8 Best Therapies For Children With Autism

Autism Dan's 8 Best Therapies For Children With Autism

1. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
2. Dietary Interventions
3. Augmentative Communication
4. Floor Time
5. Son Rise
6. DAN! (Defeat Autism Now)
7. Fast ForWord
8. Auditory Integration Training

FULL ARTICLE / DETAIL : Autism Dan's 8 Best Therapies For Children With Autism

Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism

Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism

Parents of children coping with autism spectrum disorders may feel like they face more questions than answers. While little is truly understood of autism, many parents rely on behavioral therapies to improve their child s quality of life and encourage independence. First in what will be an annually updated handbook, Ken Siri and Tony Lyons delve into cutting-edge, hands-on therapies that go beyond the diet-behavior connection, nutrition supplements, and medical treatment.

Readers of Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism, 2010 2011 will come away with a wealth of meaningful knowledge and coping mechanisms to employ: Learn how animal-assisted therapy such as horseback-riding advances developmental growth; art therapy such as finger-painting encourages self-expression; and floor-time play therapy such as puzzle-solving teaches turn-taking and environmental awareness. Social skills therapies, speech and language therapies, and even music therapy are also explored in this volume.

New Diagnosis? How to Help a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

How To Help a Child With Autism on Howcast

Step 1

Take your child for a complete medical exam. Some behavioral problems associated with autism, like temper tantrums, can sometimes be reduced if physical problems common in children with autism, such as gastrointestinal issues and allergies, are alleviated.

Step 2

Put your child on a gluten-free, casein-free diet, which means no barley, rye, oats, wheat, or dairy. Many families of children with autism have had good results – but only if the diet is followed to the letter, no exceptions.

Step 3

Get your child started on speech therapy as soon as possible. If your child is nonverbal, try PECS, which stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. This technique, which uses picture cards, may encourage them to speak.

Step 4

Get your child sensory-integration therapy, which has been proven effective in helping children with autism become less sensitive to light, sound, and touch.

Step 5

Hire an occupational therapist to help them with skills they’ll need for an independent life. Depending on the child, this can be anything from physical coordination to anger management.

Step 6

Use applied behavioral analysis, or ABA, the only intervention approved by the Surgeon General’s Office. ABA is a one-on-one approach to teaching children how to react appropriately to everyday social situations with the help of rewards. Parents can either hire an ABA-trained therapist or learn the technique themselves.

Step 7

Try other therapies. Most children with autism benefit from a combination of treatments.

Step 8

Consider verbal behavior intervention, which is designed to develop language skills through motivation and reinforcement.

Step 9

Test the TEACCH approach, which customizes an education program to the child’s strengths and weaknesses. Because children with autism tend to be visual learners, the program is structured around visual clues.

Step 10

Consider becoming trained in Relationship Development Intervention, or RDI, which suggests everyday things parents can do at home to help their child adapt to changes and be more open to interacting with others.

Step 11

Enroll your child in school when they turn three. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that states provide special education services to children with disabilities, beginning at this age.

Step 12

Stay up-to-date on autism research; new therapies are being tested and developed all the time.

Early Intervention Models: ABA / Applied Behavioral Analysis

ABCNews has some great information on Autism treatments.

• What Is ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis)?
Dr. McGee answers the question: 'What Is ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis)?'
• What Is Discrete-Trial ABA?
• What If My Child Doesn't Enjoy Rewards?
• ABA vs. Developmental Approach?
• What Is 'Floor-Time Therapy'?
• What Is The Denver Model?
• What Is The TEAACH Model?

