Teaching Communication Skills for Students With Autism Term Paper

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Teaching Communication Skills for Students With Autism

The conditions for diagnosis for autism that are presently prevalent within the U.S. are those mentioned in the American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistic Manual for Mental Disorders," Fourth Edition, which is generally pinpointed as 'DSM-IV." Autism is taken into account by the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (4th Ed, DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994) as an existent development disorder (PDD) that is impacted by abnormal or impaired development in social cooperation and speech combined with a constrained array of actions and individual wishes. (Gresham et el, 1999).

Autism is termed as an impotent syndrome marked chiefly by important difficulty in the evolution of speech and social functioning. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) envisages a vast definition of autism that is comprehensive of associated impotencies like Asperger Syndrome, Rett's Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Autism and ASD are identifications portraying students with a vast array of capabilities and impotencies, comprehensive of separate entities with acute intellectual difficulties as also students who are strong in the intellectual aspect. (Dunlap; Lise, 1999) Autism is a life time influence usually portrayed as impacting social, understanding and creative abilities. For innumerous years, parents and some officials have watched in context with the attitudinal and psychological signs of the condition, there are innumerous physiological and biochemical association, which may also be comprehensive of the syndrome. (Vojdani; Campbell; Anyanwu; Kashanian; Bock; Vojdani, 2002, p.170) Imparity in social association, speech and creative credentials mark autistic signs. (Hadjivassiliou; Boscolo; Davies-Jones; Grunewald; Not; Sanders; Simpson; Tongiorgi; Williamson; Woodroofe, 2002, p.1223)

Students incurring autism have observable difficulties in cognition and applying language for communication. Few students with autism may demonstrate redundant indifference, while other demonstration patterns of disengaging or even intimidating attitude. Several years before, the general reply to these attitudes was reprimand, time-out, or cutting off from social life to terminate or subdue the attitudinal difficulties. Children incurring autism demonstrate an intimidating set of attitudinal shortages in concentration, understanding, communication, language, and influencing social performance, combined with attitudinal redundancies in a range of non-compliance to undue aggression and self-destructive Attitude (Freeman, 1997, Yeung Courchesne & Courschensne 1997). Autism influences three important vicinities of evolution namely Verbal and nonverbal interaction, social association, and recreational play. (Dawson & Osterling, 1997)

Children incurring autism and other acute impotencies recurrently have prominent problems with gaining and applying communication skills. Although students incurring autism have idea of communication as do students devoid of impotencies they recurrently cannot discover relevant means to communicate. Frequently, their idea of communications gives rise to attitudinal problems like oppressiveness, self-destruction, wealth destruction, and frequent quarrels. For this particular reason imbibing communication assets is the most significant one for students incurring autism to boost their social cooperation skills and mitigate attitudinal difficulties. Devoid of concise communication system, preference opportunities are hugely mitigated. Constrained preference creating opportunities also bear a semblance in more happenings of difficulties in behavior (Kern et al., 1998). In sure ways, to abandon a child devoid of communicative resources is to place the child at prominent danger for enhancing difficulty in attitude. For this particular reason, a basic aim of imbibing children with autism is enhanced communication, the most convenient and socially open attire of which turns out to be speech. (Bondy and Frost, 1994). Anyhow, when children incurring autism are imbibed the communication skills directly, their proportion of speech attainment is generally retarded, and even when the attempt does not reap any results, a vast chunk of deliberation is needed of children and staff (Carr, 1982) Apart from speech, another section of imbibing functional communication credentials has been comprehensive of viable or gaining communication entities (Reichle, York & Sigafoos, 1991).

Functional communication needs that children are capable of generalizing communication skills from imbibing circumstances to other backgrounds and occurrences that are undergone in daily basis. Horner and Budd, (1985), make a suggestion to come up to this condition, children require to apply communication credentials not only beyond circumstances, but fast and up to the context in the required period and in an array of backgrounds (Carr & Kologinsky, 1983, Halle, 1987). So as to display functional communication credentials, few children with acute impotencies require considerable communicative functions due to the fact that they have not possessed verbal communication credential or due to the fact that their verbal credentials are short of the required level. Such considerable communications systems can be applied individually or in context with spoken language.

