Understanding Autism: The World of Autistic Children

What is Autism?

Autism surfaces when a child is not psychologically developed enough to interpret situations around

them, converse or relate feelings. The ability to groom relationships is absent. Autism originates as a

brain malady that is recognized in the first three years of life.

2. What are some early symptoms of autism?

When a child is very young and just beginning to learn basic tasks such as forming simple words,

crawling and sitting up, parents of autistic children soon get an uneasy feeling that something is not going

as planned. Generally, autistic children cannot speak. If a child has a very mild form of autism, they will

probably be able to learn speech and attend a regular school system without too much trouble, but an

autistic child will not make eye contact and they tend to bounce their body forward and backward.

Because of this, parents often have difficulty trying to interpret what it is that the child is trying to convey.

Most times, parents may feel that their child is deaf, because the child does not acknowledge them.

Keep in mind that this must be difficult for the child too, because they cannot tell anyone what it is that

is upsetting them or making them unhappy or joyous. This inability to convey themselves often leads to

behavioral problems. Researchers do not know why autism occurs and are looking at all possibilities.

3. What are researchers finding in the way of treatment?

Teachers of special needs children are trying to capture the autistic child's attention through traditional

means and it is not working. Autistic children find this boring. Luckily, research has found that the iPad

is starting to play a significant part in the many autistic children’s lives. The iPad is somehow drawing

these children into its ability to help them communicate, because Apple has come up with a program that

speaks for the child. All child have to do is press a few buttons that are attached to pictures, and they are

on their way to communicating words and feelings. Researchers are finding that some of these children

have brilliant minds - they just do not know how to relate this to anyone.

4. What is expected long-term?

There is no cure for autism, but these days, there are many treatment options available to children. Since

every child is different (with varying degrees of autism), not every treatment is going to work for every

child. While some autistic adults can be independent, others may be independent in a semi-independent

living arrangement. Others may never be able to live outside of an institution. Thanks to advancements in

special education and a huge increase in awareness about autism, the sky is the limit. Expect big things

in the coming years – I will!

Bonnie Carter writes about education, personal finance & saving money at www.termlifeinsurance.org

Finding a Dentist for Special Needs Kids

Good dental hygiene can be almost impossible for some special needs kids. The daily routines of life can make it easy to forget about brushing and flossing, and some kids with sensory integration issues may be very resistant to the activity.

Finding a good dentist may help. Dentists and their staff can help educate children about dental health and encourage children to brush, floss, and rinse. Parents may be able to learn tips on how to help their children take care of their teeth.

When seeking out a dentist for your child, keep in mind the uniqueness of your child and his or her needs. Here are some helpful questions to ask as your seek out a dentist.

Are your familiar with my child's disability?Many dentist offices will express their willingness to see patients with disabilities. However, as many parents know, sometimes "disabilities" are all "lumped together." There are many types of disabilities, each with unique characteristics. Successful dental appointments depend upon the dentist's and the dental staff's willingness to learn about your child's specific needs.

May we tour your facility before we visit? Going to the dentist can be scary! Touring the facility ahead of time will eliminate some of the "unknown" and perhaps ease some of your child's fears. He or she can sit in the dental chair (and maybe even make it work), look at the tools, and maybe even get a free toothbrush before the scheduled appointment. Receptionists and other staff will also be familiar with your child before the appointment. Meeting the dentist and staff ahead of time is especially helpful. However, scheduling and multiple locations may limit staff availability.

If touring is not practical, check out the office's website. Some have pictures and bios of the staff, as well as virtual office tours.

Do you have a private room for your special needs patients? In many dental offices, patients are seen in one big room, perhaps partitioned by cubicles or curtains. Kids with sensory issues could be overwhelmed by sounds such as drills, cleaning tools, or by other children. Some offices provide a calmer atmosphere in private rooms for their special need patients.

How do you handle tantrums and refusals of treatment? Pediatric and adolescent dentists are well-acquainted with these issues. The best prevention of tantrums is educating or preparing the parent and child before a procedure. Some kids will refuse to have their teeth polished. Find out if there is an alternative to the cleaning tools, such as simply brushing the child's teeth.

