ECHOLALIA

 Hello,I love to see you guys still smiling while working with your adorable kids. I know though I absolutely love my job and find joy in my work with autistic children, sometimes this can be too exhausting and frustrating but all it takes is a big word called PATIENCE.  I am sure as parents you definitely have that…. and U guys totally totally rock JJJJ

What does u think!!!!!! Am I echoing? May be maybe not. Today let’s do a big adventure in the world of autistic children….. And understand more about echolalia ….lets learn to empathize and find out alternative ways to help them

In order to develop an appropriate communication intervention program for the verbal child with autism, understanding unconventional verbal behaviors is the very important step. Unconventional verbal behaviors may be produced for communicative as well as non-communicative purposes. Today we will focus on Echolalia; one form of unconventional verbal behavior.

Echolalia:

v  It is the most common form of unconventional verbal behavior. Echolalia is when the child repeats verbal information stated by others. Child mostly echoes from people’s conversation, videos, books, songs etc.

v  Echolalia can include repetition of part of the utterance as well as an identical repetition of the entire spoken utterance.

v  Echolalia can be both immediate( a repetition of something he/she has just heard) or delayed (a repetition of information heard previously, this may be sometimes after minutes, hours, days,weeks,months and years!!!!!)

v  Echolalia is a reflective of how the child process information. Some children with autism processes information as a whole “chunk” without processing the individual words that comprise the utterance.

v   In processing these unanalyzed “chunks” of verbal information. Many children with autism also process part of the context in which these words were stated, including sensory and emotional details.

v  Echolalia occurs in normal development yet decreases as the typically developing child gains more spontaneous generative language. In children with autism, echolalia occurs with greater frequency and lasts for a long period of time as the child with autism typically experience significant difficulty developing spontaneous, generative language skills.

v  The presence of echolalia in children with autism can be a positive indicator for future meaningful language development. It indicates that the child is at least processing language, although at a “surface “level.

It is important to consider how the child is using echolalic utterances, for non-communicative and/or communicative purposes. Although he/she may be using sophisticated utterances like using lengthy sentences, advanced vocabulary, and grammatical forms, echolalic utterances are generally being repeated without a clear or complete understanding of the meaning of the utterance.

Non-communicative purposes:

Echolalia used without communicative intent occurs when the child does not anticipate a response to his verbalization

Ø  Echolalic utterances which do not appear relevant to the situation or context( ex; a child repeats utterances from a TV program during a group/ circle time activity)

Ø  Utterances that may be triggered by something in the situation or context (ex; child walks in to the kitchen and begins saying/echolalic utterance which he have been heard in this context: “ it’s time to eat dinner, take your plate”)

Ø  Utterances that may be used as  self-direction for his own actions ( ex; a child produces echolalic  utterances to engage in a previously taught verbal routine to wash hands : “on the water, get some soap, rinse hands,  turn off the water, dry hands with towel”)

Sometimes children with autism engage in echolalia when they are feeling stressed or anxious.  It is important to determine whether the child’s arousal level could be a precipitating factor for the presence of his echolalia. Ex; I know a child whenever he is upset he says “look there is a mushroom”.

Communicative purposes:

As the child’s cognitive and language skills develop, his use of echolalia may become more functional and communicative. When echolalia is used more communicatively, the child will generally exhibit an increase in spontaneous, appropriate eye gaze and/or body orientation. Echolalia can be used communicatively for the following functions:

Ø   Conversational turn taking: The child recognizes when he is to take a conversational turn and that some sort of response is required. However, the child lacks the spontaneous generative language to engage in the conversation, so he relies upon an echolalic utterance to take his turn in the conversation. Ex; if we ask him “what do you do in the bed room”? The child with autism responds with “wait I am arranging bed for you”. The child takes his conversational turn by using an echolalic utterance from the mother.

Ø  Initiation of communicative interactions: The child with autism is beginning to recognize and notice others. Because he lacks the spontaneous generative skills to initiate a communicative interaction with someone, he uses an echolalic utterance. Ex; a child with autism approaches his aunt who entered in the house, spontaneously engages in direct eye contact and says “ I am going to feel sorry” upon further investigation it is discovered that the child has been watching the movie. In order to initiate a communicative interaction, he uses an echolalic utterance obtained from the movie.

Ø  Requesting: The child uses echolalia for request a desired object, action or event. Ex; the child says “do you want a snack?” to indicate that he wants a snack.

Ø  Protesting: the child uses echolalia to protest the actions of others. Ex; a child who does not want to go for speech therapy program, says “it’s time for swimming” to communicate his dislike of the speech therapy program.

