Autism Treatment Options
Autism is a kind of disorder that affects children. The condition develops in the first three years of a child's life. It affects the development of the brain of a child and thus impairing the social and the communication skills of the child. When autism has developed in a child, it causes the child to have some kind of abnormalities. This paper aims at addressing the possible treatments that can be used to treat autism victims. However, the efficiency of each of the methods greatly depends on the kind of autism that has affected the individual.
Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism spectrum disorder has no 'cure'. However, there are ranges of interventions which are special which can be done to make sure that the communication skills of the person with autism are improved. These interventions can also aid in the social and educational development of the person affected with autism. The type of intervention that will be used and will work best greatly depends on the kind of autism that has affected the person. Some of the intervention includes intensively working for hours but this intervention is not always conceivable since most of the families do not have the emotional, practical and financial commitments which are needed.
Key Skills to Improve
The kind of intervention that should be used should aim at developing the child's social interaction skills, communication skills, academic skills and imaginative skills. The communication skills can be things like pictures which aid them in communicating. The social interaction skills are like being able to understand the feelings of other people and have the capability to respond to these feelings. The academic skills are basic needs that children need in order to make some progress in academics. They are writing and the reading skills. The imaginative play skills are like being able to encourage the pretend kind of play.
Coordination and Management
The coordination and management of treating children with autism entail multi-disciplinary teams which are community-based. The community should be able to work together in treating children with autism. These people from the community include speech and language therapist, pediatrician, learning disability specialist, occupational therapist and mental health specialist. This local autism team has to ensure that the child with autism gets a key worker who will be able to ensure that there is coordination in the treatment, support and there is care of them as they become adults. The types of interventions are: providing parenting education as well as training for the children with autism, providing them with psychological treatments and also in some cases giving medications (Schopler, 2002).
Parental Support
The parents of the children suffering from autism have a significant role of improvement and support of their children's skills. The parents can be able to do this by helping their children communicate. This is because children suffering from autism have a challenge in communicating, therefore, the parents helping their children to communicate. It is important in making sure that the anxiety of the children is reduced. Their behavior would also be improved. The parents can do this by keeping the kind of language they are speaking to their children as simple as possible, speaking to their children slowly as well as clearly so that they can allow their children to think about what they have said (Skurkovich, 2005).
Parental Training Programs
Similarly, parents can seek in-depth advice for the best knowledge of how they will be able to support their children who are suffering from autism. This may include enrolling themselves in programs such as the EarlyBird. This is an example of a program which is being provided by the society of the National Autistic. They offer parents with courses which usually take three months and they educate the parents of those children who are suffering from autism but these children have not started their schooling. The EarlyBird program is purposed to give the necessary information to the parents on how they should be able to support their children suffering from autism. The program is meant to equip the parent with all the skill needed in improving the skills of their children. The program addresses all the needs of the children both at the time they are home and when they are in school. The parents and the caretakers of the children need this kind of training so that they can be able to help in improvement of their skills.
Psychological Treatments
Children suffering from autism can also be treated by using psychological treatments. This is used mainly when the behaviors of the child suffering from autism are causing the child problems (Leaf, 1999). The possible triggers of these problems can be assessed so that they can be addressed. These triggers can be things like the mental health problem of the child, the physical health illness of the child and also the factors of the environment (Edition, 2013). The mental problem of the child or physical problem can be addressed by the use of psychological treatments or the medicine. Furthermore, in autism cases where the child suffering from the condition has anxiety can be addressed by the use of psychological treatment. The psychological treatment includes all the supportive programs which are aimed at treating children suffering from autism and help them in overcoming their challenges and in the process being able to have a good mental health.
Medication Options
Similarly, autism can be treated by the use of prescribed medication. They can be used in treating the symptoms which have an association with the conditions of autism. For instance, the problems of sleeping in autism can be treated by using medicine like melatonin. Symptoms of depression can be treated by using a prescribed medication called the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI). This reduces the depression that the children may be suffering as a result of autism. The condition of epilepsy in children suffering from autism can be treated by using medication known as Anticonvulsant. Furthermore, Methylphenidate can be used to treat the symptom caused by autism to children called the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Antipsychotic type of medication can be used to treat children suffering from autism having symptoms of aggression and challenging behavior like self-harming and tantrums. However, these types of medications usually have a lot of side effects and thus it is always important to only use them after the doctor has prescribed.
References
Edition, F. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, Va.
Leaf, R. B. (1999). A work in progress: Behavior management strategies and a curriculum for intensive behavioral treatment of autism (pp. 1417-1418). J. McEachin (Ed.). New York: Drl Books.
Schopler, E. (2002). Treatment for autism. In The research basis for autism intervention
(pp. 9-24). Springer, Boston, MA.
Skurkovich, B., " Skurkovich, S. (2005). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/868,140.
