Early Intervention for Birth to School Aged
See our calendar for PUZZLE PIECE Play Groups!
PARENT ASSESSMENT for Autism and Sensory Disorders
Become a detective!
Does your child make any eye contact?
Does he exhibit any interest in shared social engagement?
Does he frequently exhibit inappropriate behaviors?
We mean hand or arm flapping, screaming or biting.
Are there problems relating to you or other people?
Is your child verbal or nonverbal?
Is there functional and meaningful language skills?
Does your child repeat words or phrases out of context?
Does your child use nonverbal ways to communicate by pointing or taking you to an object?
How does your child respond to visual, tactile or auto stimulation?
Do they react over or under sensitive to sight, sound, touch, taste and smell?
Does your child need set routine?
Is your child processing the information that you tell them?
Is there an indication that they do understand?
Form a relationship with your child:
Sit with your child for 30 minutes in the same room and play with the same toys that he is playing with in a separate area.
The goal is to get them to notice you and imitate what you are doing. It can be playing cars, building blocks, making funny faces or whatever your childs interest is. Begin to make formations with your mouth to create certain sounds. For example the sound " O" first without the sound then after it has been imitated do it with the sound. It will bring about the beginning of speech. This approach will not work over night.
Introduce Visual Cues and more:
Now that you are interacting with your child the next step is to encourage working with visual pictures and associate them to a spoken word. For example if it is snack time and you want to offer your child a choice you would show two visuals pictures of maybe grapes and an apple. Then have your child pick. Use your child's finger and point to each snack saying the word such as apple - grapes. Encourage your child to repeat the words. Do this with all choices, places to go, toys to play with, potty training and more.
What this offers is a teaching association of the word to the picture, teaching the concept of choice and teaching language.
Establish Structure in the home:
Once your child can use visuals slowly introduce structure and routines. This can be as simple as a daily visual schedule of your day, We get up, eat breakfast, brush our teeth and hair, get dressed, and so on. You can also add the visual cues to toy boxes, containers of toys and to designate a play area. Use one step routines to begin with and then work your way up from there.
One step routines: Eating Breakfast - allow choice of food, show a child eating, and then finished. One of the best way to keep your visual cues clean is to place them in baseball card holders. They are very sturdy!
Managing Unwanted Behavior:
You will face many over your childs lifetime. First discover the route of the behavior and aim for resolution.
If he is acting out because he is bored -then get him jumping on a small trampoline or go out on an outing. Offer a stimulating activity.
If your child is screaming and covering their ears- CLUE something is too loud and they are overloaded.
If your child is biting - provide them with a chewy teething ring or a chewy tube ( they can be purchased online)
Inappropriate behavior comes from :
6. They just can not help it!
In order to save your sanitity and be less exhausted:
1. Learn to recognize the signs of beginning stress in your child.
2. De-escalation - learn to catch it and calm your child down.
It is possible to have fun and work through the stress that your child is experiencing.
DO YOU KNOW ME?
I won't look at you or anyone else in the eyes!
I hate having my hair washed or cut!
I am a picky eater
I have selective hearing or difficulty listening
I have trouble focusing and concentrating
I am overly sensitive to load sounds
I am always smelling people, food or objects
I chew on everything
I am a picky eater - I resist new foods and textures
I complain about the tags in my clothing
I complain about my socks hurting
I seem unaware of normal touch or pain
I touch others too hard or soft
I hate being tickled or cuddled!
I have poor gross motor skills - running, walking, riding a bike
I always walk on my tiptoes
I have poor fine motor skills - handwriting and cutting
I have difficulty dressing myself
I sit with my legs in a "W" position