*When did you get diagnosed with autism?
*How severe is your autism?
*Was it hard at school and was you comfortable at the school you went to?
*What have your family did to help you through the yrs?
*Is it difficult to do daily activities?
Any stories or comments you would like to share?
For the parents:
*How did knowing that your child have autism affected your life?
*Did you look at your child a different way or thought he/she need special needs?

*How old is you autistic child?

*When did your child get diagnosed with autism?

While Autism is a disorder that has been studied the world over with expert medical professionals evaluating the symptoms and treatment methods to offer best training and control of the condition, its chief cause is yet to be identified, though genetics does play a major role in defining a child suffering from Autism. The best way, in the light of all these facts, is to understand the true nature of Autism, what it means to a child to be autistic and finding ways to make the adjustment of the autistic child to the world around him or her, an easy, happy, normal and fulfilling one.
Educating caregivers of an autistic child about the disorder, equipping them with the knowledge of making others around them aware of the nature and scope of the illness and training them to help their child cope with the possibilities of living with autism are necessary to bringing about a healthy and positive upbringing for the child concerned. Learning about causes of autism is not as important then as is the need to bust any myths regarding Autism, such as poor parenting or neglect or even malnutrition is wrongly believed as being; these are just not true causes of Autism and parents must make an effort to educate themselves about Autism and also others around them.

Scientists are working to establish facts regarding Autism and bring them to light to make more people aware of the true nature of Autism as a brain disorder that has several limitations, but can be overcome to a great extent through timely counselling and therapy, including joining a support group and involving the child affected in interesting and varied programs that are age and skill-level appropriate for them, for many autistic children displaly an uncanny aptitude for math, music or art that should be encouraged.
The brain is larger in autistic individuals and due to this fact, medical experts opine that their nerves and other parts are constructed differently as compared to average individuals; thus, autistic children have an immunity issue as well due to the disorder: at times, autism may have been caused due to impromper vaccinations given to the child’s parents, though this is just a strong possibility and not a definite source of autism. It is still under the scanner.
Thus, as things today stand, the causes for autism are associated with genetics rather than mal-nutrion, bad parenting or vaccinations, which are either myths or have provided inconclusive evidence and it is felt that families need to concentrate on improving the quality of life for the autistic child by being informed about the condition, learning to cope with it in the social context and help enhance the autistic child’s future.

One change: new teacher and autism is a complex situation of acceptance both on the part of the autistic educator and autistic student.

A new class of students is sometimes quite a difficult transition, getting to know names, understand friendships, becoming accustomed to the wants and needs of the students can take some time.

For an autistic educator a new class with an autistic student can also be stressful. Most of your time and efforts may well be taken up with finding strategies to help the autistic student accept you and settle back into classroom routines.

Autistic children like routines, sameness and structure and may become anxious when any of these change.

A good point to remember is that autistic children have poor social skills and lack the ability to mind read or understand facial expressions or body language, so it wont work telling them jokes, smiling, nodding and other facial expressions, or trying to make them laugh, they just simply wont understand you.

There are help and autism resources available to help with subjects like new teacher and autism as well as other social skills an autistic student will need in school.

It will help if the autistic student is aware of the change to his / her teacher and has been given support to understand why and when this will be happening.

The appropriate autism resources for this are something called autism social stories; they will help explain the change giving key focus to the main points, i.e. why, what were and when; helping the autistic child understand the impending change and hopefully make the transition easier and less stressful.

It would be a good idea to ensure that the leaving teacher has implemented these autism resources and has explained to the autistic student why he is leaving and why you are starting with the help of the autism social skills stories.

New teacher and autism social skills stories can be downloaded and used to help make the situation less confusing for the autistic student.

Download autism social stories for this and other school related social skills stories all designed to help autistic children find better coping strategies whilst at school.

Social skills stories can help all autistic children with social situations they struggle to understand or find stressful.

Download school stories from:

www.autismsocialstories.com/school

Allergy induced autism is most commonly seen in children who have regressive autism, or autism that doesn’t make its first appearances until around the age of two. The children prior to this point show no autism signs only to suddenly appear with behavioural and neurological issues along with digestive system issues ( typically associate with issue arising from the inability to properly digest casein and gluten).

These two food proteins are rather common. Casein is found in milk and is actually one of the main proteins contained in milk. Whereas, gluten is food in wheat and grains as well as being a food additive. Due to the issues arising within autistic or autistic spectrum disorder children, an elimination diet or one that does not contain these proteins is often advised to minimize the severity of the autism. The child that have issues arising from these proteins are unable to digest them normally. Instead of going through the digestive system they are absorbed into the blood stream causing a morphine type high. This morphine type substance produces by-products which appear in the urine of autistic children ( one possible way of testing for autism). This is also the cause of the spaced out look many autistic children may have and why they become obsessive with eating foods containing these proteins, they are literally addicted to the high their body produces from these foods.

