Frequently Needed Answers

For the majority of us our speech and language develops during the first three years of our lives.

However this is not the case for people with autism. Experts believe that the difficulties in speech and language development that are almost always present in individuals with autism are due to a variety of reasons occurring before, during or after birth. It is because of the autistic individuals lack of speech and language skills that they find it difficult to interact with the world around them effectively.

As with typically developing children no two autistic individuals are ever going to be the same, therefore the degree of communication problems will vary. Most individuals with autism have difficulty understanding and using language, as well as problems with word and sentence meaning, intonation, and rhythm.

Many people with autism use echolalia, a repetition of something previously heard. For example with immediate echolalia the autistic individual will repeat a question like “Do you want something to drink?” instead of replying with a “yes” or “no.” With delayed echolalia people with autism may say “Do you want something to eat?” when they are asking for food.

Generally people with autism have difficulties with eye contact and attention span and are often unable to use gestures for example pointing, sign language and to assist verbal communication.

Therefore many parents, care givers and teachers believe communication goals for children with autism should be made a priority.

There are various treatments and methods available for helping to encourage affective communication in children with autism, things like visual aids for autism, PECS and social stories. These help the child with autism understand and cope with communication and social skills they struggle with like asking questions, taking turns, sharing, making friends as well as other skills such as following school rules, recess etc.

Research into communication goals for children with autism shows social skills stories are an affective tool for teaching communication skills.

These short descriptive, visual stories are used to help the child with autism understand and manage communication and social difficulties. Developed almost twenty years ago the social skills stories are much like a step by step visual plan describing visually the skill being taught or mastered, showing the what, why, where and when helping the child with autism feel more comfortable with and in the situation.

You can instantly download social skills stories for any child with autism that have been expertly written, following the recommended formula, from sites such as http://www.autismsocialstories.com

Or from sites such as: http://www.autismsocialstories.com/social_skills

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school

One of the major issues for parents of children with autism is that of teaching social skills to their child. For many parents of children with autism teaching emotions is difficult, children with autism tend to lack social skills and find it difficult to recognize and react to emotional both verbal and non-verbal stimuli and actions or reactions.

For example “small talk” in social settings, making friends, or the importance of good eye contact during a conversation, these are all skills autistic people lack until taught directly. Being able to read people is not a natural skill in autism and many autistic people will also lack social etiquettes, and the ability to be sensitive, emotional and understanding. They will also for example find it difficult to read the subtle cues contained in social interactions, such as how to tell when someone wants to change the topic of conversation or shift to another activity.

So for many parents the social skills goals for children with autism is to teach their child the how, where, why, when and what for social settings and behaviors that they may struggle with or find stressful and or confusing.

Consequently many parents of children with autism turn to visual aids for autism such as social stories to help them to teach their child with autism to interpret social signals, skills, cues and behaviors so that they can determine how to act appropriately in the company of other people in a variety of different situations.

The social story is not only used for teaching social skills and behaviors in public but also in school, and at home, the social story can be used to help teach your child with autism, social skills such as hygiene routines like tooth brushing, washing etc, how to act and follow rules in school. Plus skills such as sharing, taking turns, respecting personal space, keeping calm, asking questions, appropriate eating habits and so on..

Many parents of children with autism use social stories when focusing on social skills goals for children with autism, reported as one of the major visual aids for autism social stories are normally written by experts in autism, following a set formula that has been proven to work for many autistic children for almost twenty years.

Downloadable autism social stories from sites like: http://www.autismsocialstories.com are written by an expert in autism. These social stories are instantly downloaded and implemented easily, editable and printable for convenience of use. All the autism social stories on this site are visually rich, use appropriate first person text, following specific formulas.

For parents of children with autism social stories are excellent tools for teaching, providing and reaching appropriate social skills goals for children with autism.

Download autism social stories for autism from sites such as:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com

Social skills deficits are one of the major issues faced by children with autism. For many parents and teachers of autistic students teaching social skills becomes a primary focus. Success in teaching social skills to children with autism can lead to an increase in positive behaviors and self-confidence in both the home and the classroom for many autistic students.

