FAQ?
1WHAT IS AUTISM?
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are complex neurological disorders that have a lifelong effect on the development of various abilities and skills. ASD is characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction, as well as unusual patterns of behaviours, interests and activities.
2WHAT IS ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER(ADHD)?
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder affects children and teens and can continue into adulthood. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder of children. Children with ADHD may be hyperactive and unable to control their impulses. Or they may have trouble paying attention. These behaviors interfere with school and home life.
3WHAT IS DYSLEXIA?
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading. Kids with dyslexia have trouble reading accurately and fluently. They may also have trouble with reading comprehension, spelling and writing.
4WHAT IS CHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH (CAS)?
Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) may have many speech symptoms or characteristics that vary depending on their age and the severity of their speech problems. CAS can be associated with delayed onset of first words, a limited number of spoken words or the ability to form only a few consonant or vowel sounds. We use talk tools to train and transition muscle movements for speech production.
5WHAT IS BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION?
Applied behavior analysis is the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree, and to demonstrate that the interventions employed are responsible for the improvement in behavior. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the use of these techniques and principles to bring about meaningful and positive change in behavior.
6WHAT IS DIRECT INSTRUCTION PROGRAM?
Direct instruction has typically been implemented in special education program for students with disabilities in separate special education setting. Reading, language, arts and math are the building blocks of knowledge. With direct instruction programs, every student can master them. Direct instruction purposeful instructional planning provides extensive support as students practice and apply what they have learned.
7WHAT IS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION?
Inclusive education is integrating a child with special needs with the mainstream. Inclusive education is that students with special needs will be placed in a classroom environment with neurotypical students. Inclusion is about providing the help to special needs children to learn and participate in a meaningful way in the classroom. Inclusive education is aimed at helping all children learn at their own pace and style within a nurturing learning environment. Every child in the class benefits to develop friendships and learn social skills. Children with and without disabilities learn with and from each other in inclusive classes. Studies found that children with special needs can learn a lot of things both academically and socially in regular classroom environments.
8WHAT IS SHADOW TRAINING?
Shadow teaching is a sort of teaching support to monitor and support a specific child’s progress in the classroom. Shadow teachers assess and confirm that the child with special needs is provided educational, social and physical support in the classroom. Shadow teaching bridges the gap between regular teaching methods and learning techniques for the child with special needs. Role of shadow teacher is to assist the child in developing appropriate behaviours in school, establish an environment that helps to strengthen academic ability, and also help your child to build up on his/her social interaction skills with the goal of independence.
9WHAT IS A LEARNING DISABILITY?
Learning disability comes under a wide range of learning problems - lack of fluency in speech, difficulty in pronouncing words, finding the right word and understanding the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, days of the week and key concepts of any subject. However, it is based on how your brain receives, expresses and processes information. There are different types of learning disabilities such as:
- ADHD
- Auditory Processing Disorders
- Dyscalculia
- Dysgraphia
- Dyslexia
- Dyspraxia
- Nonverbal Learning Disorders
- Visual Processing Disorders
10WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTAL LANGUAGE DISORDER (DLD)?
It is an impairment that makes a child hard to find appropriate words and create meaningful logical sentences when speaking. Also, DLD makes a child very difficult to understand what everyone speaks. If you notice your child, you can find that both speaking and listening vocabulary of your child are very limited with very short, incomplete, illogical and ungrammatical sentences.
Types of language disorders
Types of language disorders
- Receptive language disorders involve difficulty in understanding what others speak..
- Expressive language disorders involve difficulty in expressing ideas, feelings and thoughts..
- Combined expressive-receptive language disorders involve difficulty in speaking and listening..
- Once your child is identified as a slow language learner:.
- Understand more about the problems of your child’s trouble with receptive and expressive language.
11WHAT ARE SOCIAL SKILL DEFICITS?
Social skills are the customs, rules, and abilities that guide interactions with other people living around us. Because of autism, students lose their social skills. Social skill deficits include several aspects from playing with friends to learning behaviors related to social customs. Generally, the students that have lost social skills:
- Are unable to face teasing and failure
- Are unable to make an appropriate body language according to the situation
- Are unable to make a proper eye contact
- Are unable to make questions and answers
- Are unable to start and finish conversations appropriately
- Are unable to understand different voices
- Are unable to understand the problems of others when they speak
- Fail to read facial expressions
- Fail to understand jokes, sarcasm, idioms and irony
- Fail to understand the consequences of their actions
- Fail to understand the strategies of particular task
- Fail to use polite forms of communication
- Make irrelevant replies and comments during a conversation
- Repeat information in conversation
12WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF PROBLEMS THAT KIDS WITH SPECIAL NEED HAVE?
