Expert: Catherine Ridenour - 6/4/2008

Question
My son has been recently diagnosed with Autism, he is 2 years old and I lived in NJ. I need to know how can I improve his eye contact and communication as he is not talking yet. He is also very tired specially in the morning - he does sleep well at night. He is currently receiving therapy though early intervention but only 5 hours a week and 1 hour of speech therapy. We do not have that many behavior issues, only when he is very frustrated that he throws tantrums not very often -  it usually happens when he is done with an activity. Do you know of any centers that might be beneficial for him? What can you tell me about the Vitamin Therapy? Waitinng for your prompt response.

Answer
Hi Angela,

His therapist should be teaching you some things to do at home to help him with his social skills. Forcing eye contact is not a good idea,in my opinion. If he responds to your voice, consider it a successful communication. Talk to him as if he understands and always respond to his attempts to communicate. If "cookie" is "ugh" but it means cookie, that's okay. You don't have to say "yes" to everything, just let him know you got the message.

Get down on the floor and play with him in whatever way he will allow. If he's lining up toy cars, line up blocks beside him. Don't interfere with him, just try to engage his attention for a moment. Say, "Look, Joey is lining up cars. Mommy is lining up blocks." If he looks at the blocks, you score. When he tries to direct your attention, take the time to look and use words to describe what you see.

It may help to avoid the tantrums at the end of activities if he has some warning that change is coming. Even little ones begin to understand how long 5 minutes is. Tell him, we are going to sit down for lunch in 5 minutes. Repeat the cue at 1 minute. Then, tell him it is time to go to wash his hands and come to the table. If he throws a fit, absolutely ignore him. Walk away. Giving it attention only reinforces the behavior. As soon as he stops fussing, go back and invite him to the table again. Repeat until he comes quietly.

I know this sounds permissive, but you are avoiding rewarding tantrums. If he ends up missing lunch, there's always dinner.

About diet; do NOT let him get into the "I only eat French fries and white bread" routine. Feed him a varied diet of healthy food. Snacks should be cut up fresh fruit, low sugar cereal for finger food, unsweetened juices, etc. These kids can become locked into such limited diets that they become malnourished and horribly constipated. Offer these foods at appropriate times and quantities. (Toddlers need to eat small amounts, often. Keeping his blood sugar level will help his behavior.) If he's hungry, he'll eat, and if he refuses, there's always the next meal.

I don't believe in mega-doses of vitamins. If you want to give him a multi-vitamin for insurance, go ahead. Some autistic children do better if they do not eat wheat gluten. You can try this if you like, but it only works well if you remove all wheat from the house meaning Mom and Dad don't eat it either. A three week trial should be enough to tell you if it makes any difference.

If you are interested in supplemental treatment, I recommend you do an Internet search with "New Jersey" and "autism" and you'll have a list in a hurry. I cannot make specific recommendations. Be very careful. You can throw a lot of money into programs that don't do much. A good specialty pre-school program, when he's three or four will do more for him than anything. He should receive this as part of his early intervention.

I encourage you to read some books written by adults who have autism so that you can get a perspective from people who have "been there, done that." There are some good books by parents of autistic children, as well. Do a search at Amazon.com or other book web site.

Here are a couple of links for you to check out:

http://www.neurodiversity.com/main.html (many links to books, articles and resources)

http://www.patientcenters.com/autism/news/resources.html (books and resources)

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/asperger/asperger.htm (the definitions and
government links)

http://www.autism.org/ (many links to information)

http://groups.msn.com/TheAutismHomePage/toilettraining.msnw (toilet training)

http://www.rettdevil.org (a discussion board for parents and persons with neurological and developmental disorders)

Best wishes,
Catherine