There has been great progress in the field of autism since it was first diagnosed. This is one of those conditions that continues to baffle scientists around the world. Many notable scholars in the area have developed promising forms of treatment for patients as young as 5 or 6 years old. What most of them seem to agree on is that the more you personalize treatment, the better.
Parents, on the other hand, have also become more informed in the matter. There are dozens of workshops that most health plans offer to help. Parents can attend and find out how they can be more supportive of their children who have the condition. One of these workshops features exercises that teach them how it is to live with the condition. They learn firsthand the barriers to communication that their children must overcome in order to be considered ‘functional’.
Some other forms of treatment that can be carried out feature the use of toys and other ‘support tools’, so the child is rewarded when he or she has successfully completed one of the exercises. This form of reward should not be overused as it may lose its effectiveness and lead the child to believe that the reward is the objective of the exercise.
For the parents of Jonny, it had seemed like a long road they were actually just starting. They had gone to support groups and become more informed about the condition and what could be expected. The problem was that they were not making much progress. In fact, they sometimes believed that after they had tried something new, they were actually going back.
Jonny’s problems were not at home. He actually did very well in that setting. It was when he had to be out in public that everything would come crashing down. He suffered from extreme anxiety and only the thought of going outside would be enough to make him shake and worried. His mother knew that she had to do something, but she didn’t know what it was.
One day, as Jonny’s mother was watching television, she heard of a rescued Pit Bull named Xena. Her story was told, and Jonny’s mother felt compelled to adopt her. So, without thinking too much about it, she went to the shelter and brought back Xena. She didn’t know then but that would be the single most important thing she would do for Jonny. Check out the amazing conclusion.