Discussing Autism

Okay, so I have been a tad lazy lately about the Friday Freebie. Please forgive me! I have had a huge project at home that is not so free. But, here is a great Friday Freebie for this week.

Right now we are are working on letter recognition at home but because AJ has both auditory and visual processing disorders this is very difficult for him. He loves music and learns great this way but there are few alphabet songs that help him visually recognize a letter. (more…)

One of my favorite reads, Mommy Dearest, wrote Saturday about her Aha Moment, the moment you most remember after receiving your child’s diagnosis.

When did you finally accept the diagnosis or have you not accepted it yet? I remember sitting on the living room couch, talking to my husband about how our son would never be attending prom or playing in Little League Baseball with the other children in the neighborhood. He would never be watching a girl walk down the isle or give birth to a child and he would never experience life like we have…with the “traditional” rites of passage. (more…)

Activities to develop fine motor skills can often be hard to find because toys today are geared towards entertainment. However, when you step back and look at educational products you will find that educational products can be just as entertaining and sometimes even more rewarding than any toy in the house.

AJ loves playing with me in the morning before he goes to school (we switched him to the afternoon after winter break) and we recently put all of his toys away because he was just way too overstimulated. It has worked out to both of our benefits. He not only is more calm but he is also more interactive with me. He is able to chose from his BoardMaker flip pictures from a list of activities that he can do and he loves the “freedom” of having a choice. (more…)

AJ has never been one to pick up a ball for the fun of it…he usually picks up one in anger or disgust and then throws it. But man, does he have an arm. A strong left one and an even stronger right one.

According to eBeanStalk’s Physical Therapist, Deanie Barth, “A child does not simply wake up one day with the ability to accurately catch and throw and kick a ball, it is a learning process just like any other required skill.”
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We first started using Picture Cards about two years ago when we purchased PECS to help with scheduling but I have recently found that its not the scheduling that AJ needs the most help in. Instead, we have started using the pictures from BoardMaker to help him with his visual and auditory processing disability.

We have created several sets of ring cards to help him get ready for the day and get ready for bed and he absolutely loves them because it gives him mind order. His morning ring card has the following pictures: Bathroom, bath, brush teeth, underwear, socks, pants, and shirt. He can now get dressed almost entirely by himself without any communication issues or without us having to talk to him at all (which often created frustration).

Grocery PECS, DVD PECS, Toy PECS
Free PECS
School related Pictures

Complete List of Companies that Create Picture Cards

Auditory Processing, like visual processing, can be difficult to diagnose. In fact, auditory processing most often goes hand in hand with visual processing disorder because they are both neurological disorders and the problems actually overlap in the areas of memory, discrimination, attention, and language. Most often, these disorders are treated simultaneously or if a child has one of the disorders but not the other he/she is treated with the same strategies that one might use for both.
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>Early Childhood

Use books, worksheets and other materials with enlarged print.
Read written directions aloud. Varying teaching methods (written and spoken words; images and sounds) can help promote understanding.
Be aware of the weakness but don’t overemphasize it. While helping a child work on the weakness is important; it is just as important to build other skills and function in any setting.
Break assignments and chores into clear, concise steps. Often multiple steps can be difficult to visualize and complete.
Give examples and point out the important details of visual information (the part of a picture that contains information for a particular question).
Provide information about a task before starting to focus attention on the activity.

Many children with autism, SPD, and ADHD also have an underline disorder of visual processing disorder that is often missed and even misdiagnosed. I have heard parents in my Special Needs playgroup tell me that their Occupational Therapist’s respond to them with comments like “oh, he just sees things differently” or “that is part of his Autism Disability”. However, if a Visual Processing disorder goes undiagnosed a child misses out on an entire different set of teaching strategies and interventions that can be utilized both at home and at school. (more…)