Best Autism Therapy in India

Autism Treatment

Though there is no treatment for Autism, therapies provided for Autistic individuals help a great deal in the improvement of behavioral and social symptoms. Management of the symptoms of Autism in individuals can be done with the help of therapies.

Being on online Autism therapy isn’t alone enough for your child to improve. Being a parent, you have to play an active role, by following the guidelines provided by the experts. When you have dedication towards making your child independent and helping to manage his/her daily activities, it is not tough for them to lead a better life.

Our highly skilled and trained team of experts at Wellness Hub can help your child manage the symptoms of Autism. Don’t hesitate to book an appointment for a free general assessment, today!

Online Autism Therapy

You might be wondering if Online Autism therapy can be as effective as face-to-face therapy. Let’s get things clear. An online therapy session probably can’t match an in person session, but when done right, it could be of great use to parents with lack of quality and affordable therapy sessions nearby. That’s what our therapists are specialized for. Wellness Hub offers you the interactive whiteboard sessions to help your child get the best out of online Autism therapy. Being a parent, your support in making these sessions successful, is also very vital. Our experts can guide on how you can do that and our potential platform empowers you to offer your child the best, being at the comfort of your home even during a pandemic.

Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD is a developmental disorder that affects communication, social interaction, and behavior in children. The term “spectrum” refers to a wide range of symptoms and severity. Each child with Autism has a unique pattern of behavior and different level of severity. Autism in babies if diagnosed in the early stages can be very helpful. The signs of Autism in babies can be often found between12to 18 months of age. Autism can be high, moderate, or low. A mild level of Autism is called Asperger’s syndrome in which the person maybe intelligent enough to handle his/her daily activities. The higher level of Autism is named as Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) in which Autism is more severe than for the ones having Asperger’s syndrome. So each child defines Autism in his/her own way, depending upon the severity and the patterns of behavior and the varied symptoms. Online Autism Therapy that might involve online speech therapy and occupational therapy according to the needs of the child helps manage these problems to a good extent.

As the needs of every Autistic child differ, they have to be treated in a separate way. When you take your child to a psychologist for the Autism assessment, they spend a considerable amount of time assessing the skills, behavior, and symptoms of your Autistic child. With a team of psychologists, speech therapists, behavioral and occupational therapists, they come to a conclusion on the needs of your child and a plan of procedural implementation to meet them. Then, the team of experts prepares a program for treating your Autistic child. Wellness Hub offers a free general assessment service, for the Autism assessment. The early the ASD symptoms are recognized and the intervention is started, the better the outcome would be. Often the symptoms of Autism in babies are found during 12 to 18 months of age.

What are these signs and symptoms that might tell you if your child has Autism?

Signs and Symptoms of Autism

The major symptoms that can be observed in kids suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder are

• Behavioral: Repetitive behaviors, Impulsivity and compulsive behavior, inappropriate social interactions, self-harm, poor eye-contact, etc.
• Cognitive: Attention deficit, learning disability, speech problems, etc.
• Psychological: Unaware of other’s emotions, getting depressed, anxiety, sensitivity to sound, etc.

In other words, the autistic children will have difficulties in socializing, communicating and behaving with the people around. They could have some or all of the below symptoms.

Problems with Socialization

• Difficulty using non-speech behaviors for social interaction
• Failure to develop peer relationships
• Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements
• Lack of social or emotional responding

Problems with Communication

• Having a delay or lack in spoken language
• Difficulties with starting or continuing a conversation
• Inflexible and repetitive use of language
• Lack of varied playing skills likethe normal children.

Repetitive or Inflexible Behaviors

• Rigidly following non-functional routines
• Obsessions with inflexible and limited interests
• Obsessions with parts of the objects
• Inflexible and repetitive movements – Self -stimulatory behaviors

These self-stimulatory behaviors can be the ones associated with body movements, visual, auditory, oral, tactile, and smell. It is highly important to identify the areas of need for intervention. Our therapists are trained for that to assure you better quality treatment for Autism. To be frank Autism treatment is all about managing the symptoms.

The signs and symptoms of an Autistic child can be found at a very young age. Sometimes the symptoms are not noticeable and might not be recognizable until school age or early adulthood. In reducing and managing these symptoms, early diagnosis and early intervention help a lot. These signs and symptoms may change as they get older, but the challenges with communication, behavior, and social skills will always be there.