Do you provide anesthesia for dental work? If your child is already fearful of strangers and dentists, or has severe oral sensitivities, anesthesia may be an option for cleaning and dental work.This may be found on the dentist's website. If so, familiarize yourself with the different options they offer.

Is dental work done under anesthesia performed in the office or elsewhere? Some offices offer general anesthesia for major dental work, provided by an anesthesiologist. This might be done at an out-patient surgery center. If the child needs a filling, root canal, or crown, general anesthesia might be a good option. While the child is "under," the dentist may also provide a thorough cleaning.

How do you prepare your special needs patients for the procedures? Some dentists show the tools, demonstrate on dolls or their own teeth, or even have pictures of procedures. The dentist may have suggestions for preparing the child at home, too.

Will my child see the same dentist at every visit? For people with developmental disabilities such as autism, this may be important for continuation of care. The more interactions the child has with a dentist, the more trust builds.

Do you take Medical Assistance? Many dentists do not take medical help. However, if financially feasible, paying out of pocket for a dentist that fits the child can be worth it in the long run.

Finding a good dentist can be a long process. The search is worth it!

Elizabeth Givler and her husband raise three kids, two of which are on the autism spectrum. Elizabeth has a passion for equipping other special needs families to live as "normal" lives as possible. Elizabeth consults for non profit and faith-based organizations regarding inclusion and natural supports. Currently she teaches clarinet lessons to students with and without special needs and assists families with special dietary needs through her Wildtree business. Read her blog at http://www.elizabethgivler.com or contact Elizabeth at ehgivler@yahoo.com.

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Special Needs Children Learn Language Development And Social Skills In Play

From experience, I know that developmental and educational toys alone are not enough to help a child with special needs. But, you can easily help your child learn through play. For example, blowing toys can help to overcome language delay or sensory toys to overcome touch reluctance in a child on the autistic spectrum.

Learning to Play

Children do most of their learning through play so children with special needs can be instantly disadvantaged if their play skills are impaired. Children on the autistic spectrum often lack a natural interest in play and will need extra help to learn to play. The restricted social skills in autistic children and some other special needs children make it difficult for them to accept social interaction during play.

As a parent of a child with a severe language delay and a child with autism, I knew the importance of play and was particularly aware of the value of play based language development. However, I quickly realised that I too needed to learn to play. Merely presenting my special needs children with an array of toys was not sufficient to help develop their play and interactive skills. By spending even a few minutes playing with them, I was able to make a huge difference - and felt much more confident in my own parenting skills.

Using developmental toys

The first step in initiating play with a child with special needs is to gain your child's attention. Often they need to be attracted away from their solitary play or their favoured activity. This requires a toy that is of interest - it does not have to be a specialist developmental toy.

Once you have your child's attention you then need to hold their interest long enough to give them enough of a chance to practise the activity and get to like it - both of which will build confidence and eventually mean they will want to do it again. Peek a boo with a scarf, bubbles, balls, bean bags and puppets are very simple devices for attracting a child to join in with a game and can be started easily anywhere at any time.

Cause and effect toys for children with special needs

I have found cause and effect toys are really good because a child will quickly learn that if he does one thing something else will happen - press the button and a light comes on, or a character pops up or as with the Sound Puzzle Box where if a shape is correctly inserted into the right hole it makes a squeaky noise.

Ball or car ramps and pop up peg toys can be used to help queue in a child, who otherwise is reluctant to involve you in their play or to interact during play. Merely holding onto the car or ball at the top of the slope saying 1,2 3 'GO' but only letting go once your child looks at you accompanied with a big whoop is another good way of increasing your child's enjoyment as well as promoting interaction and eye contact.

Games to stimulate social skills, especially in autistic children

Ball and car ramps are also very good for practising social skills such as turntaking and waiting, you may have to work hard to stop your child from grabbing the ball when its not his turn but doing these sorts of activities frequently can really help your child to wait and participate more willingly. These are just some ideas to help entice a child with special needs away from solitary play even for a short time initially and to help develop a desire to play.

