Autistic
Autistic questions and answers
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Q: autistic??
my 5 year old cousin is autistic, and i fly out at 6 AM tomorrow morning to spend 2 weeks with them. i've only spent about 2 days with them since he was diagnosed... what should i expect?
A: Talk to his parents first. Ask them what to expect and what his likes/dislikes are. Every child with autism is different, so your question can have an infinite number of answers.
Generally children with autism "don't get" social situations. He may completly withdraw because you're unfamiliar and his routine has been disrupted.
His communication skills will be impaired, and his understanding of what you say will likely not be that of a typical 5 yr old. In that same vein, he may communicate with "scripts", pre-set lines of speech either learned from home or from cartoons, videos, movies, that he uses to communicate. Unless you're familiar with his style, it might not make sense. Example: my daughter, when she was mad, sad, or hurt, would say "I need to go to the hospital" It took me a month to figure out she was referencing Roller Coaster Tycoon II. When people went into the hospital, they would come out with a happy face! She was trying to communicate but I had to decode the message.
Finally he might repeat the same actions over and over, whether it's lining up his hot wheels cars in endless lines around the house, or performing the same sequence from a movie over and over. These are usually "stimming" type activities. Just like typical people do things to relax or feel a sense of control, like chew gum, doodle while on the phone, twirl their hair, or clean the kitchen (regaining control) so do people with autism. When my daughter was having anxiety about changes around her, she would start obsessively lining things up. Her way of gaining control of her environment.
Good luck and have a great visit. His parents and any siblings should be able to help you navigate anything that comes up.
Q: Is it possible to have some autistic features without having an autistic spectrum disorder?
I've sometimes suspected that I have Asperger syndrome, so yesterday I took an online assessment that was developed by experts at Cambridge University. I scored a 29, which is above average, but I read that people with Asperger syndrome normally have a score of 35 or above. Is it possible to have autistic features without having Asperger syndrome or any of the other autistic spectrum disorders?
I have actually been diagnosed with ADHD.
A: Yes I believe you can. Actually, I think many people possess at least some small trait of the autistic type, with the probable exception of hard line extroverts. The funny thing is that when circumstances are going well the traits seem to subside and even disappear.
I am [as you may also be] a borderline case, a mild aspie. Most people dont seem to notice as I can cover it pretty well but when someone does, they just seem to put it down to shyness, awkwardness, strangeness, arrogance and/or lack of social confidence.. which in some respect I guess it probably is. I however never mention it in my daily life.
I think the key for an aspie to coping well in groups, is to initially stick to talking to one individual at a time. Only once a few have been spoken to [particularly the individuals who others look up to]and a connection made, is it [generally speaking] wise to talk to the group as a whole. The more of a challenge this seems to be the more probable you would be an asperger.
I think part of the problem these days is that when people meet up and socialize, there doesnt seem to be much of an aim or goal other than getting someone into bed. This is fine for social animals. I however would feel much more comfortable in a group when there is a clear task to carry out like hunting, planning a protest and generally anything which requires belief, focus and resolve. In fact, in these situations I actually quite like taking a lead role [my father used to be a navy commander].. Im not sure if this is a feature of classic aspergers.. Sorry about going off on tangents about ME.. I might start to look a little arrogant ..again, sorry.
Getting back to the question, my guess is that you are just about where the test tells you you are. Not aspergic but with some mild features. I have not done that particular test myself, but any one that I have taken I come out almost exactly about the cutoff point [35 in this case].. Although I have to admit some of those tests are a little difficult to do accurately and purely honestly as one can sometimes have the mindset either to prove or disprove that they have it.
As for ADHD I know very little about it. All I know is that when I fell asleep in class I put it down to boring subjects and teachers.. I dont doubt the doctors diagnosis but reckon that aspergers has some similar traits. I only study something if I see it as value and not just for the piece of paper that the college gives me after, if you know what I mean. People with that condition often suffer in the education system, even though they may be very clever. But in the end of the day whatever syndromes and disorders we and others label us with, weve all still got the chance to really succeed, most importantly in our own eyes.
Q: What are the challenges of teaching an autistic child?
Lets say there is one autistic child in a class room of non-autistic children. What challenges will the teacher face as she attempts to teach the class as a whole?
A: THere are many challenges for teaching this particular child. One of the first things I will suggest is that you take a course in special ed. children with emphasis on the autistic child. We are now finding more and more children who have this behavioral disorder in our classrooms. I know of a school that has two classrooms of autistic children.
The challenges - staying on a strict schedule with this child is mandatory. Any changes in schedule you will have to prepare this child ahead of time. If you don't you will have a child who can't handle what is coming up.
Don't change anything without preparing him/her first.
You must be consistent with this child.
Different teaching? Somewhat. Talk to your spec. ed. teachers and get more info and how to deal with autistic children.
