Autism Therapy – Summer Camps for your Child with Autism

Autism is a neurological brain disorder that hinders communication, social skills, interaction and temperament. Autism covers all brain disorders in its spectrum like the Asperger’s syndrome, Down’s syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, Cerebral palsy etc. You will find children with severe mental handicap that totally hinders their ability to converse while some others are high functioning with high IQ but seem odd on account of their inability to understand emotions, moods, intentions and body language.

An autistic child can severely curtail your social life as well as cause undue stress on account of day to day challenges and demands you have to face every day of your life. Each day is a struggle and a battle, to deal with mundane issues like bath, meals, bedtime and outings and can seriously leave you drained with depleted energy levels, to the extent that it may even affect your marital life. However, you can explore the option of enrolling your ASD child to summer camp programs for brief period of time and enjoy the brief respite from a grueling schedule.

Summer camps are live-in therapy programs with a wide range of activities specifically tailor made for every child and which is an intrinsic part of the therapy because it aims at developing your child’s confidence and trust in himself as well as others.

Talisman Summer Camp, North Carolina – have programs for young ASD children aged between 8 -22. The activities in these camps are fun-filled and educational, performed in a fun and safe environment. The camps offer facilities to stay in rustic cabins and take part in a wide range of activities that serve to improve communication and interaction skills. They take on limited children in order to maintain a 3:8 staff-child ratio so that each child gets individual attention. Activities like tree, rope and rock climbing, backpacking, water rafting, hiking, paddling, swimming, studying nature, crafts, arts, dance, sports, campfires and banquets will enhance your child’s self esteem tremendously and develop his cognitive skills. The older ASD kids have an added “adventure leadership program” to build up their social, group and communication skills, so valuable in the outside world.

http://www.talismancamps.com/

Huntington Camp, New York – is a residential program designed for children and young adults with the intention of developing your child’s strengths, talents and potential. The programs also improve your child’s social and behavioral skills and teach him to adapt to situations and people through a series of structured programming and academic instructions. These activities will trigger your child’s stimulus, helping him improve his awareness of the outside world, understand human emotions and social concepts that is important in his personal growth.

http://www.camphuntington.com/

Sunshine Autism Trust, Bangalore – has been around for nearly two decades in its commitment to transform the lives of young adults with ASD. They organize workshops and summer camps that are filled with activities custom made for autistic children in order to stimulate and develop their independence and overall growth.

http://www.autismbangalore.org/

http://in.linkedin.com/in/devikasekhardt This link belongs to Devika Sekhar Singh, a freelance movement therapist consultant for children with autism and mainstream adults, from Pune, Maharashtra, India.

Click on the links below for a comprehensive summer camp directory in and around USA, Canada and Greece.

http://wmoore.net/therapy.html - Will Moore's summer camp directory

My Summer Camps Directory: Camps for Kids with Autism
Easter Seals Summer Camps
Very Special Camps
YMCA Camps
Kids' Camps Directory: Camps for Kids with Autism/Aspergers

Click on link below for tips to find a good summer camp for your child

http://ezinearticles.com/?Autism-Program---Find-Summer-Camps-for-Your-Child-With-Autism&id=6819738

Traveling - Tips for Vacationing with your Child with Autism

It is that time of the year when the schools have closed for the summer and there is two months vacation stretched out in front of you where you have to do a juggling act of organizing a string of activities for your children. It is difficult enough to come up with safe, entertaining and educative activities for typical children without having an autistic child to challenge your creative skills in putting together a structured routine that will interest your child without him succumbing to meltdowns. It is not as bad as it looks or sounds, if you plan well in advance.

Decide on a place of destination

Choose a place that will not upset or anger your child very much. Places that are less noisy or crowded would not unduly irritate your child’s sensory quirks. Don’t choose to go to a beach if your child hates the sight of water or a zoo if he is afraid of animals. Go to a place that agrees with your child’s sensibilities.

