026- Milestones of Autism

Today, I am going to dedicate this post in sending a message to everyone that comes by this blog that I hope would increase awareness on Autism. [And other special needs.]

As I have mentioned before, I work at an NGO that conducts therapy classes for children with Autism. And I want to highlight the main point of this post which is to make everyone understand what Autism is and how it can be treated. Also, before I start, I wanna say that I am not a certified professional in this feild, and everything in this post are based on my experience with the children with Autism I have worked with and what I have learnt from my trainers and of course the Internet. [What would we be without the glorious internet, right? ]

Autism in definition by the Autism Association of America is, "Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Both children and adults with autism typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.
Autism is one of five disorders that falls under the umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), a category of neurological disorders characterized by “severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development."

In my experience, a child with Autism is just like any other child. As it is mentioned in the above definition, Autism is a neurological disorder and hence cannot be seen in appearance. A child with Autism is just as adorable and worthy of love and care as any other kid. Or a little MORE care than any other child.

There limitations in social and communication [which is the main difficulties] can be treated with therapies that have been used in many many countries of the world. Unfortunately, the people that are trained in this field are very less in our Maldives. And also the awareness among the people is rather minimal too.

There are number of therapies that are used to treat Autism. The one that I am currently learning and applying is called Applied Behavior Analysis. Applied Behavior Analysis [ABA] is defined by Wiki as the science of applying experimentally derived principles of behaviorism to modify behavior. ABA has been proven to be the most effective method of therapy for children with Autism.

The main idea of ABA is that a child's behavior could be shaped and molded by influencing the response regarding the behavior. It is a mixture of psychological and educational techniques that are woven together to suit the needs of every individual child. ABA involves the use of behavioral methods to analyze behavior, teach functional and social skills and evaluate progress.

Every child is first observed and programmes are made to overcome his difficulties in social, functional and communicating skills. These programmes are divided into small steps that will help the child to cross his obstacles. These programmes are filed separately for every child and the data is taken so that the progress can be seen on paper. It is a systematic and organized method of therapy. The basic point of ABA therapy is to improve language skills and socialization while eliminating or suppressing other behaviors that interfere with his/her learning.

The ABA therapy consists of several things of which I am going to highlight a couple.

1. Discrete Trial Training. [DTT]
DTT is based on the principles of ABA that when children affected with Autism are rewarded for a behavior, they are likely to repeat that behavior.
For example: Almost all children with Autism has difficulty in maintaining eye contact while another person is trying to have a conversation with them. The therapist applies techniques such as keeping an object that he want in front of the therapist's eye and call the child, he will look. And when the child does so, the therapist will verbally praise the child with 'Good looking.' or 'Aunty is happy because [name] looked.' and then give him the reinforcer, ie. the object that he wants.

The point of DTT is to encourage the child to maintain a certain behavior like eye contact. This technique teaches the child that his good behavior will be rewarded and eventually he learns the importance of the task that he has to handle. And when he starts showing these basic social behaviors without prompt, the therapist will slowly fade the reinforcing and the rewards.

Picture Exchange Communication System. [PECS]
Pecs is a form of alternative communication method where the child used picture to communicate instead of words. It was designed especially for children with autism who has delays in speech development.

PECS is used to encourage the child to communicate rather than replace verbal speech altogether. Many people mistake this method to be something that discourages the child from talking like a normal person. But in my eyes this is not so. [As many people would agree.] Once the child is taught how to use the cards to communicate, he starts to understand the importance of communication. And eventually, start on verbal speech.

PECS consists of several phases starting from teaching the child to recognize the purpose of each card to teaching the child to express his thoughts with the cards.

In ABA therapy every step is documented in a file where child's everyday  progress can be seen on paper. This helps the therapist as well as the parents get motivated to do more for the child.

Fact: The Lovaas method of ABA has been used since the early 1980's to help improve behaviors in children with ASD.

Autism can  be treated and the child with Autism can learn to be independent with the proper therapy and care. For this, every single person that the child meets along the way has to be informed and made aware of the importance in understanding them. And to all those parents, going through this, I would like to say that where there is a will, there is a way. Do not lose your faith. From the parents to the teachers in schools has to become aware of this delicate problem.

Also it is a pleasure and privilege working with the kids at our association. My prayer is that our center grows with every passing day. And that Allah blesses all those kids that is nothing but a little test of patience on our side. And our duty is to pass this test of patience.

This is my piece in helping the cause of Autism. I hope I conveyed my message. :)

Anyone who wants to volunteer at our center or anyone who wants to get admission for our classes please contact us at:-
Maldives Autism Association
Ma. Eureka [ground floor]
Vaidheri Hingun
Tel: 3329033