Hello everyone!
This week marked the halfway point in the study. This means that, starting next week, the children who were previously working with dogs will work with proxies, and vice versa. I am so excited to see how the kids react to the changes. I am anticipating that the kids who were engaging with the proxies will be really excited to finally work with the dogs. On the other hand, the kids who were engaging with the dogs might be a little less enthusiastic about the change. Either way, I am excited to see if each child's social interactions change depending on the situation they are in. So far, it's been interesting to see some of the children's behaviors change, even though they have not been exposed to the alternate settings yet. This has been especially apparent with some of the lower functioning kids, as they have visibly been initiating more social interaction and participating in more of the activities. This suggests that this entire process might be positively affecting some of these kids, even if they are not yet engaging with the therapy dogs.
In my independent research, I have recently been reading up on diagnosing and treating ASD. This week, I'll focus on what I've learned about diagnosing children with ASD, and I will go into treatments later on. There are three main categories that are important to look at when diagnosing a child: reciprocal social interaction, communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors. In order to assess a child's strengths and weaknesses in each of these categories, a multi-disciplinary approach is necessary, so that multiple areas of functioning are assessed. Amongst other things, the child's history (i.e. developmental history, family history, etc.), developmental/cognitive functioning, speech/language, and ability to adapt must be evaluated. In addition, this information must be collected across a variety of settings, because children will often behave differently depending on the situation they are in. Finally, to make this process even more confusing, ASD must be differentiated from other disorders, such as language disorders, intellectual disabilities, schizophrenia, and many others that share some symptoms with ASD. [1] Even so, it is possible for a child with ASD to have a comorbidity, which is another disorder in addition to the primary one. For instance, many children with ASD also have some type of intellectual disability, and these possible accompanying disorders must also be taken into account when diagnosing a child. [2]
If you found any of this confusing, you are not alone. Due to the complexity of ASD, the diagnosing process is also extremely complex. Please comment below if you have and questions or comments. Thanks for reading!
Swati :)
[1] Tsatsanis, Katherine. "Autism Assessment." Yale University. Yale University, New Haven, CT. n.d. Guest Lecture.
[2] Volkmar, F., Siegal, M., Woodbury-Smith, M., King, B., McCracken, J., & State, M. "Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder." Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 53.2 (2014): 237-257. Print.
This week marked the halfway point in the study. This means that, starting next week, the children who were previously working with dogs will work with proxies, and vice versa. I am so excited to see how the kids react to the changes. I am anticipating that the kids who were engaging with the proxies will be really excited to finally work with the dogs. On the other hand, the kids who were engaging with the dogs might be a little less enthusiastic about the change. Either way, I am excited to see if each child's social interactions change depending on the situation they are in. So far, it's been interesting to see some of the children's behaviors change, even though they have not been exposed to the alternate settings yet. This has been especially apparent with some of the lower functioning kids, as they have visibly been initiating more social interaction and participating in more of the activities. This suggests that this entire process might be positively affecting some of these kids, even if they are not yet engaging with the therapy dogs.
In my independent research, I have recently been reading up on diagnosing and treating ASD. This week, I'll focus on what I've learned about diagnosing children with ASD, and I will go into treatments later on. There are three main categories that are important to look at when diagnosing a child: reciprocal social interaction, communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors. In order to assess a child's strengths and weaknesses in each of these categories, a multi-disciplinary approach is necessary, so that multiple areas of functioning are assessed. Amongst other things, the child's history (i.e. developmental history, family history, etc.), developmental/cognitive functioning, speech/language, and ability to adapt must be evaluated. In addition, this information must be collected across a variety of settings, because children will often behave differently depending on the situation they are in. Finally, to make this process even more confusing, ASD must be differentiated from other disorders, such as language disorders, intellectual disabilities, schizophrenia, and many others that share some symptoms with ASD. [1] Even so, it is possible for a child with ASD to have a comorbidity, which is another disorder in addition to the primary one. For instance, many children with ASD also have some type of intellectual disability, and these possible accompanying disorders must also be taken into account when diagnosing a child. [2]
If you found any of this confusing, you are not alone. Due to the complexity of ASD, the diagnosing process is also extremely complex. Please comment below if you have and questions or comments. Thanks for reading!
Swati :)
[1] Tsatsanis, Katherine. "Autism Assessment." Yale University. Yale University, New Haven, CT. n.d. Guest Lecture.
[2] Volkmar, F., Siegal, M., Woodbury-Smith, M., King, B., McCracken, J., & State, M. "Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder." Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 53.2 (2014): 237-257. Print.
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