Visual supports in Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a lifelong pervasive developmental disorder, which is not curable. Recent figures suggest on average 1 in every 300 children born will receive an autism diagnosis.

In most instances parents will receive their child’s autism diagnosis before the child reaches the age of three.

Social skills deficits are always present in individuals with autism. However the degree of social skills deficits will vary depending on the individual.

Generally early intervention is recommended and your G.P. will refer your child to the OT and speech therapist for further assessment.

However there are significant ways in which you can help improve your child’s social skills deficits. One of the most significant treatments of autism spectrum disorder recommended to help parents, teachers and care givers of children with autism spectrum disorder cope with, and improve the social skills deficits is social skills stories.

Research into the use of social skills stories suggests those parents, teachers and care givers that are using visual strategies for improving communication and social skills deficits such as social skills stories, report good success rates, in helping address their child’s social skills deficits, and cut down and in some cases eradicate negative and or aggressive behaviours.

Social skills stories used as visual strategies for improving communication and social skills and may benefit most autistic children. A social skills story is normally written by professionals and implemented to help the child with Autism Spectrum Disorder understand a skill or behaviour that they are struggling to master or that may be causing the stress and anxieties.

Developed twenty years ago to aid communication with autistic children the social skills story is now one of the most significant tools used to help encourage positive behaviours and teach social and communication skills. Using visual images and first person language an social skills story will describe the situation or skill from the child’s point of view.

Much like a comic script a social skills story will outline the situation or skill giving key focus to the main points and remove all the frills making the story easy to follow and understand helping answer the “wh” questions making the autistic child feel more comfortable with and in the situation or skill that they are struggling to master.

To learn more about treatments of autism that will address your autistic childs social skills deficits visit http://www.autismsocialstories.com where you will find visual strategies for improving communication and social skills such as social skills stories.

Other sites containing social skills stories to address social skills deficits can be found at:

http://www.autismsocialskillsstories.org.uk

http://www.autismsocialstories.org.uk

http://www.autismsocialstories.co.uk

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/socialskills

Autism spectrum disorder is one of the most common developmental disorders with 1 in ever 150 children receiving an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis yet still it is misunderstood

There is no cure for autism, but there are treatments available. For some parents receiving an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis is devastating. For many parents raising a child with autism is one of the toughest challenges parents may possibly ever face both physical and emotionally.

The symptoms of autism vary between individuals as no two people will ever be exactly the same. Some children with autism may be on the lower end of the autism spectrum disorder scale, while others may be high functioning or aspergers.

Although there is no cure for autism or that can be done to reverse the symptoms of autism, there are strategies parents of autistic children can use to help their child learn vital and less vital social, communication, interaction and imagination skills and behaviors.

The internet makes it possible for experts in childhood autism to reach more parents and offer services that they would otherwise need to wait sometimes many years to get in place. Therefore, sites run by experts in childhood autism now offer strategies and resources for children with autism such as social stories which can teach skills and behaviors that the child with autism would otherwise find difficult, stressful and overwhelming, these social stories are available as downloads.

For parents of autistic children, teachers and other professionals involved in the care and well being of children with autism these sites are a real benefit. Helping them quickly and easily find strategies and resources for children with autism such as autism social skills stories for download ready for immediate implementation cutting back on stress, anxieties and in some cases red tape.

Research into strategies and resources for children with autism; show that there is a significant improvement in teaching autism social skills and good behaviors to autistic children, once autism social skills stories have been introduced.

Autism social skills stories were developed almost twenty years ago for teaching autism social skills and behaviors to autistic children by therapist Gray and have since evolved in to one of the major autism tools used to teach and re-enforce positive behaviors and social skills.

Generally written by experts in autistic behaviors, and in some cases by parents of autistic children autism social skills stories have been shown to work, and have proven a great success at helping children with autism learn vital social skills and appropriate behaviors.

This in-itself can make raining a child with autism easier and less stressful. Consequently, teaching autism social skills and good behaviors to autistic children using these valuable autism tools and resources is beneficial.

To download autism social skills stories that help parents of autistic children find better coping methods, for behaviors such as screaming or even autistic stimming visit a good autism resource site such as:

www.autismsocialstories.com OR

www.autismsocialskillsstories.org.uk

www.autismsocialstories.org.uk

www.insideautisticminds.com

An autism diagnosis is a huge shock to the entire family. You may have already suspected that things were maybe not quite as they ought to have been, but nevertheless an autism diagnosis will still come as a shock.

There is no cure for autism and there will almost certainly be times the whole family will be affected.

Normal everyday activities like shopping, dentist, getting a haircut even visiting family members; can no longer be spontaneous or without complication or forward planning; even with planning these “normal everyday activities” can still be troublesome and stress filled for not only you but the autistic child and other family members.

Your life and that of your family will change, but there are therapies and treatments available that can help make life a little easier.

All autistic children will have autistic social skills deficits; it is these autistic social skills deficits, sometimes referred to as the triad of autistic impairments that make up the symptoms of autism…

What are the triad of autistic impairments, and how do they relate to my child?

The triad of autistic impairments are: autistic social skills deficits in social, communication both verbal and non-verbal, imagination and interaction deficits, these are the main symptoms of autism and every autistic individual will have them.

A major issue for many parents of kids with autism is that of their autistic child’s social skills deficits in communication and social interactions. It is these social skills deficits that can make everyday normal activities like those mentioned above difficult and stressful.

