Simple Life

Once you come to know that your child suffers from autism, you should start on a treatment plan. There are a number of treatments available for autism. Often people worry about using medication that might prove dangerous to the child. But this is not justified. Not all children need medication. Apart from prescription medication, there are a number of other options for treating an autistic child. While some prefer to stick to the standard treatment plan, many others opt for the alternative natural plan. Here are some different treatments for autism.

Medication

In autism, a number of different types of medications are used for treatment. These medicines cover different aspects of autism. There are some medicines that help with the anxiety that many autistic children are prone to, while some medicines help autistic children who have trouble falling asleep. For children suffering from behavioral problems, antipsychotic drugs are used. These medicines do not actually cure the autism and in addition to this certain medicines have very bad side effects. If the child is on medication, he or she needs to be monitored very closely.

Occupational Therapy

This therapy helps the Autistic child learn independence. They are taught daily skills that are needed such as taking a bath, dressing up etc. Their fine motor skills are worked on. Children are also taught how to use devices that are helpful in daily life. Safety measures are also taught whether it be safety inside or outside the home.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is one of the most common forms of treatment among autistic children. Children with relatively lower muscle tone gain an immense amount from this therapy. In this the basic motor skills of young children is also dealt with. This includes walking, rolling and standing. Autistic children can suffer from many other health problems. Physical therapy helps solve these problems also.

Behavioral Therapy

This therapy will help teach the autistic child different behaviors that are appropriate. Usually a form of reward system is included. Children learn how to behave in social settings. Usually this therapy is done in the setting of the child’s home only. Parents, too, need to learn how to deal with unwanted behavior from their kids. Generally, the autistic child learns that certain behavior can give him or her, a reward and so consequently the bad behavior stops.

Speech Therapy

Communication is one of the toughest problems that autistic children face. The autistic people do not understand non-verbal cues. There are a few autistic children who do not speak altogether, so they need to be taught how to communicate with other people. They need to learn about body language. Sign language or pictures are often used to help some autistic children who have speech defect. A non verbal child can be taught how to speak by a speech therapist.

These are only very few of the treatment options available to autistic children. All children do not require all the treatments. It is very important to decide on a treatment plan that works well for your child. Autistic children can thrive if they are treated properly and in time.

Introduction:

The marital adjustment provides the chance to a happy family and helps both the husband and wife to cope successfully with the changing situations despite the contradicting aspects in the personality of both the husband and wife. Of the situations that need coping and adaptability is the presence of an autistic child as a member of the family; Autism is one of the childhood disturbances which is characterized by an inability in the social interaction and an inability in the communication and the imaginative playing, and a decreased extent of activities and interesting which usually appears before the third year of age the agreement and understanding among family members, especially the parents, is a principal factor in the development of this child in the training program which is very important for the autistic child and his parents in which the child is been trained to depend on its self to be autonomic and developing his skills at general which the stress of parents as aresult of the child’s development degree may be affected by the nature of the marital adjustment between parents and the nature of the parents’ personality traits (depression, anxiety, or obsesses )

The study problem:-

The study problem is determined within responding to the following questions:-

1- Are there statistically significant differences between mean scores of the autistic children group on training program utilized in pre and post test?

2- Is there statistically significant relationship between marital adjustment in the autistic child’s parents and its developmental rate in the training program?

3- Is there statistically significant relationship between personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) of the autistic child’s parents and the development degree of the autistic child in the training program?

4- Are there statistically significant differences between mean scores of children of martially adjusted parents and maladjusted parents in the post – test of the training program.

5- Are there statistically significant differences between mean scores of children of high and low in personality traits (depression, anxiety. & compulsive obsessions) in post – test of the training program.

The study importance:

The importance of the study lies in the study of the relation ship of marital adjustment & personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) in autistic child’s parents and the developmental degree of autistic child in training programs in which our understanding increases about autism, as well as, enriching the researches in this field, specifically, where there is a rarity in researches, which handled programs of developing autistic child skills in the Egyptian Society, specially, self – caring programs .

Childhood examination in the current study aims to recognizing its problems and demands, as well as, the family which is the society nucleus, in addition to, demonstrating its relationship with the marital adjustment which is the nucleus of the upbringing of children with healthy socialization.

Study aims:

The study aims is represented in the following points:-

1- discovering the effect of training program in developing some self-caring skills in autistic children group.

2- discovering the nature of relationship between the marital adjustment in the autistic child’s parents and the developmental rate of the autistic child in the training programs.

3- Discovering the nature of relationship between the personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) in autistic child’s parents, and the developmental rate of the autistic child in training program.

4- discovering the nature of differences between the children of martially adjusted and unadjusted in the post – test of the training program.

5- discovering the nature of differences between children of high and low in personality traits (anxiety, depression & compulsive obsessions) in the post – test of the training program.

Hypotheses:-

1- There are statistically significant differences between mean scores of autistic children group in the training program at pre - & post – test in favor of the post – test in some self-caring skills

2- There is a statistically significant relationship between the score of marital adjustment of autistic children’s parents and the progression degree of the autistic child in the training program.

3- There is a statistically significant relationship between personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) in autistic child’s parents and the progression rate of the autistic child in the training program.

4- There is a statistically significant relationship between differences between mean Scores of the martially adjusted and maladjusted in the post – test of the training program .

5- There are statistically significant difference between mean scores of the children of high and low parents at personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) at the post – test of the training program.

* The study terms:

The study is lined out by the participants, of the study, as well as, the Egyptian population from which this sample is selected, and by study variables as measured by tests and measures used and the statistical techniques employed.

* Study procedures:

(A) participants:-

1- Autistic children group: A number of 23 autistic child aged 6 – 12 years old , selected from “ Abaa wa Abnaa “ center for mentally retarded care, and from “ Al Ebn Al Khas “ center for caring children of mental special needs.

