Understanding the Autism Spectrum

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#autism #neuroatypical #parenting

Understanding the Autism Spectrum
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes PhD, LPC-MHSP, LPC
Executive Director, AllCEUs
Objectives
 It is called a "spectrum" disorder because people with ASD can have a range of symptoms
Symptoms
 Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history
 Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
 Direct communication
 Honesty
 Nonjudgmental listening
 Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
 They often think in pictures or video

Frequent Co-Occurring Issues
 Epilepsy ~30% of people with autism
 Grand mal or absence seizures cause the person with ASD to blank out or stare into space for a few seconds are often triggered by
 Hyperventilation
 Malfunctioning fluorescent lights
 Intense strobe lights like visual fire alarms.
 Natural light, such as sunlight, especially when shimmering off water, flickering through trees or through the slats of Venetian blinds.
 Certain visual patterns, especially stripes of contrasting colors.
 Gastrointestinal problems – 46-85%
 Pain caused by GI issues is sometimes recognized because of a change in a child’s behavior, such as an increase in self-soothing behaviors like rocking or outbursts of aggression or self-injury
 Children with ASD do not develop a perception of themselves as active agents that can deal with novel, incongruent disorganizing information.
 They do not experience their capacity for emotion mediation.
 Social impairments in children with ASD interfere with the ability for parents to be responsive/sensitive.
 Lack of responsive parenting impairs parents ability to provide timely and responsive support which could provide a safe route to exploration and growth.
 Children with autism are attached to their parents. However, the way they express this attachment can be unusual. To parents, it may seem as if their child is disconnected. Both children and adults with autism also tend to have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking and feeling.
 Children with ASD form generalized expectations that engaging in novel situations will have catastrophic consequences, in contrast to the autonomous, growth-seeking efforts of their neuro-typical peers
 Parents of children with ASD spend considerable energy just obtaining their child’s attention which distracts from energy used to enhance their interactions
 Parents of children with ASD must employ more ‘high-intensity’ and directive methods, such as increased physical contact, as well as providing more cues and prompts
 By toddlerhood, most children with ASD have switched from passivity to more active avoidance and emotional disengagement.
 “negative mutual influence cycle” in which both parents and infants are unwittingly propelled to respond to one another in increasingly abnormal ways that dramatically impact their subsequent relationship

Interventions
 Be consistent
 Stick to a schedule
 Reward good behavior
 Use teachable moments
 Create a safety zone with visual cues
 Pay attention to the kinds of sounds they make, their facial expressions, and the gestures they use when they’re tired, hungry, or want something
 Remember that behavior is a way of communicating. Find the motivation behind the behavior
 Make time for fun
 Pay attention to sensory over- or under- sensitivities and their impact on behaviors
 Teach tasks in small steps using visual cues
 Seek respite care
 Explore individual, marriage or family counseling
 Keep a daily log using text and/or pictures
 Break large tasks (clean your room) down into smaller tasks
 Teach interpersonal interactions through cartooning
 Help the child communicate by using drawing
 Use the term challenges instead of weaknesses
 Explain the diagnosis to the patient

Examples of Autism in the Media
Summary
#AllCEUs courses are accepted in most states because we are approved as an education provider for NAADAC, the States of Florida and Texas Boards of Social Work and Mental Health/Professional Counseling, the California Consortium for Addiction Professionals and Professions.

Видео Understanding the Autism Spectrum канала AllCEUs Counseling Education