The basic principle in treatment is to approach the child and take him/her out of his/her shell to make the child take care of his/her environment. However, this situation is not as easy as it seems. The resistance of an autistic child can be so strong that even the most loving, warm parents may not be able to reach the child. Autism is a condition that requires dealing with the child tirelessly. Psychoanalytic therapy has increasingly been replaced by behavioral therapy in the treatment of autistic children; More emphasis has been placed on education for cognitive, social and language development. The treatment process takes place in 2 steps.
1. Taking the child out of autism
2. To ensure that the child uses his / her existing talents and adapts to the environment.
The method we will apply using 3 important features of the autistic child will give positive results in the treatment of the child.
1. Autistic children do not like other people touching them and avoid being hugged.
2. Autistic children are very interested in music. Even when they are most grumpy, they calm down when the music is played.
3. Autistic children love to swing. Swinging on his/her own , turning around himself/herself is very pronounced in autistic people.
Children do not resist receiving tactile stimuli while playing their favorite music and while swinging. When we approach and hug the autistic child in these moments, when we show love, the hope of getting him out of his inner world will be born. Thus, the autistic wall will be pierced, and the autistic child will begin to relate to the outside world and people. However, the time it takes for every child to recover from autism is not the same. Some of them never come out no matter what is done.
While the autistic child is taught basic skills, he has a lot of difficulty due to severe behavioral problems. Therefore, as a start, the child’s behavioral problems should be tried to be reduced, the positive behavior of the child should be encouraged and developed. New skills to be taught to the child should be taught piece by piece, not as a whole, but in stages, and the child’s failure should be avoided. For example, hand-washing behavior; It can be taught as turning on the tap, taking soap, wetting hands. When teaching a skill, the child should be helped at every stage from the beginning to the end, in order to make the skill fully done, and then the help should be reduced gradually. While teaching a skill, it is necessary to know the abilities and characteristics of the child very well.
Various awards should be used to increase the success of the child and to accelerate the learning process. The child must be rewarded for every right work he does. This reward can be a food, a toy, a pleasant game, a hug, a hug, a kiss. As autistic children learn slow, there may be little or no improvement in your children’s skills. In this case, you should not be discouraged, you should continue to work patiently. It is a convenient and good way to imitate sounds, words and occasionally sentences to improve the speaking skills of autistic children. Education should be given to the child not according to his chronological age, but according to his developmental age and the level of cognitive functions.
Sedat Dörtkardes