EARLY INDICATORS OF AUTISM

Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by:

• Cognitive impairments
• Communication difficulties
• Repetitive behaviours

Because Autism is a spectrum disorder, it can range from very mild to very severe and occur in all ethnic, socioeconomic and age groups.Males are four times more likely to have autism than females.In some autistic children, though the behaviours appear normal before age 1 or 2, they suddenly “regress” and lose language or social skills that they had previously gained. This is the regressive type of autism.There are certain early signs of autism which can be picked up by parents. Picking up these signs in your children may help you intervene in early stages, thus yielding better outcomes.

Below are some of the observable features of autism:

Newborn to 5 months

• Does not respond to name
• Does not respond to name
• Delayed smile or does not smile
• Avoid social interaction
• Cries often
• Unusual visual fixation
• Lack of age-appropriate sound development
• Delayed intentional communication (having no expressions, not enthusiastic in gaining parents attention)
• Decreased interest in interaction(interest in objects than people)

6 months

• Infrequent babbling
• Infrequent vocalization in response to the caregiver
• Not looking at the face of the interactive partner
• Infrequent matching of facial expressions of the caregiver.
• Odd and unusual movement patterns
• Doesn’t seem to feel pain
• Doesn’t like cuddling

9-12 months

• Decreased or absent non-verbal intentional communication (bye-bye, Hi, pointing)
• Decreased or absent social communication (showing, sharing, giving taking)
• Repetitive behaviour(flapping, twisting, screaming) or actions with the objects (playing with one same toy, concentrating only on a specific part of a toy)
• Decreased complexity of babbling or decreased variety in the types of sounds produced.
• Decreased use of vocalization in interactions (asking you to pick her up)
• Decreased comprehension of your non-verbal gestures (give it to me)
• Decreased imitation and response to name
• Decreased attempts to make you laugh
• Lack of non-verbal communication like gestures, poor facial expressions and no body language and does not point out objects to show their needs
• Problems following simple directions

14-16 months

• Decreased looking at caregiver when the caregiver is talking not necessarily to the child.
• Lack of onset of first words
• Fixated on videotapes
• Echoing what others say without social and communication intention
• Lack of teasing (offer you a toy and then retract it as they smile)
• Infrequent co-ordination of looking at you and smiling
• Imitation is reduced, atypical in form or unpaired with social connection.
• Decreased frequency or length of taking a turn and exchanging objects (with or without objects)
• Repetitive behaviours or sensory seeking (pressing head against a caregiver, screaming etc.)
• Decreased number of play sequences (putting a spoon in the cup and stirring, playing with dough, pouring water in the vessels and playing etc.)
• Unusual eating and sleeping habits.
• Difficulty in expressing their needs and desires by words, gestures, or play
• Has hyperactivity ( excess physical activity, restless, not sitting at one place)

1½ years to 4years

• May have impaired imitation
• Avoid people’s gaze
• Poor language comprehension
• Not approaching the parents for solace and comfort, even when tired, hurt, or ill.
• Prefers to be alone
• Become anxious and irritable when there is a change in routine
• Lacking awareness of other people’s existence
• Failure to greet, take turns while playing, interacting with people
• Delayed gross motor skills and fine motor skills
• Delayed language development
• Lack of appropriate gestures
• Echolalia (Repetition of whatever is said)
• Unusual manner of talking (squeaky, low or high pitch voice)
• Handle objects strangely ex: arranges in line, turns, twists and spins the objects
• Have unusual body movements (spinning, flapping, jumping, head-banging, hand flicking, whole-body movements)
• Preoccupied with parts of objects (wheels of the car, nails on the door)
• Absence of pretend play
• Have an attachment to unusual objects (thread, wires, buttons, nails etc...)
• Unreasonable insistence of following routines to precise detail
• Have difficulty in toilet training

4years and older

• Lack of awareness of the feelings or even the existence of the others
• Absence of pretend play (dress-up toy, teacher, doctor, cooking etc.)
• Increased hyperactivity
• Lack or having unusual responses ( crying or laughing without reason)
• Indifferent to words or responds negatively to physical affection (like a hug, patting, kissing)
• Poor social interaction
• Not understanding the conversations of social interactions(taking a turn to speak, making request saying sorry)
• Shows little expressive language
• Fail to initiate or sustain conversations
• Meaningless speech
• Preoccupied with one or only a few interests and narrowed interests
• Insistence on sameness (playing in the same way and with the same toy always)
• Attachment to unusual objects (pen cap, rubber, wire, few sounds, taste )
• Show marked distress over the change in routine and change in trivial aspects of the environment (position of the bag in the room)
• Follow routines in rigid way
• Give unrelated answers to questions
• Avoid or resist physical contact
• Demonstrate little danger or safety awareness
• Have extreme anxiety and phobias

