READING SKILLS- AUTISM

Hi, how are you guys!!!! Long break right, yep I was little busy anyway I am really happy to come up with this super duper topic, so why wait dive in…………….

The best is yet to come

Believe in you and your child

Thanx to www.lilsdale.bccls.org for the above picture

Reading is a cognitive process. Oral language/ receptive language ability is very important for reading comprehension. Teaching autistic children reading can be a little tricky task, some children with autism never learn to read other children can read text/ printed words in very early age ( some children shown interest in reading or identifying sight words  at the age of 2 ½ to 3). These children are referred in the group called hyperlexia.  A typical child (normal child) develops language and then proceeds to reading so it’s easy for him to understand what’s being read, but in the case of our amazing talents it works quite opposite. We face lot of problems while making our children learning to read like: difficulty with attention, lack of motivation and problems with word decoding.

Hyperlexia: children who shows precious reading ability and they exhibit these skill at the very young age. This skill also called as splinter skill. Most of the time these children seem be having an intense interest/fascination alphabets and numbers. Children if given opportunity they end up spending time by looking at the alphabets, numbers or lining them at the same time they have significant problems in understanding verbal language. Parents and therapists can use their precious reading ability as a therapeutic strategy / teaching strategy for teaching language and social skills. It’s like finding shade in the deserted island.

Strategies for improving reading skills:

J Some children can learn reading through phonetics where they associate letters with sounds and decoding the sounds in the words.  Teach through phonetic blending if the child shows interest and seems to be acquiring reading skill through this practice. Every child is unique; some of our children excel reading skill with the help of phonetics.

JThe ability to read can help in increase functional communication. Our children may have great difficulty processing and understanding auditory instructions but they go ease when they are taught visually. Plan your reading program by making it visual, great link between literacy and language.

J When you are planning reading program always remember your child’s learning style (visual, auditory) visual learning style child go good with whole word reading and auditory learning style child go good with phonetic training

JStart teaching whole words/sight word reading, no letters or sounds. Begin with words that have meaning and motivation for the child. Lot of reading practice through different matching and lotto games

J Always introduce sight word along with picture to have better comprehension (A flash card that has word and the picture)

JTake pictures of daily activities write a sentence for each picture and you can use it for reading practice. The child with autism can relate better and helps for easy comprehension

J Making use of their interests for reading program, most of our children have passionate interests in some areas or objects. I know one child who is very fond of trains and another child with food; we can make use of this by creating words and sentences about their interest

J Create stories enriched with his real life incidents, include pictures in the story. Initially write simple sentences for better comprehension, as he masters increase complexity

J Use reading material that talks more about authentic personal experience and facts rather than fantasy

J Not necessary every child reading program focuses on usual text books. I know one child who is very fond of cooking and food; we had been successful using recipe books for improving reading skills

JSimple picture books are the good resource for reading practice, so that it’s easy for the child to associate the whole words with the pictures. Multi sensory books are also available in the market

J Construct your own books with pictures, words and sentences (a book for ‘drink’ word, a book for ‘sit’ verb…. You can work with all the verbs with your child)

J Collect pictures from magazines and news papers; stick them in the book and write sentence for each picture, these are the best resource for improving reading skill for your child

J Work on themes (make small books for each festival with picture representation and sentences for each picture and themes like birthday party, marriage etc

J Sentence construction activities; with the learnt words practice constructing simple sentences with him

J Peer group teaching and learning; pairing children for reading success by modeling strategy

J Make use of visual organizers like flow charts, concept maps and Venn diagrams helps in reading process

J Generalize reading practice by making connections to self, text and to the outside world

 Thanx to www.students.ou.edu for the above picture

When setting up a reading program, remember that language made visual will enhance communication that all our children can learn to read. Autistic children are often excluded from rich and meaningful literacy experience like storytelling. Finally we are here to make reading an enjoyable activity by using their interests and making it visual.

Take care

THE CONCEPT OF PREPOSITIONS

Hi, good see you again JJJJJJ

“If you are wondering what your purpose is: your purpose is to create one”

Thanx to http://www.assistivedogs.wordpress.com/ for the above picture
Preposition is a word that shows some relationship, it is always part of a phrase and comes before the object. Developmentally normal children naturally or unconsciously learn to use these words, but children with Autism and other related disabilities have to go through a big battle to get them right. Prepositions are little bit harder because they are more of an abstract concept than a mere vocabulary word.  I believe explicitly teaching of them is a source of success. Today we will look in to some of the strategies which might surely produce results and increase independency in using prepositions in the language.

