Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter Han Hongli correspondent Tian Fan Sun Huihui
The three core symptoms of children with autism are social dysfunction, language disturbances, and stereotyped behavior patterns.
Language expression disorders include nonverbal communication disorders such as children's speech, expressions, movements, and behaviors. It is reported that most of the children trained in the Autism Rehabilitation Center of the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University come to the doctor because of "language development delay". In the process of rehabilitation training, many parents regard language training as more important than any training, and even say "Doctor, just give my child language training, he just can't speak."
In fact, this is a rehabilitation misunderstanding, Li Ling, director of the Children's Health Care Institute affiliated to Shandong University, said that for the rehabilitation of autistic children, it must be comprehensive, not a certain aspect, the child's comprehensive ability has improved, and the language will come out naturally and naturally.
What should we do about language interventions for children with autism?
01. Cultivate children's interest and willingness to interact with others
Li Ling said that first of all, it is necessary to cultivate children's interest and willingness to interact with people, that is, children's willingness to communicate. No matter what kind of way children convey information, they must give children corresponding responses and replies, so that children can experience that it is a pleasant and meaningful thing to interact with others.
The second is to help children gradually understand language. In what kind of situation, what kind of language communication method is used, what kind of tone and intonation are used, and if necessary, body language can be assisted to encourage the production of children's language.
02. Improve children's cognitive comprehension ability and logical thinking ability
The relationship between language and thinking is inseparable, and the ability to express language is constrained by the level of cognition. "In layman's terms, the child's language expression ability is dominated by the brain, and the child's cognitive ability is improved, which is one step closer to opening his mouth and speaking." Li Ling said that when parents conduct language training for children, they must pay attention to improving children's cognitive ability at the same time and combine language and cognitive training. We should also pay attention to cultivating children's abstract logical thinking ability, grasping the internal logical relationship of things, learning to think about problems and solve problems from the perspective of the other party, and improving children's social communication skills.
03. Pay attention to the development of non-verbal ability
Children with autism are unable to capture the nonverbal content of communication to adjust their own conversations, nor do they understand the content of other people's conversations, so they cannot initiate and sustain the topic. "When we intervene with children, we should pay attention to the development of non-verbal ability, and use more eyes, gestures and expressions to communicate and interact with children, and children's communication skills will be truly improved." Li Ling said.
04. Give children more opportunities to communicate in language
Due to over-care by caregivers, many of the needs of children with autism are met without the use of language, resulting in children losing many opportunities to learn and use language. Li Ling said that to get out of this misunderstanding, caregivers need to stop too much care and pampering. Give children more opportunities to communicate in language, let children put forward their ideas in the right way to communicate in the right language, and promote their motivation to use language correctly.
How can I assess my child's level of development?
In order to better assess the child's ability level, formulate an individualized education plan, and promote the balanced development of children's various skills, the Children's Health Care Institute of the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University has introduced a milestone assessment and placement procedure for language behavior, referred to as VB-MAPP assessment, which is currently a widely used professional assessment method in China.
Scope of application of the VB-MAPP assessment: Assessment of the language and social abilities of children with autism and other developmental disorders, i.e. any child under the age of 4 who has developing problems with language development. It can help identify barriers that hinder a child's learning and language progress, and can help guide a child to develop a program of individualized interventions.
The VB-MAPP assessment consists of three parts:
1.VB-MAPP milestone assessment showing the child's current level of development in terms of language expression, cognition, learning ability, social and play skills; 2. VB-MAPP impairment assessment, through which the assessment identifies the current barriers that affect children's learning ability acquisition and language development, and gives targeted intervention strategies to address these issues; VB-MAPP Transfer Assessment: Helps identify whether a child is making meaningful progress and has the ability to learn the necessary skills in a relaxed teaching environment, thereby providing an objective assessment of the child's overall skills and existing learning abilities and providing guidance for the educational needs of participants. The core appeals of the three parts of VB-MAPP are the ability development level of children with developmental disabilities, the processing of problem behaviors and the opportunity for integration.