As more and more children are diagnosed with autism right across Australia, it has really changed the lives of their parents as well because the parent has to learn how to interact and communicate with their child differently. There is an autism spectrum and many children can be anywhere on this once your child starts to show symptoms at an early age then you should know that they will continue into their teenage years and further into adulthood. Nobody really knows why children develop this but we do know that children with autism find it very difficult to relate to other people. They have great difficulty in making eye contact and they tend to spend a lot of time by themselves.
As the parent, it is your job to do whatever you can to provide your child with as normal a life as possible and so this might involve signing up for ABA therapy in Sydney. If you are unfamiliar with what this is exactly then you should know that your child will be provided with some kind of intervention programme that allows them to manage their lives better. Looking ahead, you can expect your child to not be able to understand non-verbal communication, they may take things quite literally and they have difficulty multitasking.
There are things however that you can put into place to help both yourself and your child deal with ASD and the following are just some of those.
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- Try to be patient – It takes a little longer for your kids to process any information that is given to them and so trying to slow down the speed of your talking and pausing as long as possible can be incredibly beneficial. Always try to participate in their therapy as well.
- Provide an outlet for frustration – Children that have autism can become very angry due to the difficulties that they are experiencing and as a parent, you should let them know that it’s okay to show their frustrations but not in an aggressive way.
- Try to be persistent – It is important that you try to get your child to follow your instructions and you need to understand that they can respond to you in many different ways that may seem aggressive or quite blunt. The important thing is to not take it personally.
- Keep a positive attitude – This can be quite difficult to do but with some real effort on your part as the parent, you can always see the positivity in everything and your child will respond better to this positive reinforcement.
- Incorporate physical activity – Your child will have a very short attention span and so engaging in games that are physical are a great way to spend time together. Running around and having fun gives them the relaxation that they need and you will find that your child becomes a lot calmer.
If you follow these five pieces of advice then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have an excellent relationship with your child who has autism spectrum disorder.
