Autism Basics

April 2, 2021 / Laura
autism1
If working with a young child with autism is new for you, let’s review some basic information to help you understand and explain the fundamental characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Autism affects how a child:
Interacts
Communicates
Behaves
To provide a formal diagnosis of autism, evaluators use a set of criteria established by the American
Psychiatric Association and outlined in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5).
Noticeable problems must occur in the following three areas of social interaction and communication skills:
1. Differences in seeking out and responding to other people to communicate. Common issues include differences noted in a child’s facial expressions as compared to other children. For example, a child may not share warm, joyful expressions with you, or his facial expressions may appear to be “flat” and nonreactive lots of the time. A child may initiate social contact in atypical ways. For example, instead of asking for help, a child may take another person’s hand and lead them to a new location or use an adult’s hand to operate a toy. frequent issue noted in this category is a child’s lack of response to his or her own name. Another frequent issue noted in this category is a child’s lack of response to his or her own name.
2. Difficulty learning to use and understand nonverbal communication, such as gestures, facial expressions, and body language. A child may not make consistent eye contact and may have difficulty following when you point and say, “Look!” It may take special effort when you try to show him something because he’s not paying attention and wants to move on to something else. Toddlers with autism have difficulty learning to use gestures like waving, pointing, and shaking and nodding their heads for “yes” and “no.” They may also have problems understanding other people’s emotional responses. If a child is verbal, there may be differences in “how” a child talks including rate, rhythm, intonation, pitch, and volume variances.
3. Challenges building and maintaining relationships with others—especially with people beyond close family members. Children may have difficulty making friends and sharing imaginative play with other children their own age. They may clearly prefer objects over people and seem happier with an iPad or TV than anything else.
So what’s all that mean?
If a child has problems in the 3 areas listed above, he or she has met the first part of official diagnostic criteria for receiving an autism diagnosis.
In case you’re wondering… do kids with other kinds of language delays have difficulty with the things listed above too? Or more bluntly… could my child have some problems with these things and not have autism?
Wtihout seeing your child, I cannot say, BUT…
Kids with other kinds of language delays usually don’t have these differences outlined above.
Children with other kinds of language delays don’t have difficulty making and maintaining eye contact and or looking at what you’re trying to show them.
Kids with other kinds of delays don’t “lead” adults to what they want; they use symbolic gestures to compensate for their lack of words such as pointing or head nodding/shaking or even making up their own “signs” to communicate.
Unless there’s a significant cognitive component or hearing loss, kids with other kinds of language delays do respond to their own names consistently.
Kids with other kinds of speech-language delays don’t have significant difficulty with social interaction. Even if they’re shy or reluctant at first, they warm up over time and participate, even if they’re not talking yet.
If you’d like some very specific guidance for working with a child who has red flags for autism, the best help out there is gathered in my therapy manual The Autism Workbook. The worksheets and questions in every chapter will guide you through deciding which areas to work on with a child — and then what to do next! Strategies and beginning activities are right there in the book. Get started today!
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Thank you so much for the videos you have posted on your youtube channel. They are so direct, informative, and helpful. Thank you for being a resource for me to become a better therapist."

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I love your work! I am a professor of early childhood special education and a speech language pathologist! I have worked to help children learn to communicate and I know how valuable the information you share is for both early interventionists and pediatric speech language pathologists!

Thank you for systematically organizing and explaining essential steps for young children to learn and develop. You are having a great impact on our profession, the ECE profession and families!"

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If this is Laura herself reading this email let me take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have put forth for us professionals. I own every manual (except the autism manual) and have watched every course on DVD. I have listened to countless podcasts. All of what I’ve come to be as an Early Intervention speech therapist was absolutely to your credit. With your resources at my side I have never needed to scramble for answers and strategies and above all the clear language I use when communicating with parents. My fun, animated affect and key phrases I use have been learned through watching your example. So….thank you! May you be blessed."

Chaya

"I just wanted to thank you so much for your incredible help! You are so kind and lovely and every time I implement something you've taught in your manuals or videos it is always a success, I cannot thank you enough. I really appreciate how specific you are in giving us examples of wording to use and how to use a toy in therapy with your videos, it is exactly what I need to properly help my little students. I also really appreciate your list of books of list of toys. I have seen my little students make significant progress thanks to you. I'm looking forward to watching more of your videos, taking more of your CEU's, and reading more of your materials. From the bottom of my heart: thank you so much again!!"

Lauren

Laura thank you so much. Btw, you have transformed my therapy- I have become such a competent and strong therapist after watching probably like 350 of your videos and podcasts over the past few years. And I am a seasoned therapist with almost 25 years experience. (Yes prob 350 episodes ha!) But there was still a lot I learned from you. I have such a thorough understanding of birth to 3 development and how to properly incorporate appropriate therapeutic goals, techniques and strategies now, thanks to you. Kelly

 
But I just keep watching and learning because we can always learn something new! 
Thanks for all you do!