Helping an Autistic Child Sleep

When my son, Brandon was a little guy around 2 or 3 years old, I could never get him to sleep at night. I would have to get up to go to work at about 5 in the morning having had only aboutg 3 hours of sleep because my son would bounce on his knees all night long trying to soothe himself.

After enrolling him in kintergarden, I discovered that he was light years behind his classmates developmentally. His teacher refered us to the Early Childhood Center where he was diagnised as autistic. When he was 6, we took Brandon to the Cardinal Glennon Developmental Center in St. Louis Mo. There he saw a doctor there who confirmed his diagnosis and told me to give Brandon 1mg or less of a vitamin called Melatonin every night to help him sleep. She said it would help him regulate his sleeping patterns again.

Although she never specified whether or not I should take him off of the vitamin, sometimes I give it to him and sometimes I don't have to. However, if he's up past 11 o'clock and still shows no signs of sleepiness, I give him the melatonin.

The doctor told me that melatonin is something that people create in their bodies anyway that signals the body when it's time to sleep. That's what makes us sleepy when it starts getting dark outside and why when it's light out side, we begin to get more awake. But in Autistic people, oftentimes the production of melatonin is off kilter for some reason and it's okay to suppliment it.

You can buy melatonin anywhere that you buy vitamins. I frequent Wal-mart and Walgreens a lot and usually buy them there but I'm sure they could be found at any health food store or even online. It's an inexpensive, chemical-free way to help your autistic child sleep at night and it's something I highly recommend.

Treatments for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)

There are not a lot of treatments out there in the medical community for ASD. ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder . and it encompasses all 5 official diagnoses of autism and all the levels in between them. The 5 different types are:

• Asperger's Disorder




• Kanner's Syndrome (Classic Autism)




• PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified)




• Rhett's Syndrome




• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

There are no real treatments for ASD's because there's no cure for autism. No one seems to even know what causes autism so for now, the cure eludes us all. There are some therapy's that work to help minimize the symptoms though that can be extremely helpful.

1. ABA Therapy: The first and most widely-used therapy is called ABA for Applied Behavior Analysis. This therapy is usually done in a structured environment where the autistic person is rewarded for good behavior, and re-directed for bad behavior. I have recently learned that there are several different versions of ABA Therapy:

• Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) -- This is a type of ABA that is actually being implemented in public schools all across the country and not just with special education students and schools for autism! This therapy focuses on developing different levels of systems of support for the students of the school to help make problem behavior less effective and positive behavior more effective. Entire schools focus on creating an environment that improves the lifestyles of the students in every facet of their lives, not just at school!




• Pivotal Response Training (PRT) -- This training encourages positive behavior in autistic people by allowing them to make their own choices and the building on those choices and interests to teach them new things in the areas of (a)responding to multiple cues, (b)improving motivation, (c)increasing self-management capacity, (d)increasing self-initiations. It is family-based in that the family is encouraged to continue the child's education at home in the same manner that it is done at school.




• Incidental Teaching -- I believe that this kind of therapy is very natural for parents. It includes waiting for a child or student to initiate a conversation by verbalizing it, and then responding to the child by asking questions about what the child said or asked.




• Milieu-Therapy -- This one seems to be geared more towards people with Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism. It's a kind of group therapy where a student's entire day is structured around learning the ins and outs of social situations, trying to "fit in" and building confidence with academic learning woven into it. It seems to be a very supporting environment where the child is encouraged to express his or her feelings and identify different things that have happened to them during the day.




• Verbal Behavior -- Therapy that involves teaching the student that using language to get what they want will indeed get them what they want. The child is encouraged more to use language instead of labels for things or pointing to get what they want.




• Discrete Trial Teaching -- This is what my son does at school and the reason why his IEP (Individualized Education Program) is so many pages long each year. Each skill that needs to be learned is broken down into the smallest components possible and taught to the child individually. Once the child masters the task upon request at least 80% of the time, he or she can move on to the next, more difficult task on the list. For example, once a child learns to count from 1-5 with out only 1 verbal prompt at least 80% of the time they are asked to do so, they can move on to learning how to count from 1-10.

2. Speech/Language Therapy: Almost any autistic person can benefit from speech therapy. The student learns how to pronunciate syllables, how to use words in a sentence, what is appropriate to say or not say in any given social situation and, if non-verbal, they are taught to find some other means of communication but still encouraged to try to use language if it is within their capacity to do so.

3. Occupational Therapy: Occupational therapists are kind of like physical therapists but with slight differences. An occupational therapist can help a child/student find easier ways to communicate that are more comfortable for them. These therapists might be the ones who help their clients find different things to help them communicate such as sign language, Picture Exchange Communications Systems (PECS), or augmentative devices that translate typed words into mechanical speech the help with communication. They can also help the child with sensory integration and help to teach the child how to better use their limbs in a more typical way than they usually do.

4. Physical Therapy: This therapy helps the child with things such as balance, posture, stance, and large and fine motor ability. It has the most effect on the autistic person if applied as soon as a diagnosis of autism is found. The sooner this therapy takes place, the more effective it is in the long run. Physical therapy might include exercises such as threading beads or using an exercise ball to help increase muscle control.

5. Drug Therapy: Usually, the autistic person who uses any kind of drug therapy isn't using the drug to "control their autism." Usually, this kind of person has another underlying issue such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) or Depression that cannot be treated through any other means. These medications can be helpful in controlling those symptoms so that the autistic person can focus on any other therapy's that they are enrolled in more readily.

So far, these are the only real options that autistic people have if they would like to reduce their symptoms. These therapy's can be a difficult and sometimes slow process but so far, they are the best way to cope with autistic symptoms.