One of the ways forward when working with those who have little or no speech, or limited comprehension of language, is to use music. In this book tried and tested approaches and activities devised to promote the development of communication and social interaction at a fundamental level are clearly set out. The ethos behind this manual is a person-centred approach, within a structured framework and allowing for differentiation and improvization according to the learner's individual needs and developmental levels.
Art Therapy with Children on the Autistic Spectrum: Beyond Words
Description
Recent research has shown that art therapy can be particularly effective for children with autism and related communication disorders. The extensive range of symptoms experienced by autistic people makes them extremely individual in presentation, so any treatment used must be tailored to a range of varying needs. Art Therapy with Children on the Autistic Spectrum presents a new model of practice, which primarily focuses on communication difficulties. The authors describe how negative behaviours and subsequent tension may be alleviated when the autistic child is involved in interactive art making with the therapist.
Despite an increase in the awareness of autism, families and professionals continue to struggle to find treatments that will fulfil the individual needs of their child.
From Research to Individualized Practice bridges the gap between the latest research findings and clinical practice. The authors have brought together information from both fields in order to offer the reader best practice principles and hands-on techniques. These are all exemplified by clinical case examples and vivid illustrations.
Citation
Autism - From Research to Individualized Practice
Edited by Robin L. Gabriels and Dina E. Hill
Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-84310-701-9, 288pp, 2002, £15.95, $27.95
BIC: VFPD JDGL JCD MMJ (ISBN 978-1-84310-701-9)
Autism in Your Classroom:A General Educator's Guide to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Description
This book gives teachers an understanding of the types, causes, charcateristics and treatments of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The authors share their clinical and classroom experience in an empathetic, conversational style, providing a variety of teaching strategies, as well as ways to manage behaviour and sensory issues, and work on social skills. The topics covered include: adapting classwork and homework, using visual supports, teaching reading and maths, improving langauge, using positive reinforcement, balancing the needs of all students, and handling challenging behaviour.
Communication issues in autism and Asperger syndrome: Do we speak the same language?
Description
This book provides theoretical foundation for understanding communication and language impair-ments specific to autism, Olga Bogdashina explores the effects of different perceptual and cognitive styles on the communication and language development of autistic children. She stresses the importance of identifying each autistic individual's nonverbal language - which can be visual, tactile, kinaesthetic, auditory, olfactory or gustatory - with a view to establish a shared means of verbal communication. She offers an explanation of why certain approaches, for example PECS, might work with some autistic children but not others. Offering real in-sights, the 'What They Say' sections enable the reader to see through the eyes of autistic indi-viduals and to understand their language differences first hand.
'What We Can Do to Help' sections throughout the book give practical recommenda-tions on what to do in order to help autistic individuals use their natural mechanisms to learn and develop social and communicative skills. The final chapters are devoted to assessment and intervention issues with practical recommendations for selecting appropriate methods and techniques to enhance communication, based on the specific mode of communication a per-son uses
Citation
Bogdashina, O. (2003). London. Jessica Kingsley.
(ISBN 978-1-84310-267-0)
Communicative Musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship
Description
'Communicative Musicality' explores the intrinsic musical nature of human interaction. The theory of communicative musicality was developed from groundbreaking studies showing how in mother/infant communication there exist noticeable patterns of timing, pulse, voice timbre, and gesture. Without intending to, the exchange between a mother and her infant follow many of the rules of musical performance, including rhythm and timing.
This is the first book to be devoted to this topic. In a collection of cutting-edge chapters, encompassing brain science, human evolution, psychology, acoustics and music performance, it focuses on the rhythm and sympathy of musical expression in human communication from infancy. It demonstrates how speaking and moving in rhythmic musical ways is the essential foundation for all forms of communication, even the most refined and technically elaborated, just as it is for parenting, good teaching, creative work in the arts, and therapy to help handicapped or emotionally distressed persons.
Developing pupils social communication skills: practical resources
Description
Learning to communicate with other people is perhaps the most important learning children do. Children with social communication problems may have trouble picking up the crucial skills of interacting and communicating with their peers, which can have more serious implications later on in life.
This resource will help teachers, teaching assistants and therapists to develop and improve the social skills of their younger pupils; provides sets of easily accessible, verbal and non-verbal games and activities to encourage social interaction; provides a clear rationale to the games to help the teacher or teaching assistant really get to grips with how and why these activities can help; provides a structured approach to pupils' social development for pupils in their early and primary years which has been tried, tested and proved to be effective; and includes assessment forms and monthly and daily planning sheets
Addressing the complex issue of what constitutes a communication enabling environment for children with autism who use little or no speech, Potter and Whittaker show that the communication of these children can be significantly affected by a range of social and environmental influences. As well as providing an overview of the theoretical issues involved Enabling Communication in Children with Autism provides detailed practical advice.
Citation
Potter, C and Whitaker, CA (2000) Enabling Communication in Children with Autism. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
(ISBN 978-1-85302-956-1)
Engaging Autism Using the Floortime Approach to Help Children Relate, Communicate, and Think
Description
Parents and professionals worldwide have welcomed this essential guide to the highly recommended Floortime approach for treating children with any of the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Now available in paperback, Engaging Autism includes new, exciting information on neuroscience research into the effects of this approach, plus guidance for parents navigating the controversies surrounding the treatment of autism. Unlike approaches that focus on changing specific behaviour, Greenspan’s program promotes the building blocks of healthy emotional and behavioural development. He shows that, remarkably, children with ASD do not have a fixed, limited potential, and may often join their peers to lead full, psychologically healthy lives. The Floortime approach can also be applied at any age-including early infancy, when the first signs of risk for ASD may appear-so that preventing the full development of autism becomes a real possibility.
Health Care and the Autism Spectrum: A Guide for Health Professionals, Parents and Carers
Description
In a patient who is exquisitely sensitive to touch, how do you go about taking blood pressure or dressing a wound? How can you be sure that your autistic patient has given 'informed' consent to treatment if you aren't sure that they have really understood the implications? What do you do about it? Equally, for people with autism, or the parent or carer of someone on the spectrum, healthcare issues loom very large in daily concerns.
Health Care and the Autism Spectrum is a book that addresses the ethical issues as well as the practical challenges that everyone involved has to deal with.