Knowledge is a GREAT thing!
Good luck to you. You'll do well as you are concerned about all your students - not just one or two.
Q: Where can I work with Autistic kids without a college degree?
I was wondering if there are jobs that don't require a degree to work with autistic kids and still get paid? I enjoy helping people, but I don't want to go to school for 4 years because I've been in school long enough.
A: First, it's great that you want to help kids like mine! Every state has a Community Alternatives Program (CAP) for children and adults with developmental disabilities (like Autism). CAP offers an alternative to institutionalizing these people. In order for the person to remain living at their home, services like speech therapy and in-home caregivers make it possible. My son, age 12, has Autism, is low functioning, and has a caregiver work with him after school and on weekends. They work to meet goals in a written plan, which includes academic, social and self-help skills. These caregivers need only have a high school diploma, but a strong desire to do whatever it takes to help the client and their family. Many caregivers work part time when in a situation like ours, others have 40+ hours weekly with adult clients; some combine 2 clients in order to work full time. Benefits vary among provider companies. The pay ranges from $10 -15.. per hour, depending on experience.
Q: At what age did your autistic child start going to daycare? Were they diagnosed before or after you sent them?
I have a friend who would like to know if day care is ok for their autistic son. He's been going for a while, but he's recently been diagnosed. If you have an autistic child or know someone who does, when did the baby start day care? Has the experience been positive, even though they are autistic?
A: I don't have a child with autism, but my friend has a three - year - old son on the spectrum. He was formally diagnosed at 18 months. Not long after, he started going to a Mother's Day Out program two days per week. He now attends an integrated preschool, I think 5 days per week.
Children with autism are children first and foremost. That means that in addition to therapy services, they need to have the same experiences that ALL children have, such as going to an early learning center/preschool. The world is not going to change for them, so they need to get used to their environment and the world around them. Fortunately, long gone are the days when kids with autism and other disabilities were segregated from the "normal" (whatever that is) children and kept in their own little bubble. By all means, encourage your friend to get her son out into the community, including daycare. Make sure the daycare providers are aware of his diagnosis; a truly educated provider will know how to handle his special needs. And the Americans With Disabilities Act protects her son; it is illegal for a daycare, school, or any other group to refuse to accept him based on his disability.
Your friend's son will always have autism. However, learning to adapt to his surroundings, such as in daycare or nursery school, will help him reach his full potential. In the case of my friend's son, therapy along with attending a warm, nurturing MDO program as a toddler really helped him. He still has many signs of autism, and he always will. But the early experience of interacting with other children has helped him tremendously.
Q: What are some tips when potting training an Autistic toddler?
We have a 3 year old, Autistic son. He cannot talk, and has communications problems. What are some tips on where to start when it comes to potty training? Any personal advice from parents who have Autistic kids?
A: Most spectrum kids are trained between the ages of 4-7. I have 2 sons on the spectrum both are PDD.NOS and were trained at 4, and 33 months. My boys both were trained because they showed extreme readiness. They both would hide for a bm, bring a diaper to me, and disrobe. My younger one is 33m old now and has minimal speech. My older also did not have functional speech. 3 is young, you may want to wait a bit.
Teach him the sign for potty and say it (close your hand making a fist with your thumb underneath your pointer finger and shake back and forth).
Show him the potty seat. We use an insert onto the regular toilet. Sit him on it and sing a little song. I do this every 2 hours to start, now my son requests to go by signing. We sing Joel is sitting on the potty the potty the potty Joel is sitting on the potty because he goes on the potty now. Then we take him off. At first we praise him for sitting on it. Then we praise when he goes, and do nothing when he misses.
We went to straight underwear. The training pants are hard to find in a 4T but found it online at Arctic originals.
Within a few weeks my son is dry at night and naptime. He only goes on our toilet at home and takes off everything to go.
Q: What is the best way to work with autistic kids?
I have been wanting to work with autistic kids since my current age, 13. I want to teach special ed., but specifically work with autistic kids.
A: It is wonderful that you want to work in special ed, especially with autistics!
Here are some things you can do as a teenager to prepare:
Read as much as you can about autism, and other special needs.
Contact the autism parent community in your area and explain who you are, what you have been learning, and that you would like to offer yourself as a babysitter. Show you are serious by being able to give some basic information on autism, sensory integration dysfunction, TEACCH, PECS, Applied Behavior Analysis... and other programs and vocabulary.
Offer to do volunteer work for that parent support group over the summer.
Check with your high school about students as teachers' assistants for single class periods. Ask to have one of your electives be as a teachers' assistant in the self-contained and/or autism programs. Be sure to have discussed this with the teacher in question, first... show what you know, explain your interest, etc.
When you are in your junior/senior years of high school, and in college, work as a summer camp counselor at autism summer camps, and as a volunteer in autism programs both in schools and in your community.
