Intervention For Children With Disabilities

There are many different obstacles autism spectrum individuals have to overcome in their daily lives; social insecurities, eye contact, appropriate spatial awareness etc. But in most cases, their biggest hurdle is mostly their communication skills; it’s been shown that communication impairment is at the heart of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that children with ASD can show a wide range of communication skills as discussed by Agius and Vance (2015). According to Agius and Vance, there is up to a 30% positive diagnosis of children with ASD who will forever remain nonverbal (no consistent verbal communication). With such a high percentage of ASD children it is recommended that their communication and learning needs are to be addressed by using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), it has been shown as an effective intervention that addresses individuals with ASD and their learning and communication needs (Ogletree, Morrow-Odom, & Westling, 2015). PECS has helped children and young adults with ASD communicate with those around them; their teachers, peers, parents etc.

Bondy, A., & Frost, L. (2002). A Picture's Worth: PECS and Other Visual Communication Strategies in Autism. Topics in Autism. Woodbine House, 6510 Bells Mill Rd., Bethesda, MD 20817.

Autism affects many children each year and it is important for parents to be aware of delays in their child’s development, in in any area of communication. According to a study by the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Autism and Related Disorders, autistic children possessing a language difficulty or delay have a seventy percent chance of showing fluent speech by the age of eight (“Speech”). Although a child shows delay or impairment in language at a young age, it is possible for them to later on exhibit normal language development. Parents should be aware of normal language benchmarks, such as when a child begins babbling, imitating verbally, and using spoken and first words. If a child is lacking skills normally possessed by typically developing children, having said child

To be an effective special educator, one must possess knowledge of several, various disabilities and also knows how they can affect children so differently. For instance, there is an increasing rate of children being diagnosed with Autism; as a result educators need to be familiar with the characteristics associated with the disease. Symptoms and how severe they may be can vary from child to child, but all autism disorders affect a child's ability to communicate and interact with others. According to Gina Kemp, Jeanne Segal, and Deborah Cutter, specialists in learning disorders and disabilites, most children with Autism will not be able to communicate with the world around them. They have poor social skills, avoid eye contact, and tend to choose self play over group interaction (Cutter, Kemp, & Segal). A special educator needs to know how to interact with these children to have any hope of abiding by the standards of the NCLB. There is no known cause for Autism, therefore, it is important for any special educator to continue in their research in order to successfully educate these children.

In this book, “Helping children with autism learn: Treatment approaches for parents and professionals” Siegel gives parents of autistic children what they need most: hope. Siegel explains that how to take an inventory of a child particular disabilities that break down the various kinds unique to autism. Many other signs and symptoms are also seen in a child suffering from autism are atypical eating, lack of intuition and less attention to social stimuli. This book has been a great help in the research as it explains about the key understanding of each autism case as a discrete set of learning disabilities, each of which must be treated individually. This book is relevant to my research as it has important documentation and papers about the conference. It provides a detailed account of the issues, at the same time, Siegel offer a new understanding and a practical, thoughtful approach that will give parents a new hope.

Ganz and Simpson (2004) were attempting to discredit this argument. They did this by trying to determine if the language abilities of three children with ASD would increase after the inclusion of a PECS program into their treatment plans. The researchers in this article found that two of the children who took part in this study made large gains in their ability to use the PECS system (they were both able to make it the phase 4). However, the third participant was unable to master any levels of the PECS protocol and, instead, had to use a modified PECS system. They also found that none of the three participants readily verbalized their wants at any point of the PECS phases, showing that the use of PECS is not always going to lead to an increase in expressive communication skills. This result adds strength to the argument that PECS interventions, don't increase the verbal communication abilities of children with ASD. However, the PECS program was still able to increase requesting capabilities. The researchers brought up other areas that require further research. These areas included; the need to understand comorbid diagnoses, other factors that might lead to an individual not being positively affected by a PECS program, and the modification of

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.

The effectiveness of using PECS (picture exchange communication system) vs. SGD (speech-generating device) developing communication skills on children with autism in elementary levels has been demonstrated be a useful intervention to teach conversational skills to children with autism. Two studies about intervention in communication as a technique want to demonstrate the effectiveness of using augmentative and alternative communication teach conversational skills to children with autism.

