Tips for Understanding and Managing Autistic Child's Behavior - Literature review Example

Running Header: Autism Management Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Autism Management Introduction Autism-Ribbon (2010) maintains that Autism is self abnormal absorption that is marked by a disorder in communication and short attention span with inability to treat others as people. It is a complex disorder in development which affects ability of a person to interact and communicate with others. Autism is usually characterized with lack of spoken language, motor mannerisms and repetitive language use with little contact of the eye, lack of spontaneous play and fixation of objects parts which is persistent and less interest in peer relationship. Autism is generally a brain disorder which results in socialization, development and communication problems from people suffering from the disorder. Autism usually results to interruptions in both non-verbal and verbal communication as well as social interactions which eventually affect the performance of education of the affected person or children. Stereotyped movements and repetitive activities are other characteristics usually associated with autism. Autism is as well characterized by environmental change or daily routine resistance as well as unusual sensory experiences responses. According to university of Lowa (2009), Autism as a disability affects students in their learning process mainly through several areas like communication, social participation, and repertoire of interests, activities and imaginative development. The learning process is interfered with by autism disorder through development rates and sequences by exhibiting arrests, delays, social, physical, and learning skills regressions. Other skills in children associated with autism have other skills developing at an extremely depressed rate. In most cases, the order of skill acquisition does not necessary follow normal patterns of development. Visual, gustatory, auditory, and kinesthetic stimuli responses to sensory processing are repetitive, unusual or even non-meaningful. These are usually the characteristics associated with children having autism. Autism also makes children have cognition thus exhibiting abnormalities in generalizing and thinking process. This is as well characterized by abstract judgment, awareness and thinking. This may as well have impaired ability and perspective thinking in processing symbolic information. Stimulatory-Behavior Management policies in Autistic child at Brookside School Carr (2008, p. 54) maintains that autism condition in a child calls for self stimulatory behavior management especially in a classroom situation where there is a child suffering from autism condition. A school with such children requires policies that effectively assist in managing autistic children. Self stimulatory behavior management is extremely crucial in enabling children with autism be capable to function well hence reducing self-stimulation behavior of the child. This will enable reduced learning interference in a child as well as increased of the child’s interaction socially and effective with others. According to Witson (2003, p. 75) well planned policies and strategies by school management and staff will enable effective management of classroom behavior to enable increased academic achievement by those children having autism conditions. Staffs in a school with child suffering from autism should ensure the policies they come up with reduce significantly the self-stimulation behaviors in order for it to reduce the behaviors’ interference with the child’s learning process and entire life in general. As illustrated by Frith (2007, p. 943), a professional consultant in autism is required in developing the policies and strategies to utilize in managing child’s behaviors especially those suffering from autism in the learning institution. Brookside school is one such school that has laid out policies to assist in guiding the staff in the management of a classroom behavior. Brookside school has laid strategies in ensuring self stimulatory behavior of a child with autism. A policy by Brookside school should ensure that the autism will be well managed adequately in ensuring that the learning process in autism child is significantly improved. Brookside school has laid out a policy that states every staff member should ensure the self stimulatory behavior of a child with autism is well managed through extensive use of all methods available to ensure the child’s behavior improves through exercising all available means. According to Mary & Charles (1998, p. 78) extensive physical exercise should be utilized to ensure that the child’s self-stimulatory behaviors are eliminated. Brookside school has put it a must that staffs should ensure a child with self-stimulatory behavior is looked after specifically. This will ensure that their self-stimulatory behaviors are improved mainly through good and effective management by every member of staff in Brookside school through paying special attention to the child suffering from autism. Lawrence, Mitchell & Lovaas (2005, p. 281) maintains that all children should be encouraged on the importance of socializing and interacting with the autism child by all staff members in the classroom. It will be the responsibility of the staff members to ensure that the child with autism and classroom with that child is looked after specifically. It is the role of every staff in Brookside school to utilize and apply all behavioral techniques to eliminate and reduce self-stimulatory behavior of autism child. Some of the behavioral techniques that staffs are supposed to utilize include reinforcement of incompatible behavior like overcorrection, time-out, and punishment in trying to reduce self-stimulatory behavior. It is a policy in Brookside