Autism Spectrum Disorders

What are Autism Spectrum Disorders?

• Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are lifelong developmental disabilities that includes autistic disorder caused by atypical neurological development of the brain. ASD is generally evident before the age 3.

Different Levels of Functioning

• Autism is a spectrum (range) of dysfunctions and deficits within a single disorder rather than a group of discrete diagnoses.

• Using specific diagnostic criteria, a child's or adult's functional level of autism is graded from mild to severe based on his/her developmental impairments and ability to function and learn:

• At one end of the spectrum are children and adults who cannot function in society due to their deficits without significant support

• At the other end are those "quirky" people who can lead independent and highly successful lives.

• The designated functioning level defines where a child or adult falls on the autism spectrum and how well he or she can live independently.

Restrictive Repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interest and activities

• “Obsessions”, “circumscribed interests”, “special interests”, “routines”, “rituals” , “preoccupations” are some of the terms used when describing the behavior of young children with autism.

• Repetitive motor mannerisms may occur when some people with autism are excited, anxious, or worried.

• For others, sensory sensitivities and physical enjoyment may initiate repetitive jumping, arm flapping, twiddling of fingers in front of their eyes and covering ears and eyes with their hands.

Social Emotional

• To some children with autism, their own feelings and ideas are the only feelings and ideas that appear to exist. Children with autism may have no reaction to another person's crying, for example.

• It is impossible for some children with autism to take another person's perspective without deliberate training.

• Most find social interactions to be unnatural and quite stressful. • Most do not reciprocate play and do not engage in typical play activities

without prompting. • Most also avoid meeting other people's gaze, and tend instead to fixate

their eyes away from people, on to inanimate objects or parts of objects.

Social Emotional

• higher functioning children with autism do choose to be social at times

• their deficits in social understanding and empathy prevent them from smoothly engaging with others.

• For example, a high functioning child with autism may know he is supposed to use words to initiate a conversation with other children, but not know quite how to use them appropriately.

• He may walk up to a group of children and attempt to initiate a conversation by echoing an out-of-context phrase he heard previously such as, "It was a dark and stormy night“ rather than by making eye contact and saying hello.

Communication

• Children with ASD may have difficulty developing language skills and understanding what others say to them.

• They also often have difficulty communicating nonverbally, such as through hand gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions.

• The ability of children with ASD to communicate and use language depends on their intellectual and social development.

• Some children with ASD may not be able to communicate using speech or language, and some may have very limited speaking skills.

• Others may have rich vocabularies and be able to talk about specific subjects in great detail.

• They also may not be unable to understand body language and the meanings of different vocal tones.

• together, these difficulties affect the ability of children with ASD to interact with others, especially people their own age.

Patterns of Language Use

• Repetitive or rigid language. Often, children with ASD who can speak will say things that have no meaning or that do not relate to the conversations they are having with others.

• For example, a child may count from one to five repeatedly within a conversation that is not related to numbers.

• a child may continuously repeat words he or she has heard

• Narrow interests and exceptional abilities. Some children may be able to deliver an in-depth monologue about a topic that holds their interest, even though they may not be able to carry on a two-way conversation about the same topic.

Patterns of Language Use

• Poor nonverbal conversation skills. Children with ASD are often unable to use gestures, such as pointing to an object, to give meaning to their speech. They often avoid eye contact, which can make them seem rude, uninterested, or inattentive.

• Pointing to an object• Avoid eye contact

• Uneven language development. Many children with ASD develop some speech and language skills, but not to a typical level of ability, and their progress is usually uneven

• For example, they may develop a strong vocabulary in a particular area of interest very quickly.

• Some may be able to read words before age five, but may not comprehend what they have read.

Common Learning Characteristics

Visual Learners: Many autistic children are visual learners. However, there is a method to this visual learning. Pictures and other visual aids cannot be shown in rapid succession as it often takes students on the spectrum longer periods to process what they have seen.

.use the actual item first, then move on to a picture of that item.

Modeling: Students on the autism spectrum are often good imitators if they are given enough time.

