Characteristics of Autism and the Theories That Explain This Behavior - Essay Example

? AUTISM SPECTRUM By Location Autism spectrum Qsn What characteristics of autism are reflected here? Discuss the theories that explain his behaviour. Autism spectrum is an enduring developmental disability that has an effect on how a person especially children relates to, communicating with, and socializes with other people. This disability also affects how an individual agrees with ideas and behaviours of other people. It also affects how such people make sense of the deeds of other people surrounding them (Baron-Cohen, 2008). Autism is a spectrum condition meaning that although individuals with autism share certain challenges, their conditions affect them differently. Some individuals with Autism disability may live an independent life while others have learning disability and need a specialist support. Individuals with autism disorder may also experience under-or over-sensitivity to touch, sound, light, smells, colours, and taste. Andrew’s autism characteristics Andrew demonstrates some characteristics of autism disability, which makes him fit into the criteria for autism. You may come across people like Andrew in the stores, in the park, in schools, or at work. Andrew does not look different from other students, yet he behaves and communicates in a way that seems mysterious, or enigmatic (Baron-Cohen, 2008). Andrew’s autism disability has ruthlessly impaired a number of disabilities many people tend to take for granted. For instance, the teacher seems not to understand that Andrew has autism spectrum that is the way, the teacher sometimes feels that she is in a dilemma. In other words, she founds Andrew’s behaviour disruptive to others and becomes frustrated that, Andrew is not willing to confront to the standards of not interrupting others or involving in the school’s social activities (Baron-Cohen, 2008). Another autism characteristic that Andrew has is that he is unable to understand how other pupils feel about his behaviour. The teacher’s tone and facial expressions mean nothing to him. When Andrew was warned for constant interruption, he claimed that if a teacher or indeed any other person says something that is not literally correct then they were ‘wrong’, ‘talking nonsense and they were ‘telling lies’ (Baron-Cohen, 2008). Whether the teacher and other pupils are sad or cheerful, it sounds and looks the same to Andrew. Additionally, Andrew shows little interest in what other pupils are doing. The teacher claims that Andrew does not join or involve himself with other school activities. He ignores the class timetable and instead decides to read an encyclopedia that he carried around, or even arranging the cut grass around the school ground into neat, straight lines (Baron-Cohen, 2008). In general, Andrew focuses his attention on doing minor and simple activities. Instead of attending classes, he could spend hours arranging all the cut grass in the field behind the school into neat, straight lines (Baron-Cohen, 2008). This obsessive and repetitive habit of doing one thing all the time refers to stereotyped behaviours. Andrew however has a characteristic of disagreeing with other people’s ideas and lacks correct measures of explaining himself. This is highly depicted in his behaviour since he shouts out during classes the words like “How do you know?” or “Why?” whenever the teacher makes a certain assertion of a fact (Baron-Cohen, 2008). The teacher could note that Andrew had a natural curiosity that she was unable to stifle. All these characteristics, which Andrew has the inability to understand speech and talk, trouble and difficulties in socializing with other pupils, and stereotyped interests and behaviours-are the hub of autism spectrum (Baron-Cohen, 2008). These autism characteristics hinder Andrew from making friends and being unable to fit in at home, at school, or even in public places. Andrew has a severe type of autism behaviour. However, there are some theories that explain that causes of autism behaviour. Theories that explain Andrew’s autism behaviour There are a number of theories, which tries to explain the concept of autism disability with Andrew. Among these theories is the theory of mind. Mind reading is habitually a psychic’s activity, but in common sense, most of us seem to be mind readers, or we at least have this theory (Perepa, 2013). The mind reading concept can be complex to grasp, since it is typical with any examination into human beings’ mental world (Roth, 2010). This theory represents no single behaviour, cognition, or emotion. According to this theory, Andrew’s mind comprises of desires, beliefs, perceptions, emotions, and intentions (Frith, 2003). The theory of mind refers to the aptitude to attribute all these mental conditions to self and others so that one can understand and predict behaviour (Perepa, 2013). This theory involves making a difference between mental representations and real world. This theory states that individuals with autism disorder like Andrew are likely to be less capable “mind-readers” compared to normal people. For, instance, Andrew always disagrees with the teacher’s facts and keeps on asking questions like “Why?” “How do you know?” Deficits of the theory of mind can be helpful in explaining Andrew’s communication and social impairments that portray autism spectrum disorder (Hewett, 2011). Research on this theory focuses on preschool kids such as Andrew because this is the stage where many children develop rapid mental disorders. There is a less understanding about theory of mind with older children, although there is a belief that this disorder experiences further development as a child matures (Attwood, 2006). During time in school, Andrew tends to understand that other people’s actions and behaviours do not reflect his inner feelings always. According to the mind reading theory, Andrew has a variety of distinct inner feelings, which sometimes may cause conflict with other pupils in school. Instead of involving himself in other social activities, he spends his time arranging the cut grass into neat, straight lines. Schoolchildren understand sarcasm, irony, and other aspects (Boucher, 2009). Individuals with autism spectrum disorder like Andrew normally have difficulties in trying to understand these communication aspects. This is a mainly salient feature of Autism spectrum disorder, which is evident with Andrew (Cumine, Leach &Stevenson, 2009). Verbal behavioural (VB) is another theory that explains Andrew’s concept of autism spectrum disorder. VB refers to behaviour that Andrew might have meditates