My neighbor’s son was recently diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Before he was diagnosed he was about 18 months when my neighbor first started to notice that her son was different. She told me that at first she felt relief that he had been diagnosed with autism and then quickly after that she felt “so now what”.
The biggest obstacle to optimal support of children with autism is the long interval between the moment of diagnosis and the moment of receipt of adequate support. So long that children grow up considerably during this interval. In the meantime families are told to support their children in the biggest task of their lives. They are told to help their children develop adequate communication, to help their children make appropriate social connections and to help their children develop control over their own emotions and behavior. However they have little guidance as to how to go about these formidable tasks. In the meantime there is a great deal of pressure on the families to “get it right” very soon.
The window that actually matters
Early intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is very important because a child’s brain is developing quickly. Young children’s neural pathways are forming and then slow down in their development as a child grows. The goal of early intervention is to help a child with ASD address the challenges that he or she is experiencing and to help the child develop communication, social, and self-regulation skills that will be used in the future by the child.
Early intervention is NOT about ‘fixing’ your child with autism. It’s about planting seeds of communication, socialization and Self-Regulation in good soil (i.e. a young child’s brain) rather than hard compacted clay (i.e. an older child’s brain).
There are many things that can be changed with early support of a child with autism. Here are a few things that change with early intervention that are mentioned in studies about autism and from therapists who work with children with autism.
- Children often develop functional communication skills earlier, which dramatically reduces frustration for everyone in the household
- Social learning becomes more accessible when practiced during the years children are naturally primed for it
- Challenging behaviors, when addressed early, tend to be less entrenched and easier to redirect
- School readiness improves in ways that ripple through a child’s entire academic experience
Individual Goals
This is the part where I get really frustrated. A lot of the online resources for kids with Autism list out typical milestones that typical kids reach by certain ages. But here’s the thing: every child with Autism is completely and utterly unique. What works for one kid isn’t going to work for another. Because of this, milestones for kids with Autism just don’t really exist. Instead, each child needs their own set of goals for their early intervention.
The best early support programs are individualized. They set up goals for the child that are specific to that child. For example, one child may need to work on his ability to tolerate to transition from one activity to another. Another child may be ready to work on back and forth conversation with others. A third child may need to learn to manage his or her sensory processing in the school’s cafeteria with its fluorescent lighting and lots of background noise.
On the other hand, there are many schools of thought within the field of Autism between goal setting for children with Autism and that of other children with disabilities. Some believe that goals for children with Autism should never be ‘borrowed’ from other children with Autism as each child will develop in their own unique way. The Early Support Team would never do this as their focus would be to aid the child in reaching their full potential. As well as this, the goals set for a child would never be compared to another child with Autism.
(And this is really important to note. Because right now, so many families are worried because their kid is behind on some milestone or hitting some milestone on a different timeline than other kids with autism and they are FREAKING OUT because they have NO IDEA that the milestones and the timelines for their kid were NEVER MEANT TO BE FOLLOWED BY THEIR KID IN THE FIRST PLACE. And it causes so much stress and it takes so long to give them back their stress. And I just don’t want to have to keep reading about it.)
The unglamorous truth about consistency
As important as sessions are, what a child can do a lot of learning between sessions. Children with autism often thrive on routine and predictability. Reinforcing the strategies
It’s also really important that the methods and strategies that your child’s therapists are using in their sessions with him/her are consistently used by his/her family in all settings and situations – in the home, in daily routines, and in all of the activities of daily living. This would mean that in school, at the dinner table, during bath time, and in all other situations and activities, the child and his/her family are using the same methods and strategies to help the child learn new skills and to increase the child’s usage of new skills. The family is no longer just a passive observer of their child’s treatment, instead the family is part of the child’s treatment as well.
Of course, there is more than one way for a parent to implement strategies within the home environment. Parents are not expected to set up a formal ABA session in their home, but rather to implement the newly learned skills of their child within the child’s existing routines and activities, such as trying to have a conversation with family members, attempting to “calm down” in the bath or at dinner time, and so on. A family can make great progress in a child’s development by the family’s implementation of newly learned skills of their child within the child’s daily routines, if a family is given proper parent training in order to intervene consistently and in a quality manner.
Finding support that’s actually nearby
A program an hour or so away from your home or work seems fine until you’re traveling to it 3 times a week. Then it becomes an issue for families with young children & busy lives.
The aba therapy quincy ma Early Start treatment program for children with autism is currently offered at the Bierman Autism Centers Quincy, MA location through an early collaboration with the South Shore Mental Health Center in Hanover, MA. The Early Start treatment program is designed for children from birth to 3 years of age with autism spectrum disorder. Families can participate in individualized ABA programs with family member involvement as needed.
What families actually need to hear
Early support for children with autism works. The young brains of children with autism are more malleable and capable of changing than the brains of children of the same age without autism. The goals for early support of children with autism should be the goals of the child with autism and should be set by the people supporting the child with autism. By supporting a child with autism to reach their own goals in the many environments where they practice their communication, social and behavioral skills, they have the opportunity to develop skills that will be solidly in place when they are not practicing them in support sessions.
Families who reported that they were well prepared did not report that their children made the most progress. They reported that they were doing well because they were active. They reported that the earlier they started to ask questions and begin to learn about programs and resources for their child and family the better they felt prepared.
Your child deserves better than waiting.
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