Month: August 2020

Self-regulation is a person’s ability to adjust and control their energy level, emotions, behaviours and attention. Some of the indicators children may have difficulty self-regulating include where children:

• Be under-reactive to certain sensations (eg not noticing name being called, being touched, high pain threshold)
• Appear lethargic/disinterested, appear to mostly be in their ‘own world’
• Have difficulty regulating their own behavioural and emotional responses eg increased tantrums, emotional reactive, need for control, impulsive behaviours, easily frustrated or overly compliant
• Have meltdowns that last for longer than typical
• Have more meltdowns or behavioural episodes per day than typical
• Be difficult to discipline
• Not respond to typical behavioural strategies
• Be easily distracted, show poor attention and concentration
• Have poor sleep patterns
• Love movement, seek out intense pressure (eg constant spinning, running around, jumping, crashing into objects/people)
• Have delayed communication and social skills, be hard to engage in two-way interactions
• Prefer to play on their own or have difficulty knowing how to play with other children
• Have difficulty accepting changes in routine or transitioning between tasks
• Have difficulty engaging with peers and sustaining friendships.
• Heightened reactivity to sound, touch or movement
• Have poor motor skills eg appear clumsy, have immature coordination, balance and motor planning skills, and/or poor handwriting skills
• Have restricted eating habits or be a picky eater
• Become distressed during self-care tasks (eg hair-brushing, hair-washing, nail cutting, dressing, tying shoe laces, self-feeding)
• Avoid movement such as avoiding movement based play equipment (eg swings, slides etc).
• Appear floppy or have ‘low muscle tone’, tire easily and show a slumped posture
• Perform tasks with too much force, have big movements, move too fast, write too light or too hard
• Display risky behaviours in play
• Flit between play activities instead of sticking with one long enough to actually engage in it
• Seem less ‘mature’ than others of the same age
• Be emotionally labile (showing rapidly fluctuating emotion levels in a short time).

Children on the Autism spectrum do not know how to respond to social and emotional situations. They often find it difficult to regulate their behaviour and calm down or in some instances get active.

Lots of reinforcement will help educators achieve the desired behaviour.

This will be different for each child. It may be one of the experiences mentioned above or it could be something a bit more challenging to identify that requires lots of trial and error.

Creating a reinforcement kit for that child for the times when the child is displaying appropriate behaviour can be a very effective strategy.

You need to look at the enrolment of a child on the autistic spectrum as a three step process. Completing the enrolment form is only one small part of these steps. The three steps includes;  Step 1 Preparing the environment and review the educators practices, Step 2 Preparing for the transition from home to the centre, Step 3 Building relationships with families. Let’s look at these steps in more detail.

Step 1 Preparing the environment and review the educators practices

• How does your room look and feel for an autistic child? All educators need to critically reflect upon the room and outdoor play area. This involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from the autistics child’s perspective.
• Educators need to ensure the room routine flexible to meet the needs of the child.
• Nominated Supervisors need to ensure educators understand Autism & how children on the autism spectrum process information.

Step 2 Preparing for the transition from home to the centre

• Create social stories with the parents. Ensure they include the child preparing for their day in the morning at home, their trip to the centre in the car and what the child’s first day looks like.

• Ensure the room is not overstimulating. When the child settles in you can progressively add more to the physical environment.
• Work with the parents and professionals in your local area to discover if you need other resources to meet the child’s needs

Step 3 Building relationships with families

• Get to know the family, their situation, goals, challenges and achievements. Again, critically reflect and try and see from the parent’s perspective.
• Give families a visual matrix to complete for their child.
• Find out what services the child is attending and gain written permission for the service to liaise with specialist and inclusion support services.
• Allow for a gradual transition. The child and parent/ carer may attend the service for 2 – 4 hour visits for 2 weeks leading up to their first day of care.

Change, can be overwhelming for people on the autistic spectrum. We need to remember the everyday hustle and bustle that most people view as ‘normal’, is difficult for children on the spectrum. With this in mind, children need to a part of the transition preparation so the change is not a surprise for them. Don’t forget you are not alone and there are many services in your community and state/territory to help you identify and develop a range of support strategies that can make the transition process smooth and successful for your new children on the autistic spectrum.

