Picking up

[Guest guest]

Alese,

After reading your post, there are several things that pop out at me. Of course I do not know your son personally but I do know from have a son with autism who is now already 17 y ears old that many times there are auditory processing delays and motor planning issues that can cause these delays to occur. Think of yourself when you are in a trance or a daze. Perhaps you are staring out a window, thinking of something and someone else says something to you from across the room. You may certainly HEAR the words. You may certainly be able to REPEAT the words. However, you many not act on them exactly that second, while you are coming out of the daze. This is probably a terrible example but I know it h as happened to us all. Another words in order for the child to be motivated to t ry to act on your command, you must consider the above. Motor planning can be very difficult for children with autism when it comes to preparing the motor responses for someone elses request. Have to process the command, interpret it, make a plan of action and execute. Not that easy when youbreak it down. One thing I learned is that we always have to make our children feel successful rather than defeated so do whatever you can to help him (physical guidance, modelling, assisting) complete the command, do the task and then give PRAISE/reinforcement for a job well done--even if it is not done exactly the way you would like. Then the next time do the same and gradually you will fade back the prompting and he will do more on his own and you continue the PRAISE. This is called shaping the behavior. YOu are starting out accepting a close approximation as success and with the proper delivery of prompting (and then fading) he will become more and more independent and the latency (time lapse between command and response) will decrease tremendously. Remember, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS make your child feel successful even if he only does a very little part at first. And most importantly,

be consistent throughout the day and with all commands.

I hope this helps you a bit. I feel at this stage of my life I can offer all the helpful knowledge and experience that has afforded us great responses (and let me tell you, my son was VERY difficult).

Take care and best,

NJ

[Guest guest]

,

Thank you for that good description of what our kids my being going through when we give them commands. You certainly are entitled to teach because you have practiced the behavioral techniques and have experienced success.

Carlson

[Guest guest]

Thank you ! I will try to break

things down further for him.

I guess there is some confusion on my part

about what motor planning actually is. It was not explained to me at all

by the OT doing the evaluation. I think she just assumed that I would

bring him in for therapy and that would take care of it. However, I’m

not one to leave something like that to someone else without understanding what

is going on myself. Unfortunately, I have not been able to grasp the details

of motor planning. I think I understand the basic concept, but I feel if

I understood it more in depth, I could help him be more successful. I’m

a details kind of person. Can anyone recommend any detailed books on what

goes on with kids that have motor planning, vestibular, proprioceptive, etc

issues. My son falls into all 3 of those categories.

Thanks again!

Alese

From: ReRe759@...

[mailto:ReRe759@...]

Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004

9:32 AM

autism

Subject: Picking up

Alese,

After reading your post, there are several

things that pop out at me. Of course I do not know your son

personally but I do know from have a son with autism who is now already 17 y

ears old that many times there are auditory processing delays and motor

planning issues that can cause these delays to occur. Think of

yourself when you are in a trance or a daze. Perhaps you are

staring out a window, thinking of something and someone else says something to

you from across the room. You may certainly HEAR the words.

You may certainly be able to REPEAT the words. However, you many not act

on them exactly that second, while you are coming out of the daze.

This is probably a terrible example but I know it h as happened to us

all. Another words in order for the child to be motivated to

t ry to act on your command, you must consider the above. Motor!

planning can be very difficult for children with autism when it comes to

preparing the motor responses for someone elses request. Have to

process the command, interpret it, make a plan of action and execute.

Not that easy when youbreak it down. One thing I learned is that we

always have to make our children feel successful rather than defeated so do

whatever you can to help him (physical guidance, modelling, assisting) complete

the command, do the task and then give PRAISE/reinforcement for a job well

done--even if it is not done exactly the way you would like.

Then the next time do the same and gradually you will fade back the prompting

and he will do more on his own and you continue the PRAISE. This is

called shaping the behavior. YOu are starting out accepting a close

approximation as success and with the proper delivery of prompting (and then

fading) he will become more and more independent and the laten! cy (time lapse

between command and response) will decrease tremendousl y. Remember,

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS make your child feel successful even if he only

does a very little part at first. And most importantly,

be consistent throughout the day and with

all commands.

I hope this helps you a bit. I

feel at this stage of my life I can offer all the helpful knowledge and

experience that has afforded us great responses (and let me tell you, my son

was VERY difficult).

Take care and best,

NJ