My ASD Child

CLICK TO ENLARGE Children with ASD level 1, or High-Functioning Autism, are known to misinterpret other people’s feelings, motives, behaviors, etc. “Cognitive restructuring” is a fancy term that simply means helping these young people to correct their distorted conceptualizations and dysfunctional beliefs. The process, which parents can implement, involves challenging their current thinking with logical evidence and ensuring the rationalization and cognitive control of their emotions. The first stage is to establish the evidence for a particular belief. Kids on the autism spectrum can make false assumptions of their circumstances and the intentions of others. They have a tendency to make a literal interpretation (e.g., a casual comment may be taken out of context or may be taken to the extreme). For instance, a teenage male with ASD was once told his voice was “breaking.” He became extremely anxious that his voice was becoming faulty and decided to consciously alter the...

Does your child have difficulty expressing troubling emotions using his or her words rather than acting-out? Does your child seem to lack an understanding about the emotions of other people? If so, here are some ways to educate your child on the subject: The main goal of Affective Education is to teach children with ASD level 1, or High-Functioning Autism (HFA), why they have emotions, their use and misuse, and the identification of different levels of expression. A basic principle is to explore one emotion at a time as a theme for a project. The choice of which emotion to start with is decided by the parent (or teacher), but a useful starting point is happiness or pleasure. A scrapbook can be created that illustrates the emotion. This can include pictures of people expressing the different degrees of happiness, but can be extended to pictures of objects and situations that have a personal association with the feeling (e.g., a photograph of a rare lizard for a child with a sp...

To make interventions that will decrease anxiety and increase compliance in children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and Asperger’s, parents need to create an environment in which their youngster feels comfortable and has an understanding of the events taking place around him or her.  The environment needs to provide: Structure Routine Predictability Organization Consistency Logically explained rules Clear rewards and consequences in response to these rules When this is in place, the “special needs” youngster will begin to feel competent. Here are the 4 steps to creating an optimal environment for young people on the autism spectrum: 1. Reinforcers (i.e., things that increase desired behavior) will need to be very individualized, because kids and teens with HFA and Asperger’s often don’t respond to typical reinforcers. Parents must be well aware of what their youngster views as a reward. Points to consider: Reinforcers can cause difficulties if they are used t...

When using words and phrases to teach new behaviors to your child with High-Functioning Autism, it will be crucial to develop and write them down on a poster board or white board.    These words and phrases will be used when introducing or generalizing new behaviors to your child. By making them visual, you guarantee both greater understanding and usage of them. Strange phrases or catchy sayings are often attractive and easy to remember, but actually using the words and phrases - not simply writing them down – is what makes them effective. Also, they should be developed by you AND your youngster, which will increase the likelihood that they will be remembered. The steps to creating a list of key words and phrases: Choose the area you want to work on with your youngster. Select (or have your youngster select) a word or phrase to be used as a quick reminder for appropriate responding.  Teach your child to use the key words and/or phrases as needed. With cons...

“Are there some ways to prevent some of the discipline-related problems encountered with children who have high functioning autism, specifically meltdowns associated with receiving a consequence for misbehavior? I say ‘prevent’ because it seems that once my son knows he is going to be punished, it quickly escalates into meltdown, which by then is much too late to intervene. Is there a way for us to ‘predict’ and thus prevent a potential meltdown?” Most parents of kids with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's wait until a problem occurs, and then try to deal with it by issuing a consequence. Consequences can be positive (gaining something desirable) or negative (losing something desirable). Sometimes, consequences are discussed prior to an event, but usually in terms of a motivator: "If you do this, you will gain (or lose) that." Too often, parents use consequences in the middle of a behavior problem (e.g., "If you don't stop that, you’re not going to p...