A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO AUTISM: DR. FRED VOLKMAR SHARES 5 TIPS FOR PARENTS

Dr. Fred Volkmar has drawn on his many years of experience researching autism spectrum disorders in writing his recent book, A Practical Guide to Autism.  Here, Dr. Volkmar shares with parents and caregivers five valuable recommendations for effectively negotiating the needs of children on the spectrum.

•  Know your child’s strengths and vulnerabilities.  Use the former to address the latter when possible.  For example, children with autism often profit from use of visual supports (schedules and so forth) and other strategies that use their strengths in visual processing to help with learning.  Children with Asperger’s may profit from use of verbal medication and explicit listing of rules. 
• Work on Organizational Skills.  Individuals with social vulnerabilities  are prone to organization troubles (what psychologists call executive function difficulties).  At every level of ability there are steps that can be taken to help.  This spans the range of visual schedules, use of things like PowerPoint to organize papers and presentations, to computers (spell checking and schedulers), to organizational software like Inspiration.com (Kidspiration).
• Parents should be educated consumers of care and service.  Don’t be misled by promises of miracles and simple fixes.  Children with autism can and so often make substantial progress but this is often hard work and you are in it for the long haul. 
• Have a good primary care doctor AND dentist and use them for routine well child care.  Using the office and visiting the doctor when the child is sick helps everyone concerned.  The doctor or dentists can get more familiar with the child when they are not sick, it helps the child be more comfortable with the office and doctor when they are ill.  Do not skip regular dental checkups – this catches up later in life when adolescents and adults need general anesthesia for routine procedures.  Some dentists are specially trained to work with individual with disabilities. 
• Work on generalization of skills.   The learning style in autism is often one where people learn things in isolation or in whole chunks.  As a result generalization of what they know to real world settings can be a problem.  Parents, siblings, family members, and peers can help generalize skills from school to home and from home to community settings.   Encourage independence.
 
Dr. Fred Volkmar is the Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, Director of the Yale University Child Study Center, and the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology.  Dr. Volkmar is also a distinguished member of the YAI Network's Autism Advisory Council, and has previously presented at the YAI Autism Conference.  You can read about this year's conference and presenter here.  For additional insights and other important information on autism spectrum disorders, see A Practical Guide to Autism by Fred Volkmar and Lisa Wiesner.