Social Behaviours of Children with Autism 1: The Challenges in Communication

What are some of the challenges faced by children with autism when it comes to communcation and social interaction?

Scenario 1:
Jeff is 7 years old attending primary one. Although he has the desire to talk to his peers, he always has difficulty initiating conversations with them. His peers think that he is weird as he is always talking about things that don't make sense to them or he will be regurgitating the same comments everytime he tries to strike up a conversation with them.

In this case, although Jeff is socially aware of the pleasure in seeking companionship, he does not possess the mental flexibility nor social skills to keep up with the demands of a social setting. Furthermore, his understanding of social interaction is very basic - talk to someone and that person will talk to you. He is unaware of the many intricate details that come along with conversation due to his inability to process abstract concepts. These include emotions and the mental processes of individuals - how do they like being talk to, what kind of things they like to talk about, how they might react to certain topics or people and ETC.

Scenario 2:

John has a couple of friends in his class who would try to include him in their play activities whenever they could. There are times when John plays well with them although he does experience difficulties in catching up with them during conversations. However, John also has many episodes of temper tantrums and meltdowns resulted from various instances such as losing in a game and sudden changes in the games' objectives or rules. As a result of these episodic meltdowns, John's classmates are at times apprehensive of including him in their activities. 

Here, we see a child who is unaware of social rules and having difficulties controlling his emotions when things do not go the way he expects. As discussed in previous posts, behaviour is a reaction. Everyone will have a reaction, but the level of it depends on how we are able to control our actions that may be detrimental to us and the people around us. That being said, learning to express one's feelings calmly is a skill and concept that needs to be taught and practiced. Children with autism may take longer time than others to master such behaviour because the idea of having to put aside the immediate emotion they are experiencing is very abstract as compared to acting out instantly once an emotion is experienced. Furthermore, as above, because a child with autism has difficulty thinking in another person's perspective, they may see little reason in not expressing their immediate emotions through action. Finally, as many children with autism have difficulty expressing their emotions, acting out may be the next best option to show how they are feeling at the moment.

Scenario 3:

Henry likes playing by himself. Whenever other children try to play or talk to him, he would either ignore them or walk away doing his own things. Even if he is within the group, he tends to keep to himself doing his own play instead of joining in. At first, children were intrigued by his lonesome and "hard-to-get" personality. However, as time goes by, they lose interest in engaging him in their activities and go seeking out other more responsive new friends. 

In this scenario, the child seems to not understand the meaning in communication or social interaction. Play is very basic to the child and he is happy to be self engaged. Social understanding is at a minimal as he finds no need to engage the attention of others as long as his interest is fulfilled. He find no meaning in the world of others as he has not been exposed to the benefits of social interactions. Fundamental skills such as langauge joint attention may also be lacking leading to low interest in the world around him through expression of language and social cues.

Scenario 4:

Jessica is often being teased by her classmates for talking weird. Whenever she tries to initiate a conversation with them, they will try their best to shun her. These incidents lead to her possessing very low self esteem . She loses confidence in keeping up with her social skills as she reasons that people are going to make fun of her anyway if she tries. She begins to keep to herself more not just in social settings but also at home. This has resulted in other behaviours such as fear and anxiety attacks to be in new surroundings or when surrounded by new people.

In this case, it will be more of public education that is lacking. Often, students with autism in classroom get little support from the adults because they belong to the minority in a culture where the majority's well-being are being looked after first. Of course, that is not to say that all students with autism are being neglected in the classroom but it does show time and again that it requires substantial amount of resources such as manpower and educational materials in place to provide adequate assistance to the students of the minority. In this scenario, the classmates could be informed about what autism is about and how it may affect the langauge and communication skills of their classmate who has autism. Yet, discussion about autism in open settings remains a stigma to many adults, resulting in a 'don't ask, don't tell' attitude. This in turn allows the children with autism to be misunderstood as misfits within a classroom setting which in the first place, should be supportive and encouraging of learning and equipment of life skills.

