PLT Test Blog

For people born around the year 2000, or before, and diagnosed before 4 years old, having autism very often meant being non-verbal. By my earlier estimations, about 0.3% of children are still non-verbal when their peers are already chatting away. Of that 0.3% some will spontaneously develop speech, some develop speech due to intensive intervention either by parents or therapists and some never develop speech. Being non-verbal does not mean you cannot communicate; you can use sign language, you can write/type, you can use pictures (Picture Exchange Communication System – PECS) or you can use an augmentative communication device. Such devices used to cost a fortune, but now they are just apps you can install on a tablet computer or smartphone. These apps exist in numerous languages not just English, Spanish, German and French. In 2007 we used PECS and started to use a special touch screen connected to a PC. Using special software, Monty could show that his vocabulary was much more extens...

I was recently asked if I would be happy to talk to the parents of a 7 year old non-verbal child with autism.   I agreed to share what I have learned so far from both behavioural interventions and more recently from drug therapy.   I decided that a dedicated post could also be very useful. When Monty, now aged 10, was diagnosed with autism aged three and a half, he embarked on a home-based ABA programme, soon complemented by the use of PECS ( Picture Exchange Communication System ).   PECS is great, and when correctly implemented, clearly can work wonders.   Sadly, most people take shortcuts and just laminate a few pictures, stick them on the fridge and say they are “doing PECS”. Click below to see short training videos:- Phase 1 PECS Phase 2 PECS   Once a non-verbal child has a communication system, be it PECS or sign language, then he/she can open up to the world.   Often speech then follows, but not always. Monty learned to talk using ABA, PECS and speci...

I had another surprise a couple of days ago; I was standing with Monty outside the entrance to a very noisy ice-cream bar.   There were babies crying, a lady begging rather aggressively and an orderly queue to enter the shop.   Finally, the noise abated and I heard Monty say:- “Finished switching ears off!” Is there more to this than the emergence of spontaneous and appropriate speech? Selective Hearing, Elective hearing and (S)elective mutism I once did a course called Noise Control as part of my Engineering degree.   I recall that at the start of the course, the Professor confessed his desire to be able to turn his hearing on and off; clearly there were some noises he would prefer not to hear. If you have children you will have discovered “selective hearing”; whenever you want them to come for a meal, they just do not seem to hear you.   If you offer ice cream though, they will hear the first time you call. There is also the relatively common case of selective...

Does religion have something to do with treating autism?   It should not have, but actually it does.   Depending on where you live in the world, you may come across a lot of religious intolerance.   In Iraq, Muslim Sunnis don’t seem to care for Muslim Shias, in the Indian subcontinent Hindus for Muslims, in Northern Ireland some Protestants for Catholics, the list goes on.  To an outsider, the differences between the competing teachings may seem marginal, but to an insider it can even be a reason to go to war.   It has often been the case that some of those going to these extremes, do not even really understand the competing teachings of their own religion.   What you might ask does this have to do with Autism and the subject of my blog?   If you have a child with autism, or you work full-time as a carer or therapist, you will likely have experienced emotional stresses that would destabilize all but the calmest of souls.   If you are new to the...