How SenseToys aims to help parents and carers

When my children's special needs were identified, I was amazed that I couldn't find a shop or mail order catalogue selling the kind of toys I wanted for my autistic son, Eddie. There were plenty of pre-school educational toys but I had to search high and low to find things that were suitable. I also needed some guidance on the best way to play with them to help Eddie. It is all very well having special toys but if you don't know what to do with them or how to engage your child it is not much use. It is not the toy, it is what you do with it that gives it value for an autistic child. The aim of the SenseToys website is to bring you colourful, fun toys and lots of inspiring ideas for how to play with them with your special needs child.

As the mother of two special needs sons - my eldest suffered a language delay through glue ear and my second son Edward has an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) - I became frustrated by endless fruitless searches for toys and activities to help with their special needs. Even when I found suitable toys, I still wasn’t always sure how to use them to help my sons, so I established a company called SenseToys. The SenseToys range has been developed with several leading therapists and Montessori trained teachers ensuring that the products and play tips are appropriate. I am committed to helping parents and carers find and choose the toys they need. I feel it is essential to explain to people how to use these toys and why they work. I know from my own experience how important it is to get practical information and advice, especially when you are learning about and coping with special needs for the first time.

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Why Children Who Suffer From Autism Benefit From Specialist Education

Autism is a condition that many parents find difficult to understand, but the important thing to realise is that they are not alone. It is possible for your child to grow up with a chance of living a relatively normal child hood and adult life, but it's important to consult with the experts to find out what services are on offer.

One of the biggest parts of any child's life is education. We often take our education system for granted, but for an autistic child the education process can be a totally different challenge.

This has been recongised and throughout the country specialist schools are now available where your child can feel more comfortable with their surroundings, class mates and more importantly be educated by experienced people who understand Autism and the needs of the sufferers.

These schools aren't just run by 'teachers'. They are run by specially trained teachers, residential carers, learning support assistants and therapists, who all work closely with parents to achieve the best outcomes for the child. It's not uncommon for different children to have different levels of autism, or differ in the way they react to certain situations, so it's important that the people in charge of the education of these children are aware of how to react to the different children who attend. Through experience a strategy can be put together for each child to ensure that they receive the maximum benefits from their education.

One thing that Autistic children can suffer with is a lack of confidence, and by attending a school that is focused on the needs of an autistic child, they can participate in exercises that can help them to interact with people, take on challenges and generally become more confident in their abilities to respond to situations that arise as part of growing up in todays world.

Specialist education provides the care, attention and understanding that normal schools cannot provide. The responsibility of a standard school is to provide pupils with curriculum based education and it has been proven that in most cases this just does not work for autistic children.

In summary, the specialist schools that are available for autistic children provide them with a foundation and framework to learn, adapt to real life situations, interact with like-minded children and prepare themselves for the coping with their condition in the real world.

Based in Derbyshire, High Grange is a Specialist Autism School for Young People with Autistic Spectrum.

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Can a Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Be Used by Special Education Personnel to Help My Child

Are you the parent of a young child who you believe has Autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder(PDD)? Are special education personnel in your district refusing to acknowledge this diagnosis, despite a lot of evidence? Many school districts refuse to admit that a child has autism, because they do not want to provide the special education and related services that a child needs! But this tool can be used by special education personnel to see if your child has autism.

Below are 9 things that you must know about the ADOS:

1. Purpose: Allows an accurate diagnosis of autism and pervasive developmental disorder

2. Can be used for children who are 2 years up to adulthood.

3. Takes 30-45 minutes for a qualified examiner to use this tool.

4. The person using the tool must have prior education, training, and experience in using this type of diagnostic took. They must also have extensive experience with autism and PDD!

5. The person using the tool must take a clinical training workshop, and at the end receive a certificate of completion. Be sure and check that any special education personnel using this tool, has a certificate of completion.

6. Person should have at least 8 practice sessions to make sure that they are familiar with this diagnostic tool.

7. Typically the people who are using this tool are Doctors, Clinical Psychologists, School Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, Certified Occupational Therapists etc.

8. While this is not an objective test it is far from subjective. The ADOS is a schedule of observations which has been developed over several decades and has been found to be effective!

