Autism Soccer: Early Intervention

Showing posts with label Early Intervention. Show all posts

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Young-Onset Parkinson’s

Essential tremor is among the early signs of Parkinson's. If you ever experience it, make sure you go see a doctor and discard any possibility!

In this blog, there’s a tendency to focus on children who have any disability (ASD, most of the time), and advising their parents how to help them grow as individuals for their future. But it is also important to inform parents and members of the community regarding their own health so they can get support. This time, I’ll discuss a disease that can affect parents in their early years: Young-onset Parkinson.

Before anything, it’s necessary to clarify what Parkinson’s disease is. According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation: “Parkinson’s disease is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time. Nearly one million people in the US are living with Parkinson’s disease.”

It is widely believed that the primary risk factor for this disease is aging, showing a 2-4% risk for people among their sixties. This might sound reassuring for parents and people on their 40s or 50s, but Young-onset Parkinson’s disease is a potential disease for them too.

Those who are affected by this disease at a young age will find difficulties in dealing with their responsibilities: like parenting, daily routine activities, and work. Depending on how the disease advances, there will be a moment where they’ll have to do less than they normally did, creating a significant amount of distress.

A person with this disease needs to keep in mind that the younger the person is, the disease is more likely to have root on genes. Identifying a potential case of young-onset Parkinson could be determinant to slow it before it’s worse, meaning that the patient could get an early treatment and its brain could be more responsive to it.

Be cautious before dismissing the possibility of having this disease. The percentage of people who have it might be low (only 2% out of 1 million), but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to you. Be sure to have regular checkouts and ask about this diagnosis if you feel you have symptoms that could lead to Parkinson’s.

Parents need to remember that they need to take care of themselves as much as they care for their children. Be responsible for your health, and you’ll be able to protect those you hold dear. If you ever get to face complications to help your children, you can contact the people of Autism Soccer. They will lend you a friendly and prepared hand. And if that’s not reason enough, they will also help your children develop soccer and communicational skills!

Parkinson's disease is a condition that causes tremors, muscles stiffness and sudden changes in speech.

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Monday, May 1, 2017

4 Tools To Improve Their Concentration

Try these tools to help your children in the development of their skills, the effects will be noticeable.

The first skills children learn in the process of growing up are the most important ones in their lives, these are crucial for the following steps they’ll be taking in life. Imagine a building without strong foundations, there’s no possible way for it to stand for long. The same concept applies for children, and even more in the case of Autistic children.

One thing about special needs children is that they have certain difficulties in the development of communicative skills, and this affects their process of adaptation in environments that require social interaction. You can help your children out by teaching them to play certain complex games or how to solve certain problems, don’t believe when people say that autistic children “can’t play this or that”, they’re capable of almost anything if they are interested in the activity itself.

With the following tools, you’ll have your children ready to further develop their skills and have solid foundations for their future:

Responsibilities: Create the habit of doing certain activities throughout the day in them, responsibilities like cleaning their room, organizing things or helping in the kitchen. Be sure to monitor their activities to avoid any possible accident and in no time you’ll see how they start accepting and getting used to those tasks.
Play “beat the clock”: Increase their focus by setting them a specific amount of time for each activity they do. Be aware that it might not be easy at first, but with some practice, they’ll be able to beat the timer and carry out tasks faster.
Sorting activities: A great way to teach your children to be organized and improve their focus is teaching them to sort things following different criteria. Sorting also develops early math skills in children, as they start to count unconsciously while adding and subtracting items.
Chess: this is a very complex game to learn and even more to master, for both autistic and non-autistic children. Chess is a game that requires a lot of thinking and planning in order to understand the mechanics, but once your children get the hang of it, their concentration skills and memory will improve. Chess serves as an excellent tool for special needs children.

The concentration of children with autism is very high to begin with, they have a good sense of focus when it comes down to making tasks step by step. Like I said, be sure to check on them every now and then to keep control of the progress they’re making. There is a definitive tool out there to help them out in their growth and that is the Autism Soccer initiative: a soccer team with an environment made just for them. Check their website and donate! All contributions help.

Children in early stages of growth are the ones that need all the support and tools you can give.

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Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Early Signs of Autism In Children

One of the main characteristics of ASD children is their repetitive behavior towards daily activities.

Lately, besides the special posts due to the awareness month made in this blog, there has also been some entries discussing parenting and first steps in the process of raising special needs children. But it came as a surprise that the topic of identifying the early signs of autism in children wasn’t discussed at all.

From the moment the babies are born, their growth starts fast. It almost seems like it was impossible that the babies were the size of a thumb in the beginning. A year passes and it almost seems like the babies should start showing the first signs of cognitive improvement but strangely, it’s not happening. This might be a moment to start considering if your children might have ASD, here are some signs you might want to consider checking:

Awareness of their environment: This is one of the characteristics autistic children might show, the lack of awareness or the feeling in their eyes that makes it look like your children are not there.

Non-responsive: Usually, children are very communicative, even if they haven’t said their first words they try to express by imitating and making noises. If you notice your children used to do this and suddenly stops, you might have a sign here. However, this is not a definitive sign, check with a specialist to clear the doubts.

Down-like attitude: Children are very energetic in general, they run around and play with their toys and the environment. The absence of this in children can be worrying for any parent, as they just stay in a place looking rather sad and doing nothing.

There are some cases where one of those signs is just a part of your children growth and as such, shouldn’t be considered a sign of autism. Still, try to keep an eye on your children at all times and check for any changes in their behavior, you’re the one who knows them the most, you will know that something is going on. If it turns out to be positive, start the intervention at once, do not leave things as they are and search for ways to help your children out. Autism Soccer offers initiatives to help and aid special needs children in their challenge to communicate and express themselves, be sure to contact them.