Doudou's mother has been very depressed recently, Doudou is almost 4 years old this year, but she still can't say a complete sentence, and will only say some words sporadically. After entering the kindergarten, I rarely play with other children, and I only like to hide in the corner alone and play with the carton, staying for a long time. When playing alone, he also ignores his parents or other people, and even rarely makes eye contact with those around him.
Doudou's mother took the child to the Children's Rehabilitation Specialist of the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and after the doctor's examination and evaluation, Doudou was diagnosed with autism.
According to the doctor's advice, after a period of training, Doudou has improved symptoms, improved social skills, and can participate in cooperative games under guidance. But because of the recent repeated epidemics, Changsha has become a closed control area, and The mother of Doudou is worried that her child cannot continue to come to the hospital for rehabilitation training, and the little progress that is not easy to see will also be suspended?
What is autism? What are the symptoms of autism? How to carry out home rehabilitation training during the epidemic? Xie Ying, deputy chief physician of the Department of Child Rehabilitation of the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, gave a detailed introduction.
What is autism
Today is "World Autism Day", and this year's theme is "Focus on Autism Services, Build a Social Security System, and Promote the High-quality Development of Service Institutions".
Autism spectrum disorder, also known as autism, is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by disorders of social interaction (verbal or nonverbal communication disorders), narrow interests, and repetitive stereotypes. According to epidemiological data in 2020, there are about 2 million children with autism aged 0-14 years in mainland China, and about 160,000 new children are added every year.
Common symptoms
The name should not be called, do not make eye contact with people, less likely to appear finger behavior, language development is backward, and accompanied by abnormal behaviors such as turning in circles, repeatedly taking the elevator, and talking to themselves.
Home rehabilitation
The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine combines the students' current home environment, according to the characteristics of most children who listen poorly to instructions but have a high acceptance of visual prompts, carefully design a daily work and rest time, and guide parents to make a structured schedule to improve their children's compliance.
When staying at home, parents can use some small games to teach their children how to wash their hands and wear masks using visual cues. At the same time, help children establish new life routines and maintain a steady life.
1, you can do experiments with children to help children understand the spread of the virus, such as using a brush to stick paint, throwing around to simulate sneezing, and then let the child touch with his hands, after a while, the child will find that his clothes, face, and home are stained with paint, in order to simulate the spread of the virus. Visual cues are then used to teach them to wash their hands and wear masks.
Visual cue diagram for handwashing
Familiarize yourself with masks
Because autistic children are difficult to accept new things, you can first let the child familiarize himself with the mask, by looking at it, then touching it, rubbing it, so that the child can psychologically accept the mask and recognize that this thing has no harm to himself.
Demonstrate wearing a mask
Parents can first demonstrate how to wear a mask, or find a child of the same age to demonstrate, let the child observe and learn. Under normal circumstances, imitation among children is the fastest, and some children begin to accept masks after seeing their brothers and sisters wearing masks.
Magic use of reinforcements
For example, first touch the child's face with a mask, then quickly give him rewards and encouragement, and then hang the mask on his ear, while continuing to quickly give him rewards and encouragement, so that step by step strengthening, and finally let the child wear a mask without resistance.
Do what you like
Some children with autism resist wearing masks, perhaps because they don't like the color or appearance of the masks. Parents can try to put a sticker that their child likes on the outside of the mask, or choose a color that your child likes, or even a mask with a cartoon pattern printed on it.
When the rules of life change, in order to help children better adapt to the new way of life, parents need to help their children establish new life routines.
For example, set the appropriate time for the use of electronic products; when arranging the daily activity process, give the child the opportunity to choose; parents can help the child use SMS, phone or WeChat, QQ or other applications to chat with family, friends, neighbors, teachers to maintain social contact; you can also arrange online interactive social games for children, etc.
Under the epidemic, it is particularly important to be able to intervene at home for children with autism during home isolation. Parental involvement under professional guidance has an important impact on alleviating autism symptoms and improving their social interaction, cognitive, and academic skills.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has opened a combination of medical education and health intervention mode of "child-centered" and "aim-oriented to promote the improvement of social function of children with autism", and used traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture, pediatric massage, acupuncture point patching, five elements music and other combination of education courses and rehabilitation training for comprehensive intervention, which has a good effect on improving the core symptoms of autism.
(Edit ZS.) Image source network, invasion and deletion)
Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Xie Ying, Cao Zhengliang, First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
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