17-ASD

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

General definition:

• Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), a term used to describe a category of conditions also referred to as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), cause severe impairment in thinking, feeling, language and the ability to relate to others.
  • A spectrum/range of severity of disorder with similar features which usually causes problems with social interaction and communication.
• A neurological disorder – changes the way brain processes information .

Range of conditions:

• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
• Rett’s Disorder (RD)
• Autistic Disorder (AD)
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD – NOS)
• Asperger’s Syndrome (AS)

Below are the typical characteristics of the various types of ASD.

• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
  • After normal development of 3 or more years, the child exhibit significant losses in social behaviour, language, play and adaptive behaviour.
• Rett’s Disorder (RD)
  • Found mostly in girls
  • Problems in cognitive, sensory, emotional, motor and automatic function. Thus affecting learning, speech, communication, sensory sensations, mood, movement, breathing, cardiac function and pysho-motor skills.
• Autistic Disorder (AD)
  • Cognitive impairments
  • Problems in verbal and non-verbal communication
  • Lacks social understanding
  • Unusual behaviours, restricted activities.
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD – NOS)
  • Also known as Atypical Autism
  • Severe and pervasive impairment in reciprocal social interaction, restricted activities and interests.
• Asperger’s Syndrome (AS)
  • Range from mild to severe impairments in social interaction and understanding
  • Restricted and repetitive activities and interests
  • Language and cognitive development not delayed.
  • Have problems in communication.

General Characteristics of ASD

Affects three primary areas of development:

1) Communication (verbal and nonverbal)

• They may have no speech, delayed speech or repetitive speech.
• Those who have speech are unable to hold a two-way conversation or start a conversation
• Engages in one-sided long winded conversations without noticing if listener is listening
• May speak in a voice that is monotonous, jerky unusually fast

2) Social interaction

• They prefer to stay alone and often manifest a strong interest in objects.
• They may have little eye contact, unemotional expression, no real sense of empathy towards others, etc.
• Have difficulty making friends
• Seems egocentric

3) Repetitive patterns of behavior, interest and activities.

• Often exhibit unusual, repetitive, and perseverative movements (including stereotyped and self-stimulatory behaviors), resistance to changes in routines and in other features of their environments, apparent oversensitivity or undersensitivity to specific kinds of stimulation, and extreme tantrums, aggression or other forms of acting out behavior. It is also observed that individuals with autism have uneven patterns of skill development.
• Children with ASD are often obsessed about a certain topic or object that interests them to a point where nothing else seems to matter. They may display strong tendency to fixate on a specific routine such as tiptoeing and flapping of their hands known as stereotypies, or fixate on parts of an object e.g. spinning of a wheel of a toy car
• Some people display superior abilities in particular areas (such as music, mechanics, and arithmetic calculations), while other areas show significant delay.
• They have good attention to detail. Some of the popular activities enjoyed by these children include 500 or 10000-piece jigsaw puzzle or 'Where's Wally?'.
• They have deep narrow interests. For instance, a child with AS may only be interested in the bus route and he can tell exactly which the number of bus-stops a particular bus stops and the name of every road or street traveled by the bus.

Causes of ASD:

• No definitive causes.
• Definitely not caused by bad parenting.
• environment plays a part:
  • Environmental factors can include different kinds of events that can impact a fetus (before birth) or an infant or child (during or after birth). The primary environmental areas that are being researched include: infections, antibiotics, vaccinations, allergies and toxins.
• There are certain groups with higher risk:
  • Boys
  • Siblings of those with autism
  • People with certain other developmental disorders, such as Fragile X syndrome

The general impact of the special need or disability on a student in terms of development and learning

• People with autism respond better to situations which have structure and clear guidelines regarding expectations for appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
• They have difficulty seeing the 'big picture' hence they need predictability to reduce their anxiety.
• They respond better to environment that include systems or materials, such as written or picture schedules, as they help the person to better understand and predict the flow and sequence of the activities.
• The focus of intervention and instructional efforts should be to develop functional skills that will be of immediate and ongoing value for their daily living. They include strategies enhance communication skills, to understand language, and to get along socially at home, school, work, and community settings.

Ways to help students with autism:

1. Keep predictability/orderliness/sameness: Assess and help in the preparation of physical visual, printed text schedules chunked with details such as time period, academic subject, teacher

2. Seating arrangement: Seat the child in the front middle seat so that it will facilitate the teacher's monitoring. Ensure his/her partner is able to help when necessary

3. Promoting pro-social behaviors

4. Family support and involvement

5. Inculcating appropriate study habits and teaching useful learning strategies: Generally these children lack organisation and may even be untidy. Teach organising skills e.g. following a color coded system daily to keep different subject worksheets

6. Coping with hyperactivity: Before any lesson, teacher must be in control of situation. It is important to place child in a position where he/she is unable to run away e.g. sitting at a desk rather than sitting on the floor

C. FOR YOUR GROUP PRESENTATION ASSIGNMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING*

1. What would I expect of the student with the chosen area of special needs:

· he/she will want to be part of the class and activities in school

· he/she will want to have friends

· he/she may need extra support in terms of…

2. How will this affect the other students in my class? How do I work with them to understand their peers and to create an inclusive classroom?

3. What would I suggest in terms of provisions/accommodations to meet the student’s needs? (suggest only in areas which are appropriate)

· learning environment (physical and socio-emotional)

· behaviours (look also into the reasons for inappropriate behaviours)

· instruction

· collaboration (school, home, agencies)

4. Do I have the skills to meet the student’s needs?

· knowledge of basic principles of effective learning and teaching

· need to know more about…

Check out these videos to understand ASD better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POIJG3qmV9Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPDTEuotHe0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk9-3RxRhRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRRNeAilrnM&feature=related (Einstein - The Autism Connection)

Resources

http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/asd.htm

http://www.autismsocietycanada.ca/understanding_autism/what_are_asds/index_e.html

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/asd.cfm

http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.nie.edu.sg/lib/nielib/edf.action?p00=&docID=10064417

Norman, Bernadette (2009). Autism Spectrum Disorder: Characteristics and intervention Strategies. Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia