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Often, there are areas of concern about some basic techniques, approaches, and resources that one can use at home. The areas included are structure, communication, social skills, activities of daily living, and behavioral skills. Of course, this list is not all inclusive; it merely suggests some basics. I pray they are helpful.
Structure
Most children appreciate a highly structured environment, because this helps a child to feel safe. A child with autism often has difficulty with transition and can become fearful or frustrated because change confuses him or her. Therefore, it is very important to figure out a daily routine.
You might want to create a weekday routine and a weekend routine for your child. It can be helpful to put this daily routine up on the wall with pictures that explain the different activities occuring at different times. For example, you can have a picture of breakfast for breakfast time.
It can be helpful to have the picture schedule for weekdays in one color and the picture schedule for weekends in a different color. This helps your child cope with the changes taking place, especially if the weekday routine differs from the weekend routine.
In addition, you can set clocks to have alarms go off at prescheduled times, or you can use the Adhan (call to Prayer) to mark a change in routine during the day. Reflect the Prayer times in your picture schedule, and then use pictures to describe what activities the child will engage in after Prayer.
Communication
If your child does not speak, consider learning or teaching sign language, if possible. If you do not have a local community college or university that teaches sign language, you can purchase a book or make a poster for basic signs or purchase one. Picture boards are very helpful tools for communication, especially if learning sign language is not an option. For the communication of basic needs and wants, make simple pictures that identify different needs. For example, you can have one picture for going to the bathroom and another for drinking and another for eating, and so on. The child can point to what he or she needs. Another version of this idea is for the child to take the picture off the board and give it to you.
Social Skills
The use of social stories can help your child develop social skills. Designed to encourage empathy, social stories are simple stories that describe how the characters behave or feel in different situations.
For example, if your child does not have the skills for engaging with others at school, you can make up different scenarios and situations and tell a story of how "Jihan" asked "Layla" if she could play with her ball. You could describe what characters said and did and how they felt. The teacher (you) can create stories that match actual situations encountered by the child.
In addition to using social stories, you will also want to actively model the social skills that you want your child to use. Tell your child, "Watch me," and then demonstrate the desired behavior. Then say, "Copy me," and have your child imitate your behavior. You can then practice the social skill in a variety of social settings until your child masters the skill, and then you can generalize the skill across environments.
It is not enough to just tell your child to "be polite" or "behave." Your child needs to know what that means, and so you need to be very specific. For example, show your child how he or she can chew food without opining his or her mouth: Say, "Watch me," and demonstrate the polite eating behavior to your child. Then say, "Show me," and have him or her demonstrate the same behavior. Then praise your child for the achievement.
Daily Living Activities
Your child may have difficulty learning some basic skills, such as dressing, eating, toileting, and bathing. Skills can be taught to your child; however, the way your child processes information may differ from the way those who do not have autism process information. The basic strategies of teaching basic skills for children with special needs include chaining, shaping, and using Premack's principle.
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An excellent book that is a must-read for parents who are teaching their children basic skills is Steps to Independence: Teaching Everyday Skills to Children With Special Needs. This book demonstrates how you can use the most effective methods of teaching for your child with special needs. With the limited space I have here, I can briefly describe some of these techniques.
Chaining. Think of all the steps involved in a skill. Chaining means separating all these steps and then teaching one step of that skill at a time. After a specific step is mastered, you can teach the next. Once all the steps are mastered, the skill is mastered. Imagine putting on a shirt and try to break this skill or activity down into steps.
Shaping. This is a simple strategy that encourages the desired behaviors in your child. It requires the teacher (you) to provide positive reinforcement for each approximation of the desired behavior that your child needs. For example, if you want your child to use words instead of pointing, and you are teaching him or her to say "Juice" when he or she wants juice, you should praise the child for saying "JJJJ" and reward him or her with the juice immediately.
Premack's principle. This is simple; it encourages your child to perform a less desired activity by arranging the schedule so that once a less desired activity is performed, a more desired activity comes next. For example, if your child hates to take a bath but loves to listen to the evening story, then remind him or her that as soon as he or she is finished with the bath, it will be story time. Story time will not start until the bath is completed, and bedtime is bedtime, whether or not the child has taken the bath. The child soon learns that taking a bath is "worth it," as he or she really likes story time.
Behavioral Skills
If your child is having behavioral difficulties, the use of behavioral analysis and positive programming in teaching the child alternative behaviors will prove most useful. There is not enough room here to mention the actual process and procedures. However, keep in mind that each learned behavior has a function. So, if your child is "misbehaving," then the "trick" is to find out the need your child is trying to satisfy with that misbehavior. Behaviors fall under five categories:
1. Communication
2. Tangible (to get an item that one wants or needs, such as a cookie or a toy, or to go outside and play)
3. Escape/avoidance (to get out of doing something unpleasant, to get away, to avoid an unpleasant experience)
4. Attention (a basic human need)
5. Visceral regulation or sensory integration problems. Some behaviors — like repetitive movements, rocking, and headbanging — can be caused by a need to regulate or integrate sensory input or visceral responses. The intervention for this includes finding a way to meet the sensory need.
I highly recommend two very good user-friendly books that you can use to design your own program (the two books are best used together):
- O'Neill, Robert E., et al. Functional Assessment and Program Development for Problem Behavior: A Practical Handbook. 2nd ed. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole, 1997.
- Cipani, Ennio, and Keven Schock. Functional Behavioral Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment: A Complete System for Education and Mental Health Settings. New York: Springer Publishing, 2007.
Learning how to teach your special needs child living, behavioral, communication, and social skills can seem overwhelming at first. However, as you practice the teaching skills yourself, these strategies and approaches will become a second nature to you.
Realizing that your lifestyle is not going to be quite as you planned can be quite a shock, and there is often a period of adjustment. However, in time and with support, you will master the art of parenting and teaching your special needs child.
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