Archive for the ‘autism’ Category
September 20th, 2009 | 
Author: I am a preschool teacher in an integrated childcare centre, and I have a child with autism in my class. I have never worked closely with a child with autism before, and he seems to have trouble managing his behaviour. He mainly hits, kicks, and pushes the other children. What strategies can I use to help him learn other methods of expressing his upset with the other children?
I would use a social story with him…..they are simple short stories that help the child learn to self monitor his behavior. I would also try a token system of reinforcement, something that you can show him easily and discreetly to let him know that he is displaying appropriate behavior, keeping hands and feet to self, for a small discreet reward. If he does start to have a tantrum or start to display negative behaviors and can’t calm down try removing him from the situation, and letting him have a small area, "break room" where he can deal with his frustrations. hope this helps, i included links for information on social stories.
http://autism.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/f/socialstorydef.htm
http://www.polyxo.com/socialstories/
http://www.autism.org/stories.html
Posted in 
My brother showed many signs of Autism as a child and my mother neglected us so he never got diagnosed. The school labeled him ADHD but now that I’m an adult I see that his behavior was not ADHD at all. I am pretty convinced he has either Autism or Aspergers. (sp?) This is the first opportunity we’ve had to get him some answers because our biological mother is finally out of the picture. He is 19. If anyone has any help that would be great!
Is he interested in being evaluated? As an adult, this will need to be his choice. Besides that, this is difficult to answer as it wasn’t mentioned whether he has insurance or not. If he does, the first step would be to obtain a list of mental health providers who do evaluations from the insurance company. If he has managed care, you’d need a referral from his primary care physician.
If he does not have insurance, you’ll need to do some research on mental health clinics in the area. He’s still under 21, so if you can locate something like a Child Development Clinic, they would be able to evaluate and diagnose. Some avenues to look into for a clinic would be local hospitals and universities. Googling is also a great resource. Just google your city/state and autism diagnosis, treatment, etc. Just know that without insurance, these evaluations can be expensive.
good luck!
As in, they already had children without autism, then they have a child with autism. How do the parenting skills change?
Im 14 years old. I have a brother and he is autistic and he is 13. I know from seeing them all the time that autism can make the parents life so much more stressful (including mine). But, i know patience is a big thing that changes when they had my brother. My dad isnt very good with that but i know my mom sure is. I mean, my brother is pretty smart (above the average smartness level of autism), he can read, write, spell, and do math. I know that having an autistic brother changed me completely, without him, i totally would look at life so much differently. It makes me appreciate autistic people and mentally challenged people way more than i would if i didnt have my brother. Also, ive been thinking of becoming a special teacher. But yeah, back to topic [lol] parenting skills change by having A L O T more patience, and idk but its hard and i give anybody who has an autistic child [including my parents] alot of credit, it is alot harder than people think.
hope this helped 
My friends and I are doing a community service project to spread awareness about autism. We are planning a roving carnival, with game stations that children can take part in to learn about autism. Basically we just wanna let them understand how it’s like to be autistic, or to learn more about autism through the game. Currently the only game we can come up with is Charades. The kids range from 7 years old to 12.
Do you guys have any suggestions for games?
Another game that could be fan and shows again how difficult can be to communicate something, is the following:
- Place small items like a clothes pin, a key, a battery, a ring, etc each in a small cotton fabric bag (you need to make these) of the same color and tie them shut.
- Make two identical bags of each item. And have the kids in two teams. Each kid gets one of the bags. S/he needs to feel what is inside the bag and then describe it to the team-mates without using the name of the item. Example: Key – it is made of metal, can be used to open a door, has teeth, etc.
- Time them. The least time to guess gets a higher score.
This will show kids how people with autism can sometimes create a mental image of something (thinking in pictures) but it is hard to communicate (put into words) what it is they "see" in their mind.
Since the kids do not see item but visualize it through the sense of touch, they create a 3-D mental image of the item, which is similar of how an autistic person will think of an item before communication what they are thinking in words, describing the mental image, is the hardest part, and that is why the speech of many autistic kids is so fragmented because they are describing a mental 3-D image into 2-D words…
Once you have made these little bags with the items, you can use them again and again. If they get dirty just put them in a pilowcase and wash them in the washing machine.
Good luck!
Doctor states child is autistic, school says chld has autism spectrum disorder?? What is the difference? Can medication help with any of this?
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a general term that includes Autism, Asperger Syndrome, PPD-NOS and others. The reason they used different terms is that the Dr. gave you a specific diagnosis of Autism, but the school can only determine eligibility for special services. Sometimes schools refer to it as "autism like behavior).
Medication is sometimes used to help an issue caused by the autism, say anxiety, but there is no pill to cure it like an antibiotic will cure an infection. It’s closer to say that individuals with autism learn to manage their condition. This is done through learning the skills needed to overcome their individual deficits. IMO unless there is a physical danger, it’s best to save medication to control behaviors as a last resort. Much better to teach the person through therapies, love and patience more appropriate behaviors.
Right now the best thing you can do is to educate yourself about autism and the different treatment/therapy options that are out there. There is no one size fits all treatment plan. Every person is different. You are a full member of your child’s’ team and the best expert on him there is. You need to help the development of an appropriate plan because you are the constant in the different areas of his life (school, home, activities) and get the big picture.