ü  List down the prepositions you are going to teach, always go with the easy ones. These words below are the easy  ones to begin with “ in, out, on, under, in front, between, next to, behind etc”

ü  Teaching prepositions in pairs, most prepositions have opposites (like in and out, on and under….). Teaching opposite pairs gives a contrast understanding and easy to register. Start with easier pairs first

ü  Collect pictures/ flash cards which clearly illustrate the position of the objects. Train them to identify and label the flash cards by saying the preposition. Ex; on, under etc

ü  Matching games like you  show your child the flash card of  in, the child can match with the out flash card

ü  Select an object to represent all the prepositions, ex; ball is on, ball is under, ball is in, ball is out etc

ü  Selected objects for teaching prepositions should be familiar to the child

ü  Once the child masters with one object you can now show him the variation by using different objects like; pen is in, pen is out etc

ü  Keep adding two prepositions at a time including the previously learned ones

ü  If possible always use his/her favorite object/item for teaching prepositions

ü  Always present preposition picture cards with written cues

ü  Write down the written cues in the target locations

ü  Give them an opportunity to understand the meaning of prepositions by physically involving in doing/manipulating objects like give him a toy car and ask him to put it in the box by stressing the word in, same practice continues for the rest of the prepositions

ü  Make them construct  simple sentences by using learned prepositions  

ü   Introducing prepositions in the question and answers (ex; where the umbrella is? In the cupboard

ü  Highlighting the prepositions in the answers

ü  Initially prompt the child for success and fade the prompt for independently using prepositions in the sentences

ü  Verbal modeling, giving an opportunity for your child to observe a model who is working on prepositions

ü  Practice with themselves, it will increase their body awareness like put the hat on your head

ü  Initially teach prepositions that are very different in sound and appearance, eventually tech prepositions that are similar

ü  Circle time is the best to teach prepositions to your child, in a circle time give each student a toy guide them to demonstrate the prepositions. This can be followed at home as well

ü  You can vary the above instruction by asking the child to put the toy in across the room for different prepositions ex; put the toy car under the chair

ü  Give him opportunity to use prepositions in language, opportunities for generalization

ü  Set up a small obstacle race using chairs, tables, bean bags, tunnels, trampoline or anything else available in the premises, children enjoy getting active and being told to go under the table, in to the tunnel etc

ü  Completing the sentences by filling the blanks using prepositions

ü  Last but not the least celebrate it when he does right by giving reinforcement

Thanx to http://www.flicker.com/ for the above picture
Children with autism evolve wonders and achieve anything and everything, but as a therapists/parents u have to invest time, creativity, and lot of effort. At the end of the day they are achievers by giving incredible results!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.jacobslessons.com/prepositions/prepositions.htm
Try this site, which has great resources(ABA based activities) for children.Really amazing work
Take care

LANGUAGE BUILDING STRATEGIES

Salutation friends.... welcome back

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

BUT BETTER THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WORK FOR IT

Do you remember how we acquired language? I think mostly by observation (observing parents, siblings) by hearing, by imitation and finally by looking at books. We acquired language without much efforts and the whole process happened very naturally!!!!!! How lucky we were. But when it comes to children with autism, this area needs great focus and deserves lot of hard work. Language is a set of rules of generating speech. The most intensive period of speech and language development is during the first 3years of life. This period also called as sensory motor stage where our senses are maximized, child acquires skills pretty fast. At the age of 3, 4 and 5 child’s vocabulary rapidly increases, he/she begins to master the rules of language. Language includes set of rules:

Phonology (speech sounds)

Morphology (word formation)

Syntax (sentence formation)

Semantics (word and sentence meaning)

Prosody (intonation and rhythm of speech)

Pragmatics (effective use of language)

