Grandin The Way I See It

A Personal Look at Autism
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-963367-50-8
Verlag: Future Horizons
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 372 Seiten

Reihe: The Way I See It

Temple Grandin's window into the subjective experience of autism is of value to all of us who hope to gain a deeper understanding of the human mind by exploring the ways in which it responds to the world's challenges. - The Washington Times.

In this updated and expanded sixth edition of The Way I See It, Dr. Temple Grandin gets to the REAL issues of autism-the ones parents, teachers, and autistic individuals face every day. Temple offers helpful do's and don'ts, practical strategies, and try-it-now tips all based on her insider perspective and scientific research.

Topics include:

• Alternative vs. conventional medicine

• How to avoid getting trapped by labels

• The importance of early educational intervention

• How to control video gaming and screen time

• Exploring careers and applying talentsAnd much more!

Dr. Grandin has packed a wealth of knowledge into this book, which serves as an excellent reference resource for topics related to autism. This handy reference book contains much of the information from the three smaller books in the series, Autism and Education, Autism and Adolescence, and Autism, Sensory and Behavior, all in one accessible place.

Whether you're searching for something specific or reading cover-to-cover, The Way I See It is required reading for everyone whose life is touched by autism. The sixth edition contains a new section on autism and sensory challenges, as well as updated research throughout.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Grandin, Temple

Leseproben

section I

Early Educational Intervention

chapter 1

The Importance of Early Educational Intervention

The best thing a parent of a newly diagnosed child can do is to watch their child, without preconceived notions and judgments, and learn how the child functions, acts, and reacts to his or her world.

Both research and practical experience show that an intensive early education program in which a young child receives a minimum of ten to twenty hours a week of instruction from a skilled teacher greatly improves prognosis. The brain of the young child is still growing and evolving. At this age, the neural pathways are highly malleable, and intensive instruction can reprogram “faulty wiring” that prevents the child from learning. Plus, behaviors in a young child have not yet become ingrained. It will take less practice to change an inappropriate behavior at age two to three than it will to change the same behavior at age seven to eight. By then, the child has had many years of doing things his way and change comes about more slowly.

For early childhood programs, ABA (applied behavioral analysis) programs using discrete trial training have the best scientific documentation backing up their use. But other programs, such as the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), have been validated in a randomized trial. Additional evidence-based programs are pivotal response, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. The autism spectrum is vast and diversified. Children have different ways of thinking and processing information, and it is important that an intervention method be aligned with the child’s learning profile and personality. Detailed descriptions of different types of early intervention programs can be found online.

A book I recommend is Early Intervention and Autism: Real Life Questions, Real Life Answers by Dr. James Ball (2012) from Future Horizons, Inc. While this book is written for parents of newly diagnosed children, more than 75 percent of the information on interventions, effective teaching strategies, program planning, and behavior management is valuable for parents of children of all ages.

My Early Intervention Program

I had a wonderful and effective early education program that started at age two and a half. By then, I had all the classic symptoms of autism, including no speech, no eye contact, tantrums, and constant repetitive behavior. This was in 1949, and doctors knew nothing about autism, but my mother would not accept that nothing could be done to help me. She was determined and knew that letting me continue without treatment would be the worst thing she could do. She obtained advice from a wise neurologist who referred her to a speech therapist to work with me. She was just as good as the autism specialists today.

My talented speech therapist worked with me for three hours a week doing ABA-type training (breaking skills down into small components, teaching each component separately using repetitive drills that gave me lots of practice) and she carefully enunciated hard consonant sounds so I could hear them. At the speech therapy school, I also attended a highly structured nursery school class with five or six other children who were not autistic. Several of the children had Down syndrome. These classes lasted about eight hours a week.