Ø  Indicating affirmation in response to a previous utterance: the child uses echolalia to respond affirmatively to the previous utterance. Ex; another person says “ want to go swing?” the child responds with echolalic response, “ want to swing?”I just want to let you guys know the amount of respect i have for parents of  super duper kids(autistic kids and related disorders).More power to u showered by god and i wish u all...
in the next topic i will share about the strategies and developing intervention programme for echolalia.

POSITIVE ATTENTION AND PLANNED IGNORING

Hello friends
Lets work on changing behaviour through attention and ignoring to teach new skills for our children... i hope u find this topic intresting and useful!!!!!!!!
Using positive attention and planned ignoring helps your child learn new skills and directs to practice behavior that will strengthen relationship with you and others.

 Positive attention: most of our children love attention, and they quickly learn how to get attention (what to do to get it). Giving positive attention such as hugging, kissing, watching what your child does, smiles, and praise can motivate your child what he is already doing, and continue try harder to do new skills differently. Some children who do not get positive attention will act differently to get your response (you may find yourself giving negative attention such as scolding and yelling).

How and when you provide attention can be a powerful tool to build skills and encourage good behavior. If you learn to give positive attention carefully it helps to increase the target behavior/skills. Ignoring/holding attention can help to decrease the behavior. It’s important to learn the type of positive attention you are selected to give it depends on what your child really enjoys like pat on the back, smiles, praise, high fives, singing his favorite song, listening to him .Tune in to what your child doing and how are you responding; when the behavior you want to see increases, that means the type of positive attention you are giving is working.

 Behavior or skills needs more of positive attention need to focus on

• think the skill he has now
• Next steps you would like to take in his learning
• At the start find out all the opportunities to give positive attention
• Set up opportunities/activities encourage the behavior(this way he will have more opportunities to learn)

How to reward him with positive attention

• Get down to your child level(face to face)
• Speak with right amount of enthusiasm(soft ,gentle, smooth depends upon your child response level)
• Label the specific behavior or activity (you did sort colours correctly)
• Keep your sentence simple and short while giving positive strokes
• At a times You may need to vary the type of reinforcement you give it your child( when you think your child is too dependent on the reinforcement you are giving)
• When your child seems to be uninterested/lack of motivation  by the attention you are giving, consider  the other ways to reward with positive attention( use verbal praise and then change in to  giving hugs)
• Varying the type of positive attention, will also make it easier over time for it to become more natural and spontaneous

LYou may also find behavior you want to see occurs at the same as an inappropriate one; it’s ok to provide positive attention but make sure you are clear about what your positive attention for. Ex, when you asked your child to pack bag to go home from school he stats screaming followed by he packs his bag. Reinforce him by saying nice packing your bag

Now you have an idea how and when to give positive attention

Ignoring: helps to reduce the problem behavior

Steps in reducing the problem behavior by ignoring/extinction:

v  Identification of the problem behavior you would like to reduce

v  Label/statement of the behavior

v  Investigate the motivation(reasons) for the selected behavior

v  ABC analysis of problem behavior

Antecedent-what happened before the behavior? /what triggered the behavior?

Behavior-The real behavior

Consequence-what happened immediately after the behavior?

v  Is your attention helping your child to maintain problem behavior?

These are the steps you have to analyze before you work on the strategy

If the behavior is safe to ignore planned ignoring is right one to use, you might think what is planned ignoring- it means when you deliberately with hold your attention from your child while he is displaying problem behavior that you want to reduce. Ex, when you ask your child to colour when you are busy cooking for him, if he starts throwing book instead of colouring try planned ignoring. Let’s see how this works; in the above example if you give attention to your child, he learn that tantrum is a good way to get your attention

Steps in planned ignoring

o   Selecting one behavior at a time

o   Ignore problem behavior as soon he exhibits

o   Making ignoring obvious by looking away by not giving any response

o   Keep neutral facial expression

o   Avoid talking to  your child

o   Continue engaging yourself by what you are doing

o   If you slightly pays attention by talking or saying no to him the length of tantrum likely  to increase

o   As soon as there is a break in the tantrum you help your child actively engage in the activity

o   Direct him to another activity and succeeds him by giving positive attention

o   Try not to do too much at once it will frustrate you

o   It will involve lot of commitment from you and the environment to effectively reduce the behavior

Remember always the problem behavior will get worse/escalates frequency before it gets better. This does not mean the ignoring is not working, this means your child is testing you. If you start ignoring then you stop as soon as it gets worse, you may actually be rewarding the behavior that likely to occur again in the future. After implementing carefully if the behavior increases there is a risk; consult a doctor, or behavior therapist.