Asperger’s Syndrome

Though being as smart as a normal kid, the child with Asperger’s syndrome has problems like socializing with people and having obsessive interest and focus on one thing, displaying repetitive behaviors. Asperger’s syndrome is no longer a diagnosis on its own, as it was joined in ASD, recently.

Asperger’s syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder, displaying the following characteristics.

• Difficulties in social interaction
• Difficulties in nonverbal communication
• Restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour

Along with them, the other typical symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome include lack of interest in socializing and making friends, inability to infer thoughts, feelings and emotions, lacking eye-contact or gazing too intently, resistance to change of routines, lack of gestures, and lack of empathy.

Asperger’s syndrome has now been included in Autism Spectrum Disorder. The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) have redefined Autism in 2013, as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), bringing Autistic disorder, Asperger’s syndrome and PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) under one category. They all show the symptoms of social communication impairment and repetitive/restricted behaviors.

So, depending upon the symptoms and issues with the child, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) therapies are designed. Autism therapy by Wellness Hub, include the therapies such as Speech therapy, occupational therapy, special education, behavioral therapy, social skills therapy, and psychological therapy. It is recently found and accepted by many institutions that offering these therapy services online, is showing almost as effective results as the regular face-to-face sessions.

Speech and Language Therapy

Speech therapy or language therapy is the therapy given to the children with Autism Spectrum Disorder for improving their speech, language and communication. Children having difficulties with their speech will find it difficult to eat, drink and swallow too. A speech and language therapist helps the child to understand what others say and how to express what he/she needs to say. The child will be able to overcome speech and language difficulties, through speech therapy techniques practiced by the Speech therapists.

The Speech and language therapy is a healthcare profession having the main goal as to help the individuals communicate effectively to their maximum potential in everyday life. These professionals assesses, diagnoses and treats the difficulties in speech, language, communication, eating, drinking and swallowing in babies, children and adults, as safely and as independently as possible. Online speech therapy helps the individual and the parents to avail the benefits of tele-consultation.

The common problems that a speech therapist can treat include:

• Learning disabilities
• Speech delays
• Speech disorders
• Voice disorders
• Social communication difficulties
• Language delay and impairment
• Expressive language difficulties
• Receptive language difficulties
• Attention and listening problems
• Eating and swallowing difficulties etc.

The treatments given by a speech therapist can include:

• Oral-motor exercises
• Speech improvement exercises
• Eating, drinking and swallowing exercises
• Social skills therapy
• Expressive language programs
• Receptive language programs
• Individual therapy
• Group therapy

The speech and language therapists will work closely with the patient, their parents, caretakers, and the other professionals involved in their health care, by providing support, training and advice on all aspects of the individual’s treatment. Speech therapists near me - is no doubt the mostly searched word when parents try to get a therapist near them. But with online speech therapy, there is no need to worry about the proximity.

Online speech therapy helps not only the kids with Autism but also the ones with speech disorders like stammering, stuttering etc. One can have the comfort of continuing their kid’s therapy sessions though being at a remote place with online speech therapy.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is an ASD therapy involved in taking take of the physical and psychiatric conditions. An occupational therapist can assess, diagnose and treat the physical and psychological conditions of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Their main aim of this Autism therapy is to lessen the impact that a disability has on an individual and to maximize their ability to function effectively in their everyday lives, more independently.

Due to wide variety of variations experienced by individuals with Autism, the treatment approach adopted by occupational therapists would also be different to each one. During consultation and assessment specially designed questionnaire will be given to the parents and caretakers of the patients to understand the specific needs of them. A special program is designed to cater to the needs of these individuals and is implemented. Feedback is again collected and analyzed to correct or redesign the program to make improvements in the output.