Decide on a place to stay

If you are going to be staying in your destination for a few days, you will need to make reservations based on the place you are going. It could be a hotel, a motel, a camp site, a villa, a resort or a rented cottage but there will be a few issues concerning your child that would need to be dealt with before you come to a decision. If your child has issues about food, you would do well to book a suite in a hotel or a house with a kitchen. If your child loves to swim, a hotel with a pool would be best. If he loves watching TV, call ahead to find out if the rooms have TV of a DVD player. Make this vacation as comfortable as possible to your child by taking his preferences into account. Ensure that the hotel room has a quiet corner where your child can be left on his own whenever he needs a private space of his own.

Research well on the right mode of transport

As you know your child best, you would know the kind of transport he would prefer. If you choose to fly, you could call ahead and inform the airline about traveling with a child with autism so that they are prepared to co-operate during the check-ins at the airport. In case of a child with classic autism, you may be provided with transport to take you to your respective gates rather than make your child walk all the way, which he may not like at all and probably risk a meltdown. Delta Airlines has facilities for families traveling with ASD children. You may wish to check it out.

Put together a social story to illustrate your child’s schedule during the vacation

Usually children with autism relate to visuals and respond favorably when they know their schedule in advance. This is done by creating social stories that depict their day’s activities with pictures and drawings so that your child is aware of what to expect and is prepared. Children with autism hate surprises or unexpectedness and tend to react badly to impulsive plans. Talk to your child about the vacation, place and other details and show him pictures to add emphasis to your talk. Each day of your child’s vacation could be shown to him pictorially and graphically.

Make a structured itinerary and stick to it

Children with autism get stressed if they are in the dark about their daily schedule because they need to know what is going on. They prefer a structured and predictable time table of their activities every day so they can cope better. A slight change or modification of the schedule may be done provided your child is informed in advance about the change.

Carry a medical note from your child’s doctor

If your vacation includes trips to theme parks or aquariums or any similar attractions, a doctor’s note stating that your child has a disorder, would grant you a special privileges of avoiding long queues outside the rides. Visit the Customer service office at these places and inform him about the problem and use the special passes given to you to get quick access through special entrances of these rides.

Enjoy your vacation on a positive note and don’t despair the fact that your child has a disorder. With these tips you can enjoy the holiday to the fullest and have loads of adventure that would be memorable and special.

Click on this link to view my article on 'autism friendly places to go on vacation'

http://ezinearticles.com/?Traveling-to-Autism-Friendly-Places---Enjoy-Your-Vacations-With-Your-ASD-Child&id=6817060

Yoga for Children with Autism

Autism is a neurological disorder that can affect children in varying degrees. Yoga will be extremely beneficial for children with autism because it deals with the physical and mental aspects of this disorder.

Delayed motor skills, poor muscle tone, impaired sensory skills and hand-eye co-ordination, violent mood swings and manic depression in this disorder result in low self esteem and lack of self confidence. Yoga is an ideal and enjoyable program that will help improve your child’s muscle tone, posture, strength, balance and body awareness.

The breathing exercises and guided postures will develop your child’s fine motor skills as they will attune the entire body, hands, fingers, feet and his toes. Yoga calms the nervous system and provides an outlet for pent-up energy, alleviating your child’s sensitivity to noise, light, smell, taste and texture.

Yoga is great in combating stress, anxiety, disorientation and unpredictable moods swings usually found in children with autism. Simple yoga poses coupled with the right breathing exercises will activate the brain center and improve cognitive disorder and ability to focus. Yoga combined with music is a great tool to promote interest and engage the children in dancing, singing, chanting and stimulating the neuro emotional side of the brain.

Children with autism relate more to objects than people. Simple yoga poses of a tree, animal or a mountain could be taught as slowly as their comfort levels will allow. Guided visualization of animals like dog or a cat will improve communication and social skills among non-verbal children.  

As your child continues and progresses in his yoga routine, his nervous system gets strengthened, thereby increasing his body awareness, concentration and sensory skills. He will be filled with a sense of calm acceptance and relaxation.

