If you are a parent of an autistic child you need to put your child in a structured environment as soon as he or she is diagnosed.
Studies have proved that a structured environment that provides nurturing and teaching is the best method to start to teach the social skills and behaviour redirection that your child needs. This can be an exhausting job for a parent that leaves no time for personal relaxation or freedom of the stress it takes in raising such a child.
A team effort needs to be extended from other professionals that assist the autistic child’s development in addition to parental or sibling support. Your child will probably start formal public school at around the age of five or six. Before this age, structure and instruction is critical for the child to development within their abilities.
You as a parent need to structure your day as well so that you have time to deal with daily tasks and find some kind or recreation outside your child’s life. Recreation for the parents is important for the parent’s mental well being as well as quality of life. First you have to come up with a plan with realistic goals. You need to know what activities your child will participate in what they will learn from it. You also need to plan for the future.
When teaching your autistic child, remember not to use a long strand of phrases. It is best to give clear concise ideas that go together. You might want to add tags to the meanings of the phrases. For example if you are teaching the difference from left to right , you may find sticking a post it note to your or your child’s hand with the words left and right on them.
Most autistic children do not see in words, they see in pictures. With the paper placed on the hands, not only does the child see the movement of the hands but can associate the words left and right with it.
After awhile you will notice that your child is good at something such as drawing or building blocks. You have to be creative, but find someway of including what they are good at into the lesson you wish them to learn. Maybe you are teaching them the word me. Find a picture of your child and put the word me on it. Have the child draw a picture of themselves and to finish the drawing have them write me on the picture. This may be a repetitive process and you may have to change it up a little, but eventually the concept will be learned.
If you notice you child is fixated on something like a book, movie, or map, again use that fixation to work with you. Earlier in this book the story of a autistic boy’s fixation with the Titanic was discussed. The teacher or parent here could use the characters and actions of the Titanic story to reinforce behaviour, concepts, or social Again you will have to be creative and this type of teaching is not the norm for most educators. You have to think ‘outside of the box’ as the child is trying to not only get the message from inside the box, but to find the box in the first place.
If you are teaching reading do not concentrate on one form of instruction. Some autistic children can learn by phonics and some by sight words. Do not restrict your method of instruction. Try both methods to see which one is right for your child. Research has shown that a combination of sight words and phonics can be a very successful for the non-autistic student and it might be a good start to get your child on the way to successfully reading .
Sounds and visual distractions are other areas for concern when teaching the autistic child. Sounds such as school bells or fire alarms can hurt their ears and cause either a violent reaction or bad behaviour. Record the sounds that the child needs to be used to and then let them playback the sounds at the volume of their choice. When they are comfortable with one sound, encourage them to increase the volume until they can take the sound at the volume it will occur.
Visual stimulation is also a problem for the autistic child. Place them at a desk with very little visual stimulation except for the task that they are doing. Even the flickering of fluorescent lighting can cause the mind and the eyes to wander from their intended task.
If you are trying to teach eye contact during conversation, physical activity or interaction is best. Swinging has been shown to increase eye contact. Only when the child wants to swing should the parent or teacher use this method, and as the child is Swinging, talk to them. The motion that is fluid in front of them and their peripheral vision will be to much for them to concentrate on. The swinging motion will force the child to give you eye contact as you talk to them. This method takes a long time to work so the teacher or parent has to have patience and perseverance.
Don’t just rely on sound and sight to teach your autistic child. You may want to try touch, especially if the child is older and the other two senses are not helping. If you want to teach your child numbers and he or she cannot understand, try to make or buy some plastic numbers. Give them a plastic number and let them hear the word of the number. As they feel it, some connection might be made to the word and their association of touch, along with the verbal connection, might be enough for them to learn the word of a number.
You can come up with many kinds of ‘manipulatives’, like this, but if one doesn’t work then change tit before the child learns the wrong concept.
This post was started with the idea that the parent had to schedule teaching time in their child’s and their schedule. It might be a good idea to hire a nanny or baby sitter particularly trained to teach a concept. It might even be for two to three hours a skills day. This will give you time to get your daily tasks complete and at the same time you know your child is being looked after by someone who is sensitive to their condition.
A good activity that might work well for a nanny would just be playtime. She could teach concepts like taking turns, winning and losing, and following specific rules of the game. The child could have a social interaction lesson while you go to the supermarket or get your hair done.
Remember the education and the educational schedule for your child is important, but so is you having some ‘me’ time. Even if you have the patience of a Saint, anyone will be worn down by the constant attention to their autistic child. If a child has speech therapy for an hour a day, schedule yourself a nap, reading time, or just time to take a hot bath during that time.
You have to break yourself away from being the constant care giver.Yes, of course you can do it, but the stress and mental anguish you would suffer would not be a good thing for you or your child’s education. You can’t give up eighteen or more years of your life just to be a hero to your child. You know you can do it, but schedule time for yourself as well.
