Is there a treatment for Autism?
In my previous blog, I posted about How we can be familiar with autism, ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder ) signs and useful resources for parents and caregivers to help them through their journey with Autism.
In this section, I am gonna talk about Therapy and what are other alternatives that can be used by parents to help their kids with their daily challenges.
When my son was diagnosed with ASD at age of 2 years and 6 months, I did so much research to be familiar with autism and what is the next step I should take to help my son. In the first place, I thought there was a treatment or medication for autism to help improve his development and progress.
However, after I read articles and books from real stories of parents that had kids with autism, and went through the same journey as me. I realize that autism is part of my son's life and it will be there forever. nevertheless, I can make a difference in his life, by improving his language skills, developing his cognitive and motor skills and letting him be familiar with his disability and know how to deal with and cope with it.
there is no treatment for autism, there is no magic pill you can take to cure your son of ASD. But there are so many methods and tools you can use to help your child face his daily challenges, fears and anxiety, and this is called Therapy. Yes, therapy is one of the best methods parents and caregivers can use to help their kids achieve their goals, develop their potential and manage to have a functional life.
What is Therapy?
Therapy is a treatment used by professionals to reduce symptoms and behaviour that affect the child's daily function and progress. Children with ASD have unique strengths and different challenging and need different plans that involve multiple professionals to create a separate and individual plan for each kid with ASD.
there are all types and kinds of treatment for Autism on the CDC website, parents can take a look and see what is good for their kids.
But before choosing any type of therapy, you have to do an initial assessment to determine what are the cognitive, motor skill and language skills of your child. once you determine their needs, you can choose the appropriate therapy and support that is adequate for your child's needs and challenges.
Therapy in general for ASD children always involves three important treatment components :
Behavioural Approach which needs an Occupational therapist known as (OT)
A developmental approach which needs Speech and Language therapy as known as (SLT)
A psychological approach which needs to be handled by a Psychologist
diffident type of therapy for ASD
1. Behavioural approach Its a
most used method to change ASD behaviour. By understanding what happened before and after the behaviour and based on the outcome you can make a plan and treat the behaviour using positive reinforcement.
For this type of treatment, you need help and support from an occupational therapist to put in place a plan for your child after an assessment. because kids with ASD are very different, some behaviours are more common than others. Don't apply any treatment before you did a general assessment regarding your kid's behaviours. The CDC website provides a free assessment package, which will help and guide parents through the assessment process to understand their kids' behaviour issues and what is the exact challenges that their children are facing and how to help them.
Especially for Parents that still on the wait list for diagnostic or occupational therapy, they can use this link and make an assessment of their kids, to understand their behaviours.
In my case, I always make an Excel sheet, where I put the date and the time, I include what happened before the behaviour and after the behaviour stopped and why. It helps me track and understand my son's meltdowns and tantrums and behaviours that affect his progress and development.
one of the behaviours issues associated with autism is sensory, which is one of the factors that affect kids with ASD to progress. using OT can help improve the sensory of ASD kids and develop their capacity and skills.
Example: My son spits with his saliva and water, each time I gave him to drink or he finds water on the table or around.
I noticed that behaviours start each time he is not engaging in any activity or wants to get my attention to play with him.
plan: I Put away all the cups and left just his water bottle and one cup, to help him with his request skills. And each time I give him to drink water I make sure I don't leave the bottle with him. I always encourage him with positive reinforcement, saying to him: a good job, well done". and play with him, keep him engaged with his favourite toys or game.
2. Developmental Approach
This method focuses on specific skills to improve with ASD kids such as language and communication skills, physical or a broader range of interconnected developmental abilities.
Children under the spectrum have different communication habilitates, some are verbal and some are not. They use a different ways of communication, like signs, guessers, electronic devices
to communicate their needs or share their feelings. In order to improve these specific skills, You need the support of speech and language therapy (SLT).
I want to share my experience regarding speech therapists and how you have to be careful when you choose one. When my son was diagnosed I didn't have much experience regarding the role of a speech therapist and the approach that help my son's development.
my first speech therapist was not professional and didn't do any assessment for my son, she came home asks questions and leave, without any proposition of a plan based on my answer for my son.
She didn't have any strategy for how to connect with my son, who get his attention.
After 2 months I had to hire another speech therapist, she was professional and guide me with information, books and articles to read and understand my son's challenge and how we can make plans based on his needs.
this is my personal advice based on my experience with SLT, Ask questions even if they are professional and they have experience, they still don't know your child, and each kid with autism are diffident. He needs his own plan, treatment and solution.
And make sure to have monthly assessment to review your kid progress and weakness, to see if the plan made for your child is working or if you have to change it.
3. Psychological approach
Psychology treatment help ASD kids with their anxiety, depression and mental health issues.
Children with autism have an abundant problem with anxiety and being around people or new places or even trying a new treatment, can be very challenging for them.
Haven psychological treatment could help you. child learn some tactic to control his anxiety and adapt to new places and new things.
In my experience, because my son has been nonverbal, we had difficulty explaining his behaviours and meltdown. Taking him to a psychologist will not give him the help he needed.
But if you have a child who can express himself, it is a very good step to take to understand your child's feelings and things processes that can disturb him or make him uncomfortable.
I want to add that, I am not comfortable with any medication for mental issues at a young age, especially for kids non-verbal. As we know all medications have side effects, but as an adult or child or kids that can talk, it is easy to know if this medication is having a side effect or not for the person, but for kids with ASD nonverbal, how you can know ?!
I heard so many stories where kids suffered from a side effect of medication and no the parent nor the doctor knew.
Parent roles vs Professional roles
As a parent and caregiver of an ASD kid who just turn 6 years old, I found that my role is more important than the OT or SLT or psychologist or even the doctor. because no one knows and understands your son as you do as a parent.
Professionals can guide you using the data and information that you provide to them. to propose a plan and treatment that suit your son.
But as a parent, you know much better the needs and the challenges that your son faces every day.
Always try to question the plan and modify it to make a model that works specifically for your son and your family.
Always follow your intuitions and what your child tells you, listen to your kids and try to understand their needs and help them go through all their challenges to help them adapt to the world we live in.
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