In recent years, many alternative or complementary therapies have evolved with time e.g. Art, Music, Group, and Aquatic Therapy. These therapies promote communication, self-exploration, emotional growth, sensory integration, helps in venting out emotions and feelings, improve social and interaction skills. These therapies also improve eye contact and self-confidence.
Art:
-Art-based therapy is an excellent treatment for autism because it is inherently reinforcing for the children. It is a great source of enjoyment while at the same time mitigates the symptoms of the child.
-It is also a wonderful facilitator in forming connexion with peers, turn-taking, respecting differences, and developing social skills in an enjoyable manner.
Music:
-Music therapy improves mood and social interaction.
-It helps in working the upper body parts like hands, shoulders, wrist, forearms, and wrist and thus helps in coordination and relaxing the child.
-Children can better express their emotional states while listening to different kinds of music.
-Music helps in bringing down the hyperactivity of the child.
-Music helps in reducing social isolation and increases interest in external events.
Group:
-Group therapy fosters social communication and interaction. It provides children an opportunity to make social relations in a fun environment.
-It also helps in reducing hyperactivity and impulsivity.
-It improves imitation skills, teaches turn taking in play.
-Improves problem-solving and organizational skills.
Aquatic:
-Water immersion is beneficial for memory and cognition.
-Reduces anxiety, hyperactivity, stereotypical behavior and inappropriate emotional responses.
-Improves posture, coordination and body control.
-It helps Improve child’s attention span, concentration, impulse control, frustration tolerance and ability to follow instructions.

Stem cell therapy is not recognised for autism as per ICMR, officials said. “This treatment has given false hope, unrealistic expectations and led to exploitation...,” said a senior NMMC official.

NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) on Friday revoked the registration of NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute (NeuroGen), Sector 40, Seawoods for “illegally conducting” and advertising stem cell therapy and other treatment for children with autism.
Ref- https://m.timesofindia.com/city/navi-mumbai/navi-mumbai-hospitals-registration-revoked-for-using-stem-cell-therapy-for-autism-illegally/articleshow/98220914.cms

In recent years, caregivers have been seeking alternative or complementary therapies for autism and have a wide array of options available, one such is art-based therapy. It is a natural fit for autism. It helps the deficits associated with autism by channeling autistic behaviors into an expressive, creative outlet.
-It promotes communication, self-exploration, emotional growth, and sensory integration while encouraging social interaction in a fun setting.
-It is a form of psychotherapy utilizing creative modalities, including visual art-making, drama, music, games & exercises, and dance/movement, within a therapeutic relationship to improve physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
-Art therapy differs from traditional art-making or performance in that the emphasis is on the process of creating and making rather than on the end product.
-Art therapy can be practiced with individuals as well as groups.
Art-based therapy can help children to develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem, and achieve insight. Art based therapy can encourage autistic kids to:
-Express feelings that may be difficult to verbalize and thereby increase communication skills.
-Explore their imagination and creativity and help them think symbolically.
-Develop the ability to recognize and respond to facial expressions and interpret tone of voice.
-Manage sensory issues and develop healthy coping skills and focus.
-Improve self-esteem and confidence and identify and tackle emotional issues and concerns.
-Improve fine and gross motor skills and physical coordination.
-Increase tolerance for unpleasant stimuli while channeling self-stimulating behavior into more creative activity.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is an umbrella term encompassing the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language.
AAC includes strategies that improve communication for Non-verbal/speaking, natural speech does not meet their need for functional communication.
Strategies:
-Devices-based communication system.
-Paper-based system
-Communication books
-Eye gaze board
-Alphabet board
-Sign language
Unaided-Rely on the user’s body language, gestures, and sign language.
Aided-Requires the use of tools or equipment in addition to the user’s body. It may range from paper and pencil to communication books, or boards to devices that produce voice output (Speech generating devices or SGDs) and written output. It allows users to use picture symbols, letters, words phrases to create messages.

Motivation is the interest or desire to engage in some activity. We need to be motivated to play, work, study, and complete our daily activities. Motivation is necessary for our routine func-toning as well as to learn anything. Children with Autism are not motivated to engage in any appropriate behavior. Instead they have several behavior issues that take away their motivation from most activities that are helpful for functioning.
As parents, it is crucial to understand that the child will have difficulties learning tasks that he or she is not motivated to learn. The easiest fix is to find activities that interest the child.
Use these activities to teach. For the activities that are not interesting, find ways to make that activity interesting. There are several ways to make an activity interesting so that the child is motivated to engage in that activity.
Ways to increase motivation:
-Try to teach when the child is in a good mood.
-Start with activities that he likes. Once he is attending, try to teach the more difficult activities.
-Be involved with the child through-out that activity. Interact with the child constantly while he is engaged in that task.
-Combine that activity with some other activity that is fun for the child.
-Add external rewards that the child gets if he completes a non-preferred activity. Let the child pick what he or she wants to earn for engaging in non-preferred activities.
-Make the child engage in the non-preferred activity after which he or she gets access to a preferred activity. E.g., use “If-Then cards.”

