Early Intervention/Preschool

Early Intervention/Preschool

Early intervention can be described as the support and services obtainable to young kids and babies with disabilities and developmental delays. These could comprise physical therapy, speech therapy, and additional services based on the child and family’s needs. Various disorders require early intervention, most predominantly autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Typically, parents with children with autism struggle a lot, especially in supporting their children in school. Once their children are diagnosed, most fall into depression and have increased anxiety levels and additional mental health-linked problems. When the stressor and family adjustment challenges are combined, distress is bound to occur, which could develop into a crisis. As such, the school has a role in incorporating programs that assist autistic children and their families. Even though research has been done in this area, there is a gap in early intervention programs such as family training, speech therapy, and hearing impairment services for children with autism. According to Gunderson et al. (2022), a study on ASD children’s caregivers’ fidelity in implementing methods is lacking. Therefore, this research explores family training, speech therapy, and hearing impairment programs and the essence of having them to assist autistic kids and their families.

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Family Training

Owing to an ignorant society, studies regarding the impact of the family condition and the environment around children with autism spectrum disorder remain unclear (Ma, 2022). Essentially, family training, in this case, can be described as equipping the caregivers of children with autism with the right skills to handle, adapt and take care of autistic kids. This includes the parents of the child and guardians who care for the kids. As such, this is, in most cases, referred to as parent training. Even though caregiver interventions in constructing obedience tend to be generally successful, observing fidelity in precise methods is vital for the intended training of caregiver-mediated intermediations (Gunderson et al., 2022).

Normally, a primary approach to distinguishing family training programs is finding out if they are intended to offer parental support and support knowledge gains regarding ASD diagnosis and a program aimed at actively involving the parent in endorsing skill attainment for an ASD child. Generally, parent support constitutes programs that are aimed at providing indirect benefits to the child by supporting the parent as the caregiver and cumulating parental knowledge regarding autism spectrum disorder.

Psychoeducation and care coordination are terms that could be utilized in categorizing parent support. Considering the educational and medical necessities of kids with ASD, care coordination is a significant feature in the entire clinical administration. Certainly, autistic children utilize increased healthcare resources more than the general pediatric populace. As such, care coordination is intended to link families to services and bridge gaps alongside a care trail. In most cases, this entails helping parents circumnavigate the complex array of educational, alternative, behavioural, and medical treatments. Psychoeducation revolves around presenting parents with updated information regarding ASD. Notably, it helps parents comprehend ASD, encourages parents to open up about their emotions about ASD diagnosis, and assists them in developing some applied approaches to managing their children with autism. By opening up, the parents find support in each other, thus becoming less stressed. Besides, high parent stress levels could change parenting conduct which might eventually affect the child’s autism symptoms and behavior difficulties (Eshraghi et al., 2022).

Moreover, effectual psychoeducation programs could assist parents in modifying anticipation for their kid’s future and promote suitable services. For instance, psychoeducation could help parents in preparing for the challenges in the Individualized Education Plan. In addition, guardians of newly diagnosed kids necessitate direction regarding interventions with empirical support, interventions that are seemingly unsafe and unfounded, and interventions without firm proof that are promising. The parents of kids who are newly diagnosed may find it very challenging to accept that their children are autistic. Some may even take time before seeking treatment, and this merely worsens a child’s condition. As such, guidance during this period is extremely vital, and even more significant is knowing that there are other parents who have been through the same and their children are doing well. Moreover, throughout the life of a child with ASD, new challenges could come up; for instance, during puberty onset and independent living, and in this case, psychoeducation can be highly beneficial. Unluckily, as autistic kids grow up, they do not fully recover from the condition. Notably, normal treatment can merely minimize the disease impact (Ma, 2022).

Speech Therapy

In most instances, the autism diagnosis occurs in early childhood as communication abilities develop. This disorder makes it challenging for kids to communicate to variable extents. As a result, speech therapy revolves around challenges with communication and language. The therapy could assist autistic individuals and enhance their nonverbal, verbal, and social communication. The primary goal is to help the child with autism communicate in highly functional and valuable means. Speech-associated and communication challenges differ for different children with autism. In some cases, the children cannot speak, while others love talking but find it hard to hold a dialogue or comprehend facial expressions and body language when talking to other persons. The speech-language pathologist’s (SLP) evaluation, whereby a child’s communication challenges and strengths are assessed, is the commencement of a speech therapy program.

The speech-language pathologist typically creates personal goals for therapy from the evaluation. Some common objectives could include the enhancement of spoken language, learning to communicate through a substitute technique, or learning non-verbal abilities like gestures or signs. Speech therapy could assist an autistic child in working on various aptitudes. For example, matching feelings with accurate facial expressions, reinforcing the neck, jaw, and mouth muscles, making the speech sounds clearer, moderating voice tone, and utilizing a speech app on an iPad to produce accurate terms.

