Snow24:

Hi


How do we teach ASD child comprehension? Usually child want to read the passage from A-Z. How to guide or help him learn the strategy to find answer for the comprehension questions?

Hi

How do u teach a asd 5-6 years old to independently take own dinner, shower without the need to have an adult to keep reminding him or to assist him to finish dinner and shower. Child eat very slowly and likes to play water very long if left unsupervised or unassisted.

Hi Snow,

Let me try to best answer your question.

Comprehension
There is a few ways to go about it. First you do want to make sure that the child has the vocab for the words that is in the sentence or passage. We have a drill call \"Reading for meaning\" where we will write out a simple sentence and get the child to match to the appropriate picture. For example your sentence may be \"The boy is kicking a ball\". you will have a few pictures in front of your child and he is to pick up the right one. You can also make it harder by having very similar pictures such that your child will have to understand every word in the sentence in order to get it. For example, you can have 3 pictures:

1st pic: Boy holding onto a ball
2nd pic: Girl kicking a ball
3rd pic: Boy kicking a ball

So you will need to find pictures that target the words and sentences you will like to teach your child. You can also make it fun by having a treasure hunt. The clues are written down and your child will need to use these clues to help find the \"treasure\"

After getting through this stage (or concurrently), you will like to teach the WH concepts, meaning \"Who\", \"What\", \"Where\" and \"When\" so that the child is able to answer questions in English Comprehension. Start off with simple sentences in the following progression:

\"The boy was eating\"
\"The boy was eating an apple\"
\"The boy was eating an apple in the canteen\"
\"The boy was eating an apple in the canteen on Tuesday\"
\"On Tuesday, the boy ate an apple in the canteen\"

For the last sentence, it is to make sure that the child is not answering the question based on the placement of the words.

To find answer for a question in a passage, you can try teaching some strategies like identifying keywords and the sequence of the question may determine where you should look for the answer (usually the 1st question is found in the 1st few paragraphs).

Independence
I will recommend a visual method in terms of a schedule where your child will get to see the sequence of events. For example, shower, have lunch, go homework etc.

What i meant by visuals is whereby you will take a picture of him doing the activity and pasted it on a wall like a form of timetable starting from the top. He will need to follow the pictures one by one. Prompting if necessarily initially to get him to refer to the schedule. Try to prompt non verbally. Just direct his attention to the schedule.

You can try using the timer to limit the time he spends in the bathroom. Communicate to him how long he has and when it ticks, you will have to ask him to be out of the bathroom. If your child is able to tell the time, you can simply communicate to him what time is he supposed to be out of the bathroom. You may also want to put an activity that he look forward to doing after shower time and communicate to him that if he exceeds the time taken to bath, he may have less time for the next activity.

As i do not know the functioning level of your child at this point of time, i am unable to give you very precise recommendations and suggestions. I hope i was able to give you some ideas to help your child.

ImMeeMee:

Snow24:

Hi


How do you teach gesturing and pointing to non verbal asd toddler?

Need to teach child how to request for help.

Go back to basics. Find something (toy or food) that the child likes and hold it in front of the child.
1. Model for the child by pointing at the object to teach the meaning of point.
2. Hold the child's hand to point at the item, while at the same time saying 'Point' so that the child learns the meaning of the word.
3. Slowly let the child point first before letting him/her get the object.

Hope this helps.

I very much agree to the recommended method. i will add on a few more tips that may help.

1. Choosing the reinforcer (highly desirable item) is important. It should be something that the child wants very much as the process of shaping the behaviour of pointing may cause the child to give up all together if the reinforcer is not strong enough.
2. I will hold up 2 items instead of 1 so that we do not shape the child to point to whatever item that is in our hands but rather point to the item that he or she will like to request for.
3. Your child will probably reach out for the item initially instead of pointing to it. At this point, get someone to shape the pointing behaviour from behind (behind the child). Initially, it is ok to let the child touch the item (with his/her index finger).
4. Once he/she touches it, give the item to the child. Do not give it for too long so that we know the child still wants it. If it is food, just give a small piece of it.
5. The key is to repeat these steps immediately, by holding up 2 items, in hope that the child will point. The reason why we need to do it immediately is so that the memory of us shaping him to point is still fresh in his head. If we were to do it in long intervals, the child might have forgotten what was being taught to him. Don't be discouraged if your child did not do it. It will take a couple of repetitions.
6. Once your child understands that by touching the item with his/her index finger gets him/her the item, then move slightly further away from child and repeat the same process whereby it is not within the reach.
7. As he is pointing towards the direction of the item, give the item to him

I may or may not use the word \"point\" as some children may associate the word point with the item instead of the action. So this depends the functioning level of your child. Also children with echolia may use the word \"point\" instead of \"i want ____\" to request if too many repetitions are being done.

