Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

With the growing awareness and recognition of the Autism epidemic in our society, more and more people now know someone affected by this developmental disorder.

According to experts and recent research, Autism can be detected and diagnosed by a well-trained professional by the time a child reaches 18-months of age. It is very difficult to determine if a child younger than this age is showing signs of Autism.

There are, however, normal developmental milestones that parents can monitor to ensure their infants and toddlers are developing at a normal rate. It is important to note that just because an individual child does not meet one or more of these milestones it does not mean the child has autism or any other disorder. All children will develop at different rates. If your child does not meet these milestones and you feel something may be wrong, your best bet is to consult your family physician and get your child tested further.

There are three major areas where Autism will present itself in children. These areas are social skills, communication and behavior. Let us examine each.

Autism and instruction strategies in children must be individualized in order to gain the greatest degree of success. Children with autism frequently struggle to learn at the same rate as non-autistic children, and therefore very specific modifications must be made for autism and instruction methods to cater to the autistic children’s unique needs.

The following list includes autism instruction strategies that have been known to help autistic children in the classroom. These are only broad descriptions as any practiced strategies must be child-specific, depending on the individual’s needs, symptoms, and strengths.

1. Autistic children tend to be visual learners. Therefore, a visual structure to the overall learning environment should be carefully designed in order to allow the child to clearly see and comprehend expectations of him or her. This should include clearly defined workstations and other basic elements of the classroom. Visual schedules are also an important part of the classroom’s visual structure, as they allow the autistic child to benefit from a predictable routine where the expectations are laid out specifically in a visual way. This minimizes unexpected occurrences and allows students to anticipate and prepare for transitions in their day.

Can autism be prevented? Unfortunately, no, it cannot be prevented or cured. Early diagnosis is critical and may help maximize an autistic child’s ability to speak, learn and function. Regular visits to a pediatrician can help with early signs and detection. The earlier treatments can begin, the more effective they will be.

Autism is a pervasive development disorder. It is actually a group of illnesses that cause delays in the development of many basic skills, such as, the ability to form relationships and socialize with others, the ability to communicate and use imagination. Many children with autism are confused in their thinking a have problems with the world around them. They usually have a limited range of interest and are unable to bond with their parents or siblings.

Symptoms of autism will usually appear before age 3, but will last throughout life. Some of the symptoms are difficulty with communication, including using and understanding language, difficulty in using non-verbal communication, such as, gestures and facial expressions and the inability to make friends and even preferring to play alone. An autistic child may have a distinct lack of imagination and be unable to adjust to any change in routines or surroundings. They may exhibit an unusual insistence on following daily routines in exact detail.

Autistic children often have issues with self-control and self-discipline. So much of their world is completely out of their control they easily become frustrated and overwhelmed at the things they cannot change and the frustrations they cannot communicate to those who love and care for them. Aggressive behaviour is one example of the behaviours they exhibit in frustration and upset. By providing the child with self- management tools you give them back the tools to cope with life and leave them in their control.

Self-management skills work effectively for the autistic child because it gives them back some of the power they have lost over their lives as a result of autism. By teaching them their own self management tools they can use them in school, at someone else’s house, in your home or anywhere they feel they are losing self-control. By starting with relatively short intervals and building up you give them more and more control of their world. Be supportive and set clear goals, reassure the child regularly they are in control of themselves. Set goals for the child to obtain, such as no aggressive behaviour for the afternoon. By being clear and reassuring them of their own control over their actions and behaviours you may see a positive change in the child that will grow as their time in control grows.

Once the brain is formed, there is little you can do to change it. Even in the years of decline when people believe that you are slowing down and gradually becoming grumpier as you also become senile, evidence has strongly suggested that in the absence of disease, there really isn’t anything the matter with you - the mind you had when you were younger is still pretty much the same mind you have now that you are older.

If you think of autism along those lines, you will understand the meaning of the prognosis on the disorder. Autism has no known cure at this time, so once the disorder is established you had better realize that you are going to be saddled with this patient for the rest of your life - or theirs.

Certain forms of autism, like Asperger’s syndrome, which is classified as high functioning autism, may show remarkable improvements of the symptoms as the patient gradually becomes of age and they can learn to live on their own. Even then, you do have some work to do to ‘teach’ them to be able to function independently; plus, may have to be checking up on them from time to time to ensure that they are getting along.

