Are you looking for the ideal autism spectrum disorder (ATD) treatment to leverage? If so, there is no reason to panic since ASD treatment seek to reduce symptoms that interfere with daily functioning and quality of life. ASD affects each person differently, meaning that people with ASD have unique strengths and challenges and different treatment needs.
For this reason, it is common for treatment plans to involve multiple professionals and is catered toward the individual. The treatments can be given in education, health, community, or home settings, or a combination of settings. It is essential that providers communicate with each other and the individual with ASD and their family to ensure that treatments goals and progress are meeting expectations.
Bear in mind there are different types of treatment to leverage when it comes to autism intervention. These treatments generally can be broken down into behavioral, developmental, educational, social-relational, pharmacological, psychological, complementary and alternative.
Behavioral approaches focus on changing behaviors by merely understanding what happens before and after the behavior. Actually, these approaches have the most evidence for treating symptoms of ASD. Behavioral approaches have become widely accepted among educators and healthcare professionals and are leveraged in many schools and treatment clinics.
Developmental approaches, on the other hand, focus on improving specific developmental skills, such as physical skills or language skills. They are mostly combined with behavioral approaches with the most common for people with ASD being speech and language therapy.
Speech and Language Therapy helps improve the person’s understanding and use of speech and language. Some people with ASD communicate verbally. Others may communicate through the use of signs, gestures, pictures, or an electronic communication device. Bear in mind occupational therapy teaches skills that help the person live as independently as possible.
The Bottom Line
With autism intervention, it is common for some individuals and parents to use treatments that don’t fit in the aforementioned categories. These treatments are commonly known as complementary and alternative treatments. In most cases, they are used to supplement more traditional approaches.
Complementary and Alternative treatments might include special diets, herbal supplements, chiropractic care, animal therapy, or relaxation therapies. Individuals and families shows always talk to their medical practitioner before starting a complementary and alternative treatment.
Be sure to consider the pros and cons of each autism intervention at your disposal before finally taking the next step of action to reap maximum benefits.