Generally, it may be very difficult to identify that your child is affected with learning disabilities. A mild learning disability such as dyslexia or dysgraphia is harder to detect. If you suspect that your child may have a special need, you have to confirm it with an expert or a special education centre as soon as possible. Common problems and symptoms that children with special needs may have:
- Clumsiness
- Difficulty in following directions
- Difficulty in telling time
- Poor memory
- Problems associated with learning math
- Problems in paying attention
- Problems in staying organized
- Problems in understanding concepts and words
- Problems in writing and/or reading
13WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF ABA?
For the past 40 years, the theory of ABA has been the subject of many studies. Each study has already proven that this learning approach can support children with autism to learn new behaviors. From essential social skills to improved intellectual abilities, ABA supports children adjust to normal life. With the techniques of ABA, therapists can alter the social and emotional behaviors of children. Empirical studies found that ABA can enhance the intellectual aptitude of child. With this most useful approach, children can develop emotional and social skills that match their peers. Children are more likely to remain in school when they are trained with the techniques of ABA. Moreover, they perform better in the classroom. Eventually, parents can also learn the similar techniques to teach them at home. Once treatment begins, many parents can notice a positive impact on their child. They will notice better communication and less frustration.
14WHAT IS VB-MAPP?
The VB-MAPP offers a representative sample of all sorts of skills of a child with special needs, which includes labeling, requesting, answering, echoing, listening, visual perception, motor imitation, linguistic structuring, social play, independent play, classroom skills and early academics.
15HOW IS VB-MAPP USEFUL?
The VB-MAPP enables us to evaluate the learning abilities of a child with special needs in some key areas such as social, language, pre-academics and group skills. With this assessment, we can identify whether the child has touched a developmental level of normal child. When we are able to determine whether the child has touched the developmental benchmark, we can train the child to be ready for more advanced learning environments. Shortly, the VB-MAPP makes a child with special needs to go in the right direction toward learning and development.
The skills include mand, tact, echoic, intraverbal, listener, motor imitation, independent play, social and social play, visual perceptual and matching-to-sample, linguistic structure, group and classroom skills and early academics.
16WHAT IS CEREBRAL PALSY?
Cerebral palsy, a disorder of muscle tone, posture or movement, is caused by brain damage which happens to the immature, developing brain, sometimes before birth. Movement and coordination issues related to cerebral palsy may include:
- Delays in speech fluency or difficulty in speaking with correct words
- Difficulty with eating or sucking
- Excessive drooling or problems with swallowing
- Involuntary movements or tremors
- Lack of muscle coordination
- Slow, writhing movements
- Stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes
- Stiff muscles with normal reflexes
17WHAT IS DOWN SYNDROME?
Down syndrome, a genetic disorder with an extra genetic material, causes changes in the development of embryo and fetus causing mental and physical abnormalities. Every patient is unique with great variability. General down syndrome learning difficulties include:
- Fine motor skill impairment due to low muscle tone
- Hearing and vision weakness
- Sequencing difficulties
- Short attention span and distractibility
- Weak auditory memory
18WHAT ARE PRE-ACADEMIC SKILLS?
Following instructions
If a child gets trained to follow instructions from students or teachers, a child’s learning capability gets started with instructions such as, “Come sit down”, “Go get your book”, “Get a pencil” and more.
Sitting for short periods of time
Children are trained to sit for very short periods of time in a place. Without this basic skill of being able to sit in a place, autistic children may struggle to focus on anything.
Basic play skills
Children in preschool require to be able to select a toy, engage with it correctly, and then clean up and go to the next task.
Pre-academic reading skills
In our centre we teach children the following pre-academic reading skills. Some of the skills are based on receptive and expressive language.
- Children are trained to identify first and last names (receptive and expressive).
- Identification of letters and sounds are focused on training on reading skills (receptive and expressive).
- Children are instructed to match shapes and colors.
- Children are trained for sight word reading and matching to picture.
- Adding one digit numbers
- Counting 1 to 10 objects
- Counting objects using numbers
- Counting sets of objects
- Identification of money and use of money
- Identification of numbers 11 to 30 (receptive and expressive)
- Identification of numbers 1 to 10 (receptive and expressive)
- Matching sets of objects with numbers 1 to 10
- Rote counting to 10 (First phase)
- Rote counting to 30 (Second phase)
- Subtracting one digit numbers
- Time telling
- Use of a token board
- Coloring, cutting and pasting
- Coloring and scribbling
- Coloring within lines and attention to task
- Cutting and pasting
- Tracing and copying words
- Tracing name, letters, and numbers
- Writing from dictation and memory