Strategies to Support Children with Autism and Other Complex Needs


Book Description

Working with young children on the autistic spectrum and supporting them as they learn can be fascinating, challenging, often overwhelmingly difficult, but more than anything else, hugely rewarding. Strategies to Support Children with Autism and other Complex Needs bridges the gap between explaining what autism is and finding ways to interact through having a balance of play activities interspersed with more formal teaching of skills of everyday living. This highly practical text provides a bank of strategies that are specially designed to be matched to the developmental status of each child. These strategies are endorsed by academics who have monitored the children’s responses in communicating, pretending, playing, moving, and singing and describe how the children have responded positively over time. This book covers a variety of topics such as: The importance of play for enhancing learning for children with autism and other complex needs Evaluating different ways of developing communication Transferring learning from one environment to another to aid memorizing. Understanding the impact of sensory hypo and hyperactivity on children’s learning. Developing a ‘Theory of Mind’ The importance of movement, music and having fun Observation and assessment schedules are provided, along with clear and helpful evaluation forms which show staff in primary and early years settings how children on the autistic spectrum can be helped to make meaningful and encouraging progress. This text is an vital read for any practitioners working with children on the autistic spectrum or with complex learning difficulties.




Strategies to Support Children with Autism and Other Complex Needs


Book Description

Working with young children on the autistic spectrum and supporting them as they learn can be fascinating, challenging, often overwhelmingly difficult, but more than anything else, hugely rewarding. Strategies to Support Children with Autism and other Complex Needs bridges the gap between explaining what autism is and finding ways to interact through having a balance of play activities interspersed with more formal teaching of skills of everyday living. This highly practical text provides a bank of strategies that are specially designed to be matched to the developmental status of each child. These strategies are endorsed by academics who have monitored the children’s responses in communicating, pretending, playing, moving, and singing and describe how the children have responded positively over time. This book covers a variety of topics such as: The importance of play for enhancing learning for children with autism and other complex needs Evaluating different ways of developing communication Transferring learning from one environment to another to aid memorizing. Understanding the impact of sensory hypo and hyperactivity on children’s learning. Developing a ‘Theory of Mind’ The importance of movement, music and having fun Observation and assessment schedules are provided, along with clear and helpful evaluation forms which show staff in primary and early years settings how children on the autistic spectrum can be helped to make meaningful and encouraging progress. This text is an vital read for any practitioners working with children on the autistic spectrum or with complex learning difficulties.




Behavioral Challenges in Children with Autism and Other Special Needs: The Developmental Approach


Book Description

Attune, help, and recover: a structured developmental approach to behavioral challenges in children with disabilities. This book offers a comprehensive view of behavioral challenges for a child with autism or other special needs from a developmental perspective based on the DIRFloortime® framework. Parents and professionals are guided to understand and improve a child’s behavior while also supporting underlying developmental capacities for shared attention, warm engagement, trust, initiative, creative shared problem solving, symbolic and logical thinking, and the development of personal values. The approach is presented in three parts. Step-by-step, clinicians, caretakers, and educators will learn how to use the developmental approach to: 1. Understand the many variables involved in the behavior of a child with special needs, 2. Effectively respond to a challenging behavior in the moment with three key steps: attune, help, and recover 3. Create a long-term plan to support developmental and behavioral progress. When a child with a disability has a behavioral challenge, a clinician is confronted with the complexities of the child’s developmental strengths and vulnerabilities, individual differences, and his or her unique pattern of interactions in personal relationships. Keeping all the variables in mind, the developmental approach provides a plan that supports a child’s growth and deepens his or her capacity for perspective and care for others. The framework is based on universal developmental principles, which are effective regardless of the child’s particular age or disability. By recognizing a child’s developmental level of functioning, an adult can select strategies to effectively guide the child toward higher levels of relating, thinking and communicating. Through the process of compassionate attunement, and building on a child’s strengths, adults can optimistically chart a clear path to long-term success. A refreshing alternative to rewards-and consequences-based models of behavior management, the methods and practices in this book will empower any adult who interacts with a child with special needs, whether their work is directly focused on improving behavior, or because they must provide support so that the child can participate in other endeavors.




