How to Develop Language in a Child with Autism

“Language Impairments in Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder” from the Journal of population therapeutics and clinical pharmacology

It is very important to separate autism from other conditions. Once diagnosed accurately parents can know the facts about autism and what can help their child. There are services available for parents needing help with their child. There are teaching strategies that can introduce new behaviors or reduce inappropriate actions. Types of interventions can lead to great opportunities. (Syriopoulou-Delli, C., 2010)

Researchers are searching for ways to recognize the disorder in infants, since early diagnosis and early intervention are important for the first years of the children and can help treatment of autism. The teachings of normal communication behaviors that could easily improve their life, and help them work on improving autistic behaviors that could be better than the children who are later diagnosed with autism.

Autism is a disorder where children have deficiencies with interacting and communicating with others, statics show for people with autism that the cost of lifelong care can be reduced by two thirds with early diagnosis and intervention for Autism (2016, Autism Society). This disorder is important for me to research because my nephew struggles with doing most things with a group because of his social participation skills, as other children can adapt to easily. If his parents were educated, about occupational therapy and the effects it could have on his future, maybe they would advocate to get the services for him. As well as other parents with autistic children, rather than just dealing with the disorder

The primary research conducted was extremely promising and consisted of four interviews with four different experts. Ideally, at the beginning of the Outcome I planned to conduct a survey as well, however, after considering that my sample size would be limited and if conducted the information could be insignificant, I decided not to. This led to focusing on interviews which further enhanced the information found in my secondary sources. I believe the most comprehensive and beneficial interview was the interview conducted with the parents, John Daly and D.L. These interviews emphasised the idea that Autism is individualized and is beneficial only if suited to their child needs, providing a sufficient amount of evidence for my outcome. It also supported and cross-referenced with the information gathered in secondary sources, where the interviews demonstrated the importance of family in improving their development through personal experiences as well as how incorporating learning from therapy sessions

The study included 61 preschool children with autism who were randomized to one of two groups; one receiving intervention

The study performed by Estes and colleagues (Estes, Rogers, Greenson, Winter & Dawson, 2015) was designed with two purposes in mind. First, the researchers wanted to study the efficacy of intensive early intervention for children with autism versus the usual course of treatment immediately after discontinuing 2 years of early intervention therapy at age 4. Second, the researchers wanted to study the sustained effects on the children who received intensive early intervention compared to the children who receive usual course of treatment in the same experimental and control groups 2 years later at 6 years of age. Estes et al. hypothesized that the children in the experimental group will be more likely to maintain their gains from early

A similar study, which sought to show training parents in behavior management methods as more useful than simply educating them about autism performed by Bearss, K., Johnson, C., Smith, T., Lecavalier, L., Swiezy, N., Aman, M., … Scahill, L. (2015), showed a higher rate of improvement in those whose parents attended the training; however, improvements failed to yield results that could be determined to be statistically significant. Through the inclusion of only children who were enrolled in school, English speaking, and predominantly male, it leaves room for further investigation. At 24 weeks the behaviors decreased, as reported by parents, 47.7%

The participants in this study will be between the ages of 6 and 12 years old and will have a clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder as described in the DSM-5. The maximum amount of participants per study will be two. The participants must be able to

Many studies have indicated that parental involvement is important to the success of various educational and intervention programs (Granger, Rivieres-Pigeeon, Sabourin & Forget, 2012; Hastings & Johnson, 2001; Neymotin, 2013; Solish & Perry, 2008). The National Research Council Report (2001) strongly recommends parental involvement in autism interventions. Additionally, in his 1987 study, Lovaas required that parents apply no less than 10 hours per week of the intensive behavioral intervention (IBI) program with their own children. Parents participating in Lovaas’ IBI program are often encouraged to be full members of the therapy team (Lovaas & Buch, 1997). The increased intervention hours that come from parental involvement are supposed to improve the child’s cognitive, language, social, and adaptive skills (Sallows & Graupner, 2005). In addition, parental involvement can help these skills more successfully generalize from the treatment setting to the natural environment (Lovass, 1987).

Their specific study included thirty-four children who are suffering from the autism spectrum disorder. The participants ages ranged from 40 to 65 months and were tested pre and post treatment using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale to identify the effectiveness of sensory integration on the developmental skills of the child. After looking into the results, conclusions showed that there was significant improvement in the child’s motor skills especially once providing them with this program at such an early age (Abdel Karim, A. E., & Mohammed, A. H., 2015). While looking more into the parent mediated aspect of these programs, Nicole Stadnick, Aubyn Stahmer, & Lauren Brookman-Frazee, describe a program called Project ImPACT, which is a parent involved program for autistic children. The researchers’ main focus was to indicate which parent factors have successfully impacted the child’s outcome in terms of seeing improvement in their

Autism is a rare disease that can be characterized by a “neurodevelopmental disorder categorized by the inability to relate to and perceive the environment in the realistic manner.” (Anthes, 1997) The signs of autism are mainly found in infants to young children usually between the ages of newborn to two years. The main symptoms that are discussed are “impairment in social interaction fixation of inanimate objects, inability to communicate normally, and resistance to changes in their daily routine.” (Anthes, 1997) Autism is a very understood disease but one thing most people do not know is that autism not only effects a child’s life mentally and physically, it also effects their social ability to have friends, play normally and even grow up

Children on the Autism Spectrum tend to spend more time in the early emerging play phases, barely reaching the complex stages. These children also tend to have less intricate play and present more repetitive behaviors in play (Flippin & Watson, 2011). Object play skills have been shown to be important in language development, however, the degree of the child’s engagement in play is highly correlated with the amount of parental involvement. Due to the many differences between mother and father communicative styles, there are similar differences in their style of play. Fathers play tends to be more active, complex and generative, correlating with a higher level of object play. While mothers play tends to be more verbal and didactic, correlating with relational play (early phase of object play where the child begins to combine toys for play (e.g., stacking blocks)) (Flippin & Watson, 2011). Thus, research studies have found that the increase in verbal responses during play leads to a higher level of object play, and is seen even more so with fathers. Additionally, both parent's verbal behaviors are strongly correlated with the child’s frequency of object play at the highest levels (Flippin & Watson, 2011). Therefore, there is a strong correlation between the child’s language skills and the

Parents, caregivers and educators have the challenge of giving a child with Autism the best caregiving and strategies that they need, which can be very stressful and tasking. So, this is where evidence based practices come in. Evidence based practices are practices brought about through quality and reliable research to be effective, which is so valuable in the field of Autism. This research can be experimental, replicated several times and published by credited peer reviewed journals. According to Simpson 2005, he provides us with categorization of practice for those diagnosed with ASD including: scientifically based practices (Applied Behavioral Analysis), promising practices, limited support practices and finally recommended practices. Common

During the study, they tested four different assessments to get different results and data. Mentioned in the article, they videotaped the children in 30 minutes, with 10 second. One of the methods they used that I found interesting was the coding scheme. Kontos’ states, “the coding scheme was appropriate for this study, which captured different types of adult talk in classroom setting with children social competence” (Kontos, 1999, p. 227). Teachers, who experience children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, should be mindful that these children tend to lack social and play skills. In this case, teachers should adapt and moderate ways in which they learn in the classroom, especially, towards peers. The data collected and analyzed were through videotaped and coding scheming. The videotaping took place in the classroom during free time of own choice. In the classroom, we notice that large blocks were the popular area to play in. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, tend to play in this area than other areas in the room. Also, Hauck et al, talks about how “children with disorders have the most difficulty engaging with peers” (Hauck et al, 1995, p. 228). Most of the teachers, lacked speaking with children with