Presentation Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism is a developmental disorder, which is characterized by a dyad of difficulties in a) communication and social interaction and b) restricted interests and imagination (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might find it challenging to understand what other people think or what the reasons for their behaviours are, as their ‘theory of mind’ may not be well developed (Schuwerk, Vuori & Sodian, 2015). It is possible that this is why they might behave in socially inappropriate ways, being unable to differentiate between different contexts, while they might also find it difficult to make friends. Moreover, it is likely that they are fond of routines, repetition and structure (Carnahan, Musti-Rao, & Bailey, 2009), as they might be nervous with unknown, new situations. In addition, some of them might not do eye contact with other people, whereas some others might not endure to be touched and might have a difficulty developing speech (Jordan, 2005). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might sometimes be prohibited to initiate conversations and might struggle with finding different ways to play and behave, due to the possible deficit of imagination, which in some cases might result in them having a narrow sphere of interests. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this group of people is rather heterogeneous, as characteristics of autism may differ from one individual to another (Gwynette, 2013). Another point is that people with Autism

During the conventional imaginative play, children were “invited to play with conventional toys…” (Fink, Stagnitti, & Galvin, 2012, p. 337), where two children scored in the expected range, while one child showed significant delay. During the symbolic play session, children were “invited to play with unstructured materials…” (Fink, Stagnitti, & Galvin, 2012, p. 337), where the results were a reversal of the conventional imaginative play results. In the symbolic play session, one child scored above the expected range, while two children showed a form of

Proper and applicable assessment measures are the foundation to evidence-based assessments. For psychologists, it is critical to choose the best assessment tools that can provide the most reliable and valid measures to give accurate suggestions about the most relevant intervention procedures. Application of psychometrically valid tools and significant data assembly is decisive for optimal intervention at the early stages of the diagnosis of the Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The definition as well as the symptoms of autism have been mentioned in the previous part of the research proposal. Symptoms of autism will usually start showing when a child is around 18months (Hourigan & Hourigan, 2009:40). The main problem concerning autism that this literature study will focus on is the delay and defect with regards to communication in the autistic child with specific reference to the classroom situation.

Most children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder will have a language delay. The language delay can range from a mild to severe. If done early, speech and other early intervention therapies can dramatically improve the language skills of a child with autism spectrum disorder. One way these therapies are successful is, research shows that there are many early behaviors that lay a foundation for the learning of language. These early behaviors are closely related to whether or not a child is able to understand another person and use this understanding to communicate with them. Two important early behaviors required for these skills are symbolic play and joint attention. An example of symbolic play is when a child uses his crayon and pretends it is a truck. Joint attention is when a child has equal attention on an object and another person. For example, they see a plane flying in the sky and they point at the plane while looking at another person to check if they are looking (Fessenden, 2012). Both of these early behaviors are vital in learning appropriate language skills. Early invention services work on these skills which helps lay a proper foundation for language development.

Autism appears in infancy. It seems to affect male children more often and causes mental disabilities. Many of these children have deficits in their language. Some children diagnosed with autism are even mute. These children have difficulty developing bonds such as an emotional bond. Ritual type motions are noticed in children with autism. Some examples are “hair twirling, hand fluttering, and head banging”. A daily routine

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

For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developing language was taken as a major goal (Lim & Draper, 2011; Lim, 2009; Paul, 2008; Prinzant & Wetherby, 2005; Sundberg & Michael, 2001) and music as a part of therapy was an accepted approach (Lim & Draper, 2011; Lim, 2010a; Adamek, Thaut & Furman, 2008; Kaplan & Steele, 2005; Buday 1995; Hoskins, 1998).

This helps to eliminate some of the stereotypical behaviors of autism, such as isolation repetitive movements, and other types of inappropriate play). Parents, teachers, and others help to guide the child towards more appropriate types of play with a small amount of prompting and modeling, mostly letting the child lead the way in play as they build off of the child’s play (Boutot & Myles, 2011). The use of contingent imitations by the parent, as well as letting the play be within the child’s area of interest are critical to the success of the program (Arbesman & Case-Smith,

The first article is “A pilot play-based intervention to improve the social play interactions of children with autism spectrum disorder and their typically developing playmates” by Belindi Henning. This article demonstrates ways that occupational therapists are effective in helping to assist patient’s, in this case children with autism spectrum disorder, to effectively develop skills that help them with their tasks of day to day living. One of the ways that occupational therapists help these children is by using motivation through play to address the areas that the child is having difficulties in. Occupational therapists also play a role in helping the child’s parents by training and guiding them to continue to use the tools that their child is being taught at home. The article lists several other methods that the occupational therapists use to help the children with ASD in interacting in their environment. Overall, the article showed how with the help of the occupational therapist the children can better interact with others and their environment.

Until relatively recently is has been widely accepted boys were four times more likely to be diagnosed with ASD than girls (Whiteley, et al., 2010). This idea is supported by an evaluation of forty three studies into pervasive development disorders conducted by Fombonne (2003), the study was longitudinal in nature and spanned a forty year period, the median ratio of males to females with ASD found was 4:1 Nevertheless, more recently, current studies which incorporate females within their samples, suggest the male-female ratio may be closer to 2:1 (Frazier et al., 2014; Idring et al., 2014; Halladay et al., 2014). Indicating results from previous research may possess an intrinsic bias in terms of gender, as historically the majority of enquiries have not included females within their sample (Thompson et al., 2003; Van Wijngaarden-Cremers et al., 2013).

Deficit in social development is another diagnostic characteristic of ASD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). They exhibit impairments in relationships to peers, the use of nonverbal communicative behaviors within their social exchanges, the use of imitation, and symbolic or dramatic play. As described by DeMyer et al. (1972) and Stone et al. (1997), children with autism use fewer nonverbal gestures and a more limited range of facial expressions in their communications than children with other types of developmental disabilities of the same developmental and chronological age. Children with autism appear to pay less attention to other people’s emotional displays than do comparison groups and to demonstrate fewer acts of empathy or shared

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

This article is relevant to my own studies because in class we have touched on a few of the topics addressed in this article. Because the interventions that were used were successful in the study using social stories is something I can do to help students with autism who have a harder time with decision making and appropriate play. I want the best for my students in my class so if needed I will go the extra mile to help them succeed. The social stories seemed to be used as a guide to help the children make the right choice. Social stories could be used in different areas that some children might have needs in. The stories are made up of visual pictures to help students understand what is being said and also the main character is someone the

The developmental field of psychology includes the study of the cognitive development of children. Play is an area of topic in developmental psychology that has attracted great interest amongst researchers and clinicians. It is a very common context where individuals engage in most of their time during childhood. The act of play involves more effects of development than just for recreational purposes. Piaget (1962) and Vygotsky (1966, 1978) both have found and recognised the act of play to be important for an individual’s normal development. Play is a situation or social framework that allows learning for young individuals. Pretend play is a subcategory of play that is defined by the nonliteral use of actions, objects and persons (Haight & Miller, 1993). Through the means of pretend play, children can produce expressions via communication with one another regarding their subjective understandings of the social world. Such learning from these types of social interactions includes the theory of mind development. Theory of mind (ToM) is also referred to the individual’s ability to understand mental states such as belief, intents and desire. This entails one’s understanding of others as well as their selves. *ToM* Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that includes characteristics of difficulties in two recognised areas of functioning. These impairments comprise of difficulties in social imagination (repetitive patterns of behaviour), and social interaction and