 Problems associated with language development in autistic children include difficulty with word and sentence meaning, sentence formation, pragmatics and intonation and rhythm. Most of our children language/ words referred to objects not to people because nouns are more concrete than other parts of language such as verbs and prepositions. It looks like they have obstacles in almost all the areas of language.  Most of the time they don’t use words to communicate instead comfortable with pointing or gestures. The research shows- 25-50% autistic children are nonverbal, most of them have significant delays in language and communication, most of kids uttered first words in 24 months and phrases in 36- 48 months, presence of immediate or delayed echolalia, poor conversation skills, less social-chat, unusual speech pattern( speed, volume, prosody). As we understood time and time again that our children are very strong visual learners, and they have difficulty learning language by listening although hearing acuity may be normal. Strings of verbal messages are difficult to process and learning by observing and imitation is hard because of associated problems like inattention and sensory needs.

 thanx to www.123rf.com for the above picture
There are so many wonderful ways that we can enhance our children’s language skills. Be creative and know that every opportunity is a learning experience. Let every place you go with your child, is a place to learn language. Here are some of the strategies to facilitate language developmentJJJJJJJJJ

v  Provide quite area when teaching your child, so the child has total focus on your instruction

v  See to that you capture your child’s motivation before teaching words or language instruction

v  Give him chance to explore the environment, as he shows interest on some object talk about it. Children register better when you teach on his/her preferred item

v  Learning language visually is the best way to teach our children - use lot of pictures, give visual cues for the words in order to process and register

v  Give lot of hands on practice for understanding the meaning of words and phrases( ex;  the acquisition of word  pouring, child should be given practice by actually pouring water from the cup)

v  Look for opportunities to prompt language, if your child finding difficult with something prompt him to ask for help

v  If the child repeats exactly what you say, when prompting language, just say exactly what you want him to say( “help me”) don’t say “ask for help” at a time

v  When prompting language, use the same words for each situation each time( always prompt him to say “help me” don’t say “ I need help”

v  Determine how many words your child is able to easily repeat begin your language program using phrases with that number of words or less

v  At first prompt every time, don’t wait for your child to say something prompt immediately. After student is successful use time delay technique

v  Labeling the environment- in the house label the items by sticking a written word  

v  Provide an opportunity to learn language from his/her real life experiences. Language acquisition happens everywhere, learning from the real life experience helps for easy transition and generalization

v  Language focus should include; teaching motor imitation( copying motor imitation activities includes clapping, rounding lips, shaking tongue, stamping legs etc) vocal imitation( copying sounds) matching skills( matching objects, pictures, words) reception( identification of objects, pictures, words) expression( labeling) requesting ( asking for needs in words) reading(  practice it acts as a visual cue for language acquisition) and finally social interaction( interacting with others using words and phrases meaningfully)

v  Play  lot of memory games for language acquisition( show picture cards to the child place them upside down ask him to recall, auditory to visual memory ; child arranges pictures in a sequence by listening to auditory instruction)

v  Acting out the word is also another method of teaching vocabulary

v  Teaching language in their own learning style( auditory learners learns language by listening, visual learners learns by seeing, if you are not aware of his/her learning style use multisensory learning)

v  Providing choice is a best way to bring out words from your child; start with two choice then make it more complex

v  Make sure every activity has starting point and ending point, that way child have some control of the environment.

v  Consistent with his routine and activities and some amount of structure which will help him to understand what’s happening and have ease with the tasks. Familiarity also helps in eliciting words and understanding language

v  Circle time activities; follow structure in the circle time, start with same beginning and ending activity with visual cues. Circle time stands out as a modeling strategy where children have opportunity to learn from other child

v  Encourage children playing games could be board games/indoor games and outdoor games with little bit structure also helps your child to acquire language. Initially keep games simple

v  Using signs, sign language is a wonderful tool for parents/therapists. Signs act as a visual or concrete cue for the words. Once the child started using signs, insist him to use sign and the word together, fade the signs for mastering the usage of words. (Talking hands CD is very helpful for children with autism in their early years). Visual association is easier with signs

v  Practice rhymes!!!! Our children love songs, you sing song and ask the child to finish the part of the lines

v  Encourage him/her to draw or patch work to help him to remember words.