Inclusion Support Goal Steps

We can use ‘Inclusion support goals’ when working with children with Autism. These goals should be made up of real life situations and routines where the child is displaying challenging behaviours.  You choose, plan, practice and evaluate using the challenges that children are facing on daily basis.

Start slowly, begin with very small steps, celebrate and build on each achievement and don’t give up.

Step 1 Choose an everyday event or part of a room routine which the child is finding challenging, exhibiting behaviours or that you feel will support the child’s inclusion ie transition from home to the centre or participating in small group activities.

Step 2 Plan with the families, other professionals and if possible the child the steps they need for the goal. Start simple – no more than three steps at a time. Later you can build upon these steps and include more.

Step 3 Prepare all educators and ensure that everyone s consistently implements the plan. If everyone is not following the same practice it won’t work and becomes confusing for the child.

Step 4 Practice the plan. Make sure it includes preferred language, checklist and visuals/photos so the child can readjust when needed, have some space and have the option to communicate using verbal or non-verbal communication. For example, when a child needs a break from group activities they can bring the visual that represents quiet time or can say “Quiet time now”.

Step 5 Reflect on the work goals with the child, family and educators after they have been implemented and have practised it a few times. Offer support and add another step to the work goal. Try to see it from the child’s perspective and evaluate its success.

If the behaviour is serving a purpose, we cannot take it away, but we can replace it.

For many families, the identification of a child’s disability is a gradual process that occurs over many months or years. For some children, a clear diagnosis of a specific condition or disability (or multiple disabilities) is possible. For others, the diagnosis may not be possible or may be reliant on further tests/ observations in future years.

Our role as educators is to support families by communicating with them about their child’s progress towards learning outcomes and their overall development.

How families respond to our concerns with depend on our relationships we have built with our families and how much we understand their perspective, concerns, beliefs and culture.

Some families are relieved when we notice, some will be finding it challenging to come to terms with the diagnosis, some won’t believe us, some won’t help us and some will take immediate action to get outside assistance.

However, just because the child doesn’t have a diagnosis it doesn’t mean we can’t start trialling strategies to help them.

Before we start we need to remember some important points:

• No two children are alike, what works for one probably won’t work for the other
• There is no magic bullet. This takes time and lots and lots of hard thinking and planning
• Just because one strategy didn’t work doesn’t mean you should give up. Professionals need to test and trial 20 – 30 strategies before they make a break through
• Remove your adult concept of behaviour and think outside the box. Critically reflect on the situation with brainstorming ideas. Think the weirdest thoughts, causes and solutions, because they are the ones most likely to work

We need to do something until parents are ready to seek professional help.

Some of the following may be the early indicators of autism. However, it is important to note that no single indicator necessarily signals autism – usually a child would present with several indicators from some of the following categories:

• Behaviour
• Sensory
• Communication
• Social Skills
• Play

The following is only a guide to what a child should typically be doing at 18 – 24 months of age:

• Shows interest in his / her siblings or peers
• Brings you items to show you
• Follows your gaze to locate an object when you point
• Engages in “pretend play” (e.g. feeding a doll or making a toy dog bark)
• Uses many spontaneous single words and some-two word phrases

The effects of autism can often be minimised by early diagnosis and with the right interventions, many children and adults with autism show marked improvements.

There is only one diagnostic category under DSM-5. The diagnosis – autism – replaces the three previous autism diagnostic categories of Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified.

www.autismspectrum.org.au

While we may suspect or know a child is on the spectrum, we should always make sure the child is not affected by any underlying health problems.

Arrange a meeting with all relevant educators and staff to discuss the possible causes of the behaviour.

