Preschoolers with autism: mostly young infantile autistic children or babies are normally not cuddly babies.
They will not normally raise their arms to be picked up…and will avoid eye contact, or make eye contact then quickly look away.
Sometimes your autistic preschooler or baby may stare into your eye, as if they are looking into a mirror.
You will probably find they lack interest in objects and the ability to point…some infantile autistic children will point but this is normally quite a vague point and not necessarily at any thing. Some autism preschoolers will have an unusual interest in an object or thing, to the point of an obsession, which they will find difficult to share.
They may show very little variation in facial expression in response to others. For example, if smiled at they may not smile back.
Autistic preschoolers will usually have impairments in the ability to make friends.
They may latch on to another child at preschool and want to be with them all the time regardless of the child’s reaction to them.
They may display a particular preference for some children based on their appearance, hair color, or other quality in the child’s appearance rather than their personality or whether they actually like them.
Sometimes this can work also the other way an infantile autistic child may not like someone for the way they look.
They will have difficulties with ‘autism and play’ and interaction with other children and may prefer to play or be on their own. Preschoolers with autism will normally have difficulties with things like group activities and sitting on the carpet for story times or teaching.
They will not have the ability to share or understand why we share; autism preschoolers may have tantrums and outbursts of aggression.
Their ability to joint sharing will be missing, this is the ability to concentrate and share an object with another person, for example reading or looking through a book with a teacher or parent.
However there are strategies you can put in place now which will help your autistic preschooler better cope with preschool and home life, also the transition to school.
One such strategy is something called autism social stories, these marvelous tools can be shared by home and preschool keeping a routine. Autism social stories work best when they are introduced at home and preschool at the same time, this keeps continuity.
….Autism social stories are short pieces of text and pictorially rich, normally only one page long. They can be read to your preschooler with autism by the teacher or another adult, and used for all situations they are finding difficult like toileting, sharing or other behavior issues.
They are excellent tools to help you deal with aggression and other problems you may well be experiencing with your autistic preschooler.
When introduced an autism social skills story will help your autistic child understand and better cope with the frustrating and often stressful situations they encounter like playing games, turn taking, listening to stories, snack time and tidying up.
Even if the child has little or no language, autism social skills stories are going to prove valuable resource and may well be treated by your preschooler with autism as their favorite.
To obtain autism social skills stories visit
www.autismsocialstories.com/preschool_one
www.autismsocialstoris.com/preschool_one
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