Symptomatic treatment
Poor eye contact:
Move flickering lights in front of the child's eyes & demonstrate how he could track the light with his eyes. Hold some glittering object near your eyes and encourage child to look in your eyes. Keep in mind their preferences when decorating and keep the amount of toys used in a room at minimum. Regular practice is a must!
Unable to respond to social/environmental cues:
Teach your child emotions using images and practice with them. Combining this with the use of social stories from a childs perspective and role play has been found to be effective.
Does not maintain peer relationships:
Provide a wide range of oppurtunities for your child to communicate and connect. Austic kids tend have poor confidence levels and their every attempt at socializing should be rewarded. Keep a track and gently keep probing them forward.
Shows inappropriate emotional response:
Consistency is what they need. Whatever rules you establish must be the rules of the house. Engage them in the practice of time out to ensure they can calm down no matter where they go. And if they show signs of irritation to anything, removing it from the environment can help a lot.
Engages in self stimulating behaviour:
Has he or she been rocking or moving their hands too much? This is called self stimulation. Best way to manage this is to engage them some activity that will keep their hands busy. But make sure that it is an activity they enjoy and want to do. That will reduce the emotional stress on them.
Lacks fear of danger:
This is a result of the dysfunction and can result in hyper or hypo cases. In hyper cases, the child will make fearful movements even in normal situations and in hypo, they need additional stimulation. This can result in loss of control at times. In such situations, stop the activity and engage in simple one on one communication.
Inconsistent attention and concentration:
Avoid clutter in study table and area. Use darker colours to help improve attention. Give him or her a separate room to sit and study. Ensure that this room uses soothing colours. Some children are also distracted by visuals. Do your best to ensure that distractions are minimized.
Delay in response time:
Some kids need a longer time to process information and respond. In such cases, use bright colours and visual methods. Writing skill maybe poor so make writing a fun with colours and use computers. Focus on improving concentration and eye contact. Other techniques of positive reinforcement can be really useful too.
Has savant ability:
Autism spectrum disorders may effects ones ability to learn in certain ways but it certainly doesn’t make them stupid. Some children are gifted in specific skills like calculations or playing musical instruments and some with the arts. Use these talents to build their self confidence and mingle with their peers.
If your child loses the ability to speak:
Patience is imperative. Use cards to explain regular activities to him or her. Use the words that are commonly used to identify objects repeatedly. Picture cards and real objects are important because visual, auditory, tactile stimulation help children to understand concepts faster. Follow a similar pattern.
Has trouble with gestures or non- verbal language:
Improving eye contact is essential as non-verbal communication depends on it to a large extent. Encourage them to shake hands and other social gestures. Teach them to identify themselves and you in photographs. All of these put together aid in building social adaptability.
Unable to maintain conversations:
This causes one of the biggest challenges in social situations. The low attention span and reduced speech functions together pose a challenge. Encourage your child to engage in activities like craft to improve attention and also help them first use monosyllables that can then be combined.
Unusual sensitivity:
This is an indicator of hypersensitivity. Encourage bear hugs, massages with or without lotions and work on desensitizing the tactile system. Vibrating objects including toothbrush, pens, balls, stuffed toys, etc. "Sandwiching" between pillows, climbing under sofa cushions also aids.
Tends to space out or has unusual vision:
Work on improving eye contact as a basic foundation. Add activities like tracking objects to improve his or her ability to stay focused on a single activity. Some kids also find unusual patterns disturbing. Avoid complicated patterns in the environment in such situations.
Insensitivity to pain:
This is a result of hyposensitivity of the tactile system. The sensation of heat, cold and rough surfaces does not register well. Working on this will involve coaching of what the sensation means. The use of different fabrics and also warm towels and dry rice or beans can be of help.
Repetitive behaviour and social interaction:
Engage the child in understanding the expressions of others. Repetitive behaviour makes those around them uncomfortable and they need to be able to read expressions. Engage them in activities that can substitute for their repetitive behaviour. Use videos and stories to repeat learning new actions.
Unable to respond to social/environmental cues:
Teach your child emotions using images and practice with them. Combining this with the use of social stories from a childs perspective and role play has been found to be effective.
Attachment to inanimate objects:
Obsessions are not exactly the best things to have but in this case, it can be used for the better. It can be used to aid in learning and can also be incorporated in extra-curricular activities that can increase the abilities to interact.
Hyperactivity/ restlessness: :
While many of the strategies are things a parent can do to help their child, it is also important to teach your child self regulation. Deep breathing exercises, yoga, or meditation all help a child to slow down. Hyperactivity zooms when boredom sets in. Create a box of activities geared toward your child's interests.
Engages in self injurious behaviour/ Throws temper tantrums:
Difficulty in expressing emotions leads to this behaviour. Help them find less harmful ways of venting like playing drums etc. time out zone is also good as it allows both of you to calm down. Learn to identify the indicators before hand.
Insists on sameness:
Prepare them as best as you can. Setting a visible time table helps. But also set aside back ups in case of changes can be predicted. This helps them manage anxiety. Slowly introduce the change to them in small manners and build on it to make them more adaptable to unpredictable situations.