Picture exchange communication has various potential benefits to both adults and children with autism spectrum disorder and other related social-communication disorders. The most advantageous benefit of PEC's system is that critical community members do not require specialized training in the program. This is because pictures are readily understood and may be augmented. Thus, the range of communicative partners who interact with autism spectrum disorder individuals is widened. This enhances socialization and personal communication between relatives, friends or other people in the community (Craig, Fanizza and Russo). PEC's enables even young autistic children to acquire

There is a wide range and much controversy surrounding the study and overall effectiveness of different interventions for children and adolescents possessing a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, regardless of the method of intervention, every intervention shares the common goal which focuses on improving functioning in one or a combination of the following areas: social, communication, behavior, and academic. Social functioning includes interaction with peers and others, engagement and appropriate participation in activities, while communication refers to goals of “effectively signaling information to a social partner” i.e. utilizing and recognizing aspects of communication such as requesting, labeling, expressive language, speech, pragmatics, etc. (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). With respect to the behavioral domain of treatment, effective intervention seeks to result in an increase of individuals engaging in the positive, adaptive skills to respond to a situation, person, or environment. Finally academic refers to skills that are required for success with school activities (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). Focus in these areas of functioning assists in guiding treatment goals and provides a guideline of what to measure in order to gauge the effectiveness of treatment.

This journal article involves information pertaining to kids with autism and their caregivers. Throughout the introduction of this article they describe the overall sum of what young children with ASD are like and the overall growth rate. They also mention a Behavioral Intervention and a Behavioral Parent Training Intervention, also known as HOT DOCS. The rate of children with autism spectrum disorder in the United States is one in one hundred and ten, and is the most common of disorders in the pediatric population. They started the Behavioral Interventions with young children that have shown improvements in language, communication, and development skills. Similar results were shown in the Behavioral Parent Training Intervention.

Although the module was on Autism, many practices presented could also work for Lucia, a case study child who is not diagnosed with autism. Lucia is nine years old. She is in fourth grade and attends a suburban elementary school. Lucia has multiple disabilities including cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability and a language delay. Lucia’s primary language is Spanish. She also uses both a wheelchair and augmentative communication device to accommodate her needs. The case study, indicates that Lucia has progressed in many areas, however, more evidenced based

According to the data presented, the mean number of verbal utterances increased from the baseline number of 26.87 to the week 10 results of 41.94. This shows a statistically significant increase in utterances among all children tested. They also concluded that parents implementing the PRT, after learning in a group format, was more beneficial for targeting language deficits in their own children. This addresses the need for more parent involvement in the child's intervention plan and strategies. PRT is a great strategy for addressing verbal deficits in children with autism and provides the child with a naturalistic approach to verbal utterances and demands. Although the discussion provided a great summary of results and an insight to the benefits of PRT, it also highlighted many limitations of the experiment. The text states, "the study suffers from several methodological limitations including the small sample size and the absence of a control group" (Minjarez et al, 2010). The fact that the students could have also been receiving other interventions outside of this program could have been a factor to their success as well. With these limitations in mind, I still believe this to be a positive study because it brings to light the importance of implementing the parents in the intervention strategies. The children not only

Individuals with autism demonstrate delays or deficits in social interaction and behaviours. Autism is apparent from early childhood, but can emerge in early adulthood. It is associated with a wide range of possible causes, but genetic factors are the main causes. Children with autism have impairments in cognition, language delays, and lack of or poor social interactions. Lack of communication may force these children to adopt repetitive behaviours such as self-inflicted injuries and violence. The teaching process requires interventions that address the repetitive behaviours, skill development, and play

One of the aspects of PECS that I like is how the people around the individual to use this system can see the results and progress, and how the person can implement the same communication skills in different settings. In comparison to others non-verbal communication systems for people with autism from past readings, it seems that PECS have better outcomes and is more recommendable to use. Although PECS can present difficulty at interpreting some of the used symbols, like the generic and mood/feeling symbols. The identification of feelings through cards could represent an issue because a person with autism presents difficulty at identifying their mood and feelings.