After you graduate high school:
If you have kept your grades up, you can apply to one of the better autism training colleges:
http://edpsych.ed.sc.edu/pse/programs.html
http://www.teacch.com/
Or you can train at your nearest teaching college special education department, making sure to grab lots of human development, psychology, and behavioral courses.
While you are getting your college degree, apply to work as a teacher's assistant or substitute teacher with your nearby school district. That experience can make a huge difference when you finally get your license and your own classroom.
Here's a place or two to start your reading:
http://www.autismweb.com/education.htm
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/autism.index.htm
Q: Is it common for autistic people to have learning disability?
I know there are some autistic people out there that don't have difficulty in learning. I have moderate autism and a learning disability, so I just want to know how common it is for autistic people to have learning disability.
Is there any link between autism and learning disability?
If you have autism, do you have a learning disability and how fast can you learn? If your children has autism, do they have a learning disability and how well can they learn?
A: Yes, but it's impossible to know just how common.
Psychologists will tell you that many autistic students also have learning disabilities. Most commonly, you see learning disabilities in reading comprehension, written expression, and math reasoning for higher functioning autistic students. For others you may also see problems with basic reading (the ability to recognize and pronounce words) or speech and language impairment.
Autistic students might be able to read aloud a text far above their grade level, but be unable to answer comprehension questions about very simple children's books. That would be a learning disability in reading comprehension.
They may be great at arithmetic problems. But if you give one a word problem to see how they come up with a strategy to solve it, they might just add every number mentioned in the problem and give you the sum as their answer. That might be a learning disability in math reasoning.
However, autistic individuals are very special--not at all standard. Psychologists have to make so many special accomodations and adjustments just to get through the standardized tests, that the scores they get from them are basically meaningless and definitely not standardized. In other words, autism sometimes makes it impossible to accurately test for learning disabilities. Most of the time, we don't have much more of an idea of what the autistic student can do than we did before we gave them the test.
Q: Can animals like cats and dogs be autistic?
I don't mean that in a funny way. But we have a cat that displays most of the characteristics of an autistic human, comparitively. I was just wondering if it is possible for animals to have mental disorders and diseases and such, too.
I always give her a little extra love and attention than the others..sometimes she seems almost normal..other times she seems so odd like that. When she is in her odd stage she has behaviour problems and walks off furniture and falls and trips and whatnot..this has gone on for years and no vet has been able to tell me why. I still love her dearly tho!
A: I sure think so. I've been around many animals and they don't all seem to be on the same page. If humans can suffer mental disorders and diseases, why not animals? There's incredibly inteeligent animals, then some that can find their way out of the paper bag. They are not all hardwired to be stereotypical of each other. I hope you love your kitty anyway and try to make it's convoluted life as comfortable a possible.
Q: What is the best way for a autistic to learn another language?
I need to know, If someone has an autistic problem and is hard to understand words and its very first language for that person is English then what is the best way for that person to learn Hindi? Is that possible? If he already has difficultly with his own language?
Visual hindi? Any suggestions? Any online place to learn words that way?
I'm just wondering.
I'll give credit to the best suggestion.
A: The Internet is a wonderful invention. If you take your subject of your question and add to what you want to know about it, the search engine will do the rest. For example:
My subject is Teaching. I want to know where to get certified.
The search engine result is as follows:
Teaching + state certification requirements
What you get is this: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Teachin...
This will work for any subject category. Give it a try and good luck.
Q: What is legally required to homeschool my autistic 5 year old boys in Texas?
I am homeschooling all of my children, but this is only my first full year of homeschooling. My older children who are not special ed we are doing great with. My autistic 5 year olds are not ready for kindergarten work. I have set up my own lesson plans and for them, and I am happy with our progress so far. However, people I know outside of my home are suggesting that what I am doing is nowhere near good enough - no science, no history, I am not teaching them phonics or teaching them how to read. Well, no, I am not. I have them singing the alphabet, and now we are working on recognizing their letters individually and matching capital to lower case, and the concept that each letter has a sound... We are also still working on correctly holding a pencil, and using a pair of scissors. For the time that they were enrolled in the public school system, they were in the PPCD classroom, and they will not turn six until next June.
Thank you everyone. Texas does have very easy laws to follow, and quite frankly, to understand. But... the people who were questioning me were "official" ECI people... so I was stressed. I did go to HSLDA, in fact I have become a member, and that is one wonderful resource! I especially like their Struggling Learners resource page. I don't think I can choose a best answer, because you were all helpful, and encouraging. So, I'm going to put this one to vote. Thank you all, again.
A: You may have to contact The Texas Home School Association;
http://www.thsc.org/defaultpage.asp
The home School Legal Defense Association will be able to address some of your questions, and concerns regarding these issues.
http://www.hslda.org/
You may have to contact them by phone if the web site does not have the information you are looking for.
