The essence of autism is that it is a disorder that impairs interaction (John Levy, "What You Can Do Right Now To Help Your Child With Autism")There are several early signs through which you can detect whether a child might have autism. I will try to write about them in a series of posts, insyaAllah.
One of the most apparent signs is the child does not make eye contact with anyone else. He can be playing in a room full of people, maybe even with someone beside him trying to speak to him, but he would seem to ignore everyone else. He would be living in his own world. If you try to catch his eyes by turning his face towards you, the eye contact may happen, but flittingly. Why?
This is because eye contact is an intimate form of non-verbal communication and interaction. As autism affects interaction, by refusing eye contact, the child is avoiding interaction.
Kojiq has been going for speech therapy for a while now, and his eye contact has improved tremendously. Here's some tips from the therapist, which we find very helpful :-
(1) Speak to him from a short distance - his visual attention span is only in his immediate surroundings, so if you talk to him from across the room, he will ignore you.
(2) Position for eye contact - try to get down to his eye level so that it is easier for him to look into your eyes. Sit or squat in front of him, when you speak to him.
(3) Attract his attention with an object - find something he likes like a toy car, hold it a few inches in front of your eyes so that he would be forced to look at your eyes if he wants to look at the object.
(4) Make him look into your eyes and indicate what he wants, then only give it to him. He will learn that making eye contact is rewarding.
I hope you find this information helpful. May Allah bless you for the patience and love you give to child in need.
:-)
No comments:
Post a Comment