Re: New symptoms of Autism have appeared - HELP

October 4, 2004

Real and group,

Join in her play. Make it interactive by taking turns. Talk about the

objects--how they are alike/different. Get some little people and make an

imaginative game. Get some containers and create a turn taking sorting game.

Reinforce ANY flexibility she will tolerate.

Read about " Floortime " in Greenspan's book. Most kids with autism add new

items to their behavioral repertoire--some,like self injury,need aggressive

intervention. IMO,lining things up is no big deal. Neither ABA nor a special

diet will significantly impact human development. If you can stick with ABA,you

will be able to teach her the kinds of functional play skills that she will

begin to enjoy. Then lining things up will seem pretty boring.

,Colin P's mom

[ ] New symptoms of Autism have appeared - HELP

Hi,

My daughter was diagnosed as HFA at 18 months and been on the GFCF

diet ever since. She started ABA at 20 months for 1 hour a day. Now

she just turned 22 months and last week we noticed for the first time

she started lining up toys belonging to the same group. E.g., wooden

Blocks, or leggo pieces, sometimes if she comes across lollipops of

diff colors, peg puzzles taken out of the board and neatly placed

next to each other.

This is very scary! We thought we were not going to see any further

signs of autism considering that she had only social and verbal

deficiencies, she was diagnosed early and we began treatment too. She

is picking up words and rhymes quickly, responding very well in her

ABA sessions. Attends regular daycare for the whole day. Eye contact

is improving. Please someone let us know how to address or treat this

appearence of the classic autism symptom of lining up objects.

Besides the GFCF diet, we also consulted a DAN doc who put her on

Probiotics and Yeast aid. The probiotics was causing her extreme

discomfort and would result in crying all night. So we stopped that

and her sleep pattern has been great and she is alert and attentive

the next day. We are going to start RDI very soon. Please let me

know if any therapy, activity or treatment (if any) DIRECTLY

addresses this " lining up of objects " issue.

Ever so grateful to you in advance for your suggestions.

Real

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October 4, 2004

Real,

As time has passed since our daughter's diagnosis of Autism at age 2 many

repetitive behaviors have come and gone.

We addressed with ABA based methods the behaviors which interfered with learning

or were particularly troublesome to us(like taking all the cushions off of all

the furniture in the house MANY times a day). Predominately we used extinction

with differential reinforcement of alternative or incompatible behaviors.

Other behaviors we simply ignore, most come and go to be replaced by another

more interesting one. She has never had any self injurious behavior so this has

not been an issue.

In regards to treatment, the data I am aware of would support a more intensive

number of hours of ABA based intervention for autism. You have a wonderful

opportunity to intervene in the progress of her autism with early intensive

intervention.