Autism Therapies to Try at Home: 4 Ways to Manage Symptoms
If you have a child with autism, you may want to consider supporting their development with activities that can be done at home.
Autistic children have distinct ways of communicating and interacting with their surroundings, which means they often require unique support from adults.
In a society where there are more non-autistic children than autistic children, it’s important to prepare your child with the skills they need to navigate the world.
By implementing autism therapy at home, you can help your child gain the necessary skills to succeed.
The goal of autism therapy
Autism is not curable, and many in the autistic community do not see it as a condition that requires a cure.
Instead, they view autism as a neurotype with its own strengths and areas of potential growth. The following therapies provide opportunities for caregivers to help their autistic children build skills that can help them navigate in a primarily non-autistic world.
The focus is on learning and developing abilities rather than curing a disability.
Floortime
Floortime is a form of play therapy where an adult, such as a therapist or a teacher, sits on the floor with the child. It can also be done at home by a family member.
The goal is to interact with the child one-on-one at their level.
The process involves observing the child and imitating their actions, and then gradually introducing new elements such as different toys or simple words.
There are several strategies you can use to enhance the impact of language during Floortime therapy:
- Be relevant. It’s a good idea to wait and watch, then label what your child is paying attention to. For example, if your child picks up a toy truck, say “truck.”
- Keep it brief. Using fewer words helps your child not feel overwhelmed.
- Allow time for processing. The silence between each word is just as powerful as the words themselves, because it gives your child time to process what you’ve said.
The primary objective of floortime is to encourage emotional connection and interactive behavior through child-led play, and it should be an enjoyable experience.
A therapist who specializes in floortime can provide training and supervision for your child’s program.
A study conducted in 2012, which involved 34 children between the ages of 2 and 6, found that 14 hours per week of floortime therapy administered at home resulted in good progress for 47% of the children who participated. Another 23% of children in the study showed fair progress, indicating a total of 70% who showed improvement with this therapy.
Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT)
PCIT is a form of coaching therapy that involves both in-office sessions and assignments to be completed at home.
During the sessions, you and your child will play in a designated playroom while a therapist watches from another room through a one-way mirror or video feed.
The therapist will provide feedback and coaching in real-time using a small device that only you can hear.
The purpose of PCIT is to teach effective therapeutic techniques to the parent or guardian, who is considered the most significant person in the child’s life.
PCIT is a two-stage therapy program designed for young children between the ages of 2 and 6. It has two stages:
- Child-Directed Interaction (CDI): In this stage, the therapist teaches parents specific skills to increase positive interactions with their child. Parents are coached in skills such as following their child’s lead, narrating their child’s play, and providing labeled praise for appropriate behaviors. The therapist observes the interaction between parent and child and provides feedback and coaching in real-time through an earpiece.
- Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI): In this stage, parents are taught skills to help their child follow instructions, increase compliance with requests, and decrease negative behaviors. The therapist coaches the parent to give clear, concise instructions and use effective consequences for negative behavior. Parents are also taught to use a specific form of praise called “labeled praise” to reinforce positive behavior.
In PCIT, treatment is considered complete when parents have acquired the necessary skills and their child’s behavior has improved in specific areas. The treatment is not limited by time and can continue for as long as needed.
While therapy sessions may take place in a clinical setting, parents can apply the skills learned in various environments outside of therapy.
The initial results of a study conducted in 2016 suggest that PCIT had positive effects on autistic children’s ability to respond to their parents and regulate their behavior. Additionally, the study found that PCIT enhanced the parenting skills of the participants.
Applied behavior analysis (ABA)
ABA is a method that uses repetition and reinforcement or breaking down skills into smaller steps for teaching. It is the most commonly used therapy for autism, but it has also been criticized for its approach.
While some experts say it is effective in teaching children independent living skills, others object to how it focuses on eliminating behaviors and relies on punishment.
In the past, ABA involved many hours of highly repetitive tasks at a table with a therapist, which critics say is not beneficial for autistic children.
Current ABA practice does not involve punishment but rather the ignoring of unwanted behaviors.
ABA therapists also employ a variety of activities, including playtime and activities of daily living, instead of solely relying on Discrete Trial Training (DTT).
ABA can be implemented at home by breaking down a skill into smaller steps and teaching them one at a time while praising success and repeating instructions as necessary.
Working with a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) to develop home therapy programs can be beneficial.
These programs often focus on specific goals such as teaching toileting, self-help skills like dressing and toothbrushing, improving communication through requesting and labeling items, and addressing food-related issues.
Several resources make working with children at home easier, including these books:
- ABA Visualized: A Visual Guidebook for Parents and Teachers
- Steps to Independence: Teaching Everyday Skills to Children with Special Needs
Speech therapy
An SLP can provide various recommendations to enhance communication skills in autistic children. While progress can be assessed and improved during office sessions, the majority of development occurs between appointments, making speech therapy an at-home intervention. The types of activities suggested by the SLP will vary depending on the child’s level of verbal ability. For instance, a highly verbal child may need assistance with social language such as idioms, while a nonverbal child may rely on computer software or picture symbols to communicate.
There are numerous methods to incorporate language acquisition into your daily routine. Here are some suggestions:
- Read to your child.
- Sing songs with your child.
- Name things that your child observes.
- Describe what you are doing.
- Play games and create artwork together.
- Role-play or act out stories.
- Match images to words.
You can support your child’s communication progress with consistent and organized learning opportunities, as well as impromptu teaching opportunities, regardless of their current level of development.
What’s next?
The number of people diagnosed with autism has increased significantly over the years.
In 2000, 1 in 150 people were diagnosed with autism, but in 2018, this number has risen to 1 in 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With the increase in autism cases, there is a larger autism community, providing more opportunities to connect with others who understand what you are going through.
If you are interested in autism therapy at home, you can start by speaking with your child’s pediatrician or therapist, who can provide guidance and referrals to get you started.
5 sources
- Briegel W. (2016). Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT).
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27356675/ - Data and statistics on autism spectrum disorder. (2021).
gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html - Grant R, et al. (2020). Play therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder.
apa.org/record/2019-54604-013 - Masse J, et al. (2016). Examining the efficacy of parent-child interaction therapy with children on the autism spectrum.
springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-016-0424-7 - Pajareya K, et al. (2012). A one-year prospective follow-up study of a DIR/Floortime parent training intervention for pre-school children with autistic spectrum disorders.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23140036/