from another individual. Maybe, Andrew might have meditated his behaviour from his family relatives or even friends. This means that what normally Andrew’s relatives and friends do affects his behaviour thus being a victim of autism spectrum disorder. Verbal behaviour means communication. In the case of Andrew, he has disabilities in talking and communicating with others properly and only shouts out words like “Why?” or “How do you know?” The theory focuses its attention on the language functional analysis. Verbal behaviour comprises of many aspects such as using gestures, speaking, use of gestures, sign languages, and argumentative communication devices (Hanbury, 2011). An essential and recent aspect of this theory is teaching mastered communication skills in all natural environments. Qsn.2: describe the strategies that you would use to support management of Andrew’s behaviours. Autism spectrum is a growing disability that typically affects children during their first three years. Autism is a neurological disorder that affects brain functioning and its normal development in the area of communication and social interactions (Klein, Cook & Richardson-Gibbs, 2005). Therefore, there is the need for teachers and parents come up with considerable alterations in managing this disability, which highly affects young children like Andrew. There is a need to implement management strategies both at home and in schools. This essay discusses three strategies that can be used to manage the autistic behaviours with Andrew. These strategies include Applied Behaviour Analysis, the TEACHH Strategy, and Developmental models. One of the autism behaviour of Andrew is engaging in stereotyped movements and repetitive. Children with autism disability are habitually resistant to changes in the environment or daily routine changes, which is evident with Andrew. Andrew may exhibit strange responses to sense experiences and may have a greater attention in activities than in his or her colleagues (Klein, Cook & Richardson-Gibbs, 2005). Andrew in most cases may engage himself in inappropriate social behaviours including high temper tantrums, frequent desire to stay alone, and sustained odd play. Andrew also makes minimal or even no eye contact with peers or teachers. An autistic child may find it challenging to express their interests and views of their colleagues. This is highly portrayed by Andrew who cannot communicate properly with his teacher and other pupils. According to ICD-10 and DSM-IV, they are the benefits of establishing mental health programs in schools. Making some judgments from these characteristic, the normal behaviour used by teachers and other students in the classroom will always fail with a child having autism disorder (Yack, Sutton & Aquilla, 2002). For instance, Andrew is unable to cope with other classmates and spends most of his time arranging cut grass in the school ground to neat, straight line. A child suffering from autistic disorder like Andrew may not distinguish between a good and a bad behaviour. Certain management strategies that comprise of difficult and complex procedures that an autistic child will not understand may not work appropriately (Yack, Sutton & Aquilla, 2002). Making use of a proactive strategy in managing autistic behaviour will result to be the most effective approach. This is because an autistic child requires meaningful and appropriate learning surroundings that do not generate anxiety, stress, and frustrations experienced by autistic children (Yack, Sutton & Aquilla, 2002). In order to manage Andrew’s behaviour his teacher and parents need to apply a variety of management strategies to address his autistic behaviour. The application of the appropriate management strategy needs to consistently, because of the child’s routine and desire for structure (Yack, Sutton & Aquilla, 2002). Positive reinforcement will be effective if used repeatedly and immediately after the autistic behaviour occurs. The reason is to apply praise together with other rewards, which increase the reinforced behaviour. Proximity control during class time will also be an effective strategy (Zysk, 2005). Since the autistic child may have difficulties in socializing with others similar to the case of Andrew, the idea of teaching moving around the classroom will make the child understand that his or her concentration should be directed to the teacher always. Reframing will also be beneficial since if the activity turns to be highly attractive to the autistic child that child is ready and willing to get involved in the activity and he or she will feel less confused. Redirecting the autistic children will also be an effective strategy (Zysk, 2005). Since an autistic child can be highly focused in his or her ways, redirecting will assist in avoiding power struggle and will enable the child turn back to the normal activity in a calm mood. Applied Behaviour Analysis One management strategy that proves to be more effective in managing Andrew’s autism spectrum disorder is Applied Behaviour Analysis. This strategy can be more beneficial in managing Andrew’s behaviour. Applied Behaviour Analysis involves the theory that environmental events (consequences and antecedents) can influence behaviour of an individual in varying ways with different individuals (Buxbaum & Hof, 2012). For example, if Andrew’s teacher could be able to determine the reason why he is acting out of class and get rid of such antecedent, this will highly help in reducing the autistic behaviour he has. A number management strategy may not work appropriately for autistic children. A contingency setting approach may be inappropriate for the child may fail or may not be able to understand why he or she is supposed to take responsibilities for her or his actions. Taking a time from reinforcement will also be inappropriate for the child will not understand the aim of the removal from the ongoing activity. Therefore, this could result in a bad humour (Buxbaum & Hof, 2012). It is up for teachers and parents to decide on the best strategy, which they think will be most beneficial for managing autistic disorder. Highly structured complete early intervention programs for managing autistic behaviour mainly rely on Discrete Trial Training (DTT) methodology, although this is the only strategy used in most cases. DTT strategy is effective since it teaches foundation skills such compliance, attention, and discrimination among others. However, DTT seems to be ineffective due to the learning behaviour generalization and because the structure-teaching environment does not represent adult-child interaction (Buxbaum & Hof, 