My nanny was another critical part of my early therapy. She spent 20 hours a week keeping me engaged. For instance, playing repeated turn taking games with my sister and me. She was instrumental in introducing early social skills lessons, even though at that time, they weren’t referred to as such in a formal manner. Within the realm of play, she kept me engaged and set up activities so that most involved turn-taking and lessons about being with others. In the winter, we went outdoors to play in the snow. She brought one sled and my sister and I had to take turns sledding down the hill. In the summer, we took turns on the swing. We were also taught to sit at the table and have good table manners. Teaching and learning opportunities were woven into everyday life.

When I turned five, we played lots of board games such as Parcheesi and Chinese checkers. My interest in art and making things was actively encouraged and I did many art projects. For most of the day, I was forced to keep my brain tuned into the world. However, my mother realized that my behaviors served a purpose and that changing those behaviors didn’t happen overnight. I was given one hour after lunch where I could revert back to repetitive autistic behaviors without consequence. During this hour, I had to stay in my room. I sometimes spent the entire time spinning a decorative brass plate that covered a bolt that held my bed frame together. I would spin it at different speeds and was fascinated at how different speeds affected the number of times the brass plate spun.

The best thing a parent of a newly diagnosed child can do is to watch their child without preconceived notions and judgments and learn how the child functions, acts, and reacts to his or her world. My book, Navigating Autism, will help prevent parents from becoming label-locked and underestimating the abilities of their child. That information is invaluable in finding an intervention method that will be a good match to the child’s learning style and needs. The worst thing parents can do with a child between the ages of two to five is nothing. It doesn’t matter if the child is formally diagnosed with autism or has been labeled something less defined, such as global developmental delay. It doesn’t matter if the child is not yet diagnosed if there are signs that the child may be on the spectrum: speech is severely delayed, the child’s behaviors are odd and repetitive, the child doesn’t engage with people or his/her environment, etc. The child must not be allowed to sit around stimming all day or, conversely, tuning out the world around him/ her. Parents, hear this: doing nothing is the worst thing you can do. If you have a three-year-old with no speech who is showing signs of autistic behavior, you need to start working with your child now. If signs are appearing in a child younger than three, even better. Do not wait six more months or a year even if your pediatrician is suggesting you take the “wait and see” approach or is plying you with advice such as “boys develop later than girls” or “not all children start to speak at the same time.” My advice to act now is doubly emphasized if your child’s language started developing late or his/ her language and/or behavior is regressing.

Parents can find themselves on long waiting lists for both diagnosis and early intervention services. In some cases, the child will age out of the state’s early intervention system (birth to three) before his name gets to the top of the list! There is much parents can do to begin working with the child before formal professional intervention begins. Play turn-taking games and encourage eye contact. Grandparents who have lots of experience with children can be very effective. If you are unable to obtain professional services for your young child, you need to start working with your child immediately.

This book and Raun Kaufman’s book, Autism Breakthrough, will be useful guides on how to work with young kids. The best part of Kaufman’s book are the teaching guidelines that grandparents and other untrained people can easily use. Ignore his opinions about other treatments. Do not allow young children under five to zone out with tablets, phones, or other electronic devices. In young children, solitary screen time must be limited to one hour a day. For children under five, all other activities with electronic devices should be interactive activities done with a parent or teacher.

The intense interest in the electronic device can be used to motivate interest in doing a game where turns are taken with another person. During this game, the phone should be physically passed back and forth during turn taking. Too many kids are tuning out the world with electronics. In older children, video game playing should be limited to one hour a day. Excessive video gaming and screen use is a major problem in individuals with autism.

Engagement with the child at this point in time is just as effective as instruction. While you may not yet be knowledgeable about various autism intervention models, you are smart enough and motivated enough to engage your child for 20 plus hours a week. Don’t wait! Act now!

References and Additional Reading

Adele, D. (2017) The impact of delay of early intensive behavioral intervention on educational outcomes for a cohort of medicaid-enrolled children with autism, Dissertation, University of Minnesota.

Ball, J. (2012) Early Intervention and Autism: Real Life Questions, Real Life Answers, Future Horizons, Inc., Arlington, TX.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2017) Evidence-based treatment options for Autism, www.chop.edu/news/evidence-based-treatment- options-autism (Accessed June 22,...