Autism Spectrum Disorder

ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a common diagnosis amongst our students at Rabbi.

For starters, the term "spectrum" in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to the wide range of symptoms and severity that manifests in the child. ASD is a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person understands and socializes with others, causing difficulty in social interaction and communication. Children may find it hard to talk or have a hard time when placed in a room full of people. Although there is no reported cure for ASD, in-depth and early intervention partnered with an encouraging and healthy environment and supportive and understanding family can make a big difference.

Symptoms typically begin to manifest in the early childhood stage (usually around 2 years old), others would manifest during infancy. Due to a wide range of symptoms and severity, it’s most likely that children diagnosed with ASD may have similar symptoms but have different and unique patterns of behavior and level of severity. However, severity may sometimes be hard to determine due to the unique spectrum of symptoms of each child.

At Rabbi, students diagnosed with ASD tend to have similar symptoms based on the assessment conducted prior to enrollment but would be on a different level. Rabbi uses play coaching as one of the techniques used in the intervention, activities and plays are designed appropriately for the child’s age and it’s behavior found during the assessment. These activities are necessary for the development of the child’s behavior appropriate for his/her age and skills needed. Partnered with active parent involvement to the intervention can make a big difference to the child and could possibly speed up the development of the child.

Students enrolled with ASD (ages 4 years old - 15 years old) tend to (as per assessment) be manipulative with the people around him/her into doing activities according to his/her personal wants, avoids doing activities that are not in favor to his/her wants, insists on doing activities in his/her favor, tends to be fidgety or seek stimulating actions or movements, resists to take in new concepts presented or do activities that he/she is not familiar with, persistent in terms of doing the opposite of the task presented, prone to tantruming when his or her wants is not followed and lastly, tend to be aggressive by hitting others or self or destroys things when stressed or upset.

These students tend to be indulgent by getting stimulation, a desired response, activity or to obtain something he/she desires in general; they also tend to avoid demands and keeping oneself away from a person, environment or activity and lastly, they tend to respond to a stimulus without giving it much thought or planning. Their behaviors may be triggered by the difficulty of the task or activity presented, the restriction imposed, familiarity of the task or activity, and the choices provided to the child. It can also be triggered by the way the task or activity is presented, the complexity, and the accessibility of the resources and materials. Behaviors can also occur when the person or child is with a specific person, in a specific place, situation or presented with a specific task with a specific stressor.

In order for our children to effectively learn and enjoy their sessions, we design their activities that would target their behaviors. We approach them through their favorite thing to do - play. It is much easier to teach children through doing what they like, slowly incorporating lessons along the way where they too, are slowly but surely improving and eventually learn how to handle different situations, stressors and behaviors.

As previously stated, there is neither cure nor prevention for ASD but with early and proper intervention and with proper parent training paired with an environment that is conducive for growth, it is sure that the child may improve, learn necessary skills, be a functional member in the society and become a person that, as parents, wish our children will become when they grow up.

Having your child diagnosed with ASD or any other disabilities is not the end of the road but rather a start of a wonderful one where acceptance of who they are is the big first step you have to take. It will not be easy and it’ll be challenging but remember to them you are their world, knight and shining armor and best friend - you are their most favorite and important person. We have to accept and learn more about them and you’ll be surprised at what you’ll learn.

“God will not give you more than you can handle”