Autism is a type of brain disorder that starts shaping up in early childhood and runs through the entire lifetime of an individual. Symptoms of mild autism are normally associated with another neurobiological disorder known as Asperger’s Syndrome. A child may not normally show any signs of autism until reaching the age of 3 years and it is only past that age that the parents may start observing symptoms of mild autism. In most cases the children exhibiting symptoms of mild autism grow up to have average IQ levels and sometimes even higher. In order to help parents to correctly identify such symptoms in a timely manner, we are outlining some of them as follows:

No. 1: A child suffering with symptoms normally finds it difficult to initiate conversation or making friendships with other children. Even in the cases where the child initiates a discussion, he/she is unable to sustain it for long.

No. 2: The child may get so preoccupied in playing with a certain toy that he/she may completely ignore the presence of other people around him/her. On certain occasions, the child showing symptoms
may also continue to stare at a particular toy for a long stretch of time period.

For a child with Autism, Stimming is an abbreviated term for Self Stimulating behaviour.
It is a necessary element for the Autistic child in that it seems to be a way for them to make sense of all that is going on around them. It can also be termed as Zoning Out.

Stimming can manifest in many ways. It can be displayed as flapping, an obsessiveness with a particular item or the way that it is moving or self injurious like biting of the hands or knuckles to name but a few.

No two children with Autism are the same so it is quite natural that there will be many forms of Self Stimulating behaviours.

For the Autistic child, this is a needed outlet and if the stimming takes a form that is not inappropriate, it should not be restricted. It seems to act as a self control method for them to calm themselves and even, in some ways, to digest information.

Stimming seems to manifest on a larger, more intense scale when the child with Autism is in a situation that they are not entirely comfortable with which could be as small as a person entering a room that they are not familiar with or an assembly hall which could be filled with many people and lots of noise.

Autism understanding begins when a person realizes that autism is a disorder that affects people differently. Although autism affects the normal functioning of a person’s perception, attention and thoughts, autism is not characterized by one type of perception, attention and thought. Instead, it covers a broad spectrum of disorders that may be mild or severe. Due to the fact that autism is such a complex disorder, medical research is still in the process of understanding how it develops and why it affects certain individuals.

One particular medical project with the aim to find better autism understanding by identifying the gene that causes autism, is the 5 year Autism Genome Project (AGP). So far, phase I of the AGP has identified a gene and parts of a chromosome to be linked with the occurrence of autism. The findings of this particular autism study was published online in the Nature Genetics February 18, 2007 issue.

The Autism Genome Project is a global research consortium that is funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institute of Health. Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to raising the awareness of autism and raising funds to help research it.

What is Biomedical Autism Treatment?

Biomedical autism treatment is the practice of treating the medical problems that can trigger autism and other disorders. Many children, teenagers and adults with an autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) have a true, underlying medical condition that includes genetic susceptibilities, detoxification imbalance, immune dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies, dietary sensitivities, biochemical abnormalities and more as causative factors in their ASD condition. A biomedical autism treatment approach comes from the awareness that ASD for many individuals is NOT just a psychological condition with no hope for improvement or recovery, like some say. It is, instead, a medical condition that has the potential to be reversed. Biomedical autism treatment for someone with an Autism-Spectrum Disorder works! It should be considered essential for any comprehensive program you are implementing to improve the health and quality of your child’s (and your) life.

Basic Overview of Biomedical Autism Treatment:

* It is more than just a neuro-developmental disorder. Autism and other autism-spectrum disorders are truly a medical condition.

* It is the knowledge that the majority of autism-spectrum children (as well as teenagers and adults) are dealing with an underlying biological (aka. medical) disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder is basically a wide range of behavioral and developmental disorders that results from a combination of certain traits. The autism spectrum disorder will range from low functioning autism to high functioning autism to normal behavior and to possibly hyper socialization.

An autism spectrum disorder is considered to be a persuasive developmental disorder, which basically means that it interferes with a child’s normal developmental abilities such as communication and speech. Autism spectrum disorders are not specific developmental disorders such as dyslexia. It is important to note that many people who have this disorder usually end up living in dire poverty.

The Affected Areas Of Functioning

This disorder is considered to be both a psychological and a developmental disorder that affects many areas of functioning. These areas will include language, motor coordination, self-help skills, communication and scholastic achievements. With some individuals, the symptoms may be it immediately noticeable, while in others; the symptoms may not be noticeable at all when first meeting that individual.

Surprisingly, many people that are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder lead very normal lives. In fact, many people with this disorder may lead a very normal life and are not noticed until later on in their adolescence or well into their adulthood lives. These disorders are usually diagnosed following a series of psychiatric tests.