Blessings, and good luck.
Q: What do you think about inclusion practices for autistic students in elementary shcools?
What seems to benefit autistic students the most when it comes to inclusion practices? What is disfunctional about the current inclusion practices and how do you think that could change?
A: A grad student at Pitt wrote an interesting dissertation on this exact subject. I have included the link below. You should check that out.
Q: What do you think about inclusion practices for autistic students in elementary schools?
What seems to benefit autistic students the most when it comes to inclusion practices? What is disfunctional about current inclusion practices and what could be done to change that?
A: Autism manifests individual symptoms in every individual. The most common behavior is to ignore their environment and stay in their own brain. But there is a broad range of severity. Mild, to intense. My idea about therapy for those with autism is to introduce them to an area that has articles with different textures, whistles, drums, electronic toys like Simon says, rattles, towels, those boxes that have different environmental sounds available, metal mirrors, a hair brush, and just let the person choose. If an autistic wants to be touched, they will come to you and touch you. Finger paints are a great way for them to express their feelings. Plus they are not toxic if the person decides to eat any of them. Actually little is known about autism. It can be diagnosed, but treatment modality is pretty iffy.
Q: What are some good tips for working with autistic children?
I work in a preschool program and I recently discovered one of my students to have autistic characteristics. His parents neglected to inform our staff of his conditions, but instead of confronting them, I'd rather work with this child. Any tips? thanks.
I'm not sure he's full blown autistic. He displays some of the characteristics, like he doesn't talk and his attention span is really limited as are his motor skills. The program I work for is a child development program to stimulate children physically and mentally.
A: You do need to speak with the parents. If they knew and didn't inform you, that was irresponsible on their part. Many parents will do that simply because they don't want the child "labelled" or are worried the program will turn the child down if they feel they aren't equipped to handle a special needs child. In doing so, they are placing thier child in a situation where he may not get the support and services he needs and where the teachers and staff are unprepared for some of the behaviors that can manifest. Add in that parents often have the best ideas on how to work with thier child and by not telling you, they are denying you access to one of the best resources you can have...a productive, successful parent teacher partnership.
If the parents are unaware of this issue, than as a teacher it is your duty to inform them of your concerns. You can't force them to do anything with the information, but you should keep a journal to document the behaviors that are causing you concern and that may be making things difficult for the student and the class. This will serve to back up your worries when you speak to the parents and to provide documentation if the child's behaviors and parent's unwillingness to address them come to such a point that the child needs to be removed from your program.
You don't mention what behaviors are making you concerned. If the child is having communication issues, he may really need to be working with a speech therapist to overcome them. Transitional problems are commin in children with autism...plenty of warning, picture schedules for each schoolday that show what will happen and when, auditory cues (ringing a bell or using a timer) and 10 minute warnings can all be effective. Social issues take time and lots of reinforcement. It may also mean making adaptations to how you run the class in general. If the child refuses to share, forcing him to do so or punishing him for failing to do so won't work. Start by having him sit near another child while he plays. Then have him hand another child a toy and have the child immediately hand it back. Work up to letting the other child keep and play with the toy, with the boy you are concerned about, for longer periods of time. reward frequently and use lots of praise.
Working with autisitc children takes a lot of time, patience and experience. Start reading up on autism. Books, websites, workshops, other teachers are all good resources. And if you find this is simply not working for you, the class and especially the child, do not be afraid to suggest he needs to be in a program with teachers who specialize. We know that the key to success for autistic children is getting them in with specialists and therapists who understand autism as quickly and often as possible. That does not mean you failed as a teacher, but that you succeeded in helping this child, even if that meant finding a different teacher.
Add on...Amelia has some good ideas. However, physically restraining a child if you are not trained, certified and without permission from the parents is never a good idea. Most programs will not restrain a child without trying many other interventions first, especially if the action (rocking was the given example) is not putting the child or others at risk for physical harm or if the action is not causing property damage. Physical restraint can in many cases upset and anger an autistic child, especially as many do not welcome uninitiated physcial contact. It can also lead to injuries to the child and the staff if they are not properly trained. A child with behaviors that are disruptive to the class, in a class that does not have teachers and/or aides trained in behavior management techniques needs to be placed in a specialized program if at all possible.
Q: What type of online games would help an autistic child learn?
Basically i am doing a project in which I am to design games which will help a autistic boy aged 10 learn certain topics. It could be a counting game, puzzle etc.
A: http://www.dotolearn.com/games/howmany/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/whatcolor/pages/index.html
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/facialexpressions/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/feelingsgame/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/dragndrop/timesequence/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/createaroom/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/synonymsantonyms/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/whatsdifferent/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/wordpairs/index.htm
http://www.dotolearn.com/games/Sing-A-Long/Frameset.htm