Autism Interventions: ABA vs. Floortime

Autism Interventions: ABA vs. Floortime

The Developmental, Individual Difference, and Relationship Based (DIR®) Model Theory and Application with Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

This document has been developed to provide professional colleagues and parents in Australia
information on -:

• The theoretical and research support for the DIR® model, with an emphasis on the
application of the DIR® Floortime approach with children with an autistic spectrum disorder.
• Experiences and perspectives from professionals who are using the DIR® approach in their
work with children and families as well as anecotal evidence from our local Australian
parents using DIR® Floortime as an effective approach with their children.
• The levels of training and mentorship required by professionals to be able to practice as a
DIR® Floortime therapist/educator at an accredited level.
• The DIR® infrastructure and networks within Australia

Please note that this paper has been written and collated by staff from the Learning Tree
Therapy Centre, a multidisciplinary DIR® based service, which is based in Perth, Western
Australia (www.learningtreetherapy.com.au, www.sensoryconnections.com.au).

DIR Floortime Australian Position Paper

A High School Program Based on DIR

A High School Program Based on DIR

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Floortime and Autism (DIR, Floor Time)

What is Floortime?

Floortime, a vital element of the DIR/Floortime model, is a treatment method as well as a philosophy for interacting with children (and adults as well). Floortime involves meeting a child at his current developmental level, and building upon his particular set of strengths. Floortime harnesses the power of a child’s motivation; following his lead, wooing him with warm but persistent attempts to engage his attention and tuning in to his interests and desires in interactions. Through Floortime, parents, child care providers, teachers and therapists help children climb the developmental ladder. By entering into a child’s world, we can help him or her learn to relate in meaningful, spontaneous, flexible and warm ways.

A DIR/Floortime clinician may prescribe a number of 20-minute Floortime sessions a day as part of a comprehensive treatment program. In addition, Floortime provides a framework that can guide various daily interactions with children; bathing, playground time, meals, etc.

Floortime is basd on interactive experiences, which are child directed, in a low stimulus environment, ranging from two to five hours a day. Interactive play involves the adult following the child's lead, and aims to encourage the child to "want" to relate to the outside world. Early intervention is encouraged as soon as possible as the child is likely to become more withdrawn and difficult to reach as they get older.

Beginning in the 1980s, Stanley Greenspan built upon research into social-emotional development to create a proprietary intervention for children with deficits in relating and communicating. This method is known as Developmental Individual Difference Relationship Model (DIR Model). Floortime, which is a specific therapeutic technique also developed by Greenspan, is often confused with the DIR Model.

The basic premise of Floortime is that children learn skills from the relationships which they have with their caregivers and other people significant in their lives. It was developed in response to the needs of the increasing population diagnosed with disorders on the Autistic Spectrum, who were then being either served by behavioural methods or cognitive skills, and other impairments of development and learning.

During the preschool program, Floortime includes integration with typically developing peers. Greenspan contends that interactive play, in which the adult follows the child's lead, will encourage the child to 'want' to relate to the outside world. Furthermore, Greenspan (1998) stipulates that the program should begin as soon as the child is identified as the longer children are uncommunicative, the more difficult parents find relating to them and the more the children withdraw. According to Greenspan (1998), intervention must transform perseveration into interaction. Once this occurs, he theorizes that the child becomes purposeful, and can imitate gestures, sounds, and play.

Relationships, according to Greenspan and Wieder, are essentially developed in playful interactions. Greenspan's theory of development is that children grow, from birth to 4 years, in six different milestones to succeed in further learning and development.

• Self-Regulation: The dual ability to take an interest in the sights, sounds and sensations of the world and to calm oneself down.

• Intimacy: The ability to engage in relationships with other people.

• Two-Way Communication: The ability to engage in two-way communication with gestures.

• Complex Communication: The ability to create complex gestures, to string together a series of actions into an elaborate and deliberate problem-solving experience.

• Emotional Ideas: The ability to create ideas.

• Emotional Thinking: The ability to build bridges between ideas to make them reality-based and logical.

Related:

• Autism Wiki on Floortime
• Floortime Foundation
• FLOOR TIME: Be Your Child's Own Personal Play Therapist!
• FLOOR TIME: Promoting Personal Interest and Attention
• FLOOR TIME: Promoting Better Communication Skills
• FLOOR TIME: Promoting the Expression of Feelings and Ideas
• FLOOR TIME: Promoting Logical Thinking
• Floortime California