Hope it helps

Liyuan
Programme Manager AutismSTEP
http://www.autismstep.com

Snow24:

Dear all

My son is 4.5 years old.I reminded him to stay in the classroom before he goes for the lesson. However,he still leave the classroom many times without permission and the teacher has to bring him.back to the classroom which irritate the teacher.

1 to 1 Sped lesson or ABA class would it helps him to learn how to behave and not leave class in a group setting ?

Any recommendation on 1 to 1 Sped lesson and ABA class ? What will he learn in the 1 to 1 Sped lesson and ABA class?

For higher functioning children with desire to please, you can try using CBT. Before you implement any strategy, do try to find out the reason why is he leaving the class room. Boredom? not aware of class room rules? trying to get a reaction from the teacher? (some children like to see the annoyed face) wanting to predict the action of the teacher? etc.

Below are some of the methods i will use, but again, it depends on the reason why is he doing it.

Social story
Lots of example of social story. A few rule of thumb when writing a social story
- Simple
- Use \"I\" or name of child
- Be positive
- Keep it short
- Work on one behavior that you like to change at a time

Not too long ago, a study have shown that social story does not work unless there is a role play that is done together with it. So do role play with your child.

Cool/Silly dude
It is simple to do. Just have a piece of paper, write down a heading on the top centre (eg. In the classroom). Divide up the piece of paper into half and on the left, write down \"cool dude\" (with a smiley if the child does not understand the word \"cool\") and \"silly dude\" on the right (draw a unhappy face if needed). Get the child to come up with some of the good and bad behaviors in the classroom. Use this as a visual reminder for the child. We always try to use visual prompt as compared to verbal prompts as visual prompts are easier to fade.

Reward/token system
Can use it together with Cool/Silly dude. You probably need the help of the teacher to help you reward your child with the tokens each time he does not move out of the classroom. Use the piece of paper you done earlier for cool/silly dude as the target behaviors. Token system will only work if the desire to have the reward after getting all the token is more than that of the desire to go out of the classroom. Do also choose a reward that you can give to the child immediately. This part is tricky as your child is still in class and there may be lots of things that are inappropriate to be given in the classroom. You will really need the help of the teachers for this.

Incident Report
If the teacher were to punish him, do a incident report on it. Basically is asking about the different WH questions. From this, you may get to find out why is he going out of the classroom all the time. Then ask about how he feel and if he think it is right. If he think that it is not right, then the next question is what should be do instead the next time. Write all these down on a piece of paper and paste in somewhere that he can see it all the time.

These are some methods. Hope it will help you with the behavior

Liyuan
http://www.autismstep.com

Double E:

tyeogh:

By \"very reluctantly\", I mean kicking and screaming. I even wrote to their principal to complain how narrow minded they are when they insisted on parental involvement and zero transport assistance. I guess we parents of sped kids have thick hides..... :evil:

Yeah, I think is unreasonable to insist parental involvement during lessons. Parents have to work to pay for the therapies! They could have been more hardworking eg. take videos during lesson and send to parents or write notes in communication book to update parents what was done in the class and what should be reinforced at home.

I do understand why the school insist on parental involvement. Equipping parents and care giver with the skills to handle the child and in a inconsistent way as that of the school is important. So getting parental involvement during lesson act as a training ground to allow parents to see how teaching is done, behaviors are managed, obsession being dealt with and so on.

However i do understand where parents are coming from as therapy are not cheap and it is usually for a prolong period of time. It is always easy for the schools and professionals to say that you need to engage your child but is certainly not easy in Singapore.

I do agree that that there are other ways to do it to equip parents with the necessary skills. One of the things i like to do is to have a team meeting where parents and all the therapists come together and we will discuss on which is the one thing that is of the most concern. We then will brainstorm on a behavioral management strategy for all situations (eg. outdoor, classroom, home etc). We will then all agree on it and manage this one behavior consistently for a start. When parents see that it does make a big difference and improvement, they too will be empowered and will want to handle other behaviors as well. Then we will move on to the next behavior. This help to expose the different behavioral management strategies to parents and through time, they will be able to apply them on other situation as well. This is a suggestion that you can put up for the schools. Though it is not as intense as going to observe the school sessions everyday, it will ultimately reach the same goal of equipping the parents and care giver with the necessary skills and knowledge.

