http://www.autismone.org/content/letting-go-journey-back-grace-and-dignity-finding-balance-after-diagnosis-mary-romaniec

• To begin teaching this skill use a preferred item or activity and a timer with an auditory signal.
•  Allow your child access to the preferred item for a small increment of time, then stop access to the item or activity. Do this by using a key phrase that you would naturally use in his or her environment such as “wait” , “just a minute”, etc.
• Set the timer for a very short increment of time (2-5 seconds).
• Once the timer goes off immediately praise the child for waiting and allow him/her access to the reinforcing item or activity.

Typically, parents can expect their child to protest when he or she is denied access to the reinforcing item or activity. As the child continues to come into contact with contingencies of the timer going off and receiving access to the reinfocing item or activity the child’s protests should de-escalte in intensity.  As the child’s response to the denial of the reinfocing activity observably decrease, parents should systematically increase the duration of “wait” time.  Parents should heavily reinforce compliancies with waiting and eventually begin to use these key phrases and times in the child’s natural environment (eventually removing the timer).

Teaching your child to tolerate delayed access to reinforcers can assist in increasing his or her compliancy and decreasing problematic behaviors .

Develop Vocational Skills

 Begin investigating your child’s abilities and planning for vocational skills by developing functional workplace skills. For each child these objectives will look very different. Find activities for your child to become involved in which encourage and foster development of specific interests and skills (i.e. robotics clubs, children’s engineering software, science clubs, etc.). Parents can also  encourage and develop vocaltion skills in your home by providing opportunities for your child to practice vocational skills (i.e. stacking groceries, unloading the dishwasher, etc.).

Develop Interpersonal Relationship Skills

Be sure to also directly work on developing your child’s interpersonal relationship skills by developing their abilities to advocate effectively for themselves, engage in appropriate conflict resolution skills, as well as other appropriate social behaviors. 

Develop Independent Daily Living Skills

Assist your child in developing his or her independence in daily living skills by developing his or her abilities to plan and cook meals,  complete other household chores, identify problems and create solutions to daily challenges, develop and follow schedules, set and accomplish goals.

For child with special needs early planning is an essential component of successful independent adult living.

Decreasing Problematic Behavior Webinar (click here to view)

It’s important to know that research demonstrates clearly the early, the more intensive the interventions in young children with autism, the better the outcomes.

In fact, Autism Society of America states ““Research indicates that early identification is associated with dramatically better outcomes for individuals with autism. The earlier a child is diagnosed, the earlier the child can begin
benefiting from one of the many specialized intervention approaches to treatment and education.”

Recent research demonstrates an ability to accurately identify and diagnosis children at 14 months of age. Don’t delay evaluation of your child if you see any of the above-mentioned developmental delays.

Early identification of Autism Spectrum Disorders is key!

For parents looking to begin a home program finding an effective consultant is essential.  Find a consultant who speaks of and uses data to make decisions on your child’s programming. Data-based decision-making is a must!

Develop an understanding of the insurance laws in your state regarding coverage. Begin the process of getting your provider set up and approved at least 30-60 days before you begin services to your child.

Decide upon who will be delivering the daily therapy to  you child. For some families parents or other family members can serve as line therapists, for others hiring outside staff to deliver daily services is more effective. In many cases both consultation and line therapy services can be covered by insurance.

For more information insurance coverage or how to start home program. Visit our Q & A forum http://blog.skillsprout.com/ask-a-question/

Teach your child the ability to “volley” back in forth in conversations by asking questions and making statements about comments from their conversation partners. Develop their understanding of the value of maintaining conversations related to the increased liklihood of developing relationships, etc.

Teach skills to transition to new topics of conversation by matching statement, and concepts, or asking new questions.

And most importantly teach your child to attend to the attention of his or her conversation partner. To observe and respond to nonverbal cues of non-interest or lack of attending. Once your child is able to accurately track these behaviors in others assist in developing “repair” strategies such as asking a new question, complimenting, changing topics, etc.

It is not enough to just teach rules of conversations and other social skills. Children with autism need plenty of positive practice opportunities to practice and reflect on these new skills. Provide opportunities to role play new skills. Facilitate “safe” opportunities to practice these new skills to succcessfully practice and execute new skills.

Sometimes after language imitation emerges parents report their child uses the language from an inaccurate perspective. For example, if their child wants ice cream, he/she will bring ice cream to the parent and say “Do you want ice cream?”, not because the child is asking the parent if they want ice cream, but because this is what the child has heard from the parent previously before getting the ice cream.

A quick and helpful strategy to use in the home to for parents teach appropriate responding in these situations is to model the language from the child’s perspective. For example, when the child brings ice cream to the parent instead of the parent asking the child “Do you want ice cream?”, the parent can model the appropriate language for the child to imitate (i.e. “I want ice cream.”, “Can I have ice cream?”, etc).

Once your child begins imitating the appropriate response try fading back your prompt (”I want ice cream.”) and adding more natural parent responses (i.e. “What do you want?”, child responds “I want ice cream”) to work toward independent responding with this skill.