The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) has developed guidelines for assessment, diagnosis and clinical intervention for children and young persons with ASD. This was published in 2007, but just caugth my attention.
The guidelines are similar to other guidelines published in Sweden, some states in the USA and other places, but are really up to date, and has obviously done a great deal of research to conclude. These guidelines should be known and used by all giving services to children with ASD.
You can download the Guidelines for their web-site, they come in full version, version for parents, and for young persons.
I am following this great resource on Twitter – Autism Momma. She is leaving simple and excellent advice on twitter about interaction with children with ASD. And she has a repository of the tips here: Autism Kid Tips « Adventures of Autism Momma.
There you can find great tips as:
- Phrase your requests as actions for clarity . “Please pick up your toys.” is better than “You left a mess on the floor.”
- Give your child choices whenever possible. “Would you like to get dressed first, or brush your teeth?”
So take a look, and start enjoying.
The other day I was scanning news on autism online and came over this article; Mozart therapy gives autistic children a lift, says therapist | BreakingNews.ie. And it makes me wonder about several things.
First the quote in the article “The Lift music therapy programme, using the Austrian composer’s symphonies, can accelerate development by up to three years in one month, according to speech and language therapist Karen O’Connor.” This would be fantastic and so much more than an other autism therapy can produce. So if you get a diagnosis of autism at the age of 2. You could not logically be more than 2 years behind (probably less). And this therapy claims that it can make the child close the gap to their peers in 6 months…. Me, I´m not sure!
The other thing that make me wonder is this paragraph
“Ms O’Connor said: “It has been scientifically proven that certain music, in particular the music of Mozart, has a special effect on opening up the neuropathways – which are like highways to the part of the brain which allow us to attend, listen, absorb and express yourself.”
I have searched generally on the Internet, and every scientific research base I have access to, but I can´t fint any references to this research. But I it could be I do not find it. I would really appreciate if somebody could help me on this?
I know that journalist generally do not concern them self about referencing, but when they report claims about scientific proven therapies, they should at least report where this research is done. The field of autism is already to full of therapies that don´t work, we don´t need more. So I urge all to report the scientific basis of their therapy, so the public can have easy access to it!
Searching through tweets using tweetDeck with the keyword autism I again came over what seems like a great website concerning autism – AutismSpot.
This website is like many other great sites founded by parents of children with autism, who in 2007 founded ProjectLD. ProjectLD “seeks to change the world through digital education, information and social networking.” This project is a private organization. So Autismspot´s mission is to “Empowering the Autism Community™.”
It looks like a well designed and good maintained web site with lots of great information. You should really visit the site and read some information or watch the great videos.
Came across this short article at About.com:Autism describing that ABA therapy for autism is much more than discrete trail; Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in the Real World – ABA Therapy for Autism.
It´s a great little story based on interviews with some of today’s leading behavior analysts, and is a great reminder that one om the greatest challenges in designing effective behavior analytic programs for children with autism is the balance between Discrete Trail Teaching and other teaching strategies. Recommended reading.