With the digestive system issues it is quite common that autistic children have high levels of chemicals within their blood and systems that their bodies are not effectively passing through as a normally functioning person would. The build up of these typically minimal chemicals can cause further issues, as like with everything moderation in foods is key and the build up in their systems can be disastrous.

In most children, the signs and symptoms of autism have appeared or will appear by the time a child reaches 3 years old. A reduction or elimination of culprit foods from their diets are essential for the child’s best potential outcome. This is where elimination diets and casein and gluten free diets arise. Parents are trying their best to minimize the effects autism will have on their children’s future outcome.

Allergies and autism are most likely linked. As you have seen many foods can cause potential issues when consumed by the autistic child and even cause addictions to the high caused by the food. If you feel your child may have a problem with casein or gluten contact their doctor who can test for the byproducts in their urine and advise from their. With you assistance and diligence you can minimize the bleakness of your child’s future.

So what questions to ask autism school? Well firstly the journey needs to be established and looked at.

Distance from home is always a big consideration; will your child need transport? How long will they be on the transport?

Who is the driver, the escort? Try and arrange prior to the start of school for your child to meet them. Look in the bus and get a general feel for the space, look at the color of the bus, seats, floor, walls etc.

How many seats, the fabric, are they noisy, itchy, soft etc? The steps to get in, noise of the engine, is their an air freshener? The smell in the bus, aftershave of the driver, the escort, autistic children have very sensitive senses and smells can be distressing to them. Do they play the radio in the bus, will this affect your child?

Autistic children are very sensitive and all of these factors will need to be taken into account as well as where they are on the collection list. Who will already, be in the bus, who is collected next, and so on?

Establish the bus rules, try out the seat belts, will you need to buy something soft to wrap around the belt if the fabric is hard, will it rub your autistic child’s skin. Will your child be seated next to the window? Who will be sat next to them?

Find out about the homeward journey again what time will they leave school? In what order are the children dropped? Is it going to be the same driver etc? Repeat all the questions as above for the journey too school.

Ask what happens when the driver or escort are on holiday or away? Who will replace them? Will you get prior notice so that you can explain the change to your child, autistic children like things to remain the same and a simple thing like different driver or seat could cause anxiety and stress.

After you have gathered all the relevant information you will need to establish a social story which will explain what is going to happen to your child.

A good social story (autism social stories) will help your child understand the what, why, where and when of the situation.

You will need to add specific details yourself like the names of the driver the name of the school etc to the story. Choose autism social stories with pictures. Autistic children will take in information a lot easier if it is visually presented.

Autism social stories are an excellent tool for giving your autistic child clear social cues and coping strategies for all those situations they may find difficult, stressful or distressing.

The social story will give your child clear instructions and help them feel more comfortable with and in those situations a social skills story is needed for.

To view an example autism social story visit us at:

www.autismsocialstories.com  the story link is roughly half way down the page.

To obtain autism social stories for the classroom and school visit us at

www.autismsocialstories.com/school

Whether high or low functioning, autism will typically present in around the age of two years old with a sudden regression or presentation of autistic symptoms.
On the other hand, Asperger’s Syndrome is a separate autism spectrum disorder. Children with Asperger’s Syndrome struggle with social interactions and restrictions, and tend to have intensely narrow interests in subjects and activities. However, unlike with autism – even high functioning autism – there is no cognitive development or language delay. Though language may be used atypically and motor skills may be clumsy at times, their development is normal.
Asperger’s Syndrome will typically present in children at about the age of three. Brain imaging has shown structural and functional differences within certain brain regions among children without autism spectrum disorders, children with Asperger’s Syndrome, and children who are high functioning autistics.
Children with Asperger’s Syndrome often fail to display empathy in their behaviors. It is social interaction where these children face their deepest challenges. Many struggle or fail to develop friendships, don’t take pleasure in achievements or spontaneous activities with others, lack in emotional and social reciprocity, and have diminished non-verbal communication behaviors such as facial expressions, postures, eye contact, and overall gestures.
However, children with classic autism (even those who are high functioning), Asperger’s Syndrome children will not typically withdraw from other people. In fact, even if they are awkward in their method, they will often approach others and begin a discussion. It is conversation where their struggle may occur, as a discussion for a child with Asperger’s Syndrome may simply consist of a long-winded single-sided speech about something the child truly enjoys, without any need for contribution from the other people present.