In the upcoming post of this series, we will be looking more into these above described scenarios. What can be carried out to deal with the challenges faced by these children? If your child is facing any difficulties described above, what strategies and teaching methods can be put in place to help your child to develop better social and communication skills?

Till then, if you have any concerns or suggestions, please email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com. i look forward to your correspondence.

Regards,

Daven

www.triumphantkids.com

 

Learning and Motivation for Children with Autism Series

Learning and motivation is a wide ranging subject in the education field. What motivate children to learn? What are the best learning tools and approaches for children?

In this series of posts, we are going to look into the various methodologies out there for working with children with autism. We are going to learn about how these various approaches influence and promote learning.

From behavioural therapy to floor time strategies, we will be discussing how your child with autism are able to benefit from the many different methodologies available to the parents and caregivers.

Which of these does your child suit better? Is it possible to provide a holistic intervention service for your child so that he can develop all rounded skills and capabilities?

Thus let us look closer and more in depth into the many possibilities to bring about positive improvements in your children's lives. Do watch up for future upcoming posts in this series.

Do you have any suggestions as to how to motivate your child to learn? Or would you like to share what your child is motivated by in order for positive learning to take place? Send me an email at davensim@triumphantkids.com for further discussion!

Social Behaviours of Children with Autism Series

 This series of posts will look into the many concerns of parents regarding the social behaviours of their children with autism. The behavioural  patterns and how they affect social skills and communication and day to day life will be further discussed. Also, what are some of the approaches and strategies that can be put in place to deal with these difficulties faced by the children?

What Is Social Behaviour?

Social behaviour

Social behaviour is the conduct of a person in an environment and society. It consists of activities in response to stimuli present that encourage interaction with others. The stimuli can come in different forms such as social rules and cues or incentives for interaction such as peer recognition, feeling of enjoyment and social rewards.

What are the characteristics of the social behaviours of children with autism?

1) Social interaction may be marked with awkwardness. There could be lack of eye contact when interacting. Line of conversation may be off tangent as there is difficulty in staying focused on the topic talked about.

2) Lack of flexibility in thoughts leading to rigidity in speech. Not being able to switch ingrained opinion readily when needed.

3) Lack in understanding and expression of emotion. Both lead to incapacity to look at matters from another person's perspective, resulting in social animosity.

4) Feelings of frustration and insecurity are more often and common for children with autism. This may be due to the difficulties faced when expressing their emotions and thoughts. Being unable to explain how one feels usually leads to feeling of frustration which at times may result in meltdown when further attempts to communicate fail.

5) Weak sense of social rules and cues. This leads to increased sense of impatience and inability to wait as they do not comprehend the idea of consequences which are abstract concepts.

What are some of the social behaviours you observe in your child? Maybe you would like to share some pointers with other parents and readers. If you have any suggestions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com

Click below for newer posts of the Social Behaviour series!
The Challenges
Dealing with Challenges 1
Dealing with Challenges 2
Dealing with Challenges 3
Dealing with Challenges 4

Also, please visit my website www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the service I provide.

Till I hear from you again, best regards,
Daven :)

Learning behaviours of Children with Autism: Functional Fixedness.

Functional Fixedness refers to our incapability to assign alternative functions or uses to an object after we are so accustomed to its utility towards a mean. For example, while there are many uses to a paper clip, we are usually fixed on the idea that it can only be used to clip papers together.

Do understand that everyone of us, and not just people with autism experience Functional Fixedness. However due to the rigid behaviour of many people with autism, Functional Fixedness poses more of a problem to learning to them than usual.

How Does Functional Fixedness Affect Learning for Children With Autism?

1) It increases rigidity and deters development of problem solving skills. For example, a student and I were making a kite and I brought ice cream sticks instead of long wooden sticks for the craft. When I asked her what can we use instead of the usual wooden stick that the craft book asked for, she informed in a matter of fact tone that it was impossible to make a kite now as we did not have the right materials for it.


