Types of Therapy
Every day you will be able to incorporate different types of therapy into your
activities. It is important that you research each therapy in a greater way than
this overview. The more you understand about the concepts the more natural they
will come when it is time to apply them. Please remember that we are only
scratching the surface, there are a lot more therapies out there. Your therapist
and psychologist can play a great role in helping you find the therapies that
best fit your child.
ABA Applied Behavior Analysis
This therapy breaks down task into parts and then you teach the parts. They
start with the basics of eye contact, sitting in a chair and move through
imaginative play. There are numerous books on ABA. You can find some listed
through this website.
Floortime
This is a child lead approach that emphasizes joint attention and imaginative
play. Floor time has 6 basic steps that you follow. They recommend 20 to 30
minute sessions a few times a day. This program focuses on building the child
skills through joint activities.
RDI Relationship Development Intervention
During this therapy the emphasis is placed on the relationship with the child,
not necessarily focusing on the academics but looking for the emotional
recognition and attachment. This is a parent lead approach.
Daily Life Therapy
There are 2 schools (one in Massachusetts and one in Japan). Their philosophy
stresses the importance of physical exercise that through physical
exercise the children will be more confident, and more self sufficient. They all
believe in full inclusion and teaching on grade level.
Music Therapy
Through this approach the therapist focuses on speech development. They will
play a rhythm and the child will start by filling in the blank. For example, "My
name is _____". This would be set to music and then the child would start by
saying the last word and then expanding by continuing to say more of the phrase.
Video Modeling Therapy
This is where you write scripts, the video is suppose to last any where from 30
to 60 seconds. The child watches it 3 times and then the child is asked to
perform the task they just watched. You can teach imitation, saying your name,
address, colors, shapes, etc.
Remember this is just an overview of different types of therapy. There are a
great number of therapies out there. You can order books from this website to
help you on your journey.
Supplemental Therapies (again this is not all of the supplemental therapies, but
here are 3 of the most popular)
Sign Language, there are a lot of great sign language DVD's and books out
there to learn from. This can be a great way to show some children with autism
that words have meanings.
Sensory Integration Therapy, there are excellent books that teach what SI
(sensory integration) is and different things that you can do at home to help
some of the sensory problems.
PECS Picture Exchange Program, this is a program where the child gives
you a picture for something that they want. For example, juice, food, toys,
break, and the options are endless. They serve well for creating a visual
schedule and preparing the child for a trip to a place that they have never
been.
