Little Matthew Rolls
and Little Charlie Rocks
and Little Charlie Rocks
Your Subtitle text
Early Intervention
As I started this page, I had intended it to be for Autistic children, but I have come to realize that early intervention is crucial for all children, whether they are born prematurely, medically challenged, developmentally delayed, etc. I owe so much to all of our therapists as I feel they made miracles happen where the twins are concerned.
Early intervention is your child's best hope for the future. There is no debate or dout. Early attention to improving the core behavioral symptoms of autism will give your child - and the rest of the family - several important benefits that you will not gain if you take the wait-and-see approach until your child enters school at are four or five. A good early intervention program has at least four benefits:
1. It will provide your child with instruction that will build on his or her strengths
to teach new skills, improve behaviors, and remediate areas of weakness.
2. It will provide you with information that will help you better understand your
child's behavior and needs.
3. It will offer resources, support, and training that will enable you to work and
play with your child more effectively.
4. It will improve the outcome for your child.
For these reasons, an intervention program for your child should be implemented as soon as possible after he or she receives a diagnosis. However, as you probably know by now, it can be very challenging to teach young children with autism. They have a unique profile of strengths and needs and require intervention services and teaching approaches that are sensitive to these needs. That's why strategies that worked fine for teaching your other children to remain seated at the dinner table, to play appropriately with a toy, or to say words simply don't work as well for a child with autism. In the same way, intervention programs that are generic - rather than autism-specialized - are less likely to be effective for your child. That's why as soon as you begin your exploration of early intervention, you must keep in mind that not all interventions are equal.
Early intervention is your child's best hope for the future. There is no debate or dout. Early attention to improving the core behavioral symptoms of autism will give your child - and the rest of the family - several important benefits that you will not gain if you take the wait-and-see approach until your child enters school at are four or five. A good early intervention program has at least four benefits:
1. It will provide your child with instruction that will build on his or her strengths
to teach new skills, improve behaviors, and remediate areas of weakness.
2. It will provide you with information that will help you better understand your
child's behavior and needs.
3. It will offer resources, support, and training that will enable you to work and
play with your child more effectively.
4. It will improve the outcome for your child.
For these reasons, an intervention program for your child should be implemented as soon as possible after he or she receives a diagnosis. However, as you probably know by now, it can be very challenging to teach young children with autism. They have a unique profile of strengths and needs and require intervention services and teaching approaches that are sensitive to these needs. That's why strategies that worked fine for teaching your other children to remain seated at the dinner table, to play appropriately with a toy, or to say words simply don't work as well for a child with autism. In the same way, intervention programs that are generic - rather than autism-specialized - are less likely to be effective for your child. That's why as soon as you begin your exploration of early intervention, you must keep in mind that not all interventions are equal.
The information above is from the book, Does My Child Have Autism: A parent's guide to early detection and intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorders by Wendy L. Stone, Ph.D and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo, M.Ed.To order this book, simply click on the photo.
