Autism

A neurological disorder featuring delayed or abnormal development in 3 areas:
- Language
- Social skills
- Behaviour repertoire
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Language Development
- Difficulty understanding of language.
*touch apple
*find the red apple
*go to the kitchen

- Difficulty expressing through words.

Social Skills
- Imitation
- Sharing
- Play skills
- Smiling ( Difficulty understanding emotion and facial expression)
- Interacting with people
- Conversation
- Manners
- Eye contact ( Dialogue without eye contact)
- Waiting ( Less patience)
- Greeting ( Does not understand purpose of greeting)
- Proximity ( Acting inappropriately)
- Joining play
- Responding to others ( Does not answer questions)

Behavioural Repertoire
- Hand flapping
- Peripheral eye gazing
- Pacing ( Not standing still while talking)
- Finger flicking
- Spinning around
- Lining up toys in a non-functional manner
- Repeating words or lines from movie
- Rewinding videos repeatedly

NB: not all autistic child will show all of the symptoms above.

Autism is not:
- Mental illness
- Caused by parenting style
- Something that the child will "grow out of"
- Cured by medication or medical procedure

Child with Autism Spetrum Disorder
- has capacity to learn cognitive skills
- limited or no speech
- have language but limited communicative speech
- echolalic speech
- delayed development of gross motor
* sit without assistance
* kick a ball
* ride a tricycle
* move backward and foreward
- delayed development of fine motor
* ( usually action using fingers: writing, pokes with index finger)
- difficulty performing activities daily living
- difficulty read reaction of others and adapt their behaviour.

Tips for Working with Children with Autism
- Being consistent
* rules, expectation, where thing are kept
- Using simple language
* one instruction at a time
* use visuals to support language
* avoid idioms or metaphors
- Giving predictability
* explain changes before they happen
- Giving attention for appropriate behaviour
- Keeping child active in classroom
* give child job, ensure on task, ensure attention
- Encouraging social interactions to work on these skills
* conversation at appropriate time
* make a play plan before going to the playground


Reference:
Jochebed Isaacs, "Autism Awareness", Early Autism Project Malaysia, pg. 1 - 9, 13 November 2009