Occupational therapists achieve them through the following:

• Environmental Adaptations: Checking if the environment is compatible to the individual and if the patient’s needs are met.
• Risk Assessment: Making sure if the patient is safe within the environment and if is not up to do self harm or harm others.
• Sensory Integration Therapy: To help the patient to support and manage the difficulties that are experienced to senses e.g., over sensitivity, or under sensitivity to light, touch, smell, noises and taste.
• Behaviour Management: The individuals are trained to behave appropriately in public with manners.
• Self-care Management: They are trained to take self care without harming themselves, in their daily lives.
• Health Support: Advice support and training for their parents, caregivers, educational staff and other health care professionals.

Occupational therapy deals with assessing, diagnosing, and treating the individuals through their physical and psychological conditions. The role of an occupational therapist is to maximize the patient’s ability to function as independently as possible within society and also with their activities of daily living.

MOTOR DEFICITS IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Motor function deficits are often observed in Autistic children. Autism treatment by therapists includes the activities related to gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

Gross Motor Skills are the movements that involve large muscle groups throughout the body (i.e., torso, upper/lower limbs) to perform an activity.The activities like walking, running, kicking, throwing, lifting, etc. can be understood as Gross motor activities.In order to perform fine motor activities appropriately however, a child’s gross motor skills must provide the foundation for these movements.

Key Factors in Developing Gross Motor Skills:

• • Strength
• • Endurance
• • Motor Planning
• • Motor Learning
• • Body Awareness (Proprioception)
• • Balance
• • • Coordination
• • • Crossing the midline of the body
• • • Muscle tone
• • • Sensory processing

Gross Motor Skills in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is usually associated with social, language, and behavioral challenges. Issues with motor skills are less talked-about, but it’s common for both gross and fine motor skills to be affected in different ways and to varying degrees in ASD.

Research suggests that interventions for motor delays can be effective in reducing developmental gaps, especially when started before age 3.

How do motor challenges affect children with ASD?

Difficulties with motor skills can further interfere with impaired social functioning for children with ASD. (For example, taking turns adding pieces to a puzzle can make it even harder). While such conditions make them avoid gross motor activities, children miss out on opportunities to improve motor skills, by avoiding participating in them. Also, when it comes to physical activity, these motor challenges can also decrease motivation in children, which can affect long-term health, over time.

Why children with autism have motor difficulties?

The differences in brain wiring for Autism affected children affect sensorimotor integration, motor learning and coordination.By learning a new motor skill, the brain's ability to form good connections between those parts of the brain involved in controlling movement gets improved. These areas include the ability to use sensory information from the environment and from the body sensory areas also.

Typically developing children make these brain connections, and learn new motor tasks, easily in the course of everyday experience.It is common for the children with autism to be unable to integrate all the information that is needed for task learning, because of the differences in the brain connections. So, they may use different pathways which are less efficient and may need extra practice and guidance to learn new motor skills.

• • • Difficulties with prediction and anticipation, affect the motor planning, motor learning, postural stability and balance.
• • • Difficulties with initiation of speech, slowness in responding, stopping and freezing during activities are examples how motor issues influence social activities and communication.
• • • Joint hyper mobility: Affect stability, flexibility and muscle strength and associated with toe walking.This happens when connective tissue which makes up the joint structures is more compliant than usual.

Muscles are also affected due to weakness. Hence posture and movement control are affected.Hypermobile joints are less stable and more flexible than usual; this means the child needs stronger muscles to support the body. Children with joint hypermobility tend to have anxious, fearful and temperament which affects their behavior due to discomfort.

• • Behavioral and Attention issues: Affects willingness to participate in challenging tasks. This leads to avoidance, limited experience, meltdowns, self-harm and depression.

There are many common behaviors seen in children with ASD that overlap with anxiety and attention issues, for example, the child may have repetitive and stereotyped behaviors.

• • Low muscle tone, or Hypotonia: It can interfere with gross motor development. This reduces endurance, frequency of contractions of muscle and repetitions of actions which can lead to fatigue.

Low muscle tone is not a condition or diagnosis. It can be one of the symptoms of autism. There can be other signs and symptoms that indicate the child has a neurological problem including developmental delay, altered reflexes.Low muscle tone can be attributed to joint hypermobility.The child appears less alert and has poor posture and attention.

• • Cognitive issues:This can affect motor planning or the process of planning and executing movement tasks.
• • Tight muscles: It can cause toe walking, because the calf muscles are harder to stretch.

What are common interventions for ASD-related motor challenges?

