SOCIAL WORK FOR AUTISM

Social Work for an Autistic Child

Social Work for an Autistic Child

Background

Tommy Johnson is a 10-year-old boy with autism. He has difficulty communicating with his peers and frequently fails to respond when people speak to him. Tommy never initiates conversations and rarely makes eye contact with other individuals. Periodically, Tommy becomes upset and loses his temper throughout the school day. Tommy is not the only person with autism in his family. His older brother, Matthew, exhibits some signs of autism, including certain repetitive behaviors, difficulty with social skills, and behavioral problems. Despite these barriers, Mathew has been successfully integrated into a general education classroom.

Tommy was placed in a special education class at Springfield Elementary School at the beginning of September. Mrs. Penny, Tommy's teacher, has been unable to find effective teaching strategies to work with Tommy. He rarely listens to Mrs. Penny and has difficulty interacting with the six other students in his class. At home, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have noticed that Tommy loses his temper more frequently since their move to Springfield last year. They have learned that the methods that helped Matthew change his behavior do not seem to be effective with Tommy. In order to reassess the strategies for working with Tommy, Mrs. Penny scheduled an IEP team meeting.

Discussion

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that is very complex and involves a broad different and separate physical and mental disorders. Autistic children are in the private world of their own. It is common beliefs that performance of individuals with autism was inferior when compared to that of normal children. Autism is a psychiatric disorder and it is characterised by : (a) gross social deficits , such as, difficulties in forming and maintaining social relationships and deficits in reciprocating social interaction; (b) a striking impairment in both verbal and nonverbal communication; (c) the presence of repetitive behaviour (O'Riordan, 2001). It is believed to be caused by biological factors due to: neurological symptoms, mental handicap, genetic causes, infections, and also difficulties in pregnancy. The diagnosis generally requires a team of professionals because of the many unique characteristics and behaviors of the autistic child. However, the psychiatrist and the psychologist are mainly responsible for the diagnosis and the psychological evaluations involved.

Children with autism would show specific deficit on activities that demand the ability to understand hierarchical interrelatedness among classes (Shulman, 1995). However, children with autism do not show marked impairments in sensorimotor categorisation since in young children at this level require a minimal amount of abstract thought (Yirmiya, 1998). Studies (Burack, 1994; Charman, 1997; Yirmiya, 1998; Yirmiya, Sigman, & Zack, 1994) show that at a concrete operations stage of cognitive development differences between children with autism and other individuals occur. Charman (1997) state that impairment in empathy, pretend play, attention and imitation have been linked to the later problems in social understanding and reciprocal social communication.

Children have difficulty responding to people, events and objects and their responses to light, sound and feeling may be ...