Special-Needs Kids Eat Right


Book Description

Good news for parents of special- needs kids: a proven approach to everyday meals that fosters learning and development. Any parent of a child with autism, Asperger?s, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, or other developmental disabilities knows that special-needs kids often have food sensitivities and can be very fussy eaters. Plus, they?ve been told to avoid such common ingredients as gluten and casein, making it even harder to give them the balanced, healthy meals all children need. Now, Judy Converse, a registered, licensed dietitian, offers new advice and guidance on how to use food as an essential tool for development. Based on the latest research, Special-Needs Kids Eat Right includes: ? Simple substitutions that can be easily customized to suit any child?s needs ? Advice for helping the whole family?along with school staff and caregivers?adjust and take part ? Strategies and tips for staying on track at restaurants, holiday gatherings, school parties and lunches, and overcoming obstacles ? Shopping and resource guides ? A long-term program for measuring progress and making adjustments




Parenting Matters


Book Description

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.







LEGO®-Based Therapy


Book Description

This complete guide to LEGO® Therapy contains everything you need to know in order to set up and run a LEGO® Club for children with autism spectrum disorders or related social communication difficulties and anxiety conditions. By providing a joint interest and goal, LEGO® building can become a medium for social development such as sharing, turn-taking, making eye-contact, and following social rules. This book outlines the theory and research base of the approach and gives advice on all practical considerations including space, the physical layout of the room and choosing and maintaining materials, as well as strategies for managing behaviour, further skill development, and how to assess progress. Written by the pioneer of the approach alongside those who helped form it through their research and evaluation, this evidence-based manual is essential reading for professionals working with autism who are interested in running a LEGO® Club or learning more about the therapy.




"You're Going to Love this Kid!"


Book Description

Thousands of edcuators have turned to You're Going to Love This Kid! for fresh ways to welcome and teach students with autism; and now the book teachers trust is fully revised and more practical than ever. Gathering feedback from teachers across the US during her popular workshops, autism expert Paula Kluth targeted this second edition to the specific needs of today's primary- and secondary-school educators. Still packed with the ready-to-use tips and strategies that teachers are looking for, the new edition gives readers: dozens of NEW reproducible forms, checklists, and planning tools; photos of curricular adaptations, sensory supports and classroom scenes; throughly revised and updated chapters on today's hottest topics; a study guide with challenging discussion questions for each chapter; and new ideas throughout the book based on the latest reasearch on autism, inclusion, literacy, and behaviour. Readers will also get updates on all of the other topics covered in the first edition, including fostering friendships, building communication skills, planning challenging and multidimensional lessons, and adapting the curriculum and the physical environment. And with the new first-person stories from people with autism and their teachers and parents, readers will have a better understanding of students on the spectrum and how to include them successfully.




Martian in the Playground


Book Description

`This deceptively little book contains more truth and provides more insight into what it is like to have Asperger's Syndrome than many a weighty tome on the subject. It offers a view from the inside, but it is not yet another autobiography. Admirably and refreshingly, the author has refrained from giving an account solely based on her own experiences. Instead she sets out observations from 25 different suffers, giving often astonishing and sometimes harrowing glimpses of what actually happens to a child with Asperger's Syndrome in the classroom, in the playground, in the lunch queue and at home' - The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry This award-winning book illuminates what it means to be a person who has Aspergers Syndrome by providing a window into a unique and particular world. Drawing on her own experience of schooling, and that of a network of friends and correspondents who share her way of thinking and responding, Clare Sainsbury reminds us of the potential for harm which education holds for those who do not fit. This book holds insights that take us beyond the standard guidance on how to manage autistic spectrum disorder. It challenges the way we might handle obsessional behaviour. It invites us to celebrate the pure passion of the intellect, which such obsessions can represent, and to recognise the delight which can be experienced by children who love to collect. It reminds us that many of the autistic mannerisms we might try to suppress actually help the child to think. This revised edition includes an additional introduction and extensive summary of research in the field of Asperger's Syndrome, both by Tony Attwood.