9. This tool should be used in conjunction with other rating scales, such as the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)! A full developmental history of the child, a medical history, developmental and academic evaluations, testing of adaptive functioning, and information on the child's sensory integration function, should also be included. As well as Speech Language evaluation and Occupational Therapy evaluations if needed.

Parents can become very frustrated with school districts who refuse to acknowledge that their child has Autism! A private independent evaluator who is trained can also do the ADOS on your child, so you do not have to depend only on school district personnel. Bring any private evaluations to special education personnel and they must consider the results! Keep fighting your child is worth it!

JoAnn Collins is the mother of two adults with disabilities, and has helped families navigate the special eduation system, as an advocate, for over 15 years. She is a presenter and author of the book "Disability Deception; Lies Disability Educators Tell and How Parents Can Beat Them at Their Own Game." The book has a lot of resources and information to help parents fight for an appropriate education for their child. For a free E newsletter entitled "The Special Education Spotlight" send an E mail to: JoAnn@disabilitydeception.com. For more information on the book, testimonials about the book, and a link to more articles go to: http://www.disabilitydeception.com

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Back to School Routines for Special Needs Parents

Children with ADD, ADHD, autism, learning disabilities and other special needs often have difficulty with the social or academic aspects of school and they can be reluctant to return to the demands of the educational environment. Parents who build in support with routines established and maintained during the summer help their child feel safe and secure as they venture back to the world of school and friendships.

Begin the transition process early

At least a month in advance, show your child on the calendar when school will start. Include a little drawing of something that symbolizes fun to your child, such as a kickball or an artist's palette-something that he connects with school.

Back plan from that date, writing into the calendar times to go shopping for clothes, school supplies, and a cool new book bag.

Also plan ahead for end of summer fun experiences such as a day at the beach or a barbeque with friends. Be sure your child knows these great events are coming up and looks forward to them.

In fact, start this year by establishing a special celebratory event as an end-of-the-summer-custom that will ease your child's transition back to school in the years to come!

Remind your child of some favorite fall activities such as football games, apple picking and Halloween, and connect the return to school with these favorite activities.

While you're looking at the calendar, be sure to show your child times for relaxing and being with family and friends, such as weekends and holidays.

Children need routines to be at their best

We often relax bedtimes and other routines during the summer, but August is the perfect month to begin the gradual transition back to the structure of academic life.

Start now to put more structure into the schedule-don't wait until the week before school resumes, or your child will have much greater difficulty getting into the flow.

Make bedtime a bit earlier each week, until your child is going to bed at the "school bedtime" by the third week of August-children's bodies need to make the new bedtime a habit in order to adapt and be ready for learning.

Be sure to have structured academic time each day. This can be a couple of hours in the morning or in the afternoon, but it's important to give your child the structure of learning. Making academic gains is often more difficult for our kids-they can't afford to fall behind. For tips on fun ways to practice academic skills (at any time of year!) download free audio files from my website.

Be sure to discuss the structure that will be in place for homework time when school starts. Before school starts is a good time to talk with your child about the homework rules of the house. It's best to develop these rules in collaboration with your child so you both feel they are fair. Discuss homework time as part of your child's job as a student.

It is vital to find a few moments everyday to give each of your children undivided special attention. Treat yourself and your child to exclusive, one-on-one time together each day. Develop joint interests and pursue them passionately.

Children with special needs can be fearful and uncomfortable with transitions, making it important for parents to give special consideration and care to the back to school season! With careful attention to routines and advance planning, our kids can handle transitions with calm security.

Dr. Kari Miller is a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Director of Miller Educational Excellence, Educational Therapy in Los Angeles. She began her career almost twenty-five years ago as a special education resource teacher. She has worked with students in a vast array of capacities, including special education teacher and educational therapist. Dr. Miller has a PhD in Educational Psychology and Mathematical Statistics, a master's degree in Learning Disabilities, Gifted Education and Educational Diagnosis, and a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education and Behavior Disorders.

To contact Dr. Miller
Email: klmiller555@sbcglobal.net
Website: http://www.millereducationalexcellence.com
Phone: 310-280-9813

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