school that every staff should have enough knowledge and understanding on how to deal and manage self-stimulatory behavior of an autism child and the entire class where the child is learning. This will ensure that the special needs of those autism children are looked after well so as to achieve well managed behavior. Staffs are supposed to write and teach simple social stories to autism children in order to improve their social and appropriate behavior skills. Such social stories by staffs in Brookside will act a way of managing the autism behavior of the child. Such stories will be based on a situation that need to be addressed and resolved in order for the autism child to get various directions of solving their problems and improve their learning skills and entire life interactions. This will in a great extent assist the autistic child in addressing variety of difficulty behaviors in several situations in their life as well as ways of interacting with others. As illustrated by Frakey (2008, p. 1321), staff should make sure that the child undergoes various exercises through assistance with other classroom colleagues in ensuring full participatory of the child in various activities. However, special attention should be paid to the child with autism problem in order to ensure his or her skills are improved greatly so as to reduce their effects on his learning processes. Staffs in Brookside school are encouraged to know the main factors that may be hindering the learning processes of the child with autism. Staffs should encourage and ensure other children corporate well with the affected child in order to ensure the child’s behavior and social attitudes are improved greatly. According to the Brookside policy, staffs are always notified on the importance of assisting the affected child without segregating him or her at any moment. Rutter (2004, p. 212) maintains that this will encourage improved performance and change of behaviors including attitudes of the autistic child. Staffs should ensure that they are informed on the ways to deal with such behaviors of a child with autism whenever they are within their vicinity and in particular the classroom. According to Brookside school’s policy, it is the role of every staff to ensure self-stimulatory behavior management is put in place especially for a child with autism problem. This is through ensuring stressful things or factors in child’s life are reduced in their environment especially in a class or learning areas. Reducing stressful situations in an autism child will ensure that self-stimulation behavior is not triggered at any moment. Therefore, Brookside school has ensured that its policies assist in minimizing those behaviors drastically through good management of that child’s behavior effectively. It is the role of every staff to make sure there are no things that can trigger or offset the child in order to ensure that the child does not “stim” (self stimulation) and instead replace “stimming” with other socially acceptable alternatives as illustrated by Dianne (1999, p. 45). Brookside School has ensured that important details on how to handle and assist autism child are obtained from psychologists and psychiatrists in order to impact that knowledge to their staffs. This will eventually ensure that effective management of self-stimulatory behavior management is effective. Staffs in Brookside are not supposed to expose the weakness of the autism child to other colleagues in the classroom. Foxx (2004, p. 90) argues that this will assist in reducing the stigma that might develop within themselves and lead to a more separation of the child from others; this might increase the autism effects of the child. Instead, staffs or teachers are encouraged to ensure the child with autism cooperates and socializes with others in order to reduce the effects of autism in themselves. According to the Brookside school’s policy, staffs should cooperate with the child’s parent to ensure that there is no misunderstanding on the ways to handle and deal with the child. Informing parent on what is happening in school will ensure the parent is updated on their child’s progress; this will ensure that the parent offers support accordingly to the staffs in Brookside school. Giana (2008, p. 56) argues that special needs and assistance should be given to the child with autism in the classroom. Every teacher in Brookside has a role to play in ensuring that guidelines on class management are followed keenly with proper instructions being provided to all students on the way to behave and achieve intended goals. In ensuring good management of the classroom with autism child is possible and effective, frequent meeting should be attended between parents and staffs according to Brookside policies in ensuring the child with autism is well managed and handle through the transfer of vital skills and behavior both at school and at home. According to Brookside policies, all staffs should have skills on the ways to push-in. Push-in ensures that any upcoming opportunity in class is utilized in ensuring autistic child practices and learns the targeted skills and goals. Brookside policies ensure self-stimulatory behaviors in autism child are prevented by staffs through not giving that child a chance or opportunity to practice it at any moment. Staffs are encouraged to know when the new self-stimulatory behavior arises or crops hence the need by staffs to nip it as quickly as possible as illustrated by Amy (2006, p. 190). Staffs in Brookside school are supposed to ensure there are no potential risks on the child’s environment especially in the classroom. Making fun in a classroom should be done by staffs in Brookside school as a policy to ensure the self-stimulatory behavior is well managed and reduced in the autistic child according to Lisa (2006). Brookside School has