What is Early Intervention for Autism

Once diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, educational support needs to be given immediately. 

Intervention is taking an action to improve one's condition. EARLY intervention is giving children educational support at an early age. 

Usually, a child is diagnosed at the age of 2, more or less. Giving early intervention to children with autism spectrum disorder is crucial for their overall development.  Since children grow their brains rapidly at an early age, giving early intervention will help them develop social skills, work habits, adaptive skills, and many more. 

Imagine if we don't give an early intervention to children with special needs and they enter school at age 6, the child has already missed so many skills that can be developed prior to their primary school. 

Early Intervention Programs help children with special needs get the basic skills they need such as: 

The problems that I mention here are based on my observation, experience, and knowledge. Challenges in early intervention are also based on the culture, school, and teaching dynamic of centers and school sites.

Long waitlist. 

With the high rise of special needs that have been diagnosed, many parents are waiting for their turn to get access to school intervention. Some wait for years! and some are lucky to get it in few months. 

Lack of Teacher training on Autism.

In some centers, and depending on the country and school, teachers have limited background and essential knowledge of autism. With this problem, children do not have the proper and appropriate intervention that they need. 

Other teachers somewhat practice teaching and that the child's skills are not addressed appropriately because they don't have the extensive knowledge on how to properly teach autism. 

But many special education teachers are well equipped that parents can rely on. 

Limited teaching materials available.

Yes... this is so true in some countries. Due to very expensive teaching materials in the market, it is hard to use different materials that are needed for autism. 

Limited training on how to use materials.

Some teachers and therapists use teaching materials that are not at the child's ability level. Some give paper-based activities that their students are having difficulty with. 

Children may tantrum and misbehave because the tools that they are using are not appropriate for their age and level. 

Teachers and therapists give Inappropriate materials to their students.

Lack of Special Education Teachers in schools. 

Let's face it, not many love teaching because teaching needs patience and passion. Not many would like to teach special education because of its mental, emotional, and physical demand. 

Because of this, there is a huge number of needed teachers in many countries like the USA, Australia, and Asia. 

Early Intervention is a program designed for babies and young children to support them in their early years so they are able to improve skills that they have difficulty with. 

Support come from different sectors such as Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Special Education, sometimes Physical Therapy, Psychologists, and many more. 

The best support for a child is when all of these sectors come and work in team to create an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for the child. 

Programs designed for each individual should be individualized. The supports, materials, accommodations, and therapies that each student receive is designed according to their needs. And these are designed with all the inputs from the different sectors and finalized by Special Education Teacher. 

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