First – Consider physical/medical issues eg

• Hearing – can child hear properly, are child’s ears infected, inflamed, blocked
• Throat – is it inflamed/constricted
• Nose – can child breathe properly, are sinuses infected/inflamed
• Eyes – can child see properly, is there conjunctivitis etc
• Bottom-does child need medical attention for nappy rash
• Bowel – is child constipated – this can cause pain and fear of going to the toilet
• Scratching – does child have nits/lice, allergies which need treating
• Eczema – is there a rash causing pain, scratching and discomfort
• Asthma – are there breathing issues causing stress for the child

Second– Consider environmental issues eg

• Diet – what is child eating, is there too much sugar, is at served at the wrong times, is it contributing to child’s allergies, is child eating enough, has child had breakfast
• Sleep – is child sleeping at night, is child being forced to sleep at service instead of rest/quiet activities.

Looking at health issues in practice

The first thing educators do is look for out of the ordinary explanations, like illness, new baby at home, grandparents visiting etc. If these events are short episodes, educators shouldn’t have concerns and will work together to support the child through the change.

However, if there is an untreated illness like an ear infection, educators will see an increase in behaviours displayed over a period oftime.. An ear infection is a good example because some children can cover up the typical sore ear or sometimes we don’t see them pulling at the ear which could indicate an infection.

A family’s role in raising a child with Autismcan be endless, and includes advocating for their child and trying to find the best possible care, to supporting their child when they try tocommunicate their feelings and cope with situations.Families can understand the causes of the behaviour and may develop corresponding solutions and strategies. But families alone cannot guide and support a child with Autism. There are many organisations and professionals within the community that support children and families, and create opportunities for children to be involved in activities and events. Some of the professionals include:

Educators –provide high quality education where every child is viewed as a capable learner.

Inclusion supportservices eg KU–The Inclusion Support Programme helps  services include children with additional needs alongside their peers, by providing tailored inclusion advice and support from Inclusion Agencies and access to specialist equipment and funding to support more challenging inclusion barriers where required.

Paediatricians–Will make a diagnosis of Autism made on the basis of careful observations of a child’s behaviour.

Psychologists ‘psychs’–Support children who are finding it hard to manage their emotions by introducing new thinking,and teaching new skills and behaviours. This can be done in groups or by themselves. They also guide families on how best to support their child.

Speech Pathologists/ ‘speechies’ – Support a child’ to communicate. They can find out if a child is learning how to talk at the same rate as other children and help if there are problems with speech sounds/ words or the way they talk to different people.

Local area coordinator National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)– Help participants and families to get the support they need.

Occupational Therapists/ ‘OTs’–Help children cope with or understand the environment eg fussy eaters, loud sounds. They can also help with things like toilet training, sleeping, getting dressed, playing with others, learning gross and fine motor skills like writing, cutting, climbing and jumping.

Social Workers– Help people cope with problems and support them in difficult times. They can provide counselling and emotional support, as well as practical support eg accessing social services.

Audiologists –Are specialists who can diagnose many types of hearing problems, and improve hearing for people of all ages.

Physiotherapists/’physios’– Help people of all ages to move and function better.

There are many myths about Autism including:

• All people with Autism have an outstanding ‘savant’ skill
• People with Autism do not have other disorders or conditions
• All people with Autism have an intellectual disability
• Children with Autism do not speak
• Children with Autism are more aggressive
• People with Autism do not experience the full range of emotions
• Children with Autism are less affectionate / cannot build strong relationships
• People with Autism prefer to be alone and do not want friends
• Autism is a behavioural or mental health disorder
• There is an Autism epidemic
• Autism is caused by parenting style
• Vaccinations cause Autism
• Autism is a childhood condition that can be outgrown or cured.

What is known about Autism

Autism is also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder.  The word ‘spectrum’ describes the range of difficulties that people on the Autism spectrum may experience and the degree to which they may be affected.

It’s is a developmental disorder that occurs in both boys and girls across all cultures and communities. It affects how a person learns and how they interact with others and their surroundings.

All children on the Autism spectrum are unique. The main areas of difficulty are in social communication, social interaction and restricted or repetitive behaviours and interests.

In the next section we look at three of these common challenges children with Autism face.

Remember people on the Autism spectrum have their own unique strengths and skills. With regular, consistent support, these strengths can be supported and progress can be made. Children do develop at different times and rates.

An estimated one in 100 people has Autism; that’s almost 230,000 Australians. Almost four times as many boys than girls are diagnosed with ASD.

Source: http://www.positivepartnerships.com.au