Hope it helps

Liyuan
AutismSTEP.com

Appleworm:

His eye contact is getting better, eg, when we call him he looks at us. don't really request us for things but if he wants something he pulls our hand to take it for him...

he can sing songs (eg. twinkle little star, 123 song etc)
he sings which means he can actually put words together but doesn't really talk and communicate with us.. until I recently force him to learn and say \"give me\" which finally he did...
now we have a placement in rainbow school but his dad is contemplating cos he feels that he is not \"so serious\" and with pte therapy he wil slowly grow out of it...
however I tink I will still proceed with the enrolment.

Hi Appleworm,

Great to hear that his eye contact is improving. One of the ways i like to use to get better eye contact is that when you are rewarding your child, be it a toy or candy etc, reward it from eye level and hold it up right in between your eye, area above your nose. Once the child look up, then give the reward to the child. The child will then learn that good things come when he or she look at your eye.

For requesting, you can try using the PECs, or compics. It is good that your child knows that he can actually get what he wants by asking for help, but you will want it to be a verbal request. As i am not sure if you child is verbal, there are some slight differences in how you should do it. Have the PECs of the items that he commonly want on a board. Instead of pulling you to what he wants, he should hand you the PEC. Prompt is necessary in the beginning to let him know that he is able to exchange for what he wants if he hand you the appropriate PEC. One very important thing is that remember that you are trying to get him to request. Request are meant to be self initiated. So do not prompt him by asking \"What do you want?\" or something along that line as that wont be requesting any more but merely answering your question. Prompt him non verbally instead. Once he hand you the PEC, do read it for him so that eventually he will just verbalized it when you fade of the PEC.

Hope this helps

Regards,
Liyuan
autismSTEP.com

ImMeeMee:

Nebbermind:

Can ASD be cured?


I got curious and came upon this interesting article on top of the search. Kinda make a lot of sense to me. May not be new to some of you but nevertheless...
[quote]TODAY MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE that Autism is a genetic brain disorder. I’m here to tell you that this isn’t true. The real reason we are seeing increasing rates of autism is simply this: Autism is a systemic body disorder that affects the brain. A toxic environment triggers certain genes in people susceptible to this condition. And research supports this position.

http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/12/can-autism-be-cured/#close

The medical fraternity works on clinical evidence, and it does not recognize that ASD has a cure, since it is not evidence-based yet.

But given that the subject is somewhat grey, and 'cure' and the like takes on different meanings for different individuals, this is subject to interpretation.

For myself, I have long stopped thinking about 'cure'. I think about 'progress'.[/quote]I very much agree with you

Medically at this point, we cannot pin point that one cause for autism, neither do we know the cure. But researches have shown that some methods and interventions have help the people with autism to improve. Many of the parents that i have met are very dejected that their child has not been able to grow out of autism. I always encourage them to look back to where we started off and where is the kid now. By looking back at the starting line, it may give you more motivation to work towards the finishing line.

Best Regards,
Liyuan
AutismSTEP
http://www.autismstep.com

Often when i have to go into a school setting for any school observations or shadowing, i will always ask for the classroom rules. Also i will always check with school if they are comfortable with my behavioral management strategy. Eg. giving of edibles and also where should i bring the child to if he or she needs to cool down. I will always ask these questions as i understand that they have other parents, shareholders, partners and the public to answer to.


I also know that some school will inform the parents that there will be an outsider that is coming in for school observation or shadowing. I am supportive of that and felt that they do have a right to know who is teaching, interacting and even present in the classroom of their child.

Liyuan
AutismSTEP
http://www.autismstep.com

dreamy79:

Hi


i'm new here. i have a son 3.5 years old being diagnosed mild autistic. to me he doesn't have any issue other than behavioural issues. Have been sending him to rainbow centre for 2 hours lessons 3 times a week.
Can i know what's the ABA therapy that i have been reading in this forum? is it good for behavioural issues kids? roughly hw much will it cost and which provider is good?
Sigh his mainstream CC has been feedback he's quite disruptive in class really worried they'll kick him out, he love the CC and the teacher and friends there. Any advice?

