I have used elements of many different approaches over the years, but the one that I’ve found makes the biggest difference with young children with autism is simply that of playing.

For some of us, playing is natural and we make no apologies for it – for me it is the most effective way of developing relatedness with a child and it is FUN!

When children are enjoying spending time with you, they will come and initiate interactions with you – this is true for the great majority of children with autism as it is for normally developing children. Once they are coming to you, you can then start to scaffold their learning, and you will find teaching other things will be easier because now you have their attention and trust.

However, over the years I have worked with many colleagues who just don’t find playing natural – they feel much more comfortable “teaching” something. If this sounds like you, then my plea is this: play first, other stuff can wait.

My personal experience has shown me that this works. I urge you try it for yourself – play with your child just for the sake of playing and see what opens up. However, make sure that you are enjoying yourself, don’t harbor any nagging thoughts that you should be “teaching” something instead.

Relax, you will be “teaching” – you are teaching your child that you are worth spending time with, and that hanging out with you is more interesting than spending time on their own.

Children with autism by definition have difficulty with social interaction – isn’t it wonderful to teach them to interact with people (you initially), in such a joyous way?

I’ve been using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) with children for a number of years now and have found it to be very useful for some, though by no means, all children.

Here’s one success story:

Peter, aged 6, could only say several words and was not using them in any useful sense. He was a very busy child, and knew exactly what he wanted to do. He was very independent and would get what he needed for himself – even if it meant climbing onto high shelves.

We noticed how motivated Peter was to use certain pieces of equipment, so rather than trying to move him onto other things, we allowed him to work through his interests, and made those items available to him – but he would have to communicate with someone to get them.

We started using PECS with Peter at this point. We made cards for all the things he would try and get for himself, this included things like: sticky tape, staplers, glue, paper and scissors. We made them all available, but put them out of reach. Within a couple of days, Peter had completely stopped trying to climb to reach those pieces of equipment and was happily using his PECS cards to make requests of all the adults in the room.

During the course of the next few months, Peter’s behavior completely changed. He became calmer, gave his attention to adult directed tasks more readily, and became much more interested in other people in the class. PECS was also supporting him in his development of verbal language – at first Peter found some words very difficult to say, but because he was using his PECS cards as well as trying to speak, we could easily understand what he wanted and could help to model the correct way to say the word at a time when he was motivated to repeat it. His language really took off as a result.

Of course, it is difficult to know exactly what to attribute the change in behavior to as many different approaches were tried in class. However, PECS claim that when children are able to communicate by making requests, this can have a very positive impact on their behavior. I have experienced a number of occasions where the impact has been very noticeable.

If you have not come across PECS, I suggest you give it a look at:

http://www.pecs.com/

or if you are in the UK: www.pecs.org.uk

I’d love to hear about your experiences, positive or otherwise, with PECS. Please post them as comments to this blog.  

If your child has a disability such as Down Syndrome, you are aware of this from birth, possibly even before. As difficult as this may be to face, you do at least have to face it early on and learn to accept that your child is disabled.

However, many parents of autistic children report that one of the most difficult things they found was accepting that there was anything wrong with their child. Often children develop normally, meeting most of the early milestones, perhaps gaining some speech, before suddenly seeming to lose it all. Their beautiful child suddenly seems lost to them; they do not respond when called, they seem totally fixated on their own preoccupations and terrible tantrums occur when they are disturbed from these.

Parents struggle to understand what is wrong, they may blame themselves and wonder if they have done something to make their child behave like this. They become more and more convinced that there is something wrong as their child’s peers continue to pass more and more milestones, while their own child seems to remain stuck.

Reactions of others can be a big issue, especially as the child continues to have tantrums beyond the ‘terrible twos’. Many parents struggle on, not knowing where to go for help. When they eventually go to their doctor, they may find that he or she may not be of much help. It is a tragedy that many parents end up having to become experts in autism themselves so they can advise professionals whom they could have expected to have been able to help them.

How did finding out your child has autism make you feel?