2- Autistic children’s parents group: A number of 46 participant who are originally the parents of the autistic children group; (23)mother & (23) father, aged 30 – 50 yrs. Old)

(B) Study tools: - the study has used the following tools: -

1-Marital adjustment questionnaire:

Authorized by: Moors Manson & Arthur Learner, translated and standardized into Arabic by Adel Ezz El din El ashwal (1989)

2- Beck depression inventory (short form ) Authorized by : Beck Translated and prepared by Ghareeb Abd – El fattah (1990)

3- Taylor manifest anxiety scale Developed by tylor, translated by Ahmed Mohamed Abd – El Khalek .

4- Autism diagnosis criteria in DSM IV for mental disorders (1994)

5- Arabic scale for compulsive obsessions; Developed by Ahmed Mohamed Abd – El Khalek (1992)

6- Family socioeconomic status scale; Developed by Abd – El Aziz El shakhs (1995 A. D) second edit

7- Goddard shapes board test for measuring intelligence

8- Autistic child scale developed by Adel Abdullah Mohammed (2001A.D)

9- Primary data and developmental history sheet Developed by the Author

10- Entrance to the Autistic child sheet developed by the Author.

11- Program of developing some self caring skills for the autistic child developed by the author

* Statistical manipulation: -

The following statistical procedures have been employed

1- Spearman rankings correlation coefficient

2- WilKockson test (w)

3- Mann – Whitney test (U)

The study results: -

By responding to the hypotheses, the study results have been represented as follows :-

1- There are statistically significant differences between pre – test and post – test in the autistic children group at the training program in favor of the post – test .

2- There isn’t any statistically significant relationship between personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) of autistic child’s parents and at which extent the autistic child is progressing in the training program .

3- There isn’t any statistically significant relationship between personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) in the autistic child’s parents and the progression degree of the autistic child in the training program.

4- There are statistically significant differences between mean scores of children of maritally adjusted mothers and mean scores of children of maritally maladjusted mothers, meanwhile, There weren’t any statistically significant differences between mean scores of children of the martially adjusted and maladjusted parents at the post –test of the training program.

5- There aren’t statistically significant differences between mean scores of children of those high and low in personality traits (depression, anxiety & compulsive obsessions) in the post – test of the training program.

 

Chances are an autistic child who is in mainstream education will not require special education, which means they are unlikely to have obvious learning disabilities. But that said they will still have special needs.

The first thing as a teacher you should do is to speak to other members of staff and the SENCO in your school. Make sure that everyone understands what autism is and that they are aware of how this will affect the child’s behaviour.

Sometimes it is helpful to explain to the other children within the class about autism. This will help to prepare them for the autistic child starting school. It will be helpful to explain that the new class member may act differently or strangely - for example they may shout out unexpectedly or laugh at inappropriate things.

You ought to explain that although the autistic child may act inappropriately that this is not intentional and they too have feelings like everybody else. This is an important thing to stress as it will be very easy for the autistic child to become, the focus of taunts, bullying and teasing if the other children in the class and school do not understand the autistic child’s behavior and mannerisms.

Probably one task you should undertake before the autistic child begins in your class is to take a note of all the classroom accommodations.

Autism classroom accommodations to consider:

Makea note of the autistic child’s special need’s for example going to the bathroom, with autism going to the bathroom can be an issue, find out how the child copes with this and if necessary add signs at the bathroom, (small picture cards with text) to avoid embarrassment and allow the autistic child to identify the bathroom.

Ask the parents for a meeting and try to identify the autistic child’s strengths and weaknesses. You can build on the strengths and encourage these.

Sometimes it may be necessary to appoint a helper (LSA) or classroom assistant, to help the autistic child within the classroom.

The autistic child’s helper’s role should be to encourage the child to be more independent, work on task’s and to mix with other children.

It will probably especially at first to keep an eye on the child at break times and during recess, when they might spend a lot of time on their own.

Autistic children tend to like prefer their own company, however older children and teens may feel left out or lonely. Sometimes it can be helpful to structure breaktimes to avoid any problems.

Try and avoid metaphorical speech, for example “wait a minute”, autistic children tend to very literal and will not understand. Avoid sarcastic language, or exaggeration, and nick names, both when you are speaking to the child and to the class as a whole. Always be aware of what you are saying and how it might be misunderstood by the child.

You may need to repeat yourself during lessons and keep checking the autistic child is still listening, their attention span can be short especially when something is not of interest to them.

When you are talking to a group, make sure you have the child’s attention. Especially young children they may not understand that they are included in the group, so you may need to include them by talking to them directly ie by saying their name or talk first, then to the whole class.

As with listening to a foreign language or something you really have no interest in, we all tend to shut off to it. An child with autism is no different, as soon as a couple of sentences go over their head they will shut down their auditory system and stop listening reverting back into their own world.

Try using visual aids when teaching a subject that requires abstract thinking. You could maybe use photographs or pictures to help keep the autistic child’s attention.

Even at secondary school, it is still possible to use visual aids for example illustrations or diagrams could be added to worksheets.

Visual timetables are used with a great success, the autistic child can quickly recognise what is happening as has a visual cue for the various different times of the day, like break times, recess, pe lessons, hometime etc.

You may want to include time for the bathroom as this is a confusing time for most children with autism.

You may also want to think about the use of autism social stories as a tool for helping the autistic child keep on task and understand what is expected of them throughout the day and what they should expect from other’s.

Autism social stories are used with great effect in classrooms and can be like a favorite friend to an autistic child, and teacher a like! Used in conjunction with a visual timetable and set behavior plan, autism social stories will become invaluable.