Cottage Autism Network Wexford: How CAN came to life...

Autism

Autism is a disability that affects a child's development in the areas of social interaction and communication. Children with Autism may show no interest in peek-a-boo or other interactive games. They may not communicate; instead they may "hand-lead" to the desired object. Many have poor eye contact.

Characteristics also include repetitive behaviours and resistance to tiny changes in familiar surroundings.

Sensory Issues: A child may have difficulty with clothing, noise and new situations. Some children have gastro-intestinal problems such as diarrhoea, constipation and food sensitivities.

The first signs of Autism, usually appear as developmental delays before the age of three. Autism is a "catch-all" word that is applied to a group of symptoms, some of which are mentioned above. These occur in varying degrees depending on the individual child.

Research has shown that early intervention plays a huge part in your children's progress. An appropriate education plan should be established immediately and should include - speech therapy, occupational therapy and behavioural intervention. Some parents have reported success with dietary and biomedical interventions.

If you are concerned about your child, contact your GP or Public Health Nurse and seek assessment for your child.

Monday, January 18, 2010

How CAN came to life...

Published Wednesday February 27 2008

A WEXFORD based couple who have offered untold support to children with autism, are the worthy recipients of the Health and Welfare People of the Year award.

Frederike Frederiks and Servaas Dodebier have dedicated their lives to giving early intervention' to children with autism, with a view to helping them move on to main streem schooling. As founders of The Cottage School, the pair employed tutors who set up individual educational programmes for children with autism, and saw immediate progress in their own children. Through their dedication the paid campaigned to have the Department of Education provide a specific autism unit, and one is now established at Scoil Mhuire.

The unrelenting grit and determination of Frederike and and Servaas has helped over 30 children in Wexford, with a 57% success rate into mainstream schooling - a statistic which is even better than the experts anticipated.

As a result the Cottage Autism Network was born and now there are more than 50 families from Wexford who are members.

Early intervention for children with autism is crucial, and the first hurdle every parent encounters is getting a diagnose. Not deterred, Servaas and some friends from Irish Autism Action climed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds to found Solas, a diagnostic centre of excellence.

People can bring their child there and have them assessed by a full team of occupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists. The ethos behind the centre is that a diagnosis is made within six weeks. More than 26 children frm Wexford children from Wexford have been assessed and thanks to the generosity of the people of Wexford, through Autism life cycle 2007, the burden of cost was reduced for these families. For many people their home has become a home from home for other concerned parents, where a warm welcome is always offered. As one of their nominators put it Their home is a place of hope, where the abnormal and sometimes idiosyncratic nature of our special children is treated as normal and no different, and where I for one, always left happier, and full of hope and determination, knowing I wasn't alone in this one.'

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Occupational Therapy

What is Occupational Therapy (O.T.)?
Occupational Therapy aims to maximize a child’s participation in home, school, play and leisure activities i.e. activities of daily living. Occupational Therapy is important when a child’s ability to participate in/ or perform these tasks is affected or compromised by illness, disease, disability or disorder.

How Occupational Therapy Helps the Autistic Child

Children are assessed in terms of age-appropriate life tasks. Occupational Therapy addresses areas that interfere with the child's ability to function in such life tasks. An occupational therapist would assess the child’s fine motor skills, coordination and self-help skills. (eating with utensils, dressing etc) The occupational therapist would also look at how the child responds to and uses what he sees, hears, feels, tastes and smells. The occupational therapist would identify the child’s impairments and provide intervention services to develop skills in these identified areas.

Occupational Therapy benefits a child with autism by attempting to improve the quality of life for the individual through successful and meaningful experiences. This may be accomplished through the maintenance, improvement, or introduction of skills necessary for the child to participate as independently as possible in meaningful life activities.

These are some of the skills occupational therapy may foster:

daily living skills, such as toilet training, dressing, brushing teeth, and other grooming skills
fine motor skills required for holding objects while handwriting or cutting with scissors
gross motor skills used for walking or riding a bike
sitting, posture, or perceptual skills, such as telling the differences between colors, shapes, and sizes
visual skills for reading and writing
play, coping, self-help, problem solving, communication, and social skills

By working on these skills during occupational therapy, a child with autism may also do the following:

develop peer and adult relationships
learn how to focus on tasks
learn how to delay gratification
express feelings in more appropriate ways
engage in play with peers
learn how to self-regulate

And this from Andrea Roche, ASD Unit Teacher Scoil Mhuire Coolcotts Wexford.

The Benefits of Occupational Therapy for children with Autism.

In Scoil Mhuire Wexford we are lucky enough to have a purpose built, fully equipped occupational therapy room. We are also fortunate enough to have a group of dedicated parents from the Cottage Autism Network who have raised enough funds to employ an occupational therapist who works with children in our school and in St Senans, Enniscorthy and members of C.A.N county wide. This has provided us with a consistent occupational therapy service.

Each child has individual sensory and motor needs and so has an individual programme to meet these needs. The sensory levels of the children can change from day to day and moment to moment and because our staff are familiar with the recommendations and equipment, they can immediately react to calm a child who is over stimulated or vice versa. The recommendations are carried out not only during occupational therapy sessions but throughout the day when needed. Weighted jackets, weight bearing exercises, fidget toys, structured movement breaks along with consistent behavioural plans and vigilant staff have helped to reduce significantly inappropriate behaviour. These strategies have been a huge benefit to the children in aiding concentration, listening skills and participation in group work. We have also seen improvements in fine motor co-ordination, which is an area of great difficulty for our children. The use of slant boards, weights, pencil grips and specific fine motor exercise have aided this.

There is no doubt that occupational therapy is of huge benefit to children with sensory processing problems. We have found when it is used in conjunction with consistent behavioural plans by staff who are aware of the difficulties facing children with autism, the benefits are even greater.

Cottage Autism Network Wexford

Autism

Monday, January 18, 2010

How CAN came to life...

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