Autism
A little help along the way
Successful communication requires that children with autism have the right tools at the right time and know how to use them. At Tobii Dynavox we believe that we have tools that can help your child reduce challenging behavior, and enhance their health, happiness and overall quality of life.
The right tools used the right way may result in lifestyle improvements such as participation in community life, gaining and maintaining satisfying relationships, expressing personal preferences and making choices, and developing personal competencies.
Challenging behavior
Children with autism often engage in problem, or so called challenging behavior, that manifests itself in screaming, throwing things, self destructive behavior, lashing out etc. Engaging in such behavior may be a signal that the child is trying to communicate something important. For instance, a child may engage in problem behavior to escape from noisy or unpleasant settings.
Effective positive behavior support is to identify the reason of a problem behavior and to teach new skills that help replace problem behavior with a new and socially appropriate communication or social skill.
Read more about some ways to deal with challenging behavior.
Social interaction
Individuals with autism often seem to be uninterested in or incapable of reading and interpreting social queues. Having a loved child, sister, brother or grandchild with difficulties to connect with others and not being able to see things from another person’s perspective can be one of the most distressing aspects of autism.
Strategies such as modelling, narratives and scripts may help someone with autism to relate to the people in their family and world around them.
Learn about ways to help autistic persons with social interaction.
Communicating wants and needs
Not every child with autism will have a language problem, though some are unable to speak. Most children with autism do however have difficulty using language effectively, especially when they talk to other people.
There are many different ways to improve communication skills. The best treatment program begins early, during the preschool years, and is adapted to the child’s age and interests.
You can help your child communicate by preparing topics that cover wants, needs, questions etc.
Reading and literacy
If you have a child with Autism (ASD) it is never too early to start thinking about their reading and literacy skills. For some children with diagnosed with autism, learning letters comes easily, so, the focus for these children may need to be on some of the other early literacy skills.
Working on early literacy during natural, everyday activities and routines will learn children about the purpose of reading and writing.