Parents should always make an effort to rule out any signs of medical issues in order to increase the effectiveness of the behavioral treatment. If the child has a medical issue it may reduce, slow down or prevent the child from a complete habilitation from behavioral intervention or mainstreaming. Some medical issues to keep in mind include the following. The following list includes some items that research has suggested a relationship to developmental delays and autistic type behaviors. One example is hearing or hearing problems. Numerous research articles and papers at conferences have talked about the strong relationship between hearing problems in clients with autism, aspergers, aggression and developmental delays. They often present data with a direct correlation between these problems or control studies. These children usually have a history of ear infections, tubes in their ears or pain in their ears. When a behavior therapist or parent does an assessment this is a very useful thing to ask about when reviewing the history of the child and the "organism" variables in the SORC analysis. If the parent or child has a history of ear problems they should be referred to a specialist for ear problems not just the general practitioner. The reason for this is that often a general hearing test may not pick up some more specialized problems with the ears. A specialist such as an otologist or ENT is preferred to be sure there is no problem that could jeopardize learning for the child. Other examples might be medical problems that lead to sleep problems, genetic disorders that causes a variety of problems, small seizures that are not detected, vision problems, allergies, stomach problems and constipation. These topics will be discussed more in depth in future blogs. Medical issues should be ameliorated so that the child can progress to his upmost ability developmentally through behavioral interventions.
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Caregivers and Parents often complain that there child does not sleep. Some options and ideas about what issues to bring up to doctors and behavior analyst are listed below. The first thing a caregiver should do is to make some sort of data sheet or log with the behavior analyst recording how much sleep the child is actually getting and at what time of the day.
A second suggestion is to rule out any medical problems. Children often suffer from sleep apnea, allergies, colds, urinary tract infections, or incontinance, ear infections or other medical conditions or side effects of medications that lead to a reduced number of hours of sleep. Situational problems such as living arrangements that are loud or noisy, roommates, recent break-up of parents, loss of a relative, stress at school or with other problems. The above issues should be addressed before designing complete and effective sleep program procedure. Note:These are just a few of many items to consider Bathing is a very complex task for a person that has not done this task before. Therefore it definitely should be broken down into small steps. After one step is mastered then move to the next step. Usually, the first step is to step into the shower. The last step is usually the hair which is a little more complex. Many caregivers do not realize the amount of time it saves for them by making the child or person independent in bathing. This is a task that is usually done daily. The effort for a month or two of training will pay off in the long run with years of not having to bathe them. Also, the child or adult will feel much better about themselves and the control they have over the activities in their own lives. In general, people that can perform most of their own care feel much happier:)Consistent
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