2012). There are some changes made to the traditional ABA techniques to address these problems. Natural behavioural interventions like natural language pivotal/paradigm response teaching and incidental teaching may improve skill generalization. Functional assessment or functional behaviour analysis is an essential aspect of behaviour-based treatment of Andrew’s autistic behaviours (Volkmar, 2005). Many autistic behaviours provide an adaptive purpose of some kind and forced by their costs such as achievement of a desired object, sensation, or activity, adult attention, and escape from needing demand or situation (Buxbaum & Hof, 2012). The functional assessment approach is exact, empirically based way of gathering information used to reduce the efficiency and effectiveness behavioural interventions. This assessment method involved formulating an accurate description of the autistic behaviour (including intensity and frequency), determining the consequences, antecedents, and other various environmental impacts that sustain the behaviour (Buxbaum & Hof, 2012). This structured approach however includes a collection of observational data for testing the hypothesis. The TEACHH strategy Another strategy for managing Andrew’s autistic behaviour is Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACHH). The TEACHH strategy, developed scholar and his colleagues, stresses on structure hence its name “Structure Teaching” One of the essential aspects of structured teaching is the organization of predictable series of activities, routines with flexibility, visual schedules, structured activity systems, visually structured activities, and physical environment (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). Structured teaching takes into to account improvement of the skills of a child with autistic disorder and the environment to be able to hold their deficits. A number of documented reports prove structured teaching to an effective approach since brings progress in the children with this disorder and improvement of parents’ and teachers’ skills, although these reports do not come from controlled studies. In a controlled study, Cathcart and Ozonoff concluded that autistic children treated under TEACHH-based school or home program for a period of four months and the addition of local treatment programs improve considerably at a higher rate than those in a control group who only receive local treatment services (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). The most appropriate strategy for managing Andrew’s autistic behaviour The most appropriate strategic approach for managing autistic children such Andrew is the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). This strategy can be more beneficial in managing Andrew’s behaviour (Miller, 2010). This is because the strategy involves the theory that environmental events (consequences and antecedents) can influence behaviour of an individual in varying ways with different individuals. For example, if Andrew’s teacher could be able to determine the reason why he is acting out of class and get rid of such antecedent, this will highly help in reducing the autistic behaviour he has. A number of management strategies may not work appropriately for autistic children such as Andrew. An appropriate setting approach like Applied Behavioural Analysis may be inappropriate since using other strategies; the child may fail or may not be able to understand why he or she is supposed to take responsibilities for her or his actions (Miller, 2010). Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a chronic condition that normally affects young children nearly one out of every hundred and fifty children and requires both non-medical and medical interventions (Haynes, 2013). There is a growing evidence promotes and influence the use of certain autistic behaviour management in ameliorating the disorder’s symptoms and enhancing proper functioning. In addition to these strategies’ efficiency, there is a need to conduct an etiologic analysis and provide genetic counselling after any autistic diagnosis (Boutot & Tincani, 2009). Health care professionals and pediatricians have the responsibility of providing essential longitudinal care to educate and support families and give them guidance on choosing the most appropriate strategic approach for managing autistic behaviours with their children. Steps for managing Andrew’s autistic behaviour The following are five steps that one can use to amend Andrew’s autistic behaviour. These five steps will prepare you to manage Andrew’s autistic behaviour in the classroom and promote a comprehensive learning environment. Step 1: Educate yourself- people with autism spectrum like Andrew experience a diversity of behaviours. Learning about autism spectrum and it affects Andrew will help his teacher or parents effectively manage his behaviour. These involve managing the school and home environments to influence change of the behaviour (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). Step 2: The teacher should research out to Andrew’s parents- Andrew’s parents and relatives will be the first source of information about his autistic behaviour. The parents will provide Andrew’s teacher with information about his daily activities and behaviour (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). Step 3: Preparing the classroom-The teacher having learned Andrew’s characteristics and sensitivities, she now has the information she needs to prepare the classroom appropriately. The teacher can manipulate the classroom’s physical aspects, hence making the classroom more comfortable and conducive for Andrew without sacrificing her plans for the whole class. According to ICD-10 and DSM IV programs, preparing and constructing the classroom to suit the needs of Andrews will be an appropriate measure of managing his autistic behaviour (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). Step 4: Promote social goals and educate peers- Because of Andrew’s autistic disorder, he is unable to establish friendships. However, educating his peers and promoting social goals will be an appropriate assistance to help him associate with his peers and make long-lasting and mutually enjoyable relationships (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). Step 5: Manage Behavioural Challenges- School environments all full of stress. Common social and academic situations create extreme stress to Andrew. These stressors situations include interacting with peers, changing schedules, adhering to the teacher’s directions and anticipating change. 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