#motivation #autism #autistic #autismpride #asd #autismawareness #autismacceptance #autismadvocate #staystrong #thanks #life #optionsoflife #lifechoices #choices #patience #success #happiness #love #story #aba #appliedbehavior #punishment #reinforcement #positive #negative #behavior #family #reellife #dailymotivation

The presence of a child with special needs in the family involves significant time and resource demands. In addition, stress and conflict accompany the challenges of raising a child with special needs. It may turn into many things:
-Stress on families can occur at each stage of a child’s life.
-Each family member and their family relationships face challenges throughout the time period.
-Siblings may struggle with the feeling of embarrassment and are often jealous of the attention and care their siblings with autism get from their parents.
-Children with Autism require a calm environment and need the family to serve as influential caretakers.
-Strained family environments may lead the child to act out more and limit their ability to make developmental progress.
As much as parents need to be an emotional backbone for their child, parents require emotional support as well. Parents can open up about their feelings as well as learn new coping strategies. Psychologists conduct family counseling to help the family members vent out their emotions, helps them to cope with situations better, and provide a nurturing environment for their child.

The role of a speech therapist is not just limited to the development of language skills, but they employ a holistic approach to developing communication skills (both verbal-nonverbal), cognition and social skills. “Remember, the aim is effective communication and not speaking.”. speech therapy can help develop the ability to express their wants and needs using:
-Real objects: The child uses various natural objects to communicate (e.g., gives his parent shoes to indicate that he wants to go outside).
-Miniature real objects: The child understands that a miniature object represents a full-sized object (e.g., a miniature cup is representative of a real cup).
-True Object Based Icons (T.O.B.I.s): A T.O.B.I. can be a line drawing, scanned photograph, etc., cut out in the actual shape or outline of the item it represents. Symbol shape, which the child can both see and feel, appears to assist the child in more readily understanding a 2-dimensional representation system.
-Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS): It is amongst the most commonly used techniques with children and adults who have little or no verbal ability. Therapists, teachers and parents help the child or adult build a vocabulary and consistently articulate desires, observations and feelings through pictures. This is a structured method of using pictures to enhance communication.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is an umbrella term that encompasses the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language.

#autistic #autismpride #asd #autismawareness #autismacceptance #autismadvocate #staystrong #thanks #life #optionsoflife #lifechoices #choices #patience #success #happiness #love #story #aba #appliedbehavior #punishment #reinforcement #positive #negative #behavior #speech

Video link -

Since Autism is characterized by a deficiency in nonverbal and verbal social skills, implementing Effective Communication between the parents/caregivers/therapists and the child with Autism is especially important. We need to keep in mind the basics before getting into in-depth training:
>Be emotionally available to your child, let him know-“I am here for you.”
>Do not forget to establish contact with the child before speaking or communicating.
>Physically move to the child’s level. Squat down, kneel, and position yourself so that you are face-to-face.
>Establish attention with contact and visual props; ensure that the child is oriented towards you.
>Use gestures meaningfully. Use gestures to accentuate the clarity of your communication, not to confuse the child or distract him.
>Do not use complex sentence forms and expressive forms of language.
>Stick to literal and concrete sentences.
Prompts play an important role to make things easy to understand. These are instructions, demonstrations, and physical help provided to teach or increase the likelihood of correct responses from the child. These are of many types:
>Verbal Prompt: It involves providing a verbal hint or partially or completing providing the response to the child which the child then repeats and learns. E.g., after asking the child “what color is your hair?”
>Visual Prompt: It is like a modeling prompt where the child learns by observing others or looking at videos, flashcards, etc. E.g., teaching a child to shake hands by showing a video.
>Physical Prompt: It involves physically guiding the child to perform an action. E.g., Holding a child’s hand to teach the child how to clap.
>Gestural Prompt: It involves pointing, nodding, or any other action a child can observe to learn. E.g., Pointing towards a cup and asking the child “what is something you drink from”.
>Auditory Prompt: It involves any kind of sound a child can hear to complete a task. E.g., Mother tells the child “put the blocks back in the bag”. The mother will prompt the child by setting up a timer to go off in 5 minutes as a clue for finishing the task.
#autism #communication

It is important for a parent/caregiver to understand this “bad” behavior. Labeling something as “bad” behavior does not help reduce the behavior. Children with Autism often engage in excess behaviors that serve no function. These behaviors can be classified into two categories:
-Harmful behavior: behavior that will hurt the child or others around him. Such behaviors are dangerous and as parents, these behaviors are of most prominent concern—E.g., aggression, pica (putting non-edible things in mouth), self-injurious behaviors, etc.
-Interfering behaviors: behaviors that are not harmful, but they interfere with all other functioning of a child. These behaviors take away attention and time from learning “good” behaviors. They impede the learning and progress of a child. E.g., motor or vocal stereotypy, throwing objects, etc.
Things to remember when attempting to fix “bad” behavior:
Ø First, list out all the “bad” behaviors.
Ø Divide these behaviors into the two above-mentioned categories. This is important because our method to fix the behavior will depend on the category it falls under.
Ø For harmful behaviors, we want to completely eliminate these behaviors.
Ø For interfering behaviors, we want to reduce them or teach the child to put these behaviors on HOLD when engaging in appropriate behaviors.
Ø Not all behaviors can be modified, so decide which behaviors are more harmful or interfering than others and try to deal with those first.
Ø Children often engage in the behavior for a reason, sensory satisfaction, self-defense mechanism, etc. try to understand that too.
Things to do:
Ø Reinforce/reward good behavior.
Ø Use negative reinforcement/punishment for bad behavior.
Ø Teach them ways to communicate if they cannot speak. Often bad behavior is a result of the inability to express.
Ø Find out the reason for bad behavior and teach them appropriate ways to satisfy their needs.
Ø Few things are needed for the cooling period/time off, we cannot completely eliminate them.

#autism #autistic #neurodiversity #autismpride #asd #autismawareness #autismacceptance