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Such systems are comprehensive of sign language, electronic systems, and symbol systems (Schwatz & Garfinkle, 1998). In the recent times, teachers and therapists have applied the two dimensional symbol-based Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) (Bondy & Frost, 1994) to donate children with a communication system that is functional. The picture exchange Communications system (PECS) is a considerable communication system that is recurrently applied with children with autism. (Bondy & Frost, 1994, Siegel, 2000, Yamall, 2000). PECS is a prominent system due to the fact that it does not need any already required attitude, is associatively simple and cheap, and may enable speech (Bondy & Frost, 1994). The two functional communication plans are PECS and Facilitated communications, which will be analyzed in this paper.

Review of Literature

One chief aspect of children with autism is tangential or delayed speech and language credentials (Charlop and Haymes, 1994). Attitudinal intrusions like discrete trial procedures (Lovaas, 1987), incidental teaching (Hart & Risley, 1980), delay procedures (Charlop, Schreibman, & Thibodeau, 1985; Halle, Marshall & Spradlin, 1979), and pivotal response training (Koegel, Koegel & Schreibman, 1991) have been applied to boost speech, but more than half of children with autism still stay devoid of speech (Charlop & Haymes 1994). Other intrusions have been enhanced to hold in a focal point viable communication plans for children who do not evolve speech. These programs are comprehensive of non-vocal resorts of communication (Mustonen, Locke, Reichle, Solbrack & Lindgren, 1991) and are comprehensive of sign language, picture point systems, electronic gadgets, and other picture communication systems (Carr & Kologinsky, 1983; Mirenda & Schuler, 1988, Reichle & Sigafoos, 1991).

The ability for applying functional communication training (FCT) as a viability of evading minor difficulty in attitude from increasing to more serious entities was examined. Eight children who showed minor difficulty in attitude at home or at school took part in small learning sections holding as a focal point the imbibing language skills. Four among these children took part in section in which the teacher implemented FCT (i.e., functional communication skills to acquire concentration were imbibed and reinstated). The yet other children took part in a control section that was in reception of expressive language training (ELT i.e., children were imbibed lessons to reply why questions).

Children in the ELT section were as a follow up changed over to FCT section did not demonstrate shooting up in either the strength or recurrence of problem behavior which is time worn. The extent of their difficulty remained mitigated. Anyhow, children in the ELT section demonstrated shoot ups in both strengths and recurrence of problem attitude. Their difficulty attitude remained mitigated after they were changed over to FCT. As a whole, FCT gave an appearance as though it evaded minor problem attitudes from shooting up to more grave entities. Important variants in generating these answers are debated, as is the part of compulsion processes. Heuristic suggestions are given for extensiveness of the analysis of FCT as an evading plan. (Schepis; Ownbey; Parsons and Reid, 2000)

Of the many techniques employed to assist autistic children pick up functional communication skills, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) technique is very unique in many ways. Developed 12 years ago, the primary aim of PECS is to function as an additional alternative training method for children and adults with autism and similar problems to start picking up the basics of communication. Bondy and Frost in Delaware, USA, perfected the PECS, which basically use pictures as tools. The system is effectively used in individuals who are totally helpless or having minimal ability to use speech for communicating with others. (Frost & Bondy, 1994). After the inaugural use of it in the Delaware Autistic Program PECS has gained worldwide approval especially for its effectiveness in initiating the communication process in children with autism.

An added advantage of the system is that it does not need any expensive or complex tools. The needs of the teachers, resident care providers and family members were taken into account while developing the system so that it can be used anywhere like in the school or at home. To start with, the student is taught to exchange the picture of a commonly seen item with a trainer who readily accedes to the request. Since the student is not verbally prompted here, the initiation process will be quick and the chances of dependence are eliminated. After first teaching the student to.....

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