Archive for September, 2011

By: Angela Nelson

Language development varies from child to child, and there are wide ranges of expected “normal” language development in young children. If you have concerns about your child’s language development, you should discuss this with your pediatrician.

By the age of two a child should be able to:

• Follow simple commands or instructions
• Point to an object or picture when it is named for him or her
• Recognize names of familiar objects, body parts and familiar faces
• Repeat words spoken by others
• Use simple phrases and 2 – 4 word sentences by 18 – 24 months

As we all know, there is no “typical” child with autism. Children on the Autism Spectrum may meet some of these objectives, all of these objectives, or none of these objectives. The goal is to identify your child’s specific language deficits (the areas you see them falling behind) and takes steps to help them catch up.

The first stages of language development,  involve listening to words, imitating words, and building a basic vocabulary. In your child’s education program you may have heard professionals use terms like Receptive Language, Echolalia, Modeling, Matching, or Expressive Language. Don’t let these terms intimidate you. Really, they just mean… listening to words, imitating words, and building a basic vocabulary.

Encouraging Emerging Language Skills

A basic step in typical language development is imitation. Many parents are surprised to learn that a parent imitating their child is almost as important as the child imitating the parent! When a 12 month old child looks at his or her mother and says “mamamama,” the mother almost instinctively replies back, “that’s right ‘mama.’” This feedback reinforces the child’s vocalization and encourages them to keep on chatting. Although children with autism may have delayed onset of this type of behavior, or may have some setbacks along the way; it is important to remember to continue to imitate vocalizations with your child to encourage verbal behavior.

Imitation will also provide the first steps in the formation of words for your child. This time I mean your child imitating you! While you are hoping to hear your child imitating full words, remember, this starts with imitating vowels, consonants and syllables. If you say “aaaaa” and your child responds back with “aaaaa,” this is a cause for celebration. You are one step closer to your child saying “ma” or  “apple” than you were before they could (or would) imitate your vocalization. Eventually, modeling words will become the way you build your child’s expressive vocabulary!

Language Builder Picture Cards: Identical Matching

Developmental Psychologist, Jean Piaget, observed that a child first becomes aware of a concept and then acquires the words to convey that concept. Think about this for a moment: a child has to know that an apple is a distinct and separate item, before they know they should give it a name. They have to realize that the apple is different than, say, a cup. This is where matching comes in.

To teach this concept you can use pictures of objects.  Place two pictures on the table in front of your child, one picture of an apple, and the other of a cup (or some non-apple picture). Hand your child an identical picture of an apple. Ask your child to “match” the apples, or to “put with same.”

When your child can consistently match the two cards, regardless of the position of the cards, they likely understand that the apple is a distinct object. Now we are one step closer to giving that object a name!

Building Receptive Vocabulary

Receptive language refers to the thought process involved in hearing, processing and comprehending spoken language. When we mentioned above that a two year old child should be able to follow simple commands, point to objects when they are named, and recognize names of familiar objects; these objectives were examples of receptive language skills.

There are a number of ways to help build your child’s receptive vocabulary. Using photo cards, like the Language Builder Picture Cards,  is one basic and concrete vocabulary building tool that you can do at home. Place pictures of common objects on the table in front of your child. Ask your child to “touch the cookies” or “give me the hat.” When your child can follow the command and consistently select the requested picture, you have added a new word to their receptive vocabulary.

It is likely that your child will need help selecting the correct card… especially the first few times you try this task. Here is a trick to help make picking the right word easier. Start with just one card on the table and increase the number of pictures slowly. For example, if you are trying to teach the word cookies

1. Start with just the picture of the cookies on the table.
2. After your child has learned to touch the cookies picture on request, add a blank card to the table. Ask your child to touch the cookies picture several more times, rotating the position of the two cards each time.
3. Then, add a second picture to the table, and a third, and a fourth.
4. Once your child can select the cookies picture each time, introduce new words using the same method!