Positive attention or practiced ignoring may take time before things get better and smoother, that’s okJJJJJ

Be patient

Every child is different and unique

In the process of teaching your child you are learning too

At the most it gives you practice!!!!!!!!!!!! Just keep trying
see soon with another important topic, till then take care

VIDEO MODELLING-AUTISM

Hello guys and gals... my warm greetings

Tell me ::::::::) who does not like to watch videos; I think most of us relax our self by watching our favorite movies especially on Sundays. I am still fond of Tom and Jerry cartoon.... I love to watch it whenever I find time. We know very well that most of our children with autism like to do repeated rituals, video modeling is a wonderful strategy: because the child has to watch the video model demonstrating the skill until he masters and generalizes. 

Video modeling is a recording of an individual/ individuals modeling a skill. We can teach lots of skills through this powerful strategy, like I mentioned earlier the child can be trained in communication, pragmatic language, self help/self care, prevocational/vocational skills. It works best for children with Autism and other related disorders, because they are proven to be very strong visual learners. It strengthens child’s observational learning.

Ø  Video modeling helps children with autism to focus on relevant stimuli and can systematically removes distractions.

Ø  Repeated observation of the same model without that model having to be present.

Ø  Takes advantage of child’s ability to echo.

Ø  The child has the chance of following a rote sequence.

Ø  Videos may address social deficits but there will not be direct social interaction such as eye contact required while viewing the video models.

Ø  The content, sequence, voice is very much predictable because it does not change with repeated viewing.

Ø  The model motivation in the video is the same every day.

Ø  Many of our children are highly motivated to watch videos, that too repeated video content ( I am sure they love)

Ø  It may helps to strengthen or weaken fears based on observance of model to a particular situation/skill.

While you are planning for video modeling consider following few instructions (the format):

JThe selected model for video modeling should deliver brief phrases in exaggerated speech

JThe model should demonstrate slow and precise actions

J The video model session should not last more than 1 and half hour (minimum 30minutes)

The content of the video modeling needs to focus on:

§  the skill  being taught and only relevant cues need to be present

§  see to that there is no background distractions in the area of demonstration( like furniture, toys, posters etc)

§  models should wear plain clothes ( no glitters, junk jewelry etc)

§  models should be familiar to the child

§  if the selected  skill requires more than one model, they need to wear different colour clothing

§  the selected model may  preferably be of child’s age

§  the model needs to perform the skill in a familiar environment

§  the skill needs to be demonstrated in a real situation( brushing skill has be done in the bathroom near the sink )

The implementation of video modeling primarily works on:

ü  showing the video to the child with autism in a familiar setting

ü  the environment should be free of distractions

ü  reinforce the child for attending to the video

ü  Initially try showing the video more frequently as it goes you may reduce the frequency.

ü  Immediately after watching ,provide opportunity  to the child to perform the selected skill/behavior

ü  Continue with this training until the child has mastered the skill

                Try video modeling

·   When you tried to teach the skill using more traditional methods, but not successful or mildly successful

·   The selected skill is very complex and does not easily taught in a discrete trail format

·  The child shows interest  in videos

·  The child shows limited progress with live models

·  When you want to teach replacement behaviors (alternative behaviors)

Last but not least the only drawback with video modeling strategy is it consumes lot of time to prepare and the success is totally depend upon the readiness of the model
Create a conducive environment for your child to clearly observe the video model :) work for the best.....
Brave enough to think differently
Bold enough to deliver effectively 
Proud enough to enjoy totally  

HELPING CHILDREN WITH SOCIAL COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES

Namaste(hello), I am here to talk about what works best for improving social skills in our super stars,why to wait!!!!! maximize your arousal level......... ready start 1,2,3

Social skill development is an essential curricular area for students with autism and other related disorders, and is also a crucial component of any intervention plan for changing problem behavior.

I know you are curious to know the strategies for social skill development, so do I;

ü  When addressing social skills, it is essential that the child have the opportunities to participate and interact in a variety of natural environments.

ü  Children with autism and other related disabilities need explicit teaching to develop social skills and understanding social situations.

ü  One of the most helpful methods for teaching social skills is the use of social stories. A social story is a description of a social situation which includes the social cues and appropriate responses and is written for a specific situation.

ü  Visual supports should be an integral part of a comprehensive social skill program for our children.

ü  Cognitive picture rehearsal: another instructional strategy which presents information in a visual format. This method involves presenting a sequence of behaviors in the form of pictures or photographs with an accompanying support. The child is guided through repeated practice of the sequence of behaviors.

ü  Educating peers: this can be done informally or in a more structured way. Young children can be provided with prompts to initiate and maintain interaction with autistic children.

ü  Peer modeling: allowing or providing structured opportunities to children with autism to copy the model who is demonstrating the selected social skill.

ü  Peer initiation:  this procedure involves teaching socially competent peers to initiate interaction with child with autism. It’s not only structures interaction between socially competent students with those with autism; it provides additional skill development opportunities for our children.