v  Printed text or sight words is an another concrete way of teaching language to the child, most of our children are hyperlexics they remember printed form much better than spoken words

v  NET: natural environmental training is a best way to teach language( using child’s interests to guide language instruction, teaching activity in the real place, provide little structure generalization is easy)

v  Language instruction has to happen by breaking them in  parts/small chunks

v  Giving practice to understand parts before the whole

v  Echolalia is another way of using language, so be smart make use of your child’s echolalia

v  The research shows motor planning/praxis activities encourages language acquisition( consult with your OT  for the activities)

v  Music therapy also assist your child in the process of acquiring language

v  Respond immediately to his/her words, acknowledging to his words by giving immediate reinforcement

v  When he/she started using words guide him to use phrases by sentence construction activities with pictures

v  Remember repetition is a key to success

 Virtually for our children, significant time and effort put in to treatment is necessary for language to develop. Remember teaching occurs everywhere!!!!! With little bit of structure in the natural environment.

Home, park, beach, hotel

EVERYWHERE

TEACHING TO TALK ABOUT PAST EVENTS OR EXPERIENCE

HI, HELLO, NAMASKAR

Good to see you after a long break!!! And I am overwhelmed to meet you guys with this awesome topic. I have experienced parents asking me “why my child does not understand or get confused when I ask him questions about what he did or experienced?” yep it’s little difficult for children with autism and other related disabilities. Most of the time, they end up giving wrong answers or get frustrated when we insist them too much. Once I asked one of my adorable student about what he did in his grandma’s place, believe me he was struggling to answer my question for about an hour. It ended up in a big tantrum and he was in tears because he could not answer my question, finally I had to let him go. I wish I would have used some of the strategies mentioned below.  But as we all know every problem has a solution and we are here to look in to the possible solutions/strategies to overcome this issue.

“Never give up”-Go over, Go under, Go around, and Go through

But never give up

thank you http://www.skylightcentre.co.uk/ for the above the picture 

Strategies for answering questions about past events:

JEstablishing familiar and consistent routine: By following familiar and consistent routine improves child’s ability to refer to past. Child gets clue about the past events and able to answer questions, because the context is so familiar and his day is always structured in the same way.

JFollowing visual schedule: Use pictures to increase understanding about his routine. When he is experiencing difficulty recalling the events, the provided visual information helps him to communicate about what happened before? 

JPreparation: Preparing about the event or activity (mom and you are going to our grandma’s place @ 4’o clock by car) well in advance will help the child to register and able to relate to his past when you ask him questions.

JCollecting some cue (it could be an object or a picture) from the place where he/she had gone. If he visits any place help him to collect some concrete cue about that place.  Ex; whenever he visits beach you can ask him to collect shells, later when you ask him about where he went. He will rely on the concrete representation; he has collected from the beach.

JTaking a picture/photograph:  I recommend parents to own video camera and take photographs of the events later you can talk and ask questions about the same. Camera is the best gift/tool for you, to use for teaching your child about concepts.

J Maintaining cue cards:  He can write down about the events happened in the size of a business card for future referral. Ex; after each event he can write it as “swimming over, park over” etc.

JThemes:  child is encouraged to make themes about the events. Ex: collecting pictures about Christmas or Diwali festival and sticking in his/her theme book.

JChild maintaining a small DIARY and noting down the events, later when you ask him questions about the past incidents, he can use this as a referral.

JOlder children can follow TO DO LIST, mention about the events

JRecording to the tape: Encourage the child to voice record about the events. This has to be done immediately after the event, this act as a referral when he is needed.

JNumbering down the events also helps the child to answer the questions related to past events. Children always relate or remember concrete stuff, numbering the events is a concrete way of understanding his routine. Ex: 1 is going to hotel 2 is order the food 3 is eating 4 is paying the bill.

JGive the child a ‘cue word’ and asking him/her to frame the sentence for the question (about the past event). Basically provide clues/hints about the events for the child to be successful in relating to his past.

JFor the success, initially ask questions immediately after the event or task.

JFrame your questions with concrete information and be very specific. Ex; where did u go now? Instead where did you go with your father after dinner? ‘Now’ is an abstract term, and it’s difficult for your child to process.

JA diary/a visual schedule can be followed for exchanging information between school and home.

JModeling (provide opportunity for a child to see his peers/siblings answering/talking about past events.)

Make sure you support success for your child to make the impossible possible. I wish  you a grand success. Take care