Articles by Alan Yau on ArticleSnatch.com

Children with Autism and P.E.C.S. Is It Any Good?

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

PECS was created by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost as a systematic way to teach children with autism and other communication difficulties to initiate communication. It has been around since the mid 1980s and is widely used with children with autism. One of the things I like about it is that it reasonably straightforward to use and can bring about fairly rapid changes in behaviour. Children with autism by definition have difficulties with communication, these in turn can lead to behaviours that can be challenging. PECS can lead to a reduction in such behaviours. PECS training begins with identifying what a child is most motivated by and teaching him to exchange a picture card of the item for the item itself, that is to say if the child enjoys playing with bubbles, he is taught to exchange a picture of the bottle of bubbles for the bottle, rather than simply grabbing at the bottle. Once the child succeeds at this, he is taken through several more stages in the training so that he is able to request a range of items, with a range of people. **End Summary** Topics: autism]]> autistic]]> ASD]]> Aspergers]]> PECS]]> Picture Exchange Communication System]]> teaching]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Alan Yau heads up the Autistic unit at a primary school in North London in the UK where he is responsible for teaching 18 children across the whole Autistic spectrum. See http://www.teaching-children-with-autism.com

Teaching Reading to Children with ASD. What's The Best Way?

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

There is no one way to teach reading to children with ASD. Learning styles vary between children so a range of strategies should be tried. Some children find reading remarkably easy, and very quickly learn to read far beyond their ability to understand the words they are reading (this is called hyperlexia), while others find it much more difficult to learn to read. One approach is to use phonics, which means learning the letter sounds and blending them together to decipher words. Another approach is to learn to read whole words, and to be able to recognize them on sight. I have found that, on the whole, teaching phonics can be more difficult than is normally the case with typically developing children. Many young children with autism have little or no language, and may not be able to repeat the letter sounds accurately or at all. It is a task all in itself to get some children just to repeat something when directed to. For you to be able to teach them to not only repeat those sounds but to use them as a decoding strategy in reading can be a big task indeed. **End Summary** Topics: Teaching Reading]]> Children with ASD]]> Children with Autism]]> Autistic Children]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Alan Yau heads up the Autistic unit at a primary school in North London in the UK where he is responsible for teaching 18 children across the whole Autistic spectrum. See http://www.teaching-children-with-autism.com

Children with Autism. The Importance of Clear Boundaries and High Expectations

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Children will test boundaries, children with autism are not necessarily going to be any different. Be very clear about which behaviors are acceptable to you and then create clear boundaries, ensure that the rest of the family is also clear and that you all act with consistency. However, be realistic. A child with autism, by definition, has difficulties in social interaction, you will have to make some allowances. Be realistic also about what lengths you are prepared to go to, do not create a boundary and then not enforce it, if you do you may find that your child will keep trying to test it. Boundaries should be clear-cut. If you regularly engage in intensive play with your child, and they are enjoying playing with you, a natural way to minimize your child's tendency to push boundaries is to simply stop the interaction whenever an inappropriate behavior occurs and calmly wait for more appropriate behavior before continuing. A child with autism may not necessarily care to act in a way that pleases you just for the sake of it. **End Summary** Topics: Children with Autism]]> teaching]]> education]]> ]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Alan Yau heads up the Autistic unit at a primary school in North London in the UK where he is responsible for teaching 18 children across the whole Autistic spectrum. See http://www.teaching-children-with-autism.com

What is Autism and What Are The Treatments For It?

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Autism is a life long developmental disability that affects a person's ability to communicate and to make sense of our social world. The disorder usually appears before the child is three years old. People with autism often also have learning disabilities, but a minority have normal or high general intelligence. Boys are 4 times more likely to have autism than girls. People with autism have difficulties in three areas, known as "the triad of impairments": 1. Social interaction. Difficulty in relating to others. 2. Communication. Difficulty in understanding, acquiring and using verbal and non-verbal communication. 3. Imagination. Difficulty in developing pretend play and generalizing learning. People with autism often have an uneven profile of skills, with a marked difference in their abilities in some areas compared to others; they often show strengths in those areas that are independent of social understanding, e.g. manipulating numbers or working with computers. Autism affects individuals to varying degrees and this is reflected in the term "Autistic Spectrum Disorder". The difficulties in each area of the triad of impairments may be expressed in different behaviors, e.g. **End Summary** Topics: What is Autism]]> Treatments for autism]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Alan Yau heads up the Autistic unit at a primary school in North London in the UK where he is responsible for teaching 18 children across the whole Autistic spectrum. See http://www.teaching-children-with-autism.com

Child Autism - A Plea to Play

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I have used elements of many different approaches over the years, but the one that I've found makes the biggest difference with young children with autism is simply that of playing. Parents are biologically adapted to respond to their developing infants' needs, we almost cannot help but engage in baby-talk when confronted with a small child. However, interactions with infants are very much two-way events. For some of us, playing is natural and we make no apologies for it, for me it is the most effective way of developing relatedness with a child and it is FUN! When a parent interacts with a normally developing infant, the infant is as much a participant in that interaction as the adult, a kind of dance. However, studies have shown that children with autism do not provide their adult partner with the expected kind of participation. Without an appropriate partner in the dance, parents may not know quite what to do, and as this gets repeated over and over again, the quality of the interactions may diminish. Parents of children with ASD should be aware of this issue and compensate for their child's lack of appropriate participation. **End Summary** Topics: Autism]]> autistic]]> teaching children with autism]]> signs of autism]]> child autism]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Alan Yau heads up the Autistic unit at a primary school in North London in the UK where he is responsible for teaching 18 children across the whole Autistic spectrum. See http://www.teaching-children-with-autism.com