policies that ensure situations which shut down the autistic child towards development and change to their autistic behaviors are dealt with effectively. Staffs should ensure that the classroom where the autistic child is well looked after. According to the Brookside policies, staffs are encouraged to provide a daily routine to the classroom with autistic child. Such a classroom should as well be provided with a predictable environment by the staff as a way and strategy of managing the autistic child. According to Treffert (2005, p. 123) staffs should prepare autistic child in advance on any changes that may take place on the daily routine of the classroom. Staffs are not supposed to spring up surprises on such classrooms with autistic children. Staffs are not supposed to make a lot of abrupt changes in the classroom with autistic child but rather introduce the changes slowly and in advance and only when necessary. In managing self-stimulatory behavior in Brookside school, activities in a classroom with autistic child should have structure. According to Brookside policies on self-stimulatory behavior management, distractions in such a class should be kept to minimum and more so when communicating in such a class, this will assist in capturing of entire message intended to be transferred to the student’s. Staffs in Brookside school should ensure that noise and other interfering disruptions are kept to minimum when any kind of communication is taking place in that classroom. Brookside school policies require that staffs should ensure that they have child’s attention when communicating and teaching with others in the classroom. Staffs should ensure that the autistic child pay a lot of attention to them when communicating and teaching in the classroom. When giving instructions in such a class, staffs are encouraged to allow autistic child process the instructions by giving them enough time. Staffs are not supposed to rush towards child’s decision and solution making process at any moment. According to Evans (2007) there is need for patience in decision and process making of an autistic child. Brookside’s school policies requires staffs to use visual aids like picture books or even flash cards and other visual aids to the classroom in ensuring intended message moves across and understanding is well perceived when communicating in a classroom with autistic child. Instructions given in classroom should be direct and as simple as possible so as to reduce any room of misunderstandings that may arise at any moment. According to Brookside School’s policy, the staffs should be consistent in everything they do in order to keep in track when working and teaching in a classroom with autistic child. There is a policy that the staffs should ensure they provide a safe place to the autistic child by ensuring the child retreats in order to de-stress and calm them down when the child’s coping becomes a problem. In some situations, the staff should ensure situations like stress, fear, overstimulation and confusion do not exist in the classrooms in order to ensure that autistic child is able to cope well with the classroom situation as illustrated by Retusnldo (2009). If any of such factors exist, it is the role of staffs to ensure they remove that cause or factor in the classroom. Group situations or activities should be encouraged in order to reduce stress in the autistic child. Staffs should ensure that group activities or situations are frequently created in the classroom in order to ensure autistic child can be able to cope with the learning process. Brookside school has another policy that ensures any autistic student or child does not stay alone or with another autistic child but rather they are supposed to be in pair with another un-autistic child or peers. This is an effective approach towards ensuring improved social and academic support from other colleagues. Staffs or teachers should be extremely keen when trying to change the behavior or even discouraging a certain behavior in an autistic child as that might be replaced by another behavior that may be even worse in the classroom environment. Staffs are supposed to ensure that special attention is paid to the autistic child while providing special treatment care to the classroom with such a student. Conclusion Autism as a group development disorder is characterized by impaired social interaction, unusual, severely impaired activities, repetitive activities and interest as well as problems in verbal and non-verbal communication. Therefore, it is important to critically look at the ways that can be used to assist those people affected by such a situation or condition. Such should include laying out policies and strategies by schools that have autistic children or students in their school. This will assist them in managing their academic works. Brookside school has set out policies and strategies as illustrated to ensure effective management by its staff in managing such a class with an autistic child. All possible efforts should be put in place to ensure children with autism problem in school are well looked after in order to improve their conditions. Effective self-stimulatory behavior in schools like Brookside will ensure improved condition of such children through out their entire life. Staffs require being encouraged on the importance of taking into consideration the set out policies by schools in order to effectively support autistic children from their class. Such policy like providing predictable environment to autistic children is implemented effectively. The staffs should as well ensure the attention of autistic children is fully addressed. Parents should also play a role in ensuring that autism is resolved in their children by cooperating with the staff and school management. 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