There are many interventions to improve motor skills (Occupational therapy, Physiotherapy, Behavioral therapy, Special education).Therapy will depend on your child’s needs, but focuses on strengthening muscles, Improving sensation, Cognition, Behavior, improving balance and coordination, and practicing various gross and fine motor skills.

Because motor issues can overlap with other areas of development, it’s important that all therapists working with your child communicate with each other about goals, interventions, concerns, and progress (Multi-disciplinary approach).

Strategies

• • Create a physical exercise program with your child: Set goals with your child in what they want to learn. It will be fun for your child to be a part of this process.
• • • Bottom up approach: Gradually increase the duration of each activity session and introduce new activities as your child develops stronger gross motor skills.
• • Build a routine: It provides stability for an autistic child to follow a routine and the behavioral outbursts are hence limited. It is easy to make a routine using a visual schedule.
• • Be a role model: Children model behaviors’ that they see. So be a model for them.

ABA therapy - Behavioral Therapy

When Behavioral therapy for the kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder is talked about, Applied Behaviour Analysis therapy or simply, ABA therapy would be the topic of discussion. Parents of Autistic children usually search for the “ABA therapy near me” information to help their kid. But, instead of personally going, the online ABA therapy is now available for the convenience of both parents and the child. ABA therapy is based on the science of learning and exhibiting behavior. Behavior analysis helps in understanding how a behavior is developed, means the antecedent of the problem behavior. The positive and negative reinforcements are found out and the rewards and punishments used till then are studied and a plan for the therapy is made, focusing the reduction of the problem behavior.

Applied Behaviour Analysis therapy or simply, ABA therapy helps in regulating the behaviors in Autistic individuals. With the help of ABA therapy, the helpful behaviors are increased and the harmful behaviors are decreased. The positive reinforcements and rewards are used to increase the positive behaviour while the negative reinforcements and punishments are used to reduce it, through ABA therapy.

The individuals who suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder are more likely to face psychological conditions like anxiety, panic attacks, and depression etc. or the symptoms of such psychological conditions. The cognitive behavioral therapy can be successful in treating the psychological conditions that co-exist with ASD such as

• Panic attacks
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Stress
• Phobias
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder/Behaviors
• Body Dysmorphic disorder etc.

Cognitive behavior therapy focuses on changing thought patterns and dealing with problems caused in both present and past experiences. Cognitive behavioral therapy can benefit any individual who is experiencing symptoms of negative thoughts or of psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety etc.

Special Education

The terms used to refer Special Education include Special Needs Education, Aided Education, Exceptional Education, or Special Ed that are used for educating the kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD. It is the practice of educating children in a way that addresses their individual needs and differences.

The idea of Special Education is based on the line, “If a child cannot learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn”. The learning disabilities like dyslexia, dysgraphia etc., non-verbal learning disabilities, language processing disorders, communication disorders, emotional and behavioral disorders, inabilities due to physical and developmental disorders etc., affect the child’s ability to perceive what others convey and hinder the ability to express themselves too. Providing a resource room and specifically adapted teaching area, and with different scientific approaches to teaching methods, the students of special education are likely to benefit more. Searching for “ABA therapy near me” for developmental issues is not necessary as you can access ABA therapy now online through Wellness Hub.

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a plan that explains the child’s education. IEP program is tailored accordingly to cater to the needs of the individual child, to provide maximum benefit keeping in view of the child’s abilities and knowledge. The services that a child needs are also identified during IEP program, with which the plan is designed so that the individual will learn and grow during the whole school year.

Wellness hub designs the programs of special education under the team of experts according to the needs of the specific autistic child in order to understand what others say or express and also to express their thoughts in return. The communication capabilities in Autistic children improve in a great way, through IEP.

Social Skills Therapy

Social Skills therapy is an ASD therapy that includes the activities designed to train the Autistic children, like an Autism therapy, to mingle in groups of certain age and ability they have in similar. This program is designed to help children with those specific diagnoses that experience difficulty in mastering social skills from typically developing children.

Practicing interactions and communications in a specific group of similar age and ability enables them to communicate well. These programs include responding to peers, making good body language, maintaining friendships, social initiation skills and self-comfort skills, observational learning, playground skills, group behavior skills etc.

Along with designing these therapy programs for the online intervention, Wellness Hub also offers two more online programs for the Autistic children.

Our Programs

Our specially designed programs include early intervention program and school readiness program, which are highly beneficial.

