Interventions | Autism PDD

Sarah is doing great in upper and lower body strength doing gymnastics~recommended by Kristy:)  They do everything! Swinging, jumping, rolling, running...and they have some cool trampolenes that they can jump and go into the foam pits:) Sarah loves it and they are quite a few boys too:)

For social we did over 2 years of playgroups 2x a week...she didnt generalize it to school but she is starting to this year..it is funny but her best friends are the bi-lingual speaking kids~they dont judge her quirky language and she doesnt notice their broken english..

 

The language thing is just constant reminders...Sarah spoke like a high pitched piccolo and we would just constantly tell her to lower her voice...we got one of those snake tubey things to talk in and have her repeat our tone back and forth using different pitches so that she would know the difference.  She talks totally normal now.

 

 

For gross motor, my son got a big boost from a gymnastics-type activity group run by the physical therapist.  It was for kids who were overweight, preemies, etc.  This was when he was 5, and helped him build some confidence.These are all great ideas!
And yes, Fred I'll take this opportunity to announce how proud I am of J
for making it theough our disney trip with NO STROLLER! woo-hoo. we
don't ever use one at home, but I didn't know if he could make it on foot
the whole time. Two miles is quite a feat!

Kristy, I was already thinking of a gymnastics class, and actually called
one today that specializes in working with special needs kids. I'd love to
send him to a regular gym, but I do't think he's ready yet. He's very
anxious and fearful sometimes and needs a lot of support when he tries
new gross motor tasks (he has gotten worlds better, but had quite serious
vestibular sensitivities...)

Music Therapy sounds WONDERFUL. I'm going to look into that for sure.

Still can't get him in the pool--maybe next year.....or the year after.....


And about voice modulation: He has more issues than volume control--
he has a very odd prosody and a sometimes unnatural sounding "aspie"
voice. Other kids are starting to look at him funny when they hear him
talk (of course, though adults think it's quite adorable--he sounds like a
cartoon sometimes ) He speaks from his throat sometimes when
he's tired--it sounds all clenched and robotic--I actually think it's a type
of stim in that it might simply feel good to him to vebrate his throat like
that. Does anyone else have this voice issue?

KathyK, are you in south bay or orange county? If youre in the beach
area, perhaps we could save money and meet a voice coach together!
(just a thought )Mama Kat, I am in Long Beach on the south end right next to Seal Beach.
I will have to research the voice modulation some more. I do definitely see a
need for this as well. Let me know if you find something that works.

For gross motor, try gymnastics.  Many people don't think of this for little boys, but it's great.  We had the boys do a year of gynmastics last year at one of those private "gymnastic clubs." These places are all over and they offer reasonably priced classes for little ones (no more expensive then a park district / community based class).  It's their way of scouting talent for their competitive programs that start when kids are around age 8.  The boys were in a class with 10 other boys and they learned the traditional boys gymnastic stuff:  floor exercise, rings, high bar, pommel horse and vault.  They also did monkey bars over a giant pit of foam blocks, climbed ropes, etc.  Very very good for gross motor and overall coordination.  The gymnastics floor is like a giant sensory yard for our kids!  It's also a nice place to work on social skills.

 

I have been looking at social skills as well lately. The one recommendation
that I have been given is tooo far for me at this time. Check out the site
though because it is pretty interesting. The voice modulation thing is
another thing I will be interested in. Do you think a voice coach will help?
If I have to pay another SP the 0.-0.00/hr rate, I will just start crying.

http://www.kellymckinnonassociates.com/socialskillsclasses.h tml

We used to have voice modulation issues, and we just kept reinforcing the "inside voice" and "outside voice" concept and it eventually got better.  Okay, this is a very broad topic--but my guy needs some new activities/
therapies to help him with the following:
attention
gross motor skills
social skills
voice modulation
(yes, it's "spring cleaning" around here, therapy-wise )

I'd like to know anything specifically that helped your child in any of these
areas. Traditional and non-traditional, alike---

Thanks in advance!

gross motor skills - just being outdoors and active seems to have helped more than "therapy" - Evie actually walked for two miles last weekend (to and from a swimming hole).  This is a big leap in endurance for her (she only begged to be carried once :)

voice modulation - gosh, I wish I knew.  Some folks on this board have suggested some simple games - basically, playing - immitating different volumes and rythms of speach.  I haven't tried it, but man, my ears are ringing when both (or all three) of these kids get going, yikes.  I hope it's just a phase.

Music therapy can really work on attention and voice modulation. (I am a Board-Certified MT that used to work with children with autism). I used to do a lot of activities that required a child to listen for specific sounds, words or instruments in the music or have them repeat rhythms after me on sticks or other instruments. Singing activities can work on voice modulation. I also used the microphone a lot with them. Then, the idea would be that the skill would generalize. MT's often run social groups as well. Encouraging interaction through music first, then to other settings.

We just go to the park a lot for gross motor and swimming lessons.

For social skills - I have Payne talk to anyone/everyone that is willing. We take him to the bakery at the grocery store and he asks for a cookie...I prompted him, but now I don't need to - I explained to the ladies why we do what we're doing and they started pitching in...he now looks them in the eye and asks...please/thank you's too. 

For gross motor - We don't do anything major at home. We go to the amusement parks a lot - so he's walking everywhere.

Voice modulation - when he gets loud...I get quiet...then he starts whispering and I say " I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!" We do that a lot as a game in the car. He's gotten better about it.
We played a game where the kids pulled the name of a song out of a hat (row row your boat, happy birthday, abcs.etc) then they pulled a style (rap, country, robot, opera) I don't know if this is what you're looking for because I don't know anything about voice modulation but the kids loved it.. It was hilarious watching a seven year old "spin discs" in the air and say "hang on, let me drop a beat!" before rapping his abcs...  What about swimming class for gross motor.  That really helped BenjaminOne major thing I took home with me from the conference is social skills need to be realistic!! For example, teachers will tell 4 year old boys to walk up to someone a say "Hello, how are you? My name is Jasper." (I had to laugh because this is howmy ex & I taught Gage!) So then the kid walks up to a group wen he's 6 or 7 and says "Hello, How are you today?" Well the kid is going to stick out like a sore thumb because kids at that age say "Hey" or "What's Up" or in high school they might just kind of nod a each other LOL So try to match your social skills teachings so it sounds natural. Thats one tip I have been trying to use, straight from an Aspie!
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