Social Approach- Ashely

Deficits in brain function dealing with social aspects is social cognition, in which the person fails to understand the internal mental states of other people and has difficulty making attributions of mental states to others and themselves (1).

Family:

·      Family members can also be invited to join various parent and family groups for information and support. In addition to experiencing overwhelming caregiver burdens, many parents of child with autism feel guilt, sorrow, anger, and stress; siblings may be affected in similar ways (1).

Attachment:

·      Multiple tests have been conducted looking at the attachment of autistic children with strangers, caregivers, and other key members in their lives. For example, Attachment in Autism and Other Developmental Disorders by Theodore Shapiro, Miriam Sherman, Gail Calamari, and Diane Koch stated, “Autistic and atypical children's manifested attachment behavior is not significantly different from the attachment behavior normal children display at a younger age” (4). Another example is the journal article Attachment behaviors in autistic children by Marian Sigman and Judy A. Ungerer which stated, “Within the autistic group, the children who showed an increase in attachment behaviors in response to separation and reunion demonstrated more advanced symbolic play skills than those autistic children who showed no change in attachment behaviors. One possible explanation may be that autistic children require more advanced levels of symbolic ability to form attachments to others than is necessary for the development of attachments in normal children” (5).

Household composition:

·      The family household composition is deeply affected for good and bad when raising an autistic child. The International Meeting for Autism Research stated, “Even as compared to families with children who had other functional limitations, having a child with autism still resulted in a 20 percent hit to the wallet, the study found. The reason: mothers of children with autism are less likely to work and when they are employed these moms tend to earn less than others, leaving many families with only one breadwinner” (3).

Traumatic events:

·      Autismspeaks.org on October 13, 2011 is holding a, “Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Traumatized Children and Their Families Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT), developed by Judith Cohen, Anthony Mannarino, and Esther Deblinger, is an empirically supported treatment for children and families exposed to traumatic life events. This two-day training will provide an intensive review of all of the TF-CBT treatment components, with a specific focus on clinical implementation strategies” (2).

Support networks:

·      The Autism Support Network, “Connects families and individuals touched by ASD with each other, provides support and insight, and acts as a resource guide for education, treatments, strategies and therapies for autism. Through the Autism Support Network community of people helping people, we foster an exchange of knowledge and promote further understanding and serve as a platform for individual’s stories of success and challenge” (6).

Special Education:

•       All children with autism are entitled to an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP). Ancillary services such as speech or language therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. Continuous programming, including summer programming, is more effective than episodic intervention because children with autism often regress in the absence of services (1).

•       Interventions can be carried out through integrated peer groups, class wide interventions, adult social groups, and videotapes to help the clients perceive themselves as they try to gain new interactional skills (1).