Fundamentals of Autism

A Handbook for Those Who Work with Children Diagnosed as Autistic

The Fundamentals of Autism Handbook provides a quick, user-friendly, effective, and accurate approach to help in identifying and developing educationally related program objectives for children diagnosed as Autistic. These materials have been designed to be easily and functionally used by teachers, therapists, special education/learning disability resource specialists, psychologists, and others who work with children diagnosed as Autistic, as well as, being easily adapted for children with similar disabilities.
Part One provides definitions for Autism, as well as, descriptive definitions for other similar disabilities to help in differentiating Autism from Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Differential Diagnosis Disorders, Mentally Handicapped Disorders, Asperger’s Disorder, Fragile-X, Schizoid/Schizotypal Personality Disorders, Childhood Disintegrative Disorders, Rett’s Disorder, Schizophrenia, Developmental Aphasia, Hearing Impairments, Expressive/ Receptive Language Disorders, Stereotypic Movement Disorders, and Selective Mutism. Part Two discusses what kinds of assessments are necessary in diagnosing Autism and provides a moderate to severe level Autistic case sample. Part Three presents examples of applied behavior analysis in programming for the children with Autism. Parts Four and Five list further information sources and references.
Includes two accompanying checklists:

1) Autism Checklist For Parent/Home Settings,

2) Checklist For School/Educational/Treatment Settings-when combined ask for essential background information needed for diagnostic and/or the implementation of educational programming. The checklists break down and identify six noted relevant subscales of abnormal or impaired development typically demonstrated by individuals diagnosed as Autistic:

1) Situational, object, and social interactions,

2)Patterns and sequences,

3)Cognitive/thought processes,

4) Communication,

5) Sensory stimulation, and

6) Repetitive, stereotyped, and/or self-stimulatory.

This source handbook provides suggestions for the development and implementation of goals and objectives, for example, breaking down of behaviors into smaller component subsections. Parents/teachers will find this an invaluable resource addressing critical issues. This one-of-its-kind package echoes simplicity, depth, and scope to replace the long thought of repetitive/withdrawal syndrome, or “Autistic Child Syndrome” with “Applied Behavior Analysis” employing insightful task/skill models, helping the challenged child chart his/her future using specifically targeted goals.