Matthew

Matthew is a 7 year old child with a diagnosis of autism. He was diagnosed at age 22 months. Up until 19 months of age, he had been developing seemingly normal and then began losing skills and becoming much more introverted. Upon diagnosis, he was enrolled in First Steps and began working with a speech clinician, occupational therapist, and developmental therapist. The parents augmented these services with private therapy focused on behavior and communication.

Today, Matthew attends a program in a public school in Indiana. Matthew remains nonverbal. In the past two years, parents and staff have noticed an increase in behavioral incidents. When requested to perform certain tasks, Matthew will become anxious and attempts to destroy the instructional item. At recess, Matthew will either wander the playground or will push others off the swings. Parents note that he has difficulty sleeping at night and that he is a very picky eater.

Aside from these behavioral difficulties, Matthew can be a very affectionate child. He loves to crawl on the lap of adults and be hugged tightly. He is easily entertained at times, and can sit for a period of time and play with his trains…although somewhat inappropriately.

In his current program, he is primarily in an early intervention classroom for students with various disabilities. The focus of this program is on teaching functional skills, communication, and social/play skills. For communication, the staff and family have chosen PECs (Picture Exchange Communication System). He has access to this system three times a week during therapy sessions. To teach play skills, the staff work to position Matthew in close proximity to other students in hopes that he will model the behavior of others. It is suggested that Matthew has some sensory processing challenges. As a result, Matthew works with an Occupational Therapist weekly on sensory based activities.

When working on functional/academic skills, staff report that it is difficult to keep Matthew focused on the task at hand. They often have to position a staff person close by him to continually prompt him to work on a task.

While Matthew has made some progress, there is much more to do. Overall, staff will be focusing on the following areas: initiation, joint attention, play skills, toilet training, following directions, beginning academic skills, and others.