Empathy - The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Therapy is recommended by the professionals for most if not all children on the spectrum. The sooner the better. That is something that most parents can see is necessary. That is obvious. Here are a few pointers that most professionals either do not know or do not realize the importance of.

• Raising a child with ASD (Autism) is an overwhelming task. Parents need therapy too.

• Understanding how to work with their children will require training.

• Many professionals recommend ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) without realizing the problems associated with this therapy.

• Autistic children need their parents and professionals to realize that their “behaviors” are generally for rational reasons.

• Making them stop “hand flapping” is forcing them to stop self regulation.

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• You may be able to get them to stop pacing or rocking but loosing those self-regulating skills may create a more stressed individual who often has more difficulties coping with their environment than the behaviors they have been using.

• If their “behaviors” are not harming anyone, it does not need to be fixed, even if it is an unusual behavior that needs explanation. Allow him to be autistic. Allow him to be unique.

• Another thing the professionals may recommend for our children on the spectrum is CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). This may be helpful if the professionals really understand the difficulties that our children experience.

• I was told to send my son to a hospital for this therapy and quickly realized it was useless there.

• Tony Attwood wrote: “One of the issues during the practice stage of CBT will be generalization. People with ASD tend to be quite rigid in terms of recognizing when the new strategies are applicable in a different situation.”

• CBT needs to be practiced on location and in that moment when difficult behaviors arise.

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We had success with the Social Thinking Methodology. You gain evidence-based strategies to help people age 4 through adult improve their social competencies, including:

 

• Self-regulation

• Social-emotional learning

• Executive functioning

• Perspective taking

• Social problem solving