Different Levels, Different Needs

Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope That Can Transform a Child's Life
by Lynn Kern Koegel, Ph.D., Claire LaZebnik

(Page 2 of 6)

We're also aware that children with autism fall in very different places along the spectrum of the disability. Because our approach is geared toward an individual child's needs, it's appropriate for use with children of all different levels and skills. It's not one-size-fits-all but rather allows you to tailor any and all information to the child you're concerned about. The single diagnosis of autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, can cover a very wide range of strengths and weaknesses.

When you first read this book, you may choose to focus on the behaviors that are most problematic in your child. Does he hum and flap his arms? You'll definitely want to read the chapter on self-stimulatory behaviors. Is she aggressive toward other children? Take notes on chapter 3, "Tears, Meltdowns, Aggression, and Self-Injury: Ending the Cycle." Not talking even though he's over three? Chapter 2, "Ending the Long Silence: Teaching Your Child to Communicate," covers our approach to teaching verbal skills. And so on. If your child doesn't have a problem in any specific area, you might want to read the chapter about it, anyway, but concentrate your work first on the areas that are causing the most stress to your family and the most difficulties for your child. Ironically, we address these challenging areas by drawing on the child's strengths.

These "focused interventions" - that is, interventions that focus on areas that are causing difficulties for your child - are not a replacement for a multicomponent plan that helps your child learn to communicate, socialize, and behave well in mainstream everyday settings. You still need to be sure that your child's comprehensive needs are being met with systematic, effective, and caring interventions, but the focused interventions will help you address specific areas in an efficient way, so that you see the most change in the least amount of time, and these changes can help improve your family life and allow your child to participate in more community activities.

Other chapters in this book will help you ensure that your child is a motivated, enthusiastic learner and prevent future problems from cropping up.

A Literary Support Group: Reading for Empathy

This book is a description of interventions that will help your child overcome the most severe symptoms of autism. But it's also the story of one family's life with autism, from diagnosis to better days, aided by those same interventions. We want every parent of a child with autism - or any clinician who works with one - to know that she isn't alone in her frustration, fears, hopes, anxieties, and occasional despair.

This book is written by two women. Lynn Kern Koegel, Ph.D., is the clinical director of the Autism Research and Training Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Koegel and her husband, Robert Koegel, Ph.D., are experts in the field of autism, and together they run the UCSB Autism Research and Training Center, one of the oldest research and clinical programs in the country. The interventions used at the UCSB Autism Center are data-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) procedures that have been shown to improve the symptoms of children with autism. The aim of the clinic is to develop and teach the children "pivotal responses," a method of focusing interventions on specific areas whose improvement has been shown to lead to widespread positive improvements in many other symptoms of autism. Research has shown that focusing on certain behaviors results in greater gains in less time and more positive long-term outcomes.

Too many treatments developed in the past were so unpleasant that the child had to be dragged into the clinic sessions kicking and screaming, and then long periods of time would elapse while the child's disruptive behavior was ignored - or, even worse, punished. In contrast, the approaches described in this book are individualized, family centered, and child friendly. In fact, the goal is for the child to have fun while learning - so much fun she doesn't even know she's doing "work."

The Koegels' work with children has been nationally recognized and acclaimed, and they were recipients of the Children's Television Network's Sesame Street Award for "brightening the lives of children." The interventions that Dr. Koegel recommends in this book are humane, cutting-edge, developed and tested in the field, and generally fun for the whole family.

Dr. Koegel's coauthor, Claire LaZebnik, did not set out to become any kind of expert on autism. She's a novelist and the mother of four children, the oldest of whom was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. Necessity has obliged her to become a full-time (with lots of overtime) organizer, implementer, and coordinator of behavior-based interventions for her son's autism. Throughout this book, Claire describes her own thoughts, fears, and experiences as the mother of a child with autism and how her family dealt with each specific symptom.

Dr. Koegel gives advice and describes interventions; Claire talks about trying to make interventions work in real life, with all the difficulties, stresses, and high emotions that come when a child in the family has very special needs.

© 2005 Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, used by permission.

About the Author

Lynn Kern Koegel is one of the world's foremost experts on the treatment of autism. She and her husband, Robert L. Koegel, Ph.D., founded the renowned Autism Research Center at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Californian, Santa Barbara. She lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Claire LaZebnik is a published novelist and magazine writer. She lives with her husband and four children in Pacific Palisades, California.