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If you are a parent of an autistic child you need to put your child in a structured environment as soon as he or she is diagnosed. Studies have proved that a structured environment that provides nurturing and teaching is the best method to start to teach the social skills and behavior redirection that your child needs. This can be an exhausting job for a parent that leaves no time for personal relaxation or freedom of the stress it takes in raising such a child. A team effort needs to be extended from other professionals that service the child to turn taking between siblings and parents.
Your child will probably start formal public school at around the age of five or six. Before this age, structure and instruction is critical for the child to development within their abilities. You as a parent need to structure your day as well so that you have time to deal with daily tasks and find some kind or recreation outside your child's life. Recreation for the parents is important for the parent's mental well being as well as quality of life. First you have to come up with a plan with realistic goals. You need to know what activities your child will participate in what they will learn from it. You also need to plan
When teaching your autistic child, remember not to use a long strand of phrases. It is best to give clear concise ideas that go together. You might want to add tags to the meanings of the phrases. For example if you are teaching the difference from left to right and the words left to right. Affix a piece of paper to yours or your child's hand with words left and right on them. Most autistic children do not see in words, they see in pictures. With the paper placed on the hands, not only does the child see the movement of the hands but can associate the words left and right with it.
After awhile you will notice that your child is good at something such as drawing or building blocks. You have to be creative, but find someway of including what they are good at into the lesson you wish them to learn. Maybe you are teaching them the word me. Find a picture of your child and put the word me on it. Have the child draw a picture of themselves and to finish the drawing have them write me on the picture. This may be a repetitive process and you may have to change it up a little, but eventually the concept will be learned.
If you notice you child is fixated on something like a book, movie, or map, again put that fixation to work with you. Earlier in this e-book the story of a autistic boy's fixation with the Titanic was discussed. The teacher or parent could use characters and actions of the Titanic story to reinforce behavior, concepts, or social skills. Again you will have to be creative and this type of teaching is not the norm for most educators. You have to think outside of the box as the child is trying to not only get the message from inside the box, but to find the box in the first place.
If you are teaching reading do not concentrate on one form of instruction. Some autistic children can learn by phonics and some by sight words. Do not restrict your method of instruction. Try both methods to see which one is right for your child. Research has shown that a combination of sight words and phonics can be a very successful for the non-autistic student and it might be a good start to get your child the way to reading and comprehension.