.Model desired behavior

. pair students on the spectrum with students who are able to show what is

expected consistently

Common Learning Characteristics

• Talking to Self: While obviously, you cannot allow children to talk to themselves in a loud and/or distracting voice during your class, they can learn to talk quietly to themselves.

• Self-talk can help a child organize his thoughts and keep him focused on his assignments.

• One step at a time: A student with autism may focus on one piece of information at a time.

• For example, a teacher points at a letter written on a chalkboard and says, "This is the second letter of the alphabet; it's name is B."

• An autistic student may process the pointing gesture, the letter's image, or a handful of the words the teacher said.

• Instructions and lessons should be direct and concise. To begin, the teacher would ideally point to the letter and say, "B".

Common Learning Characteristics

• Stay consistent: Consistency is very important because it gives a person on the spectrum a sense of order and a sense of security.

• Loosen the structure to make the schedule less rigid• make small adjustments to increase the student's tolerance for change.• Use Social Stories or visual aids to help the student prepare for drastic changes

in routine

• Present Ideas Literally: Figurative language and idioms can be very confusing for a student on the spectrum.

• Sarcasm, hidden curriculum, reading comprehension and writing answers to open ended questions are all difficult concepts for a person on the spectrum to understand.

Common Learning Characteristics

Haptic Modality: Haptic modality refers to a hands-on style of learning. Children with autism are often very sensitive to tactile experiences, and they often want to touch virtually everything in sight.

. If you are practicing math skills, give them items to count

.reviewing for a science test, let them see and hold applicable objects, such as. microscopes, test tubes, etc.

• Generalizing Skills: Students with ASD have difficulty generalizing between people, materials and environments.

• Difficulty generalizing impacts the students ability to function independently in the school environment.

• Skills need to be taught in a variety of environments

Sensory Integrative Dysfunction

• Sensory integrative dysfunction is a disorder in which sensory input is not integrated or organized appropriately in the brain and may produce varying degrees of problems in development, information processing, and behavior.

• Sensory integration focuses primarily on three basic senses:Tactile: light touch, pain, temperature, and pressure

Vestibular: structures within the inner ear that detect movement and changes in the

position of the head

Proprioceptive: components of muscles, joints, and tendons that provide a person with a

subconscious awareness of body position

• The inter-relationship among these three senses allows us to experience, interpret, and respond to different stimuli in our environment.

Dysfunctional Sensory System

• Children and adults on the spectrum may have a dysfunctional sensory system.

• Sometimes one or more senses are either over- or under-reactive to stimulation.

• Such sensory problems may be the underlying reason for such behaviors as rocking, spinning, and hand-flapping.

• Although the receptors for the senses are located in the peripheral nervous system (which includes everything but the brain and spinal cord), it is believed that the problem stems from neurological dysfunction in the central nervous system--the brain.

Sensory Hotspots

Executive Functioning Deficit

• Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.

Executive Functioning Deficits Impacts Many Areas

• Working Memory: This is the short term memory responsible for following multi-step directions. It may be difficult to remember more than one task at a time, or all of the directions required for a task or assignment.

• Reasoning: Understanding cause and effect, anticipating consequences, and regulating emotions and thoughts effectively enough to apply reasoning .

• Task Flexibility: Being able to switch attention and focus, transition between steps within a task, and apply novel solutions to a problem.

Executive Functioning Deficits Impacts Many Areas

• Problem Solving: Applying the reasoning necessary, maintaining calm and focus, and sustaining attention through all aspects of the problem can all be difficult with an executive functioning difference.

• Planning: Planning requires anticipation, long term focus and an ability to apply the reasoning and problem solving as explained above. Planning also requires an anticipation of what may go wrong, and anxiety can further derail the executive functioning system.

• Organization: Organization requires planning and reasoning abilities, as well as an attention to detail. Prioritization is also necessary with organization, and adherence to systems may overload an individual on the spectrum.

Executive Functioning

Sampling of Famous People on the Spectrum

Contemplations

I Am Beautiful………