Being the parent of a young child with autism requires considerable organisation and documentation skills. Buying a yearly diary for your child is a good way to record the following:

• Appointments & key information on service providers
• Your child’s key accomplishments such as new words or successful play dates
• Key information received from service providers e.g.: diagnostic terms, goals, homework

Keeping accurate records during the early years is a lot harder than it looks! A diary will help you keep pivotal information in one place.

Our aim is to promote consistency in approach for each person that works with your child. We understand that variations in teaching can prove very stressful for the young child with autism. Family carers have shared that they keep an updated 'FACT SHEET' to pass to each new service provider consisting of their child’s:

• Likes
• Dislikes
• Behaviour Triggers
• Useful Strategies
• Calming Activities
• Things to Avoid
• Strengths
• Challenges

Sharing key information is an important step in the collaboration process and well worth the effort!

Parents often report that although their child is receiving a comprehensive intervention program from a variety of different service providers, issues that worry parents at home may not really have been addressed.

We suggest that you make a list of the concerns that you have at home. Once the list is written put a priority next to each issue (A/B/C). When you visit your service providers ask then to help support you specifically on the high priority issues. If the service provider cannot help directly, ask who else could help with this concern. Being proactive is an important skill for parent case managers.

Research suggests that the severity of autism is related to the amount of family stress. Children of highly stressed mothers made less progress.

The best outcomes for families were found to be affected by:

• The number and degree of Social Supports
• Parent’s own coping strategies
• Faith and Belief Systems

Visual supports are a way of working with our children in a way that they understand. Visual supports can be used to support understanding of what is going to happen, support verbal communication, and help to explain social expectations and rules. Our natural tendency is to make ‘beautiful’ visual supports that are coloured and laminated. BEWARE!

In our experience, visual supports should be viewed as a ‘work in progress’. It is common for visual supports to be restructured a number of times during training before they are considered ‘ideal’ to do the job. So bottom line, ONLY LAMINATE after the training and restructuring period is complete!

Parents have the responsibility of knowing their child better than anyone else! Staying informed can be a daunting task. Knowing the types of questions to ask service providers can help you keep abreast of what is happening in your child’s intervention program i.e.:

• What area are you looking at?
• What do typical kids do at this age (in this skill area)?
• What level is my child?
• What does s/he need to learn next?
• How will you teach him/her this skill?
• What can I do at home to help him/her learn this skill?
• How will we measure performance?

The answers to these questions can be recorded in your child’s diary! Matching teaching steps to your child’s ability will result in more success in understanding, applying and doing.

Having a young child with autism in your family is likely to mean that everybody will need to reassess their roles and responsibilities. It is also important to plan to keep a balance between what is required for your child with autism and the needs of the rest of the family.

Family carers have shared that having a family planning meeting can help everybody understand what needs to be done and by whom. Useful things to discuss include:

• What are the priority intervention goals at this time?
• How can these be practiced during the routines of the day at home?
• Who will be responsible for practicing these skills?
• Who will give feedback to teachers / therapists?

There are many strategies that can help your child with autism better understand his world. Parents report that the following ‘fabulous 5’ can reduce challenging behaviours at home:

• First-Then Schedule (using pictures, photos or words). When children know when an activity will finish and see what is coming next, unnecessary stress can be avoided!
  
  
• Visual Time. Understanding when an activity will finish is sometimes hard to explain to a child who may not yet have developed time concepts. Showing the passage of time using a visual clock (Time Timer, or egg timer) helps children see ‘how much longer’ they can play or work before finishing.
  
  
• Choice Book. Giving choice is an excellent way of helping children be less rigid by showing them available options. Choice can be displayed through pictures or words. The aim of choice book is to help children to pay attention to ‘what else is on offer’. It is also a clever way of helping your child feel empowered, even when there is really not much of a choice i.e., ‘Do you want to do painting first or second….’,‘Do you want to paint at the table or on the easel’.
  
  
• Low, Slow & Show. Talking to your child at their level (that means you have to bend down!), talking slowly (to allow time for processing), and showing (using gestures such as pointing and facial expression) can help your child successfully pay attention to you.
  
  
• Take a break. Creating a designated calm time break area in your home, and scheduling for regular break times can help your child develop a sense of control and self regulation. This is an important lifelong skill.
  

One of the characteristics of autism is ‘unusual’ or ‘unexpected’ behaviour at times.

What we have learnt (often the hard way) is that all behaviour happens for a reason and NOT to assume that your child understands what is expected or what is going on around them.

When a behaviour occurs, we can ask the following questions and reflect on the answers before developing a support strategy:

• What is familiar about this behaviour (is there a pattern)?
  
  
• What am I expecting my child to do?
  
  
• What actually happened?
  
  
• How might this have looked from my child’s perspective?
  
  
• What does my child want?
  
  
• What is my child thinking?
  
  
• What is my child trying to say?
  
  
• What would I do more of, less of, or differently next time?

Developing effective support strategies takes time and should be the result of accurate analysis. There are no quick fixes!

We need to encourage our children to pay attention to people and eventually to imitate them in work and play. This is the basis of all learning.

It is very important that everybody working with your child be a good model for:

• Communication - speak at your child’s level; use clear words; reinforce all communication attempts and do not push your child to speak beyond their level
  
  
• Social interaction - routinely point-out other people, their actions and reactions
  
  
• Behaviour – model good behaviour and don’t forget to reinforce all good behaviours e.g.: ‘like the way you waited quietly for me’

Being a good role model means placing the spotlight on you or other people, so your child can have appositive experience in looking, understanding and learning.

Children with autism need opportunities for frequent and intensive learning. In a busy household it is not uncommon for ‘quality learning opportunities’ to be relegated to the weekends.

Experience has taught us that it is much more preferable to do small amounts on a daily basis, rather than leaving it all to the weekend. Have a talk with your family, and decide what can be done on a daily basis during household routines, and try to divide up the responsibilities, so that your child learns to successfully interact with key people at home in a successful way.

Many parents request that their child to be placed in group / classroom learning contexts. However, to be effective, groups must be highly structured and take into account the individual learning needs of the child with autism.

Simply being placed in a classroom does not guarantee learning for a young child with autism! Children are best matched according to their Personalities, Skills, and the Needs of the participants.

Successful classroom learning is often characterised by highly motivating activities for individual learners; visual structure so that learning is visually clear and meaningful; and increased positive social experiences with adults and peers in meaningful contexts.