21 Insights to Support and Connect with Your Autistic Child
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About this ebook
Have you been told that your child has autism? If so, you are not alone. The most recent statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2013 indicate that 1 in every 88 children are on the spectrum. This number is up from 1 in 150 children in the year 2000. While the cause of this rise remains under speculation, the prevalence indicates that many families are faced with the same challenges and questions you may have. As the statistics of children diagnosed with autism continue to rise, the information available on the internet also increases. Wading through the masses of information on the internet can be staggering and time consuming. This book will empower you with the information you need.
Although each child with autism is different, the overall challenges, struggles and needs remain the same. In this book, Angela helps you understand early on how to help and support your child, as well as get the help and support that you need. The information is empowering and the professional jargon is left out. Angela’s personal advice and understanding is contained in these pages to help you cope and succeed in the years to come. Within this book, you will find an introduction to autism, what you can expect and common difficulties experienced in the areas of communication, socialization, behaviors and sensory issues. Angela teaches you how to support each area in the home and shows you how to develop unique parenting skills needed to successfully communicate with your child. You will be able to measure success, pinpoint common mistakes and successfully connect to the best support agencies, service providers and parent support groups.
About the Author:
Angela Saunders has been a specialist in the field of Autism, Deafness, and Mental Retardation for 20 years. She holds a dual bachelor’s Degree in both Deafness and Mental Retardation. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and is completing her PhD in Special Education Administration. She has a National Board Certification as an Exceptional Needs Specialist for children with varying and multiple disabilities. Ms. Saunders coordinated and led a national program for children with deafness and autism for 11 years. She has been a national and international speaker on many topics related to Autism and Deafness and is passionate about educating people about these disabilities.
Join Angela on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Passion4asd
Learn more at http://www.21bookseries.com
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21 Insights to Support and Connect with Your Autistic Child - Angela Saunders
Dedication
This book is dedicated with love to Bryan F., Stephen D., and all of the wonderfully Autistic children that hold a piece of my heart.
A special thank you to Mary Ann Muensterman, O.T., and Barbara Sackett, S.L.P., for their input, support for this project, and their love of the special children that we share.
Introduction
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You have been told that your child has autism. You are not alone. The most recent statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2013 indicate that 1 in every 88 children are on the spectrum. This number is up from 1 in 150 children in the year 2000. While the cause of this rise remains under speculation, the prevalence indicates that many families are faced with the same challenges and questions you may have. Every parent holds unspoken dreams for their child and who they may become. A diagnosis of autism can be frightening and may shatter some of those dreams lying just below the surface. Many questions may be going through your mind that include thoughts of; what will my child need? Where can I turn? Who can help? Will my child ever...? How will I..?. The list may go on. This response is normal and is a healthy part of acceptance while moving you forward to understand and support your child’s growth and development.
Autism is a spectrum
disorder. This means that there is a very wide range of abilities and needs within a single diagnosis. One individual on the spectrum may never learn to communicate or function independently, while another may show very high levels of intelligence and may go on to obtain a doctoral degree and be able to function normally within society. However, these individuals share characteristics that have led to their diagnosis. These characteristics include difficulties with, or unusual patterns of communication, difficulties understanding social skills, and unusual or difficult patterns of behavior. These characteristics may be noted the first year of life, however, typically they become pronounced between the ages of 18 months and 3 years. Autism is not a disability that can be seen through a blood test, x-ray, CT scan, or other test. A medical or educational professional may have asked you to fill out a yes or no checklist that asked questions about your child’s functioning as well as questions about the child’s overall early development. Based on observations of your child’s patterns of behavior, interactions, and communication, a determination of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is made. This is a true disorder. It is not a result of poor parenting skills, or something you did or did not do during pregnancy or infancy. While much research is being done on why the prevalence is increasing, the cause is undetermined at this time. There are, however, things that you can do as a parent to understand and maximize your child’s abilities as an individual.
This book does not contain all of the answers. This is a starting point. These 21 chapters will address some of the challenges that are common to parents with autistic children. It will empower you with information and resources to establish healthy patterns in the home as you move forward and grow with your child.
1 – What to Expect
While children with autism individually demonstrate as much variance as the clouds in the sky, they share some commonalities. These characteristics include difficulties in the areas of communication, social skills, and behavior. Many of these children also show differences in the way they interpret sensory information. These areas are important parts of our lives that are taken for granted when we interact with people on a daily basis. In normal development, a child learns to take in information from the environment by watching interactions between parents, siblings, and caregivers. They begin to copy those interactions while picking up on subtle cues of amusement, approval, disapproval that can be heard in voice tones and read on faces. The child then changes or continues mimicking based on these cues. This environmental information and social reinforcement helps a normally developing child to learn appropriate interactions. A child with ASD has significant difficulty interpreting environmental cues. This difficulty may manifest itself as a complete withdrawal from contact, self-stimulating behaviors such as rocking/twirling, fixating on objects rather than seeking contact, repeating words or phrases in strange contexts, and/or interacting in a seemingly very self-absorbed manner about narrow topics of interests.
One of the first concerns that parents may notice in children is what appears to be a deficit either in hearing or in vision as a child does not focus on faces or respond normally to noises. Imagine looking at a computer screen with data coding of ones and zeros continually flowing and being asked to interpret the information. Watching it for too long becomes overwhelming and the meaning never becomes clear. For many children with autism, reading faces may present the same scenario, as they are overloaded with information with hidden meanings. Eye contact may be minimal or non-existent. For some autistic individuals, too much sound or too many words may have the same effect. In both cases, information becomes overwhelming and comprehension becomes suppressed by the overload. They shut out surrounding noise and focus on an