Many parents of kids with autism have found by using autism resources such as social skills stories they can teach and re-enforce social skills and behaviors which typically developing children learn naturally.

Kids with autism do not learn social skills naturally and need to be taught those social skills and behaviors which typically developing children naturally learn and use. Teaching kids with autism social and communication skills can be done through the use of autism resources such as social skills stories.

Many parents worry and ask questions about how autism will affect my family. There is no set of rules or magic wand anyone can wave, but there a tried and tested treatments and therapies which have been used for may years by other families and professionals that are involved in the care and well being of kids with autism.

Such treatments and therapies like the autism resources available through sites such as: http://www.autismsocialstories.com or http://www.autismsocialskillsstories.org.uk have become a valuable autism resource.

These sites are run by dedicated experts in autism and other pervasive developmental disorders and have good customer support as well as information and excellent professionally written social skills stories.

These answer the question how will autism affect my family…By providing the answer to how will I cope with teaching and re-enforcing to my child everyday living skills, activities, events, situations and circumstances.

Using autism resources such as social stories for autism children, you can teach your child basic skills such as tooth brushing, bedtime, changing clothes etc. As well as other skills such as shopping, buying new shoes, using the telephone, visiting grand parents and so on; all these skills which we take for granted but can be a nightmare for an autistic child, can now be taught efficiently making those tasks like shopping and bedtime more bearable.

Download over 100 social stories for autism children immediately from http://www.autismsocialstories.com or choose from over 1000 social stories for autism from http://www.autismsocialskillsstories.org.uk

Once your child has been given the diagnosis of autism, a team of trained professionals will be assigned to your child. They will all be experts trained in teaching techniques for helping autistic children

To assist your autistic childs development and provide support and treatments. This group of trained professionals may include some of the following people:

• A developmental pediatrician, this is a doctor who is a specialist in child development.
• A pediatric psychologist.
• An occupational therapist, this is a person who specializes in looking at the psychological, enviromental and social factors around the child to help suggest possible ways of helping the child deal with it’s own world.
• A speech/language therapsit, this is a person who specializes in language and communication development, plus related disorders
• A special education teacher or support worker. With expert knowledge of the special educational needs for autistic children

All of these people can help your autistic child develop. and make more sense of the world. After autism diagnosis these professionals will assist your autistic child to cope more effectively with his/her surroundings.

One of the suggestions your special education teacher, support worker, occupational therapist and speech therapist as well as pediatric psychologist will probably have is the use of autism social stories.

Autism social stories are used effectively in helping autistic children find ways of coping with communication, social and imagination deficits.

For information on autism social stories, or to download them visit us now at

www.autismsocialstories.com

www.autismsocialstories.com/potty

www.autismsocialstories.com/family

www.autismsocialstories.com/hygiene

www.autismsocialstories.com/school

www.autismsocialstories.com/socialskills

www.autismsocialstories.com/howto

www.autismsocialstories.com/autistic_teens

www.autismsocialstories.com/asperger_adolescents

www.autismsocialstories.com/behavior

www.autismsocialstories.com/aggression

www.autismsocialstories.com/high_functioning_autistic_aggression

Understanding Autism

Autism is a developmental disorder which can affect children from either birth or the early months of their lives.

Research into understanding autism - cause and affect…shows delays and deviance from normal development. This will occur in three areas:

1. Social relationships and interactions

2. Language and communication.

3. Activities and interests.

When these three areas of behavior are affected. At more deeper level than that of a normally developing child, the distinctive patterns that are noticed in the symptoms of Autism in a child become apparent.

Some experts now believe that children with the these areas of impairments should be given the diagnosis “autism spectrum disorders”.

Which should then lead on to further and more in depth diagnosis of autism being made.

Which in turn should look at the severity, the cognitive level, plus the clinical traits and associated medical conditions.

The National Autistic Society in the UK suggests a possible rate of almost 1 in 100 people will be diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders.

Although autism is normally present from birth, or very soon after, there can be a delay in autism diagnosis due to the nature of the condition and sometimes the severity.

Diagnosing Autism can be complicated, because of the variations found in the mental ability of children with autism.

Approximately two-thirds of children with autism will have additional learning difficulties, with unusual behavior patterns, which may well be put down to an overall developmental delay. There are methods used for children with autism to help them become more socially aware of their enviroment…these are called autism social stories.

These autism social stories can be used effectively in the home and classroom to help children with autism understand the world they live in and give them methods and techniques for undertaking, tasks, activities, social situations and events. They provide clear instruction for tasks such as: tooth brushing, using deodrant, getting a haircut and visiting the doctor. As well as instruction on various other topics…

All pictorially rich, as children with autism are visual learners To gain immediate access to these autism social stories and help with understanding autism visit

www.autismsocialstories.com

www.autismsocialstories.com/school

www.autismsocialstories.com/socialskills

www.autismsocialstories.com/family

www.autismsocialstories.com/hygiene

www.autismsocialstories.com/behavior

www.autismsocialstories.com/aggression

www.autismsocialstories.com/potty

www.autismsocialstories.com/autistic_teens

www.autismsocialstories.com/asperger_adolescents

www.autismsocialstories.com/howto

www.autismsocialstories.com/high_functioning_autistic_aggression