2) It increases rigidity and deter development of language skills. Language is a function towards communication and many students with autism have the tendency to be rigid when it comes to language usage. For example, a student I worked with had difficulty accepting the idea that an item can have two different labels - a table can be called a desk at times. This student would even start crying whenever I call the work table a desk.

3) It affects communication and social skills. Children who are more adept at looking at an item using varying perspectives are able to adapt to the change of direction in a conversation easier that children who can't. Children who are more rigid in their way of communicating also tend to get anxious and unsettled more easily. Refer to the student above who cries whenever language is used in a way that she is not familiar with.

4) It leads to feelings of fear and frustration for children who are more affected by it. As these children lack the capacity to think flexibly and adapt what they know to situations arising, they are more prone to episodes of tantrums and meltdown due to uncertainty over the change in routine or standard procedure.

What Can We Do To Lessen the Influence of Functional Fixedness?

1) Encourage the child to think flexibly by engaging him in activities that promote flexible thinking. You may get some basic ideas from my Flexible Thinking Series. Click here.

2) Engage in everyday activities by using objects around the house for different uses. For example, instead of cutting with a pair of scissors to do art and craft for a particular afternoon, tear using a ruler. Instead of using the ice cube tray to freeze ice, use it to freeze fruit juice. And instead of pouring water into cocktail, pour water into a glass of frozen concentrate and watch them melt.


3) Motivate your child to accept differences and changes to what he is usually accustomed to. Use the token system to help your child earn towards an incentive whenever he does not kick up a fuss over the different use of language. Use shaping to teach positive behaviour towards differences in the usual. For example, immediately redirect whenever your child is about to get upset by praising him to allowing the different usage of langauge, then gradually extend the time before redirection, eventually fading it by including the difference in the usage of language in everyday conversation.

Example:
1 -  "Jane, go sit at the desk" - followed by immediate redirection "Good sitting down at the desk! Woo hoo, great job! Let's play!"

2 - "Jane, go sit at the desk" - a few seconds before redirection.

3 - A minute before redirection.

4 - "Jane, go sit at the desk" - No redirection. Light praise and then carry on with task or work.

5- Use desk in everyday language or whenever wnated to substitute 'table', "Jane, put this book on the desk please".

Using the token system from step 1 - 3 may be helpful too. In this case, when she responds to the instruction with the target word in it, she is being praised and rewarded with a token.

What are some of the difficulties you face with your child regarding functional fixedness? If you would like to share and offer some suggestions, please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com.

Till the next post, I wish you all a very lovely weekend ahead.

Best Regards,
Daven. :)

Learning Behaviours of Children with Autism

Welcome to a new series of posts titled 'Learning Behaviours of Children with Autism'. Throughout this series, we will be looking at various behaviours that resonate with the many different learning patterns of children with autism. For example, we will be asking the many burning questions such as "Why is my child with autism so rigid in things that he does?" and "Why does my child loses tantrum easily when structure is disrupted?"

Throughout this series of articles, I will be discussing how these behaviours, while seemingly unrelated to learning, are actually impeding your children's learning progress. We will be looking at these various topics at three levels -

1) The root of the problem - The description of the behaviour. What the behaviour is like, when does the behaviour occur and what trigger the behaviour.

2) The problem - how the behaviour is affecting learning.

3) Solutions to the problem - what are the methods and strategies we can adopt to facilitate better learning?

So please stay tuned to upcoming articles of the series as the first article about Functional Fixedness will be up soon. What is Functuonal Fixedness, you ask? Well, you will have to come back and visit real soon!

Till then, if you have any questions that you would like answered via this series of blog posts regarding learning behaviour, please do not hesitate to email me at davensim@triumphantkids.com. No matter which part of the globe you are from, it's never too far to voice your concern and to gather solutions to the problems you are facing.

I am looking forward to our correspondences.

With deepest regards,
Daven