ABA usually occurs at home or in special pre-schools. It believes that speech, academic skills and life skills can be taught on scientific procedures. This analysis assumes that children are more likely to repeat responses or behaviour if they are reinforced and less likely to repeat them if they are not rewarded. In time the reinforcement will become smaller until the child can learn without rewards. DTI is a form of ABA. This is used to help teach eye contact, fine motor skills, language and self-help. The children are taught skills in small tasks at first and then build up to the more complicated ones.
TEACCH is not as intense as ABA in the pre-school years. In the classroom it is usually structured with separate areas for separate tasks. It agrees with visual aids. This is potency for children with autism. They use pictures and/or words to help structure their day. Pictures are a useful source for those children who do not have verbal skills. However a strong weakness of this theory is that it does not stress social interaction and verbal communication. Dr Stanley is a child psychiatrist who has written about strategies for children with developmental problems. His approach is floor time that involves a parent or a caregiver following a child’s lead so that they are able to understand the concept of interaction and communication. This approach works best for the child if it is combined with ABA.
Publishing good practice guides for example consistent classroom schedules and routines, will provide quiet time for the children, use visual props, be patient with the children and allow them time to respond, will keep a good communication level between home and school. http://specialed.about.com/cs/teacherstrategies/a/Autism.htm The Research and Innovation to Improve Services Results for Children with Disabilities is a Florida programme that addresses social and behavioural problems in children with ASD. The project is successful due to examining of experimental analysis procedures of structural strategies. It identifies variables that will aid in the child’s social and behavioural development in a natural setting. The outcome of the project is the packaged curriculum called ” Social Skills Assessment and Intervention Curriculum”. These give the children and care givers the opportunity to examine the consequences and setting events related with social skills for children with ASD.
A child’s green paper ‘every child matters’ was introduced on the 8th September by the priminister. The paper was set about to improve the outcome for children and their families. There are four main aspects to the paper: Early intervention and effective protection, supporting parents and carers, accountability and integration, locally, regionally and nationally and workforce reform.
The National Autistic Society (NAS). Founded in 1962, by a group of parents. It provides services for adults and children with autism. The NAS works to follow up the green paper in the identification of autism and support to people with autism. A particular comment of the green paper is ‘mental illness’. It recommends the government assemble a group of agencies together to work in the field of poor mental health. This should include the National Autistic Society. With a collaborative approach issues will be approached and appropriate action will be taken. The paper states it is primarily important to look at those with mental illness that have been undiagnosed or unsupported.
Recently there has been concern relating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism. Only 84% of children had been immunised by the NHS between 2001-2003 against measles, mumps and rubella which is a fall of over 3% since 2000-2001 and 8% lower than the peak coverage of 92% between 1995-1996. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7413/488 It has been suggested that the MMR vaccine caused a certain type of autism known as variant autism. This is where the child becomes increasingly worse over time and will probably suffer bowel disorders.
However the Royal Free hospital found no link between the jab and autism. The British Medical Journal looked at 500 children born with autism between 1979 and 1998. The proportion of children with developmental problems or bowel disorders did not change over this period. The MMR vaccine was introduced in 1988. This indicates that if there was a link between autism and MMR then there would have been an increase in autism cases. Professor Brent Taylor from the Royal Free stated there is “no relation whatsoever between MMR and autism and a huge amount of good evidence that there’s no relation.” Latest figures show that in the UK the MMR jab is still at a rate of 84.2%. The recommended rate is 95%. This is due to parents worrying about the risks of the link between the jab and autism.
Jackie Fletcher is a member of Jabs, a support group for parents who believe their child has been affected by the vaccine. She states “We have a huge body of children 1,600, believed to have been affected by the MMR and they have not been investigated.” Judith Barnard from the National Autistic Society which meets the needs of individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD’s) replied to Jackie Fletcher’s statement with “The experts themselves came to the conclusion that they couldn’t exclude the possibility of a susceptible sub-group that could be affected by the MMR.”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1808826.stm
The National Information Centre for Children and Youth with Disabilities said that children with autism “may seem unresponsive or over responsive to sensory stimuli”. It is common that some children do not enjoy gentle physical contact but enjoy rough contact. A weakness of this theory is that it can be expensive, as activities have to be provided for the child’s learning of their senses. However it sometimes may be covered through insurance or by schools early intervention. Due to these children finding it difficult to empathise, it could result in bullying due to aspects such as being the last person to get the point of a joke.
The causes of autism are not fully understood. Twenty five percent of sufferers are associated with brain damage and fifty percent have other handicaps from physical illnesses. There are physical and psychological indicator signs to diagnose autism. These include early feeding difficulties e.g. problem with chewing. They may be unable to interpret facial expressions and sounds of speech, e.g. there may be no babbling by 12 months of age or no single word by 18 months. They may have temper tantrums and sleeplessness. If the autism is recognised at an early stage there is a good prognosis of normal development. Tranquillising drugs, music and special schooling related to the child’s ability can help treat it. Brian.J., Martin.D.M. (1989) Child Care & Health for Nursery Nurses. Stanley Thornes Ltd. London. (Pp.204)
In conclusion autism is a wide spectrum disorder. One child can be very different from another in relation to their social skills, language development e.t.c. There are many different perspectives, all of which have an interesting insight in autism. There are different treatments available such as special schooling, alongside projects such as RASP for support. In the present day autism is becoming more widely recognised and therefore children have the opportunity to reach their full potential, hopefully to the point of “norm” in society.