Attention autism (A complete guide)

In this brief article, we will be discussing attention autism, the symptoms of attention autism, how to deal with attention autism, and more information about attention autism.

What is attention autism as an intervention?

This is a kind of intervention for children with autism invented by Gina Davies who is a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist.

This kind of intervention was made to help children with this kind of psychological disorder to have a more natural and spontaneous communication with other children.

This can help these affected children to be more likely to socialize as most children do.

This kind of intervention can also help these affected children to learn the more complicated language since they will be able to communicate with other children with this communication intervention.

This kind of intervention is also available for parents when they want to teach their children with this kind of psychological disorder to have some activities where they get to socialize when they might be able to do so in their own times and homes.

This can also help parents be more able to get interactive with their affected children where they might have a lack of this kind of parental interaction when they were younger and it was needed.

Goals of attention autism

The following are the goals of this intervention for children with autism:

• To engage attention in affected children
• To improve joint attention which is lacking in these affected children
• To build shared enjoyment in group activities in affected children
• To increase attention in adult-led activities in affected children
• To encourage spontaneous interaction in a natural group setting in affected children
• To increase non-verbal and verbal communication by commenting or feedback to affected children
• To develop a wealthy and depth of vocabulary in affected children
• To have fun! In these activities

Phases of attention autism 

As most programs that are aiming to intervene in psychological processes of the affected child, this kind of intervention is filled with phases where each skill of attention is established in these affected children and once they are able to learn each skill for attention, they will be able to move on the next stage.

This doesn’t mean that it is the end of this intervention since this kind of psychological disorder can’t easily be removed but it can only manifest symptoms that haven’t been treated in the early years.

Affected children will be able to learn language and be able to communicate their needs thanks to this kind of intervention.

The following are these phases in this kind of intervention:

Phase 1 (The Bucket to Focus Attention)

There will be a bucket where there are items placed inside this particular bucket and the children are asked to look at each of these items.

The facilitator of this intervention can bring out each item and teel the children about the item and make some vocabulary feedback about the item.

Phase 2 (The Attention Builder)

There will be activities where the vision of the child is given the most attention in this intervention.

This is where affected children will get messy about the activity and they will have tons of fun during this activity.

Phase 3 (Turn-taking & Re-engaging Attention)

The facilitator will be showing how to do an activity and this will be assisted by another facilitator if the main facilitator needs it.

There will be chances when the child can volunteer for this activity and some children may not.

This activity will be teaching the child about taking turns, emotional regulation skills, waiting, and more which can help the child learn through modelling in this activity.

Phase 4 (Shifting & Re-engaging Attention)

This activity will help affected children to shift and concentrate as important attention skills.

The children will be asked to do the task that was shown to them.

This can help these affected children work independently and be able to socialize with other children in the process.

The complex skills that can be taught in this intervention can also be done to help these affected children to gain more confidence by doing activities with other children.

This intervention can also be done in the classroom to help children get more engaged in social interaction and attention skills.

The creator of this intervention will require teachers to have some training first before placing this intervention in the classroom.

The post-primary model of attention autism for affected children

Since this kind of psychological disorder can last for a long time since there isn’t any known cure for this psychological disorder yet, this kind of intervention decides to expand its activities to reach affected children in their post-primary years.

This can help children be more able to be flexible in their communication skills once they are in the older years and be able to remind themselves how important socializing is.

This can help parents of these affected children that they can be reassured that their child is cared for and able to develop properly thanks to this kind of intervention.

This kind of intervention can also be done in classroom settings if the teacher has been trained to do this kind of intervention and help your child get developed socially even if he or she doesn’t have this kind of psychological disorder.

A child with this kind of psychological disorder who engages in this kind of intervention can get to do activities with groups of children which will make them have a social interest which is important in their development.

Social interest can make them more sociable with other children and be able to minimize some symptoms of this psychological disorder such as a lack of social intelligence due to a lack of engagement in social activities.

This kind of model can help affected children grow socially even if the primary age was the goal of this intervention.

Although there are other interventions of this psychological disorder where a lot of children can get treated for their specific symptoms just as this kind of intervention for the attention and social skills of these children with this kind of psychological disorder. 

A lot of these children have been seeing the advantages of engaging in this kind of intervention in their lives.

These kinds of children can also learn how to interact with older people when they are socializing from the learnings in this kind of intervention. 

This kind of model has only been used by children who have grown to their high school years but this doesn’t include college where therapy can be a possible intervention for people with this kind of psychological disorder.

Parents of children with this kind of disorder aren’t hesitant about bringing their child into this kind of intervention for the improvement of their wellbeing. 

This kind of intervention is much better than treating your children with this kind of psychological disorder with only prescribed medications which can only be good in the short-term and not in the long-term like psychological therapies and psychological interventions can do.

You should also learn that behavioural interventions are effective in treating people with this kind of psychological disorder and this kind of intervention is considered as a behavioural intervention.

You won’t regret letting your affected child who has this kind of psychological disorder to take this kind of psychological intervention that can be good for his or her mental wellbeing.

Objectives of the Post-Primary Model of Attention Autism

The following are the objectives of this model in this kind of intervention:

• To build social and friendship skills in a natural group setting in these affected children.
• To build social and friendship skills through highly motivating activities in these affected children.
• To build skills in working with others in these affected children.
• To follow an adult lead in these affected children.
• To follow instructions in these affected children.
• To build problem-solving skills in these affected children.
• To learn coping skills in these affected children.
• To enhance emotional self-regulation in these affected children.
• To listen to others and to comment appropriately in these affected children.
• To develop positive memories and shared experiences with others in these affected children.
  

The nature of these group sessions is adapted to the ages of the primary children who have this kind of psychological disorder.

There will be toolboxes for these children to interact while they are engaging in this kind of intervention.

These children will be given instructions on what to do about the toolbox and try to interact with these kinds of boxes as instructed and find their threshold of being socially compliant to adults in the right way.

This kind of intervention can also assess if the child can think with other people and be able to cooperate when told the necessary thing to do which can also be a form of assessing the child’s attention.

Each object in the toolbox will be used throughout this kind of intervention and will teach children how to wait for each object to be used and use the object as told.

 Attention autism activities at home

You can also do this kind of intervention in your own home. The following are the materials you will need for this kind of intervention:

• Favourite toys
• Musical items
• Lights
• Bubbles which you can make your own with washing up liquid and water in a bowl and blow with a straw in your own home
• Any item that you yourself can make exciting in your delivery to help you interact with your child in this kind of intervention.

Conclusion 

In this brief article, we have discussed attention autism, the symptoms of attention autism, how to deal with attention autism, and more information about attention autism.

If you have any questions about attention autism, please let us know and the team will gladly answer your queries.

FAQs: attention autism

Citations

Centre For Autism. Attention Autism.

National Autistic Society. Attention Autism.

Riverside School. Attention Autism.