Therefore teaching and achieving social skills goals for children with autism has become essential. Many parents and teachers of autistic children use strategies such as social skills stories to help them manage and teach social and communication skills to children with autism.

An autism social story is a short descriptive story much like a comic book script that details in a step by step action plan a particular social, communication skill or behavior.

An appropriate autism social story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. For example: A shopping trip; meeting new people; recess; school dinner; assembly even a trip to the dentist. Any of these situations can be dealt with using an autism social story. The autism social story describes the situation, skill or behavior in detail. They are used to help practice skills and behaviors, mange negative behaviors, explain changes to routines and make confusing or stressful events and situations understandable by allowing the child with autism a chance to rehearse the skill or situation in advance.

Generally children with autism will find social situations confusing this is due to social skills deficits, therefore implementing a social skills story can turn an otherwise confusing situation into a more predictable and routine event taking away the confusion and anxiety.

The goal of autism social skills stories is to make the child with autism more comfortable and less anxious in the situation. Which will cut down on stress for you, and anxiety even meltdowns and other negative behaviors that the child with autism may otherwise display when feeling stressed and confused.

For a child with autism having a step by step action plan they can read and understand that is visually rich and easy to follow can be a tremendous benefit and reduce their fears and sensitivities.

Parents and teachers of autistic students agree that social skills goals for children with autism can be achieved easier using social stories as a strategy. Skills such as tooth brushing, hygiene, asking questions and calming down can all be tackled using social stories as a strategy.

To learn more about social skills stories and how they can benefit any autistic child visit:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com where you can download social skills stories on a variety of issues.

Other sites that offer social skills stories packages can be found at:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school_resources

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/preschool

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder affecting an individual’s brain.

The common symptoms of autism are communication, social, imagination and interaction skills deficits. These common symptoms of autism are often referred to the triad of autistic impairments.

The triad of autistic impairments is present in every autistic individual. However the severity of symptom will differ between each autistic individual.

The communication problems of autism vary depending upon the intellectual and social development of the autistic individual.

Some children with autism may be unable to speak, whereas others may have rich vocabularies and are able to talk about topics of interest in great depth.

Almost all children with autism will have difficulty effectively using communication skills and language. Many children with autism spectrum disorder also display deficits with word and sentence meanings, intonations, and rhythms.

Many children with autism often say things that have no content or information some autistic children use echolalia, a repetition of something previously heard, for example from a TV program, cartoon or other auditory means.

Many autistic children will use immediate echolalia for example they may repeat a question, “Do you want something to drink?” instead of replying with a “yes” or “no.”

Delayed echolalia, is when a child will say, “Do you want something to drink?” whenever he or she is asking for a drink.

Generally children with autism do not make eye contact and have low attention spans.

Many children with autism are unable to use gestures as a means of communication, for example sign language, or to assist verbal communication, such as pointing to an object they want. These are probably some of the more significant communication problems of autism.

Therefore the communication goals for children with autism will vary dependant on individual needs.

Parents can help their autistic child improve social and communication skills using social stories. Generally children with autism spectrum disorder are visual learners and will benefit from visual supports for autism such as social stories which can help teach children to cope with their individual communication problems of autism.

Developed almost twenty years ago by therapist Carol Gray social skills stories were first introduced to help teach social, communication, imagination and interaction skills to children with autism spectrum disorder.

Social skills stories are one of the major tools used as visual supports for autism and are now available for immediate downloads form sites such as http://www.autismsocialstories.com

Many parents and teachers use social skills stories to teach communication skills such as asking questions, holding a conversation and learning how to greet other people.

To help develop and reach appropriate communication goals for children with autism download and begin using social skills stories immediately.

To learn more about social skills stories and gain access to immediate downloads visit any of the following sites:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school_resources

http://www.autismsocialstories.com

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/social_skills