Furthermore, speech therapists know what to do to help children with their communication. They are also conversant with some guidelines that could assist the parents in helping their autistic kids. Mostly, parents have sturdy relations with their kids compared to the SLPs and have more chances of interacting with them. As such, they have a significant responsibility in kids’ communication growth. In most cases, parent-led interventions have positive results for autistic kids and their family members. Indeed, this could eventually minimize stress on the family. Parental engagement enables them to develop sturdier connections with their kids, thus comprehending their kids more and learning to inspire communication. Consequently, caregivers and parents are, in most cases, the major speech therapist providers for autistic kids; as such, they should collaborate with SLPs in embedding communication lessons for the kids during development.

According to Sandham & Hinchliffe (2022), recognized precedence in enhancing autism services bridges the gap in autism communication services. Inadequate studies have investigated the physicians’ perception of the study-practice gap. Examining the obstacles encountered and facilitators utilized in clinical practice could play a significant role in identifying sustainable and scalable techniques to enhance the application of evidence-based practice in communication delivery services for kids with autism. Speech therapists and occupational therapists are highly likely to be engaged in behavioural and sensory processing concerns and managing communications (Junnarkar et al., 2022).

Hearing Impairment Services

One out of fifty-nine kids with hearing loss has ASD. There is an estimated three per cent of hearing impairment in the general pediatric population (Mishaal et al., 2022). However, parents distinguishing these issues could be challenging. In some instances, autistic kids are misdiagnosed as deaf, owing to the coinciding symptoms and behaviours in both disorders. Therefore, recognizing the ASD hearing loss and signs is vital, and the kids should be assessed. Accordingly, early intervention could make a significant difference in children’s quality of life. Normally, congenital hearing impairment could be present in some children, and hearing loss could develop during childhood. Some of the hearing impairment signs that parents could notice include speech delay, failure to react to noises, consistent mispronunciation of words, using high volume on entertainment devices, and behavioural problems in school and at home. In most kids, the nerves accountable for conveying sound to the brain could fail, which makes it difficult for autistic kids to make sense of things people say. Additionally, kids with autism could battle other categories of sensory encounters, normally referred to as multisensory processing syndrome.

It is reported that kids with autism spectrum disorder have increased sensorineural hearing loss pervasiveness compared to those without the condition (Jenks et al., 2022). On the contrary, kids with sensorineural hearing loss have been declared to have high ASD rates compared to normal-hearing kids. Basically, ASD is a compound developmental condition whereby kids encounter impaired communication and social interaction, not forgetting the recurrent, restricted, and stereotyped behaviour patterns. Typically, obligatory audiological testing prior to autism spectrum disorder evaluation tends to be a common undertaking (Mishaal et al., 2022). Nevertheless, hearing impairment dominance among autistic kids is poorly recognized. Hearing impairment rates is comparable for kids with ASD and those who do not have ASD.

Furthermore, the hearing impairment programs include services and support devices to facilitate and improve the hearing of ASD children. Notably, cochlear implant sensorineural hearing loss is the one successful sensorineural hearing loss treatment, but amplification does not present sufficient spoken language access. Several benefits have accrued owing to cochlear implant use, including facilitation of spoken language as well as mainstream instruction for several kids with noteworthy bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Besides, cochlear implantation has been proven to upsurge the sign and spoken language acquisition rate for kids in total and oral communication classes. Moreover, for kids who cannot develop expressive and receptive language, cochlear implantation can enhance child-caregiver involvement, thus positively impacting life quality.

In addition, comprehending the outcome range of implanted kids with autism spectrum disorder is vital for professional, parent, and instructor counselling to ascertain that kids with ASD get suitable educational and support services. The research finding by Jenks et al. (2022) showed that ASD highly impacts school placement and language outcome, with few kids attaining behaviour and language permitting mainstream instruction. Nevertheless, the study findings support an increased literature body that cochlear implantation has the capacity to enhance auditory abilities and language and improve social engagement in some autistic children.

Discussion

The above early intervention programs enable ASD children to acquire basic abilities such as communication, social, and thinking skills. Autistic kids have challenges with emotional acknowledgement; thus, interventions are also designed in this area (Wang et al., 2022). The school has a role in ensuring that autistic children can get all the skills that a normal kid does. Accordingly, this means going out of their way to put in place programs that can help autistic kids. For instance, as far as family training is concerned, if the parents of the child are not well equipped to take care of autistic children, many issues could happen in the kid’s life. The parent’s mental condition is even more vital since most of them tend to suffer from depression and other mental disorders. It is for this reason, that psychoeducation ought to be included in family training. Through education, the parents can understand how to care for a child with autism, the road towards educational attainment, and most significantly, manage their mental health effectively. Early family intervention is vital for successful autistic children’s treatment (Lu et al., 2022).

