General Therapies for Individuals with Autism
Speech and Language Pathology
Speech-language therapy entails the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and helping to prevent speech, language, cognitive, communication, voice, swallowing, fluency, and other related disorders.
Speech-language pathologists work with people who cannot make speech sounds, or cannot make them clearly; those with speech rhythm and fluency problems, such as stuttering; people with voice quality problems, such as inappropriate pitch or harsh voice; those with problems understanding and producing language; those who wish to improve their communication skills by modifying an accent; and those with cognitive communication impairments, such as attention, memory, and problem solving disorders. They also work with people who have oral motor problems causing eating and swallowing difficulties.
• How can I tell if my child’s speech and language development is on track?
If your child is not on track with the following speech/language development milestones, you should talk to your pediatrician. To look for milestones in normal speech development, visit http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/speech.htm
Occupational Therapy (OT)
Occupational therapy (OT) is the use of treatments to develop, recover and maintain the daily living skills of patients with a physical, mental or developmental disorder. Interventions focus on adapting the environment, modifying the task, teaching the skill and educating the family/patient in order to increase participation in daily activities that would be important to the client.
Occupational therapy with children and youth may assist with:
Promoting a wellness program in schools to prevent childhood obesity
Facilitating hand writing development
Promoting functional skills for living in children with developmental disabilities
Providing individual treatment for sensory processing difficulties
Addressing psychosocial needs of a child
Play Therapy/Floor time
Child psychiatrist, Stanley Greenspan, M.D, created floor time therapy. Its purpose is for adults to help their children expand their communication levels by building on their strengths. The technique challenges those with autism to push themselves to their fullest potential. Floor time builds on who the child is rather then their diagnosis.
Floor time sessions emphasize back-and-forth playing. This creates shared attention, engagement and problem solving. Parents and therapists help the child maintain focused thinking to abstract, logical thinking.
Floor time assists children in reaching the following milestones that are essential for emotional and intellectual growth:
Self-regulation and interest in the world
Intimacy, or engagement in human relations
Two-way communication
Complex communication
Emotional ideas
Emotional thinking
Sensory Integration
Sensory-based therapies are used by occupational therapists and sometimes by other types of therapists in treatment of children with developmental and behavioral disorders. Researchers found that every 8 out of ten children with autism have problems processing sensory input. Standard therapy usually focuses on the following areas: tactile (sense of touch), vestibular (sense of movement), and proprioceptive (sense of body position). Brushes, swings, balls, and other specially designed therapeutic or recreational equipment are used to provide this assistance.
Results of sensory integration therapy can include:
Positive outcomes in sensorimotor skills and motor planning
Socialization
Attention
Behavior regulation
Reading related skills
Participation in active play
Achievement of individualized goals
Improvements in gross motor skills and self esteem
Social Skills Therapy
The purpose of social skills therapy is to teach people who may or may not have emotional problems about the verbal and nonverbal behaviors involved in social interactions. “Small talk” in social settings does not come easily for people who need social skills therapy. In social skills therapy, they will learn the importance of good eye contact and how to read subtle social cues such as how to tell when someone wants to change the topic of conversation.
The goal of the Social Skills Group Therapy Program is to assist children in developing friendship skills by teaching strategies for:
Active listening
Conversational skills
Responding appropriately to social cues
Identifying personal feelings and understanding the emotions of others
Problem solving for conflict situations
Compromising, sharing, being a good sport
Negative thoughts and management of feelings
Anger and frustration management
Teasing and bullying
Follow the these steps:
Define one or more social behavior that the child needs for improvement.
Use a trial-teaching method while discussing with and teaching the child new social behaviors.
Create real life scenarios while applying these social skills.
Transition from a structured teaching situation to everyday life situations.
Check for social validity.