Yoga for Kids With Autism -- powered by ehow

Autism – a breakthrough cure with Homeopathy?

Autism is a complex development disorder and usually manifest within the first three years of a person’s life. Its major cause is said to be a genetic predisposition along with several other causes like a messed up childbirth and MMR vaccine, though experts have not been able to prove it conclusively. Autism renders a person incapable of normal behavior and despite extensive research, it still remains an enigma to man. A person with autism is sometimes non-verbal and uncommunicative, depending on the severity of the condition. The autistic spectrum covers a wide range of development disorders like lack of social skills, hyperactive, high functioning skills to violent mood swings.  

The only cure for autism is early detection of the condition and starting a series of physio, psycho and socio-behavioral therapies to help people with autism lead normal lives, although the person will not be completely cured. But now there appears to be a new ray of hope with homeopathy, a kind of alternative medicine that triggers the body’s immune system with a highly diluted non toxic substance, in order to start the healing process.

Dr Vikas Sharma, a Neuro Developmental Homeopathy specialist in India, has been treating people with autism since a decade. He has been successful in providing effective treatment to many people with autism and maintains that every child with autism has unique characteristics that require unique method of evaluation, assessment and treatment. I have added his link below this article wherein you can have detailed information on him and his treatment.

 http://www.drhomeo.com/autism/autism-and-homeopathy-a-miraculus-cure/#.TwLsPlYfyUm

Autism - Where are the services available in India

Autism was an unfamiliar word in India until a few years ago, though it has been prevalent here since a long time. The condition was not diagnosed on account of ignorance, lack of necessary services or basic misunderstanding and misdiagnosis. The poorer ignorant class of people gave the condition religious overtones, believing it to be the wrath of God. Government apathy coupled with limited autistic service centers and skilled therapists, relegated the illness to the bottom rung of disease hierarchy, undeserving of medical treatment or proper care.

Inaccurate diagnosis has been the major hindrance in the treatment of autism in India. At the early signs of any development disorder in their child, parents usually visits a pediatrician, leaving with an assurance from him that their child was just ‘slow’ and would come around in time. A visit to the psychologist for a second opinion confounds the problem even more when the child is diagnosed as “mentally abnormal”. Unsatisfied and unwilling to accept this as the final verdict, parents approach a psychiatrist, only to be told that their child was ‘hyperactive’ and puts the child on a series of medication and sedation, without achieving any tangible reduction in the disorder.

Autism has spread its tentacles steadily in India and the government may face dire consequences if it continues to ignore the issue. Since a few years the awareness of autism has spread around the country and people need to demand better services and schools for children with autism. There is an acute dearth of special schools that can provide effective methods and techniques in handling the challenges of this condition. The school curriculum is pressing and rigid and they lack the means and knowledge to cope with the challenges that autism demands. There is also a need for residential centers and planning homes where autistic people without any family support can stay and be looked after.  

Currently, the combined efforts of AFA (Action for Autism) and the Ministry of Health has forced the Indian government to acknowledge autism as a disorder and provide adequate funds, concessions and benefits to autism service centers, NGOs and schools as well as start a campaign to spread awareness and educate the people about this disability.

There are several autism service centers in India and their links are given below.

I.R.I.S. Institute for Remedial Intervention Services -,http://www.autismindia.com/

AFA (Action for Autism) - http://www.autism-india.org

Astalavista (Divine Welfare and Research Foundation)

http://www.astalavista.co.in/disability/autism-study.html

ASI (Autism Society of India) - http://www.autismsocietyofindia.org/

SAI (Society for the Autistics in India) - http://www.saiautismcenter.org/current/index.htm

Autism – a battle to be won - http://www.akhilautismfoundation.org

The Apple iPad – How Apps Can Help your Child with Autism

The Apple iPad has come out a winner as one of the best gadget to help children with autism in order to express themselves, communicate and improve their concentration and attention span. It is a savior for these children who have to depend on others for play, entertainment or learning skills. One of the best benefits of an iPad, apart from its portability, is your child will exhibit visible signs of improvement in fine motor skills, as the iPad necessitates use of fingers to operate it. There will be a marked improvement in hand-eye co-ordination, sensory & cognitive skills, social skills, stress reduction, communication and language skills.

iPad opens out a whole new world for children with autism as they are now able to release themselves from a world they have locked themselves into and express their emotions through a wide range of programs and applications built in iPad.