As ABA uses the theory of behaviorism, it focuses on observable behaviors and make constructive changes to these behaviors. You can think of ABA like pairing a behavior with a consequence. You will want to pair a behavior that you will like to promote or will like the child to do it again with a positive consequence and vice versa for a behavior that you will like to change. Under the theory of behaviorism, the probability of a behavior happening again will be higher if it has been paired with a positive consequence and lower if it was paired with a negative consequence. So ABA focuses very much on changing behaviours

The cost of the therapy will depend on the intensity. Therapy are usually charged base on per hour basis and for ABA. You need at least 6 to 10 hours of therapy at the start of the program to see improvement. Recommended for best performance is 30 hours a week of therapy. ABA is a method and it can be applied during everyday life like in the playground, eating, taking the bus. So it does not mean that you have to have a therapist in for 30 hours a week as long as you are able to grasp the concept of ABA and apply it yourself in your child's everyday life.

The rate of improvement depends on a couple of factors like the functioning level of your child to start off with, the intensity of the therapy, the consistency of what you are doing at home and with that of the therapists and the age of intervention of the child.

You can request to sit in and see for yourself what are the disruptive behaviors. Check if these behaviors happen as home as well. Design a behavioral management strategy by listing down what is the antecedent, behavior and consequence that you will like to give. Then administer this strategy and see if it helps. It is not easy to come up with the \"right\" consequence initially but just change your consequence once you feel that it is not working. You can also ask the teachers for their opinion and have a consistent way of handling the behavior both in sch and at home. The school will feel that you are also making an effort on your end and may be more willing to be more accepting of the disruptive behaviors.

Hope it helps
Liyuan
http://www.autismstep.com

humpty:

Hi


I am new to this forum and would like to say Hi! to all the mummies and daddies here!

I've got a boy who is 4yo and seems to be possible ASD. I'm now trying to teach him to sit still in class. He is now in full day child care and they have lessons that require the children to sit within a pre-defined square on the floor. My boy has trouble respecting this rule when the lesson doesn't appeal to him (e.g. chinese class). And he will start to wander around the room and play with the books/toys. The teachers have tried all means and ways to get him to join the class or at least just sit within the box...but he won't comply. None of the other children have this issue. And they are saying that by this age, they should be able to understand the class rules and the consequences of not doing so... My son is constantly in a \"war\" with the teachers about this. They think they he is not obeying authority and is disruptive to the class which often results in lose-lose outcomes on for both the teachers and my son...

I'm wondering how to teach him to do so... any ideas? It's causing him to be cast as a \"misfit\" even by the other children. So it's quite a serious problem when he doesn't follow the social norms of the classroom...

Is there OT that can teach this to children? And if so, what do they do? What are strategies that we can use to get him to sit still even when he is not engaged in the activity? He does really well for his favourite classes/teachers and can complete tasks and sit with full attention... only when he is bored (e.g. chinese...)

I agree very much with couragemom. For sitting behavior, token economy will probably work well. Have the visual of the target behavior (good sitting in this case) on a token economy. Allow your boy to choose the reward that he will like to work for. Each time he is seated nicely, give him a token. If he is not sitting well, point to the picture of good sitting on the token economy to remind him. I always recommend using visual prompts instead of verbal prompts (eg. \"David, sit nicely\") as visual prompts are much easier to fade. Start off with 3 or 4 tokens to work for to get his reward and you will probably need to reward fast initially. You will want the child to be able to get the reward that he chose. To increase the duration of him being able to sit nicely without reinforcement, you can either increase the number of tokens to work for before he gets his reward, or slow down the rate at which tokens are given to him. Do not give tokens at a fix interval. You will want to reward him intermittently so that he is unable to predict when will the token be given. The skinner box experiment tells you why must you reward intermittently and not on a fix schedule. The image below is an example of a token economy.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s71/xstacle/TE.jpg\">[/URL]
You can also use a mat (like what couragemom mentioned). This will denote the space that he is suppose to sit within. But do remember that ultimately, your aim is to fade the mat and him being able to sit nicely without having a prompt to denote his space. So do fade the mat when you see that he is able to sit better

Hope it helps
Liyuan
http://www.autismstep.com

I have wrote a program for a child who requires toilet training some time ago. This is just for reference as this program is written for the child and every child is unique and different. This program is for children that generally takes a longer time to grasp a concept.


Below is the link for the flowchart and some instructions
http://www.autismstep.com/?p=1530
http://www.autismstep.com/?p=1529

Hope this can give you some ideas on how to set up your own toilet training program

Best Regards,
Liyuan
http://www.autismSTEP.com