How to treat a child with autism

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability in the child in which his social, communication and behavioral skills are significantly affected. The intellectual abilities of each child with this type of disorder may vary, as we can find cases ranging from intellectual disability, middle-range intellectual abilities, as well as superiors. Therefore, some children will need more help than others in their daily lives. But, How to treat a child with autism? The purpose of this Psychology-Online article will be to provide you with a series of tips that will help you know how to help an autistic child from the family and school environment.

Index

1. How to treat an autistic child at home
2. How to treat an autistic child in the classroom
3. Consult with a professional

Knowing how to treat a child with autism spectrum disorder at home and, above all, put it into practice, is sometimes not an easy task. You have to remember that each situation is different and sometimes what works for one will not have the same effect on the other, so it is It is important that the family knows the child very well and has identified which areas are most affected by it, as well as their degree of growth.

Next, a series of tips will be detailed that could be very useful for helping a child with autism at home:

• Stay fully informed about this disorder. It is advisable to consult a professional, consult articles, among other things, where you keep abreast of this disorder.
• Don't try to be the perfect father or pretend to act right with your child all the time, because it is impossible. Remember that the more you demand of yourself and become obsessed with doing it well, you may end up doing the opposite. Try to do the best you can, but also allow yourself to be wrong.
• Don't tell your son all the time what you don't have to do. Better reinforce the desired behaviors when he has them and motivate him to continue doing them whenever you can.
• Make sure your child is in a good school and family environment suitable.
• Identify how your child communicates and improves communication with him. It is important to know their way of expressing themselves, because autistic children have a particular way of showing what they feel. From there, you can establish new forms of communication tailored to your particular style.
• When necessary change your routine daily, try to do it in the most progressive possible, since children with this condition feel very anxious about changes even small.
• Never compare your child to other children. Remember that his development may be slower than that of others and that the changes that he undergoes are also different.
• When you communicate with him, send him messages Enough clear. Remember that the child will not understand things that you might be taking for granted. For example, if you want him to pick up his toys and you just tell him: “you always leave your toys lying around”, the child will not understand that you also want to tell him that you want him to pick them up. Therefore, the message would have to be the following: “can you pick up the toys please? Whenever you finish playing, you have to ”.
• Make an effort to understand the logic of his actions. Although his actions seem strange to you, you should make an effort to put you in their place and discover the reasons for them.

Teachers need to learn how to deal with children with autism, as there will probably be some time moment they will have to deal with one and not knowing how to understand or treat it could have consequences for the child.

Some of the tips to know how to help a child with autism at school They are:

• Promote that the child has more contact with their peers. This can be done through organized games and group assignments. It is important that respect is previously promoted between each one.
• The educational environment must be very good organized and structured, as well as sudden changes should be avoided.
• To more easily comply with the schedules and rules established in class, it is necessary to use of visual aids. For example, you can make cards or signs with the rules, use timers to respect the times properly, etc.
• Pay close attention to strengths and weaknesses of the child. This will be very useful to be able to take advantage of those strengths to motivate him to study and / or to finish tasks.
• Adapt the school environment to facilitate the child's learning. For example, you can check if the location of your table is the one that best suits your needs, what there is so much noise in that area and if it is appropriate for the child, if it has good light in its place, among others things.
• Receive professional support in the matter to be able to offer a better education to children with this type of illness.
• Positively reinforce the child's behaviors if they are positive.
• Treat the student with respect and give you all the support possible so that they can adapt in the best way to the school environment (with their classmates and in carrying out their tasks)
• Practice and reinforce appropriate social behaviors through role plays where the child can constantly observe and participate in accepted social behaviors.
• Promote the use of maps and images where the concepts you have to learn are described in an understandable way. Remember that children with the autism spectrum learn best through visual content.

It is advisable that parents who do have problems with their child's education feel that the way in which they behave with them is not the most appropriate and they have problems controlling it, ask help from a professional. The professional will be in charge of evaluating the child's particular situation and, depending on it, will determine which are the most appropriate guidelines to follow in order to know how to help an autistic child and not be harmed by their acts. You have to remember that you cannot generalize and that many times the advice that works well with some, does not work the same with the others.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to treat a child with autism, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotional and behavioral disorders.