The management of health is often connected with the strategies that may involve assistance, guidance, predicting the progress of development and other possible interventions. Especially, these are more probably required when dealing with the neurocognitive problems.
The present description is concerned with the role of teacher in the better management of Autism in children. Briefly, Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder which involves impairments in communicative skills, societal interaction and behavioral adjustment (Levy, David & Robert, 2009).
According to the DSM-IV criteria and the International Classification of Diseases, a special category known as pervasive developmental disorders involves pervasive developmental disorders, Rett’s syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), autistic disorder, and Asperger’s syndrome (Levy et al., 2009).
Children with autism need special care. This could be better approached with educational strategies under the supervision of teachers. For example, an experienced teacher could instruct good manners and behavior.
They could implement a well organized day schedule while maintaining firmness in their attitude (Grandin, 2002). A strategy of one-to-one speech therapy in a week is a good practice by the teachers. Parents need special training to handle children with Autism (Grandin, 2002).
Teachers could raise awareness programs for parents say, with special emphasis on spending on games for nearly four hours a day (Grandin, 2002). Busy parents can be instructed to hire caring old women who may better manage Autistic children (Grandin, 2002). This could be because they have potential to teach from all corners. For instance, they help autistic children undergo various ‘turn taking activities like roll the bottom ball.
During the mealtime, autistic children could be prevented from inappropriate behavior (Grandin, 2002). Hence the teacher can emphasize on the strategies like speech modulation, play time, abnormal manners at meals which might help in assessing the autistic children’s connection with the outside atmosphere (Grandin, 2002).
This would definitely help early childhood educators provide the least restrictive environment for this child (Grandin, 2002). Next, parents often become susceptible to stress during the regular care involved in the management of their Autistic children.
Dabrowska and Pisula (2010) conducted a study to evaluate the profile of stress in parents of preschool children with autism. This was done to gain insights on the connection between coping skills and parenting stress. Here, a questionnaire based test was organized for families. Stress was observed in parents of Autistic children.
When both the parents were compared for parental stress, mothers scored higher than fathers (Dabrowska & Pisula, 2010). This could indicate that parents and family members of infants or young children with autism need to overcome stress and modulate coping styles. Behavior problems need special attention in young autistic preschool children.
In a study, Preschool Social Behavior Checklist (PSBC), was especially designed to recognize social behaviors that could set apart autistic preschoolers from other children who are can be distinguished easily with their developmental levels (Stone & Lemanek, 1990). Teachers could review the information entered in the list about the achievements obtained during the early five year period (Stone & Lemanek, 1990).
This could help in assessing the progress of development in the behavior of autistic children. This would particularly shed light on imitation skills peer and imaginative play (Stone & Lemanek, 1990). Therefore, teachers could identify and instruct the care providers, like parents and family members about the social deficits inherent in preschool autistic children which may have diagnostic implications on autism (Stone & Lemanek, 1990).
Communication plays central role in the care of young autistic children. In this regard, parents can be trained by the teachers to benefit them from autism spectrum disorder management so that they could enable their children develop effective social communication.
In a study, that involved young children aged 2 years, parents were trained to participate in both the rapid and delayed intervention programs of the course (McConachie, Randle, Hammal & Couteur, 2005). Here, the result was assessed by vocabulary size of children, child habitual atmosphere, and stress.
A good outcome was observed for the parent intervention group (McConachie, et al., 2005).Hence, parents could be better rained by teachers by considering the important factors like vocabulary, ability of child, diagnostic grouping, time gap between the assessment strategies (McConachie, et al., 2005). However, the outcomes would be feasible provided there is a follow up period of nearly 7 months after training the parents (McConachie, et al., 2005).
Further, assessment of the interactive and developmental skills is on of the important component in the teacher career with regard to the Autism management of young children. Here, the impact of development on the imitation and interaction can be assessed by video tape observation (Rveveur et al., 2005).
With the inclusion of long time intervals between1 year and 4 year, children can be evaluated quantitatively (Rveveur et al., 2005). The outcome would be at a very young age children could show variations in the in the imitation and interaction on the basis of their developmental levels (Rveveur et al., 2005). This approach might help parents to better cope with the developmental deficits of their autistic children according to their developmental quotients (Rveveur et al., 2005).
Recently, it was described that there is limited research as far as the early intervention strategies are concerned for infants and toddlers below 3 years with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This might prevent teachers and parents from access to the affective care of young autistic children.
To overcome the negative consequences of poor investigations, a four intervention strategic curriculum was developed (Wallace & Rogers, 2010).
This was based on temporal features in the initial stages when the risk becomes identified; emphasizing on long range targets instead of those involved in narrow range; personalization to every toddler’s developmental record, and the last important parents role in the proper implementation of intervention that focuses on parent coaching currently in progress, sensitivity and responsivity to children’s signs (Wallace & Rogers, 2010).
It is essential for the teachers to develop intervention programs to screen pre-school children with Autism and fully understand the efficacy of diagnostic approaches. Mawle and Griffith (2006) have described that in primary care settings special tools and checklists are important elements of autism screening.
In this regard, two vital tools such as CHAT (Checklist for Autism in Toddlers) and M-CHAT (Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers) were utilized for long term and short population screening process (Mawle & Griffith, 2006). When both the strategies were compared M-CHAT had good sensitivity with low follow for parent purposes compared to CHAT (Mawle & Griffith, 2006). It was revealed that Children and infants with Autism who are less than or equal to 5 years (Mawle & Griffith, 2006).
In conclusion, teachers could better implement the above mentioned research based strategies of screening as their instruction and intervention skills are connected to Autism care of young children . Parents could learn these strategies taught by the teachers in an evidence based manner.
Preschool children and toddler need parent and family based interventions being instructed by the teachers as a part of their educational awareness program. This might help to overcome the defects adopted by the care givers beginning from the early stages of young children with Autism.
References
Dabrowska, A., & Pisula, E. (2010). Parenting stress and coping styles in mothers and fathers of pre-school children with autism and Down syndrome. J Intellect Disabil Res, 54,266-80.
Grandin, T. (2002).Teaching Tips for Children and Adults with Autism. Web.
Levy Susan E., Mandel David S., and Schultz Robert T. (2009). Autism. Lancet, 374, 1627-1638.
Mawle, E & Griffith, P. (2006). Screening for autism in pre-school children in primary care: systematic review of English Language tools. Int J Nurs Stud, 43, 623-36.
McConachie, H., Randle, V., Hammal, D., Le Couteur, A. (2005). A controlled trial of a training course for parents of children with suspected autism spectrum disorder. J Pediatr, 147, 335-40.
Receveur, C., Lenoir, P., Desombre, H., Roux, S., Barthelemy, C., Malvy, J. (2005). Interaction and imitation deficits from infancy to 4 years of age in children with autism: a pilot study based on videotapes. Autism, 9, 69-82.
Stone, W, L and Lemanek, K, L. (1990). Parental report of social behaviors in autistic preschoolers. J Autism Dev Disord, 20, 513-22.
Wallace, K, S, & Rogers, S, J. (2010). Intervening in infancy: implications for autism spectrum disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 51, 1300-20.