and intervention. • Early we start the better are the results. • However I have worked with teenagers and adults who have started learning with adapted techniques and materials so its never too late. • Any questions??

7. Behaviors or Response Its very important to understand that kids with autism want to understand you as much as you want to understand them. They also want to communicate and explore their world, the way is different and unusual as they perceive this world differently then the neurotypicals. They tend to communicate their frustrations via behaviors and instead of taking that as a negative action...should make us think about what are they trying to communicate or accomplish via their behaviors. So our response should not be punitive, but understanding and problem solving. Three basic reasons of behaviors are: • Child doesn't understand your requests / tasks. Example……communication & social • Child's sensory needs are not being met . ……..passive or hyperactive • Child's teaching system is not adequate…………can’t learn, labeled low IQ

8. Means of Communication Developing a basic means of communication is the first step towards better interaction and positive learning responses. For younger and non / barely verbal kids, visuals is the way to go. Some parents have shown concern about kids getting dependent on that and not trying their words. Establishing a means of communication is far more imp; than the way its done. Child will only learn to communicate the way their mind and body will allow him to. Some kids start to verbalize with the help of pecs. and simple sentence strips, while some will start reading and printing as they develop sight word vocabulary and although verbalization is a task their minds are unable to take, they can surprise you with yet other ways.

9. Sensory Perception of the World Sensory perceptions of our kids are very different from us and by understanding the issues of sensory deficits, overloads and how it affects the learning process we can understand why our kids have information processing difficulties. We explore our world with the 7 senses and all the learning is based on those exploration experiences. These are auditory(hearing), visual (sight), tactile (touch), smell, taste, proprioceptive (movement of muscles and joints) and vestibular (spatial). Basic and early learning occurs as we label objects as child looks at something or when we want to direct his/her attention to a particular object. Then child reaches for it for more visual and manipulative exploration. So all three basic learning senses are working simultaneously for the typically developing kids and it makes the learning process smooth and spontaneous. Individuals with autism have auditory, visual and tactile perception problems.... which are of different severity and therefore they differ from each other quite a bit and hence the term ASD.

10. Task Teaching I would like to take the issue of reluctance for coloring. • Better task request communication, with pecs and incentives. Use of first and then board. • Easy task....small or 3/4 colored picture. • Lots of praise for cooperation instead of work correction. Like if child colored a bit but didn't finish off...still praise for trying. • As kids with ASD have tactile defensiveness, so avoid touching certain surfaces and crave for rough, gritty surfaces or soft squeezable ones and try to find a marker like that or wrap something around the marker to improve grip. • Let your child play with finger paints in the bathtub or sink. Use play dough for rolling and squishing to strengthen hand grip. Use coins and money banks (slit in a shoebox would do) to improve pincer grip. • More than all ...gentle persistence is the key to success.

11. PECS Picture Exchange Communication System • What he likes. • What he likes to do • Family members • Rooms, places/ • What you would like him to do

12. Program Plan • 2.5 yr. old. • Newly diagnosed as severely autistic. • Educated and motivated parents,. • Psychological Assessment done by a reputed Canadian trained psychologist in Lahore. • Auditory comprehension of a 2 month old. • Expressive Communication of 5 month old. • Language and motor functioning 20% of the required. • Cognition and Self Help Skills not measurable.

13. Structure and Schedule • Work sessions • Play sessions • Outings • Extend Communication • Social Interaction • Diet and nutrition • Self help skills • Community outings • Functional skills • Social do’s and don’ts (social stories)

14. Summary of Training and questions • Early Signs are……and for…….. • Behaviors are ….. And due to….. • Visual adaptations are…..and for…..

15. Assessment and Evaluation • Survey participants to see if they found the training beneficial. Poor / satisfactory / fair / good / excellent • How to improve on it in future. • Language urdu /english/both • Content understandable • Topics covered • Any more topics that could be included. • Any topic that should be left out.