Additionally, the speech therapist program is also among the programs that schools should have to help autistic kids have communication skills. All children may not have the ability to easily and regularly access speech therapist services. Therefore, schools support kids with autism in various ways, and their communication should be pivotal. As such, the speech therapy programs can be of help to all autistic kids in the school and their parents. Even though some parents tend to be hesitant to give speech therapy interventions, SLPs could work with caregivers to build the abilities they necessitate in assisting their kids. Ultimately, families become highly independent, involved, knowledgeable, poised, and skilled in communicating with their children to improve their learning and achieve daily activities. As a result, schools should have speech therapy programs to help autistic children with communication.

Similarly, hearing impairment programs help autistic children with hearing and equip the parents with skills to support their children. Without such programs, facilitating hearing in children with ASD can be challenging. By having such programs in school, hearing impairment services become readily attainable to autistic kids, thus improving their hearing and communication. In addition, the school can help out parents who might not have the capacity to get such services outside school. Through the hearing impairment program, the teachers can effectively support the children and work with the parents to improve their communication skills. As much as the services are obtainable outside the school, having them in school is beneficial to the teachers, the children, and the parents. Essentially, the most vital aspect of the three programs is parents. This is because they bear all the burdens and challenges impacting autistic children, and, therefore, they deserve a lot of assistance and compassion.

Reflection

The examined programs revolve around some of the most important skills that autistic children should have, including hearing, communicating, and generally taking care of the kids through family training. More often, parent support comprises programs aimed at providing indirect benefits to the child by supporting the parent as the caregiver and cumulating parental knowledge regarding autism spectrum disorder. Additionally, when it comes to speech therapy, the speech-language pathologist creates personal goals for therapy from the evaluation. In that case, some of the common objectives could comprise enhancement of spoken language, learning to communicate through a substitute technique, or learning non-verbal abilities like gestures or signs. Even more vital is how hearing impairment programs help autistic children with hearing and equip the parents with skills to support their children. The instructors can effectively support the children and work with the parents to improve their communication skills via the hearing impairment program.

For these reasons, the programs should be emphasized in schools to help kids with autism. Typically, the school has a role in helping autistic kids acquire education, which should incorporate caring for their development in totality. Without these school programs, the development of precise skills for autistic children can be challenging. Failure to have these programs in schools could be one of the reasons why autistic children are still facing considerable challenges. Also, failure to have family training programs means some parents may not be sufficiently trained in handling autistic children. As a result, various mistakes can be made in the process, particularly in early intervention. Additionally, the parents could become very depressed owing to the challenges they face in handling a child with autism to the point that they are incapable of raising the child. As such, schools should put the mental health of parents whose children have autism at the forefront. Incorporating counselling programs for such parents equips them with stress management strategies and helps them accept their children’s condition. The child’s effective development could be in jeopardy owing to the absence of these programs.

References

Eshraghi, A. A., Cavalcante, L., Furar, E., Alessandri, M., Eshraghi, R. S., Armstrong, F. D., & Mittal, R. (2022). Implications of parental stress on worsening of behavioural problems in children with autism during COVID-19 pandemic:“the spillover hypothesis”. Molecular psychiatry, 27(4), 1869-1870.

Gunderson, J., Symons, F., & Wolff, J. (2022). Fidelity and Effectiveness of a Caregiver Mediated Compliance Training for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 1-19.

Jenks, C. M., Hoff, S. R., Haney, J., Tournis, E., Thomas, D., & Young, N. M. (2022). Cochlear Implantation Can Improve Auditory Skills, Language and Social Engagement of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Otology & Neurotology, 43(3), 313-319.

Junnarkar, V. S., Tong, H. J., Hanna, K. M. B., Aishworiya, R., & Duggal, M. (2022). Occupational and speech therapists’ perceptions of their role in dental care for children with autism spectrum disorder: A qualitative exploration. International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry.

Lu, X., Li, J., Zhu, K., & Liu, Y. (2022). Research on the Gamification Design of Family Early Intervention Products for Children with Autism Based on the Peak-End Rule. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 376-392). Springer, Cham.

Ma, Y. (2022, June). Investigation on Family Situation of Autistic Children and the Impact of Family on Autism—Behind Children of Stars. In 2022 8th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2022) (pp. 2602-2605). Atlantis Press.

Mishaal, R. A., Weikum, W. M., Brooks, B., Derry, K., & Lanphear, N. E. (2022). Appraising the need for audiological assessment before autism spectrum disorder referral. Paediatrics & Child Health.

Sandham, V., Hill, A. E., & Hinchliffe, F. (2022). The perspectives of Australian speech pathologists in providing evidence‐based practices to children with autism. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders.

Wang, Z., Cheong, L. S., Tian, J., Wang, H. Y., Yuan, Y., & Zhang, Q. (2022). Effects of a Video-Based Intervention on Emotion Recognition for Children With Autism Who Have Limited Speech in China. Journal of Special Education Technology, 01626434221095031.

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Early Intervention-Preschool

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