Language Builder Picture Cards: Receptive Labeling Can Progress from One Card to Multiple Cards

Angela Nelson received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. As Founder and CEO of Stages Learning Materials, Angela has created autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

By: Bonnie Arnwine

I’ll start off by saying this is a strange topic for our blog, but after talking with several people in our community I’ve been asked to write about what recently happened to our family.  By now most of us have heard about the tragic crash at the Reno Air Races.  Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong and a piece of the plane’s tail came off before the plane crashed.  My son photographed the part coming off the tail.  It’s an amazing shot, it’s amazing that he took the picture…

Reno Air Race Part Coming off the Tail Before the Crash

Developing Talents

It’s often recommended that you work with a person on the autism spectrum to develop their talents and passions.  My son is incredibly detail oriented, he’s in advanced placement art classes, loves photography and loves aviation.   At five he could tell the difference between an F-14 and an F16, which by the way I still can’t.  So we bought him photography equipment and my husband takes him to airshows to take pictures.  It’s opened up a new community for our son and our family.  Online and at shows Geoffrey has received friendly advice from photographers, met other aviation enthusiasts and is slowly building a social circle.

Life is often Bittersweet

Back to the Reno Airshow, he took the picture, but it’s been bittersweet.  Geoffrey  loves aviation and saw many other people who love aviation die that day.  He feels terrible about all the people that were hurt and he’s haunted by the images of death, pain and suffering that he saw.  As we’ve been talking, he’s shared that he feels physically sick about the pain everyone must be feeling.

At the same time his picture has been shown on CNN, NBC and ABC and that’s good, right?  It is good and we’re glad that his photograph may play a part in explaining what happened that day.  He’s given a copy to the NTSB and we hope it will help their investigation.  The photograph has also shown the world that Geoffrey is on his way to becoming a very good photographer, and his father and I am glad for that.

This is the way life seems to go for us, it’s full of ups and downs, wonderful moments and deep heartache.   This is the way life goes for all of us, people both on and off the spectrum.  Please keep the Reno Air Race victims in your prayers.  We are holding on to Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. “

By: Britt Collins M.S., OTR/L

Its back to school and the children are arriving and you have spent all this time decorating your classroom.  During the first week, you notice that one of your kids is squinting at the board and doesn’t seem to be paying attention.  You notice another child is staring off at the busy bulletin board looking at the bright colors and you have another child who cannot sit still in their seat and is constantly bouncing around.  What are you supposed to do?!?!

• Try to give all the children in your classroom sensory movement breaks throughout the day.  Incorporate these into your lesson plans.  For math, have the children jump to count and go through an obstacle course to read sight words (i.e. walk across a balance beam, jump over a log, climb up onto the bean bag, call out the flash card sight word and throw a bean bag into the bucket) Children will learn to love learning and we have to MOVE in order to learn.

• If you have a child who is visually distracted by stimuli, maybe move their seat, or make sure your classroom is not overloaded with stuff on the walls.  It doesn’t have to be boring white, but too much in the classroom can be overwhelming for a sensory sensitive child.

• For that mover and shaker, have them sit on a therapy ball, or a move-n-sit in his/her chair.  Give them a fidget toy to squish to help them pay attention and create rules around not throwing it, or pulling it out to distract other children.

• If a child is having trouble copying from the board, give them a slant board to write on and have them copy from their desk. They may have visual perceptual issues that make it difficult to transfer what is written on the board to their paper.  Consult with your OT to see how you can help any child that is struggling in the classroom.

• For a child that may seem like they are not listening, see of the OT or Speech therapist can help with possibility of auditory processing issues.  That child may need 30 extra seconds to process what you are saying to them, or it may be hard for them to filter out what you are saying from the lawn mower outside.

Don’t be afraid to call in your Occupational Therapist to help provide sensory strategies for your kids in your classroom.  If you do not have an OT that is available, feel free to check out the OT in the School DVD for more helpful advice.

Britt Collins is the co-author of Sensory Parenting: Newborns to Toddlers www.sensoryparenting.com and co-creator of an award winning OT DVD series.