Best of luck- it is an interesting, exasperating, exhilarating e-ticket ride!
mom of 2 on the spectrum
Not that I don’t appreciate it, but where have you been for the last eight years? And does anyone know where Sarah Palin’s newfound expertise in autism comes from? Down Syndrome and autism are apples and oranges, and I can promise you, Sarah Palin is never going to have to fight for services for her child.
My daughter is a special ed teacher who evaluates and implements individual instruction plans at an elementary school. She told me about Obama nearly 2 years ago when she volunteered to work his campaign. Her only goal in life is the betterment of kids who don’t have the same abilities as everyone else. Like she says, you can anyone, but it takes a bit more imagination to break through to some kids. Since she believe in children as much or more than anyone I know, I am following her lead on this.
McCain has adapted his words and campaign to what has been successful for Obama I’ve noticed. After the polls showed huge upticks with Obama’s "change", McCain decided to become a Maverick, etc. Of course, the GOP wants to cut school spending, it’s always been a party mandate.
I work with people with learning difficulties and i’ve always wondered why two of the people I teach with severe autism have dysmorpic facial features, and the other people with servere autism look normal!
How does this work?
Some people diagnosed with autism also have a genetic syndrome called Fragile X. Fragile X Syndrome is one of the few genetically inherited syndromes that has been known to actually CAUSE autism.
In laments terms, Fragile X syndrome occurs during gestation.. where the X chromosome blocks important brain development.
Studies in psychiatric journals in the early 90s showed a link between autism and feminism.
The rise in autism has been attributed to women with masculine minds marrying men with masculine minds, leading to children with hyper masculine minds.
Furthermore a link has been shown to exist between autism and women and the diagnostic criteria for autism.
A study tested 4200 women at the University of New Hampshire. 677 women tested scored highly on the feminist belief scale, or feministic scale.
254 out of 677 women who scored highly on the feministic scale also ranked highly in restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities. Usually their obsession focused around feminist issues whether real or contrived.
107 of the 677 women scored low on the qualitative social interaction scale.
430 out of the 677 women who scored highly on the feministic scale also scored highly on the masculine personality type scale.
Do you know any autistic feminists?
This study was in a 1992 Issue of the Journal of Applied Psychiatric Medicine so you can look it up yourself if you like.
If a web link is absolutely necessary:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=477153&in_page_id=1879&ito=1490
Anna you are correct, and you can be correct about more males being diagnosed with autism than females but that still does not have any relevance to the high rate of autism among feminists, a subset of women rather than all women, as noted in the study only a minority of the women tested actually scored highly on the feministic scale.
The ‘ Hyper-Masculine Mind’ is a working hypothesis of neurobiology wendy g. Furthermore you appear to have a rather obsessive need to prove yourself right. Perhaps caused by low self esteem, but nevertheless obsessive. Are you a feminist who has been diagnosed with autism by any chance? At the very least I would suggest that any children you have should be submitted for possible diagnosis immediately.
Actually, Wendy G., the " hyper- masculine mind " concept is more than conjecture. It is a working hypothesis of neurobiology.
Not that that has much to do with the rather stretched claims of the questioner.
Inside a special needs magazine there is a separate category and section for autism vs. mental retardation. What are the differences between these disorders? I had thought they were the same thing.
It is quite wrong to say that the vast majority of people with autism are also mentally retarded when quite the opposite is true. It is people who are incredibly intelligent who are more susceptible to being affected by autism because they are more sensitive to toxins in the environment, which triggers autism. Autism is like a barrier, a wall making it difficult for people with autism to express themselves. When people can’t express themselves properly it is very frustrating for them and children who are affected often tantrum. My daughter has high functioning autism and gets straight A’s in school. She won’t look you in the eye though or have a long conversation with you because autism is in her way. I can assure you there is no mental retardation there. She is brilliant…knew all her states and capitals before she was 2 and could read at age 3 and this is just for starters.
I’ve got high functioning autism and i have got friends with Asbergers. Asbergers is a form of autism but what is the actual difference between the both?
Asperger’s is a certain type of high fnctioning autism. It has distinct signs in males and females. One person with it might be a compulsive liar who hates people and studies science, while another person might be a writer who loves people and can’t hold interest in just one subject all the time, but many. They can get along with people if they have to, and some really want to. They probably have high iqs or above average. They obsess on things in a manner similar to those with autism, but they have more ability to act on their ideas and feelings, as they are more in tune with those. They are overwhelmed by them sometimes, but not as much as someone with just autism, who might throw a fit instead of say, skip class or tell someone off. They are usually perceived as aloof, but some can be seen as too friendly. They can be childlike, but also too old if that makes sense. They revert back to childlke behaviors when facing unknown problems.
High functioning autism…I’m going to say the people with that might not have genius iqs, but they might have above average or normal, and interact differently with people. They are usually very sweet ALL the time, and not always aware of when people are making fun of them, unlike an Aspie who figures it out. This doesn’t mean they don’t sometimes realize it. They might not even care when someone does it coz they aren’t thinking like it matters. They are in their own world more. They usually are very good at one or two things that will be their FAVORITE things they always talk about and do things about. I usually see high functionings as very sweet and always wanting to be nice or have others be nice. They don’t seem to think about mean stuff or worry about what others are going to do, because they have their own thing.
I don’t know if you find this true at all. Every one is different with their own personality, and can be a slight bit higher or lower on the scale.
A clinician, or a search on Google for the definitions and diagnostics, might help you more. Thought i’d give a personal perspective.