For children who relied on paper and pen to write what they wanted, iPad has turned into their voice through which they are able to express their needs better. iPad has images, pictures, videos, symbols and special language applications that have wide functionality. For children with severe development issues and inability to speak, iPad has become a means to help them improve their social skills and lead normal lives.

 iPad interface is user friendly with touch screen facility and no mouse required. The keyboard is on the screen on account of which your child will not require to move his eyes from the screen to the keyboard constantly.

If your child is hyperactive, self obsessed or food obsessed, an iPad will pull them out from behind the closed doors of their world and offer them a way out to be a part of the outside world. There will be reduced meltdowns and frustrations at being unable to express their feelings and desires.

iPads are expensive and may not be affordable to all but there are alternatives like writing into IEP,  school district, insurance or online community like GiveForward.org & ChipIn.com,(free) Crowdrise.com (commission), A4CWSN.com (donation charity org).  

iPad has many useful apps for parents as well as children with autism and some of the most popular ones are:

 

 AutismExpress – This application explains basic facial expressions in a fun way, making it easy for children having difficulty in understanding feelings or emotions.

 

iConverse – as the name suggests, helps uncommunicative children and adults to communicate with others through PECS (Picture Exchange Communication system).

Proloquo2Go – This app is highly popular with young and old people of autism and other development disorders as it offers alternative communication solutions through colorful pictures, vocabulary, automatic conjugations and symbols. 

Grace - This is a wonderful application that lets your child communicate by linking pictures and symbols to form a complete sentence. 

 

iCommunicate - Your child can make flashcards, storyboards, pictures and routines, choice boards etc and customize the program to suit your child’s needs.

TaptoTalk- An excellent application for non-verbal children of autism.

Click on this link for more information on cheap iPads

http://liliputing.com/2011/05/gazelle-ipad-store-offers-cheap-first-gen-ipads.html

Services for Children with Autism in The Netherlands

Children with autism have needs, the same as anyone else and are entitled access to health services like anybody else. Autism services in Europe, especially the scandinavian countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Norway, have health services and support systems for neurological disorders that are affordable and accessible to the general public.  There are also a fair number of community disability awareness centers that provide valuable advice and counsel to parents unable to cope with stress and challenges involving these disorders. On comparing notes with people who are conversant with autism services in the US and UK, I believe, autism services in The Netherlands are by far more comprehensive, affordable, easily accessible and well managed.

During a recent visit to The Hague in The Netherlands, I had the good fortune to visit a few residential treatment facilities for people with autism, managed by one of the largest organization known as the IPSE de BRUGGEN who are committed to provide opportunities and comprehensive health care to these children. What impressed me was the fact that the organization not only dealt with health issues, but also looked into the general well being of the child by involving, informing, understanding and counseling the parents about their child’s special needs. The working personnel are dedicated, affectionate and very meticulous about fulfilling every need of these children with autism.

Ipse de Bruggen stands for “Everyone is special” and that is exactly what they work for. They offer their expertise to people with mild to severe disorders and provide places of stay, whether full time or part time, based on each person’s needs. There are a wide range of such dwellings to choose from, offering safety and protection as well as recreation and activity centers that are well designed to provide various learning activities, including reading, writing, drawing, painting, acting, art workshops, potteries, gardening and computer.

