What is Autism?

Autism* is a development disorder where the child fails to develop social skills. It is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people.

l 1930¡¦s and early 1940¡¦s 2 researchers looked into infants and children that fail to develop normally. They both said that it was an early childhood development disorder where in the child fails to develop social skills. They both used the word autism to name the condition.

l Dr. Hans Asperger: looked at and identified the higher functioning individuals.

l Dr. Leo Kanner: involved with the more severe cases.

World Health Organization and the American Psychological Association defined:

Autism is a disorder of the human central nervous system. ¡KIt is diagnosed by impairments to social interaction, communication, interests, imagination and activities¡K.The causes, symptoms, etiology, treatment and other issues are controversial.

Most commonly observed behaviors and its symptoms:

l Does not respond to his/her name l Cannot explain what he/she wants l Language skills are slow to develop or speech is delayed l Doesn¡¦t follow directions l At times, the child seem to be deaf l Seems to hear sometimes, but not other times l Doesn¡¦t point or wave bye-bye l Used to say a few words or babble, but now he/she doesn¡¦t l Throws intense or violent tantrums l Has odd movement patterns l Is overly active, uncooperative, or resistant l Doesn¡¦t know how to play with toys l Doesn¡¦t smile when smiled at

l Has poor eye contact l Gets ¡§stuck¡¨ doing the same things over and over and can¡¦t move on to other thing l Seems to prefer to play alone l Gets things for him/herself only l Is very independent for his/her age l Does things ¡¥early¡¦ compared to other children l Seems to be in his/her ¡¥own world¡¦ l Seems to tune people out l Is not interested in other children l Walks on his/her toes l Shows unusual attachment to toys, objects, or schedules l Spending a lot of time lining things up or putting things in a certain order.

There isn¡¦t a clearly stated statistical percentage of symptoms required in order to diagnose autism.

What is Davis Autism Approach®?

Different approaches in the past:

Different approaches / treatments in the past:

• Taught the autistic individuals specific ways to cope with specific situations in life. They are compensations for short terms crisis.

• Memorize / repetitive drilling on a specific social skill

• Control the environment and repetitively train on certain social manner / responses;

• Force to limit their personal likes / hobbies, in order to widen their interests or accept change.

Davis Autism Approach®:

A new breakthrough in the new generation

• A program developed by Ronald Davis, who was born as an autistic child. He could not speak until the age of nine. Mr. Davis named this coming out of a void and began to speak, a state of ¡¥individuation¡¦.

• The program can be conducted by a Davis Autism Approach® Facilitator, or by a parent or loved one who can be trained and mentored by a Davis Autism Facilitator-Coach.

• Teach the autistic individuals the social concepts that they lack, and help them to make long-term self-correction in social life. It allows autistic individuals:

• to make meaningful interaction with others;

• to self corrects or adjusts their social behaviors;

• to respect their own gifts and intelligence to come out more in life.

The main goal of Davis Autism Approach® is to help an autistic individual to fully participate in life!

Doing the Davis Autism Approach®:

Phase I : Individuation:

For a normal individual, he/she develops a sense of self naturally at a very young age. When a child is at the age of two, the child has developed a sense that he / she is an individual, different from other individuals. However, autistic individuals have not developed a sense of self in this world.

Phase II : Identity Development

At a very young age, very young kids begin to develop different basic concepts by exploring through their senses about this world, and how individuals exist and operate in this world.

An autistic child has not developed these concepts. In the second phase of identity development, an autistic is going to learn all those missed concepts that he / she cannot develop naturally. There are approximately 30 concepts. These concepts are explored through creating clay models.

What we¡¦ll do in this phase is very important. The different concepts to be learnt help autistic individuals to understand nature, this world and their relationship within this world. This helps them to form their own identity, and form a foundation for them to relate to others, and to comprehend in learning.

Phase III : Social integration

Social integration is the final area to be addressed. Once a person has a sense of his place in the world, he is ready to begin the task of understanding how relationships work and learning how he can fit into the world of people. This is the final stage in the Davis Autism Approach Program.

Davis Autism Approach® Facilitator / Coach:

Ms. Yvonne Wong is the first Davis Autism Approach® Facilitator / Coach in Asia. She is also a Davis^SM Dyslexia Correction Facilitator, and a Master Practitioner in Neuro-linguistic Programming. She has a Master in Education (Counseling & Guidance). She also has a Diploma in Teaching (Special Education) and a Bachelor of Social Work. In her works, she has helped a lot of people with special needs and counseled their family members.

Testimonials:

My son has finally broken through his autism! 
Through Yvonne¡¦s facilitation, my son had improved in his communication. He could not
communicate very well in words before the program. Now he could communicate so much 
better, and asked me a lot of questions. He would now challenge my answers. With regards 
to his behaviour and emotion, he had violent behaviour when throwing a temper in the past.
Now, he did not have violent behaviour anymore in throwing a temper. He could calm down
himself after a temper tantrum and would try to initiate to talk to me afterwards. Socially, 
he could communicate and played an active role in making friends. I sincerely thank Davis
Autism Approach® for all the help I got.
  -----Mother of a ten years old autistic son.

http://www.davisautism.com/

Disclaimer
Davis Autism Approach® is a trademark of Ronald D. Davis. Commercial use of this trademark to identify educational, instructional, or therapeutic services requires licensing by the trademark owner.