ü  Group therapy: developing social skill instruction with in a structured small group setting. Steps to be followed  for group setting:

J Assessment and identification of skills for instruction

JIdentifying the skill and skill components and when they are used

J Modeling the skill

JOpportunities to practice

J Strategies for generalization

ü  Direct skill instruction:  teaching selected skill in a natural environment. some important steps to be followed

JTask analysis of the skill considered important to the child in natural setting

J Sequential teaching of each of the task, by using modeling, repeated trails, prompts and reinforcement in a natural setting

J Generalization in to different settings

ü  Antecedent prompting or teacher or parent mediation: delivery of an initiation prompts by the teacher, followed by reinforcement to the child with autism for successful engagement in positive social interaction.

ü  Role play: helping child to role play the situation or selected social skill

ü  Provide opportunities to increase independent participation in a variety of events.

ü  Self management: teaching children to monitor their own behaviors, this can be done by facilitating independency by gradually reducing prompts and increasing the time to acquire the selected skill.
i will talk more about social stories in near future......bye bye take care:):)

AN OVERVIEW -SOCIAL COMMUNICATION (PRAGMATIC SKILLS)

A big hello from me,
Tell me who does not have problems with social communication, I am sure everybody does. I know !!!!!!!!one of my friend go on and on with the stuff he has to say,never waits for other's reciprocation, so be my guest.

Communication is a social act and unless one is conducting a monologue with one’s self, it involves at least one other person. Communication within a social situation can be more challenging than just understanding the words of others. There are unwritten rules that govern interactions and these may change depending on the circumstances and whom one is talking to. In other words the whole process is called social communication or pragmatic skills. Communication takes place within a social context. Speech/ verbalization become communication when there is a desire or intent to convey a message to someone else. Therefore, these two areas, communication and social skills are tightly interwoven and interdependent. Unfortunately for children with autism, these are the two areas of primary difficulty. Therefore children with autism even those who are considered verbal, usually experience significant difficulties with social communication.

 Let’s see what these children have to say (pragmatic skill deficit):

J Have difficulty seeing another person’s perspective: tendency to interpret from own point of view. This impacts social interaction and the understanding of perspective in narratives whether in text, movies or TV format.

J Exhibits good recall of people’s names, facts and other information (the concrete information or facts); often the depth of knowledge about a topic may be superficial.

J Not aware of social proximities; how much close he has to stand when he is taking to a person, not touching the other person unnecessarily.

J Have difficulty understanding that other people have unique thoughts and ideas.

J Give no or minimal eye contact during an interaction; eye contact may be distracting and it provides too much sensory information to the child with ASD.

J Speak too loudly or too fast during conversation process.

J Have difficulty staying on topic; the child may be confused by the unwritten expressions in the other persons face.

J Have difficulty attending to an auditory message. (Especially if another person speaks in phrases) If stressed, agitated, or highly stimulated.

JChild is comfortable in delivering monologues.

J Talk aloud to self in public situation and be unaware that others can hear the content of the self talk and make judgments about them.

J Unable to draw strategies to initiate, terminate, or facilitate a conversation.

J Difficulty knowing that he has to answer when a question asked.

J Finds difficulty to participate in a conversation by taking turns with the other speaker.

J He/ she have inability to notice and respond to the non-verbal aspects of language.

J Lack of awareness that, he has to introduce a topic of conversation in order for the listener to fully understand.

J Not knowing which words or what sort of sentence type to use when initiating a conversation or responding to something another person has said.

J Talk about unusual topics, likes to include topics which are fascinating to him like taking about “cars “

J Difficulty with recognizing more subtle expressions, feelings and emotions though he identifies basic emotions of others and self.

J Have difficulty multi-tasking ex; talking or listening at the same time.

J Have difficulty recognizing, identifying and understanding various other states of emotion expressed by others and knowing what to say in that situation.

J Experience difficulty recognizing the lies

J Difficulty using social etiquette (using please, thank you etc)

J He/she may have difficulty summarizing about the topic, and what new information is needed.

J Comprehension difficulty (unable to entirely follow the message given by other person)

J He is comfortable in limited topics and sometimes conversing topics which are out of focus.

J Not aware of the time, place and person of the topic to be discussed.

J Miss nonverbal cues of others (like discomfort of another person).

J May ask repetitive and irrelevant questions.

J Lack of repertoire or have difficulty selecting/applying appropriate social communication strategies in everyday situations (generalization).

J Have difficulty knowing that he has to give the communication partner sufficient information to understand the message.

J Make statements that are factually true but socially inappropriate because of lack of awareness of the impact of his/her statements on others.


 will work on highlighting  strategies to help with social communication deficit  :) pretty soon.

Heavy rains remainds of challenges in life
Never ask for lighter rains
Ask for better umbrella