View this detailed brochure about IPSE for more information

http://www.ipsedebruggen.nl/files_content/folders/Folder_Everyone_is_special.pdf

View the link below for autism services for overseas families in The Netherlands

http://www.aaof.info/

Physical Activities and Exercises for Children with Autism

Latest statistics of autism are overwhelming. The figures of 1983, which was 1 child in 10,000 had autism, have increased to 1 in 100 diagnosed with autism. This shows a staggering increase by almost 7000%.

Children with autism have social, behavioral and neurological disorders and although there is no cure for it on account of unknown causes, there are many therapeutic exercises that can positively impact and improve the mind and body co-ordination, rhythm, balance, communication skills and neuromuscular dysfunction of children with autism. Physical activities will enhance your child’s connection with his surroundings, strengthen his social and behavioral skills and increase muscular strength and endurance. Reduced or lack of physical activity is the major cause for obesity in autistic children and diet alone will not help solve this problem. Though it is challenging to get children with autism to participate in any activity, you can take the help of various autism help groups to assist you.

Rebounding – is an exercise done by bouncing up and down on a small trampoline. Rebounding should be started as early as possible with your child, as it vastly improves your child’s important skills like balance and co-ordination. Rebounding will work wonders for autistic children that are extraordinarily hyperactive and athletic. It helps you to let your child with autism to use the rebounder without having to constantly face impending dangers of running out of the house, getting lost or getting hit by a vehicle. Rebounder will help your child be more aware of his environment and more compliant with his bearings. Ensure that you help your child initially, to use the rebounder until he is well capable of using it entirely on his own.  

 

Click on the links below for more information on Rebounders

http://www.reboundair.ca –

http://indiatrampoline.com/trampolines-rebounders-bungee-trampolines/trampoline/38-inch-mini-trampoline/item/38-inch-mini-trampoline.html

Outdoor activities – Exercising outdoors is excellent for doing any sort of physical activities. It exposes them to outside elements, improves cognition with images and sounds and wonderful for mental, physical and emotional health. Some effective exercises for your child with autism are a wide range of animal-based movements like frog hops, bear walk, donkey kicks, inch worm walk and bird walk. You can improvise on these activities and add more animal-based walks of your own and improve your child’s mobility. 

Organized games and sports

I Spy – This game will improve your child’s focus on an object. Give detailed description of the object and encourage your child to point the object. For a child with even more severe issues of processing, you may describe one object from a set of two and have your child point the right one.

Guessing game – Ask your child to keep his eyes closed and give him any toy or an object that he can easily identify. Have your child feel it and ask him to describe it, if he has communication skills. If not, ask him to show you the picture of that object after he has opened his eyes.

Box O Beans – This game will help your child in identifying shapes, textures and colors. Fill a big tub with large beads. Add small toys to it and ask your child to place both her hands inside the tub and pick out objects you have asked for. All these games will greatly improve your child’s sensory stimulus.

Other games like water balloon or skipping small rocks in a small pond is great for improving your child’s motor skills. Sports like bowling, baseball & skiing are preferred choices for children with autism. Avoid dancing, kickboxing, soccer, as it involves physical contact that could hurt or confuse your child.

Hand exercises like squeezing and pinching - Squeezing and pinching will improve your child’s hand strength and fine motor skills.

Have your child squeeze the water from a sponge or a wash cloth. Have her squirt water from a spray bottle over plants or window panes. Alternately, you can give your child squishy balls, play dough, clay, koosh balls or therapy putty.

Pinching involves the thumb and the fingers, on account of which her fine motor skills will improve. Flipping coins, turning door knobs, ripping paper or picking up coins and other small objects are great for strengthening your child’s fingers.

Awareness exercises – can help in improving your child’s sensory perception and awareness of soft, hard, cold or hot things with his fingers. Have your child play with different textures like stones, sand, shaving cream and water. Have your child use his fingers to trace or finger play on a flat surface to increase his awareness. 

Get your child an iPad - If your child is high functioning and hyperactive, an iPad will fulfill his intellectual needs as well as have him sit still for sometime while playing on it.