Autism Spectrum Disorder
According to the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, about one in sixty-eight children born have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is also about 4.5 times more common among boys than it is among girls. For boys, it is about one in forty-two and girls it is about one in one hundred eighty-nine. Autism effects students learning ability because it slows down the brain and causes a child to take much longer process and understand things. When a child has autism, they begin to show symptoms as early as six to twelve months. When a child is born or adopted into a family and they have autism, it has an impact on not just the child, but the entire family. When I say the entire family, I mean parents, siblings, and sometimes even grandparents. Children with autism need more attention and care so it can have its pros and cons for the entire family. Depending on the level of autism a child has, it will have an impact on the classrooms they are in and the teachers they are with to help them. This will also determine the amount of intervention they need to be successful in learning properly. Test and observations will have to be done to help the teachers and the child’s parents understand where their child stands academic wise and what they will need help on. If an autistic child has a good support system from their family and teachers, they can be successful in life and be able to do whatever they set their mind to.
Description of Autism: Characteristics and Causes
ASD delays children ability to function in social interaction, language and learn by the age of three years old. Autism is caused by a combination of non-genetic and genetic genes created throughout a female’s pregnancy. Research has shown that autism tends to run in families. With that being said, this increases the risk of a child being born with autism because it only takes as little as one gene from just one parent for autism to develop in a child. Some other things that can increase the risk of having an autistic child are if there are pregnancy and birth complications like low birth weight, extreme prematurity, or multiple children in one pregnancy, if a mother has pregnancies less than one year apart, or if parents decided to have a baby at an older age. Children who have autism see the world in a completely different way than children who do not have autism. According to the autismspeaks.org, autism, or autism spectrum disorder, refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences. This makes it harder for children know and understand how to respond to situations, school work, and certain things done in life. As there are so many different challenges with autism, no two people with autism are alike. Everyone’s level or profile of autism spectrum disorder is different due to the changes throughout development. Since autism started showing its “symptoms” at an early age, you can see the differences between a child who has autism and a child who doesn’t, like their motor skills are poor, they do not respond to their name or familiar voices, they isolate themselves from others, and can suffer from anxiety around loud noises or bright lights. If a child’s parents and family work with their autistic child and get them the proper help that allows them to overcome the symptoms of autism, they will do great in life.
Impact of Autism on the Family
Being a parent is hard and a job within itself, but have a child with autism brings being a parent to an entirely different level. Having a child who is autistic takes a lot of time and patience. You have to work with them and get them the proper help. This can cause an issue financially. Parents have to pay for their child to go to specialist and doctors and depending on the level of autism their child has, they might have to buy special equipment. Insurance does not pay for everything, which makes the parents have to pay all of these expensive bills out of pocket. In some cases, ones’ parent might not be able to work due to the constant attention their autistic child needs. The average income for a household of four, meaning two working people and children, is around sixty-five thousand dollars. With only one income, things would be extremely hard. This can cause a strain on the relationship of the parents or even the rest of the family. The impact goes deeper of there are other children in this family. For example, a family has 2 children and the youngest has autism. The oldest child could be feeling left out or jealous. In some cases, a child could begin spiral out of control, such as become disobedient, runaway, or even harm themselves. If a family doesn’t explain the situations and come up with a plan for their family to live a comfortable life, they will continue to have issues.
Impact of Autism on the Teacher and Classroom
Working with children with autism has just as many challenges and teaching all the other students a classroom. Just because the students with autism so not act the same and learn the same way as their peers, doesn’t mean they should be isolated from them. Since students with autism motor skills are slower than the children their age, they need extra attention when it comes to teaching them. Some autistic student may have echolalia, which means a continuously repeat words or phrases they have heard. It is also known for students with autism to have random outburst moments of violence. These types of things cause distractions in class and make it difficult for the teacher to teach and the other students to learn. It’s sad to read and hear about how children with disabilities, such as autism, are not being taught at all. They are just putting them in classrooms and separating them from everyone else in the schools. I read an article about the increasing rate of autism in elementary schools and they are creating teaching environments for autistic children so they can be able to have fun and learn at the same time. In the article, it said, “We describe how the increased rate of autism and growing practice of inclusive educational settings affect classroom practice and provide implementation tips for using specific picture books and activities. Knowing that picture books are often used as a teaching tool for elementary educators, the use of books addressing autism could teach empathy while enhancing students' awareness and acceptance of students on the autism spectrum.” These teachers are showing that it doesn’t matter if a student has a disability or not, they come to school to learn and teachers should find ways to properly do that.
