Full-Spectrum Living

Photo/D Sharon Pruitt (Pink Sherbet Photography, flickr.com)

Autism is known as a spectrum disorder. Alex has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS: pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified, also known as atypical autism. I think the Yale Child Study site says it better, so here, read this for a fuller definition.

Alex has some of the features of classic autism but not all. For a long time I’ve thought of autism (or at least Alex’s flavor of autism) as a communication disorder. Alex seems to have a fundamental difficulty in understanding the basic notion of back-and-forth, whether it’s conversation or tossing a ball. Lately I’ve begun trying to get him to play ball. With a little coaxing, he will toss it back and forth a few times before losing interest. For years now I’ve wanted him to learn to play a simple card game, like Old Maid or Go Fish or Concentration (or whatever you call those memory-matching games), but the pleasures of that simple exchange (mostly) elude him. I’m hoping an occasional ball game will help him to grasp it.

This week we’re featuring images of rainbows found on flickr.com to illustrate autism’s spectrum — which, when you consider people with Asperger’s or those with sparse or no language, considered to be low-functioning — is as varied as the rainbow itself, from a simple striped arc to a splash of every color, like a beckoning ice cream cone.

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The Boulder, Colo.-based LENA Foundation has increased the accuracy of the LENA Autism Screen (LAS) to 91 percent for children 24 to 48 months. Slated for release later this month, LAS will also include an automatic screen for language delays; the LAS is priced at $200. (The average age of diagnosis is 5.7 years.) The LENA System uses processing software and specially designed children’s clothing fitted with a small digital language processor.

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What technology is your child’s classroom using, if any? While we don’t want our kids completely addicted to any little screen, it never occurred to me that an inexpensive MP4 player could be helpful to Alex. Thanks to Iteachautism.com for an interesting suggestion.

Comments

By kal

We’ve worked with an app for the itouch and iphone, called proloquo2go — it’s pretty amazing what it can do and it definitely has that “cool” factor since so many kids have them. Check out: http://www.proloquo2go.com

By sarah

I work with kids with autism and have had quite a few number of students who’ve gone through my self-contained classroom with a diagnosis of “communication disorder” right alongside of those who’ve had diagnoses of “autism” or “PDD-NOS.” I’ve also had kids “outgrow” their diagnoses of “PDD-NOS” into “communication disorder.” To some degree, I truly believe the diagnosis depends on the professional giving it.

By Interested Bystander

why don’t you try playing “concentration” with just 12 cards (6 prs) or some manageable number. then if he gets that–increase number of matching cards you put out…