Early intervention program

As per the studies, early diagnosis and the early intervention programs, show major long-term positive effects on symptoms and later skills. As young child’s brain will be in the forming stage, it is highly helpful if the intervention program is started as early as possible. Because of this, there will be better chances of being effective in the longer term and best chances of development to their full potential.

Our Early intervention program is designed for the toddlers from 6months to 3yrs of age, in developing their motor skills and cognitive skills so as to nurture their skills from the early age. This lessens the effects of Autism Spectrum Disorder on the child.

The early intervention programs often include:

• Speech therapy
• Family training
• Nutritional services
• Practicing fine motor skills
• Practicing gross motor skills
• Physical therapy
• Hearing impairment services

School readiness program

Wellness Hub offers the School readiness program to make the children learn and practice those foundation skills that enable them to become confident and competent in school setting. This is an individualized and event-based program which also involves some group activities.

Our School readiness program is designed for the kids of 3yrs to 6yrs of age, to help them learn and practice the skills. The essential skills of school readiness involve:

• Practicing classroom mechanics
• Following class routine
• Following group instructions and activities
• Practicing social skills
• Practicing independent skills
• Practicing fine motor skills
• Practicing gross motor skills
• Foundational academics

This program helps the kids get ready for the school environment and to get them comfortable in such a competitive atmosphere.

Though there is no permanent cure for the Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD, the symptoms can be reduced and controlled effectively with the early intervention techniques. It is a great development in the field of telemedicine that these services are now being offered online. Online Autism therapy is the new method. Searching for “ABA therapy near me” or something like “Speech therapists near me” for developmental issues and speech issues is not necessary as you can access ABA therapy and Speech therapists, now online through Wellness Hub.

Being a Parent of an Autistic Child

We at Wellness Hub understand that it is tough to be a parent of an autistic child. Here are some tips for you to keep in mind that could help you anytime.

1. Learn about how autism may impact your family
2. Find strategies and resources for raising a child with autism.
3. Find support so you don’t feel alone or isolated
4. Reduce the negative impact of the diagnosis on your family
5. Promote a positive future for your child and family.

How to do that?

You should understand that Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder and hence your child has difficulty with social skills, has restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests. Every Autistic person is different. Please don’t overwhelm yourself and remember that the following.

• • It is a lifelong problem.
• • Autism treatment is just about managing.
• • We know it starts in utero.
• • We know it is not produced by vaccines.
• • It’s not caused by bad parenting.

After learning about your child’s condition, your role as a parent will change and experience positive and negative events, you may feel burden with everyday responsibility of a caring child with autism, you may feel pressure to become an autism expert overnight, may have difficulty finding balance time to manage household tasks, child and ADL’s and maybe less inclined to share feelings and stressed about their finances. Having an Autism diagnosis for your child, means that you and your family are also eligible for therapies. Undergoing these could be transformative. After the diagnosis, like any parent, you too may undergo the stages of SHOCK → Sadness or Grief → Anger → Denial → Loneliness → Acceptance. Seeking the help of a psychologist can strengthen you emotionally.

8 Principles to serve as an effective child’s advocate:

1. Take responsibility – Be a leader
2. Know to learn – Be an expert in knowing the triggering points of your child’s disruptive behaviors and the reinforcements that result in positive responses.
3. Think Critically – Be kind, tactful and clear-sighted
4. Speak with authority – Be proactive (Educate yourself about the treatment options, ask questions, and participate in all treatment decisions)
5. Document – Be prepared for challenges and changes
6. Collaborate – Be a team builder
7. Educate – Be a voice of your child (Enjoy your kid’s special quirks, celebrate small successes, and stop comparing your child to others. Feeling unconditionally loved and accepted will help your child more than anything else).
8. Don’t give up - It’s impossible to predict the course of autism spectrum disorder. You never know how things could take a positive turn for your child in life.

Talk to your expert and know what you can do for your child. You being consistent, rewarding good behavior, sticking to a schedule for your child, finding out the triggers of temper tantrums, identifying your child’s nonverbal cues and their sensory sensitivities etc. can help a lot for your child. Know from your expert regarding the home based activities that you could help your child with, spend some time with them, and shower lots of love.

Our team of experts at Wellness Hub is highly skilled and trained enough to help your Autistic child. Don’t hesitate to book an appointment for free general assessment, today!