Research-Based Interventions
When it comes to teaching students who are autistic, interventions are a necessary part of their success in learning. Research-based interventions are interventions that are developed from treatments to help aid students who have autism spectrum disorder reach their full potential. Some interventions for students who have autism are cognitive behavior therapy, social skills training and speech-language therapy, parent education and training, or possibly medicine. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is used to help people with autism control their emotions, develop impulse control, and help improve their behavior overall. CBT also helps with reducing depressed feeling and anxiety. This helps children in classes because they learn to control their emotions, which means they can control their interruptions and outburst. Social skills training and speech-language therapy teach children to express their feelings and thoughts appropriately. This benefits a child with autism because that will know how to interact with their peers and be able to work in groups. This will also help them when they write papers in class. They will be able to put emotion and humor in there. Parent education and training helps benefit a child who is autistic because it allows their caregiver(s) the understand the strengths and deficits that the child has. They learn to implement routines in both their life and the autistic child’s life that will help everything run smoother. I personally wouldn’t use medications if I had a child who had autism but some parents give their autistic children medicine to help control their anxiety, hyperactivity, depression, or possible deficits. The reason I disagree with using medication because, for starters, it is only temporary. These medicine doses only last between ten and fifteen hours. They turn the child into a totally different person. I have seen how medicines change a person who suffers from hyperactivity. It almost turns them into zombies. They just sit there and space out until someone gets their attention. That’s not a way to help the child in the long run.
Assistive Technology to Assist Students with Autism
To understand how to properly use assistive technology on with students who have autism, you must first understand what assistive technology is. In an article about assistive technology, autism, and expanding the roles of school librarians, Demetria Ennis-Cole and Daniella Smith explained, “Assistive Technology includes both non-technical auxiliary aids, mechanical, and electrical devices: dry-erase boards, photo albums, three-ring binders, tape recorders, timers, calculators, voice output devices, scanners, digital cameras, trackballs, augmentative and alternative communication devices, computer software, simulations, and virtual reality.” So, Cole and Smith are saying that things like audio books, computer software simulations, and calculators are considered assistive technology. These are all great examples because these devices allow autistic kids to learn materials and also do them in a fun and memorable way. All kids, whether they are autistic or not, are most likely to remember things better if they enjoyed learning it. Computer software simulations like Reader Rabbit help students with reading and language skills. This is an amazing software to use when a child is in their developmental stages. Overall, when it comes to assistive technology for students with autism, it just depends on the student. They have to kind of go through a trial and error stage to see what time of assistive technology fits for them and once they find it, they are able to take the steps towards success.
Effective Family Partnerships
The parents of a child with autism take a whole responsibility from the day that they are born and with a supportive team behind them, the possibilities for their child are endless. Their team can include people from the school that their child attends, such as the principles, counselors, IEP team, and teachers to specialize in the issues that their child is dealing with. The parents must also become trained in their child’s disability to be able to properly help them outside of school and/or the programs that the child is in. Everyone must come together to maximize the child’s success and overall life for that child. When the partnership between the parents and other helpers for their child are on the same track about the solutions for that child, it also improved the quality of family life overall. This includes an increase in family life with siblings, grandparents, and others who might be considered to be family. When you have a personalized plan for a specific person and it is actually effective, the progression and success will be beyond what was expected.
Conclusion
In conclusion, having a child who is born with autism is out of a parent’s control, but it should not take control of the success in their life. Once a family knows what the issues are, they can come up with a plan for success. They need a team of teachers and specialist that are willing to help their autistic child be able to properly learn materials, whether it’s through traditional learning materials or assistive technology. Yes, having a child with autism has its pros and cons for a family but the pros will always overpower the cons if they have an open mind and a positive attitude. Parents grow and learn so much more when their child has a disability. They have to learn the ways of handling them and the steps of procedures their child will have to go through in life. As the knowledge of autism continues to grow, the possibilities are endless for people with autism, just like it is for everyone else.